Basic Chnia Strategy

[mike scholl 1]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Hi,I've always played as the allies against the AI with "Quite China" I want to play against the AI with China live for the first time. Whats my basic strategy there? First turn, first year?

If you want a decent game (and not a wild free-for-all circus), the best thing to do with China is to freeze it and ignore it. More often than not, China is the place where history and the game go to He11. A lopsided win here by either side pretty much destroys the game..., and even a successfull "draw result" adds little to the game experiance and a lot to drudgery. A quiet China lets both sides concentrate on the real War in the Pacific.

[Flicker]

I'm in my first game against the Japanese AI, now in Jan 1942 (and not doing nearly as well as HansBolter). I've consolidated and fortified on the Changsha rail line (Kukong, Kweilin, &c), gathered (most) troops into their War Area command, fortified Ichang / Nanyang / Loyang, rebalanced the required garrisons somewhat, consolidated air at Chungking and Chengtu (except for the occasional seemingly useless ground bombing mission), lost a few units that start out east of Sinyang, and transferred one AA to Changsha and some Arty to the front-line from Chungking.

Noob questions - Can the Allies recon the Japanese? They just show up out of nowhere. What good are Chinese Cavalry (extra detection?) or are they basically infantry units? I see that Hans leaves some cities (e.g., west of Changsha) ungarrisoned (I realize there aren't garrison reqts for those cities); are Japanese paratroops not a concern (I haven't figured out paras or Jap capabilities yet)?.

Yaab - thanks for the tips.

[Yaab]

Recon - you can recon with Chinese bomber units though the pilots have poor Recon skill. Anyway, you don't have too much recce assets at start on the map. What you could do, is find the 86th OS unit in Pearl Harbor and see what shape it is in after Dec 7th attack. It is an American recce unit using O-47 planes with medium range. You have plenty of long-range assets in the Pacific and you could ship this unit to China using some roundabout route, without much loss to your overall air patrolling capacity in the Pacific. O-47 advantage is its service rating of 1 - you can use it from very small airfields in China, close to the front. The unit's pilots have good Recon skill. The downside - you don't get O-47 replacements though the unit upgrades to some level bomber ( Bolo?) later on

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Shark7

As a JFB I can tell you what I do against an active China.

My first priority is to pull back from strategically unimportant bases, or bases that can be easily surrounded (Ichang is a great example of a base I abandon). This has the duel effect of strengthening places I want to keep and shortening my supply lines.

Secondly I decide what areas I deem important for capture and begin the troop and supply build ups to take those objectives. Strategic value (which does not always mean resources) are taken into consideration...being able to cut off and destroy a large stack of Chinese units is always a plus, the Chinese will never have enough supply to rebuild them.

So from my point of view, playing as allies you will want to prevent me from doing what I do as japan.

Pick your battles is the main thing...don't defend something that is too costly too defend or of little strategic value to you. Don't over-extend your supply lines, as you have precious little in the china theatre as allies. As others have said, utilize terrain to build a good defensive line...remember heavy jungle is a great place to defend, hard to dislodge the enemy from it...you don't have to stack everything in cities, a single division in the jungle can hold 3 attacking divisions for a good long while.

Just my thoughts.

Have to disagree here. Until you take Chungking any Chinese unit destroyed comes back at 1/3 OOB strength. For many Chinese units this means they are actually coming back into play stronger than when they were eliminated. The correct play is to grind down Chinese units to nothing and then push them out of the way. Just keep grinding to destroy the Chinese units. It is ironic that while supply plays no role in destroyed Chinese units returning, the shortage of supply makes it virtually impossible to rebuild units that have been shattered but not destroyed. The key is to take Chungking. Once you do that, it is very difficult for the Allied player to recover and you will be pretty safe in China for the rest of the war.

As the Allies, I found that the only way to rebuild any Chinese unit was to move them to India-a slow process. My opponent just ground me down until I fell apart. Never allow the Chinese the chance to recover a destroyed unit if you can.

Probably a place where we disagree on general strategy. I only take the cities that are useful to me so I don't have to garrison the entire country. Of course Chunking is the peach of China. However, I'm more than happy to cut off not so useful places and simply let the troops there rot on the vine. There is more than 1 way to destroy a unit in game. [;)]

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Yaab

Recon - you can recon with Chinese bomber units though the pilots have poor Recon skill. Anyway, you don't have too much recce assets at start on the map. What you could do, is find the 86th OS unit in Pearl Harbor and see what shape it is in after Dec 7th attack. It is an American recce unit using O-47 planes with medium range. You have plenty of long-range assets in the Pacific and you could ship this unit to China using some roundabout route, without much loss to your overall air patrolling capacity in the Pacific. O-47 advantage is its service rating of 1 - you can use it from very small airfields in China, close to the front. The unit's pilots have good Recon skill. The downside - you don't get O-47 replacements though the unit upgrades to some level bomber ( Bolo?) later on

One trick is to set one of those bomber units with recon 20%, rest 10% and Train 70%. They should train up as they go and get better at recon, and at least give you a chance (however small) to see what is going on.