Successful Japan??

[robobo]

(Historical) In my latest campaign as the Phillipines, Japan has essentially been neutralised by late 1943. They have 7 ships left operational, have been driven back to Korea in China and are pretty close to being manpower tanked. (I think they have no more convoys because they have failed to reinforce any of their fronts despite having well over 150 divisions on the home islands)...

I did this pretty much alone, with the dorpy US AI insisting on naval invading all of micronesia's victory points before sending me more than 3 divisions to Luzon. In this time I sank ~60% of the Japanese capital ships and killed about 300k men with 300 nav bomber 1's and pretty trashy 12inf divisions and a lot of naval invasion penalty.

This got me thinking about my last few playthroughs (I tend to play as minors with a very set strategy, like the phillipines here looking to smash the Jap invasion). Even when I don't play in the pacific, I haven't seen a successful Japanese invasion of Phillipines/DEI/Malaysia since... well I cant remember. It seems like in my games Japan bogs in China, botches a two front war with the US, then sends its entire fleet to one sea zone to get the life blasted out of it by bombers, then gets rolled in the islands and loses in china when the US/India flood it with divisions.

The question this too long post is really asking is, is this just my games or is Japan kind of trash now?

 

[hoi inspi]

The question this too long post is really asking is, is this just my games or is Japan kind of trash now?

I have noticed the same. A while back (before BoB?) Japan usually did (too) well, consistently conquering India and even invading Kuwait. In my recent games they also get bogged down in China and in my latest game they even surrendered in 1942 when USA invaded their main islands.

So my assumption is they changed Japan somehow and nerfed it too much.

 

[Mackus]

I think it was La Resistance that screwed up Japan, because with the new resistance/garrison mechanics war in China now melts their manpower and equipment.

 

[Synicus]

I play Japan often & have not noticed any nerfing. The AI has always had trouble with Japan witch is why I like to take over.
From the beginning, er after Manchuria was added, I notice a supply problem, just enough for the army, but adding planes stuffs it up.
I always need to build an extra port level in Dalian. back then it was about 50% AI Jap fail rate, now it's over 90%.

La Resistance not only hurts the war effort in China but at home as well. Many states are not cores of Japan and the Focus tree still picks non core states for focus factories.
Example: Saipan gets 2 navy dockyards from 'new naval estimates' focus, then the AI releases this no man power state due to high compliance. In a low compliance state the new factories are unavailable till compliance goes up, akin to foreign Investments in Kurdish states for Turkey.
Non cores with Chinese claims resist the most during the war and East Hebei is the fragile supply backbone.

I don't know if it's historic or not but the Hohei Shidan is also one of the worst templates for HoI IV.

Japan has been failing from the starting front lately, not being able to make any progress and even getting pushed back. Then they declare war on Shanxi & it gets worse.
Now for a naval invasion, seemingly out of desperation (not as well manned or planed as before) This also fails.
With failure in China and a lot of divisions in retreat it's now time to invade the Philippines with an even smaller force than what was normal.
With all this failure to the war effort, they are now at war with the US real early. That kinda screws the rest of the game.

It seems like there war plan has changed...Either they need to attack Shanxi first or naval invade China from start.
The AI should also not pick a puppet as a viable minor for an easy war, or somehow stop opting for a new war and instead focus on the war it's losing.

 

[Crispin]

Stop the AI Collaboration Government Spam I feel is a pretty essential mod at this point.

 

[Leinad965]

My outcomes AI vs AI are usually Japan wins against China and then conquers all Pacific or Japan lose against China, then conquers Pacific and then declares war to China again and conquers China.

 

[Whoman69]

Haven't played it but from other's have heard the USA AI is horrible, often hiding from the Japanese Fleet and essentially ceding the Pacific. So if you're depending on USA for defense, SOL.