Japanese Carriers in China

[Chernobyl]

This was touched on in a tech support thread, where the exploit of farming free XP at Pakhoi town (near Hainan) with carrier strikes was discussed, but I think Japanese carrier use in the early China war deserves its own topic.

I think Japan's use of carriers to influence the China war is pretty unbalanced right now. I wanted to say it's ahistorical also, but it turns out Kaga and Akagi did conduct ground support strikes deeper into China than I realized in 1939. But as far as balance goes, Japan can pay to upgrade carrier range and it's worth it because they can destroy weakened Chinese corps even when they are in forts. This is not really counterable as the China player, and a bit of a Negative Player Experience. E.g. imagine your corps barely holds out against the Japanese army's attacks, but the carrier planes arrive and finish you off and you lose your corps and the fort. This can make a significant difference and I believe it's the case that if the Japanese player is careful and only attacks low-readiness units, they don't ever risk losing any plane strength (please correct me if I'm wrong). This was demonstrated to me on Japan's third turn by petedalby. I thought I had a chance to hold out in a fort in front of Chungking for one more turn because he hadn't really surrounded the fort enough yet in my estimation, but it turned out there was no need, because the carriers were able to finish off my strength=2 corps inside a fort.

The carriers can help win the battles against units (inside forts, no problem) even deep inside the mountains in south China, especially after Japan gets Haiphong and/or upgrades to level 2 LRA (you can even bomb Kweichow itself as well as most forts defending the approach to Kunming).

As far as the inland bombing goes, there should be some limit or restriction on Japan's carrier strikes, especially early in the war. The only ways I can think to prevent Japan from this abuse are 1) remove some Japanese carriers from the ocean and place them in Japan's build queue and 2) remove level 1 LRA and substitute with +1 LRA research chit, thus delaying Japan's ability to strike 5 hexes deep into China.

What do you guys think?

[Platoonist]

What do you guys think?

I dunno. In the late 1930s it wasn't uncommon for the air groups from Japanese carriers Akagi and Kaga to operate from land bases in China which even further extended their range. At least they can't do that in the game.

[Elessar2]

I know about the bombing that Chinese port exploit, but this would risk losing valuable experience for the carriers, wouldn't it?

[Bavre]

Corps have def 1 vs carrier, so damage variation applies. Units that can not fight back here (until they have AA upgrades) are garrisons, engineers and HQs.
The exploit is bombarding the settlement Pakhoi, not the harbor. Settlements have no defense vs carrier, fighter, naval etc. So you can train a lot of stuff there.

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Training has it's +/-
It's somewhat historical. Japanese used civilians for target practice.
Not a showstopper.
Top Allied players are able to put up decent Chinese defense.

Weather early in game is factor in China Campaign, that many don't discuss. (Momentum wise)