Japanese Strategy 2

[generalfdog]

Continuing on my Japan strategy we will switch to China where Japan stands to gain the most resources and is facing a far weaker inferior foe, of course conquering China was Japans main aim of ww2 and as such should be top on your list of possible options, imho there are 2 basic ways to go after China right away and wait. the right away has the advantage that a lot of Chinese units start understrength and if you push hard right from the beginning you can do a lot of damage, the disadvantage is that for every battle they fight they gain experience so they will get better quicker and you will most likely use forces that could be used pushing the allies back in the south pacific, Australia or India. The wait strategy was basically what Japan did historically and involves holding until the western allies are sufficiently pushed back and all lend lease routes to China are cut and then going after them, this has the advantage of not giving China experience right away, and allowing you to focus on other objectives but the disadvantage of allowing them to build up, one way to keep them from building up too much is to launch a strategic bombing campaign using what bombers you have as well as building 1 or 2 strategic bombers.
Regardless of when you attack them there are some obstacles to overcome one is terrain, you have already conquered the easy stuff the rest very mountainous and increasingly further from your port supply, you can't push much further then Chungking without severe supply issues and if you commit enough units especially air assets you can run into issues much sooner. Changsha should be captured regardless of your strategy as it is fairly easy to capture and takes away Chinese production, adds to yours and is a victory objective. After that it gets more complicated Chungking is the grand prize but can be a real slog and supply can be an issue, the center pushing on the road to Ankang is a tempting back door to Chungking but is kind of a no mans land due to supply even for China, if you do attempt to go that way make sure to use a HQ to extend supply. a southern push for the Agricultural resource and maybe Kunming can be good especially if you haven't captured Ledo as it cuts off all lend lease but is even tougher due to supply and lack of infrastructure but if it is captured it puts all Chinese forces in the area out of supply as it is their only supply source for all of southern China so it can be a good move. Northern China has potential as well due to 2 factors one is you can knock out the Communists by capturing just one city (Lanchow) and take Chinas only oil resources, and even though it's rough and a long ways at least there is a rail line, of course the other issue is you have to fight the communists and unlike the nationalists their units are actually kind of good. No matter what your China strategy is unless you have a very not good opponent you are unlikely to completely conquer them due to the rough terrain, great distances, and supply issues but if you do take Changsha, and Chungking, and or Kunming you will severely hurt them, another consideration is that only Changsha, Lanchow, and the agriculture resource in the south can be added to your production, the rest since they are not linked by rail are not gained by Japan but only lost by China

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Happy gaming. more to come