China

Of cause the Allies have to lend lease to KMT for them to stand a chance.

Also, remember that CCP & KMT can move into each others’ land zones, so if Japan positions its army to take out “Communist China”, they move out the turn before. This way Japan has to commit a lot of ressources, with out ever “winning” decisively.

Rank Carcass is playing through a solo game on You Tube right now, and he has a house rule where the warlord territories that border the USSR become CCP after Japan invades China. This has made the Japanese invasion a lot more interesting, especially since he has three Soviet fighters in there helping out now.

@Hopper1999 said in China:

this game is played china is just steam rolled and I was just wondering is their any way around this, like seems like the same problem that global40 had with c

Historically speaking, China’s military ability was pretty weaksauce in the 30s-40s. So I’d say this is historical accuracy.

I’ve not been able to playtest this, but my idea is to pull off the coasts starting on turn 1 (July 36) to avoid Japanese naval bombards. Also, don’t attack the Communists or Warlords- just lay low until the Japanese come. When they do, defend Yunnan and Xibei San Ma at all costs- Yunnan for obvious reasons and Xibei San Ma because its size means that you can funnel units from the north to the south safely and vice versa. If the Japanese didn’t take Guangxi on their first turn at war, then build it up. Starting July of 38 pick up at least one fighter in Lend Lease, plus the Flying Tigers. Refrain from attacking the Japanese unless you’ve got a huge numerical superiority, because of the attack weakness. The trick is, Japan needs your coastline to have enough income to fight the US and UK. If you can keep an army intact in your interior until they go to war with the West, then you can overextend them by forcing them to spend resources defending that $. Don’t worry too much about the civil war starting back up- you’ll be able to get plenty of aid.

Same goes for the Communists, except everything is on a smaller scale.

@Arkwright said in China:

I’ve not been able to playtest this, but my idea is to pull off the coasts starting on turn 1 (July 36) to avoid Japanese naval bombards. Also, don’t attack the Communists or Warlords- just lay low until the Japanese come. When they do, defend Yunnan and Xibei San Ma at all costs- Yunnan for obvious reasons and Xibei San Ma because its size means that you can funnel units from the north to the south safely and vice versa. If the Japanese didn’t take Guangxi on their first turn at war, then build it up. Starting July of 38 pick up at least one fighter in Lend Lease, plus the Flying Tigers. Refrain from attacking the Japanese unless you’ve got a huge numerical superiority, because of the attack weakness. The trick is, Japan needs your coastline to have enough income to fight the US and UK. If you can keep an army intact in your interior until they go to war with the West, then you can overextend them by forcing them to spend resources defending that $. Don’t worry too much about the civil war starting back up- you’ll be able to get plenty of aid.

Same goes for the Communists, except everything is on a smaller scale.

This has worked well in a few of our games. If you don’t kill China as Japan, you will be hard pressed when your focus is elsewhere. China is a thorn if you don’t stamp it out hard. Use the mountain terrain away from the coast as a defense line.

@Rank-Carcass that is basically the same strategy for how Russia defends itself. Pull back from the front, maybe set up blockers, then hit on the counterattack. I will try that in the game I am getting ready to play.

I agree with a lot of posts here. I wouldn’t say China gets mowed down by any stretch. That said, in the event they do get “mowed down,” that presumably means Japan has invested a lot of resources into mainland China. If that’s the case, that means he’s vulnerable elsewhere.

He’s probably not focused a ton of effort on naval forces at that point, or has not positioned himself to take the DEI and/or other South or Central Pacific islands. This means that the Allies need to react to that point. If not at war with Japan yet, be ready to be a bit aggressive to keep those islands away from Japan. If already at war, keep the naval pressure up.

While China certainly can be defeated, I think Japan takes more of a balancing act than that, to the point where China be swept aside so quickly isn’t likely to happen in most games.

@Chris_Henry good post. Japan cannot take its eye off its objectives - like DEI that you mentioned - just to annihilate China. In fact, as long as Japan takes and holds the coastal provinces of China, you could argue it should have little interest in going further.

@cdatkins74 I agree with you. In terms of big picture, Japan doesn’t have a ton of need to go past the coastal territories. That’s where the money is, and where they can maneuver a bit better.