Tell me again why Germany should inviteJapan into the Axis?

[DABegley]

I am in the middle of a campaign as Germany in FTM. It is March 1942 and I am 1 urban center from getting the UK to surrender after beating France and Russia. The US has not joined the Allies as I have spent a lot of diplomatic effort to influence them and heavily used espionage to support our party. They are midway between the Axis and Allies and if I keep it up they could actually join the Axis in a couple years. I will likely invade them though. I have also not invited Japan into the Axis. I have not invaded Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden or Spain to not annoy the US. I only called Italy into the war after taking Egypt myself via Turkey and Palestine. I have overrun Persia and am proceeding into Pakistan which will cause the UK to surrender soon. At this point I saved the game and wanted to try an experiment. I invited Japan into the Axis and let the game run to see what would happen. Within days the Japanese attacked the US and a large group of neutrals joined the Allies; Norway, Netherlands, a bunch of South and Central America. Now none of this will really annoy me that much but it will certainly cause me to alter my time table a lot and will make the US a much more difficult target when I invade. I am not at war with them yet in this test.

So as the topic states, why should I invite Japan into the Axis? It just seems to make it much more difficult for Germany unless the US is about to eneter the war anyway, which in this case she was not.

 

[Kovax]

The only reason to bring Japan into the war is for them to spread out the Royal Navy in the earlier part of the war, saving Germany and (more importantly) Italy from facing concentrated groups of RN fleets in a couple of small areas. Once they bring the US into it, the advantage turns into a major disadvantage. If you can handle the Royal Navy (or bypass it, as you did) without inviting Japan to the party, so much the better.

In a few games, often playing as Axis minors, Japan managed to take Australia, and even sent troops into East Africa to engage the British Army there. In one game, they controlled the Suez Canal. If the US is about to enter the war anyway, bringing Japan into it will at the very least buy some extra time. If you're willing and able to do whatever it takes to keep the US pacified, then Japan is a lit match ready to toss onto a straw-pile, because the US is programmed to react to Japanese threats more than European ones.

In one of my two ongoing HOI3 campaigns (one as Germany), I'm not inviting Japan OR Italy into the Axis. The Royal Navy has the eastern side of the Atlantic thickly blanketed in patrols, and I can't venture out of my formerly French port without running into a patrol almost instantly, then having 6 other fleets converge on me. Battering my way from Kiel to the French coast was tough, and required several months of repairs afterwards, although none of my ships were actually sunk in the process. I recently launched a pair of subs from a base in what used to be Yugoslavia to attack shipping in the Mediterranean, and that's at least having some effect, forcing the UK to divert a few ships to deal with the second area of operations. An invitation to Japan looks awfully tempting at the moment, but I'm not about to break one of the major concepts of the campaign.

 

[DABegley]

Yea, I couldn't come up with any positive side to inviting Italy in either before I sealed the canal. Even after Germany sealed the canal I hesitated but called them in anyway to try your suggestion of choosing Gibraltar and Malta as objectives for Italy and see what happened. It took them 6 months but they eventually took both. I was distracting the UK with a full on invasion of the homeland which I think enabled Italy to have a bit of an easier time. It did cost me a bunch of ships and a couple CAGs but worked in the end. The mass swarm of fleets into the English Channel was impressive. My experiment with Japan confirmed I really don't want them in so I am going back to my save and leaving them alone against China.

 

[Chromos]

Ususally I did it for "historical" reasons and to have them go after SOV and take the harder to get VP for "me"(Surrender after BP etc.).
I never had that much problems with "US of A" in Europe/Africa as they usually strike east first and I could hold them off shore..
And it was allways fun to support JAP with subs and some special forces in the jungle via Transport planes and such.