ORIGINAL: castor troy
There´s absolutely no reason to garrison all the cities which require a garrison. I don´t think you need that many DIVISIONS to garrison a few cities. Look at France, I don´t think the German placed a division in the 10 biggest cities of the occupied territory.
Well, in fact Germany had always between 20 and 50 divisions in France during WWII, depending of the time. Part of them were keeping the coast, the other were training and occupying cities at the same time. And partisan warfare started in earnest only after D-Day.
My own home rule is that every road/rail hex used by the Japanese should be kept by a Japanese unit with some ASS value (roughly a SNLF). I bring back all Mong Cav Div from Manchoukuo and divide them in 3 and then use all troops with exp between 45 and 55, especially brigades starting with 50% of their TOE, for such garnison duty. Big cities are occupied by full divisions, brigades or regiments that will train until they are good enough to go to the line. All cities have their requirement met or are evacuated by the Japanese, that is possible only on the frontline (and I will tell it to my opponent). Then a depleted unit of the frontline will come replace them.
That leaves me with a dozen INF Div, two Tk Rgts and some INF Bdes, all with exp at 60 or above to man the frontline. Enough to hold but not enough to conquer China, and that was exactly the position on the IJN. And any advance (for example to Yenen) will need more garnisons as there will be road/rail hexes between my base and my target.
The result is rather historical to me. To have enough troops to invade a Chinese city usually requires to retire from another area, so simulating the 'rice offensives' done by the Japanese in real WWII.
My fist move in the game is to scatter troops to cover all occupied China. In day two there is a "solid supply line" from Peking to Chentgsin so I started towards Yenen with 3 DIV and a Bde (to hold the road after being split in two). When the Mongols arrived from Manchoukuo, more troops will be available to join the fray at Yenen. But this is more a raid to draw Chinese forces here than a real attempt to take the city.
