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As of recent I have taken to not building any heavy fleets so I finish with around 5. I devote the resources to starting the war with 1 or two more transports, another light fleet and 1 or two more aircraft. Does anyone see any use for Japanese heavy fleets or are they just a waste of time?

The way I play Japan is to decide on the first turn if I want to be strong at sea, or strong on land. Japan can not afford both. I prefer the strong at sea approach and that requires more aircraft carriers, extra cags (tecked up), more transports (many if possible) and a huge load of supply.

I will finish producing the naval units they start with, but I dont start anymore fleets except AC.
Teck up the heavy bombers land attack, and build more of them. THey have 4 torpedo attack and are cheper to build than the other world powers heavy bomber.

Just food for your thought.

-MrQuiet

When organasing Jp production I always produce supplies in Manchuria, up to 5-6 research points, and the rest it varies: HB, TF, Fighters, infantry-militia. Always start on turn one a CV (will put a CAG on production to make them arrive at the same time) and an armour.

Prior to japanese declaration of war, I increase the production of supplies to build a stock of them, and once at war if it is still possible I try to keep up the research points as high as possible.

IMO in the the first turns Jp is at war she has to strike several devastating blows to gain an strategic position and defend it to death. Easily said but real hard to achieve.[8D]

I find though that if I focus too much on my navy though, my land forces are weak and my opponent generally forces me back in China. In a game I'm playing now my opponent constantly funneled supplies through the Burma road and forced me to devote precious time and resources to keep him at bay prior to my declaration of war against the United States. This was very costly. How dod you work around this?

I prefer strong on land approach... (With HB-s), maybe one or two carrier group, but none of heavy/destroyer fleets.. It´s just too expensive IMO, and they cannot compete with WA fleets anyway..
Strong infantry/art/air with upgrades, and then go for SU/China/India [:D]

Original: fcam1387
I find though that if I focus too much on my navy though, my land forces are weak and my opponent generally forces me back in China

Try upgrading your heavy bombers ground attack factor, and bombing the chinese factories to Stone Age, unless lendlease from the SU or the Birmania route is granted the chinese would be out of supply and dead ducks.

Do it before declaring war upon the WA and leave a pair of HB to run raids if factories are repaired. Start the bombing raids, after taking Foochow.

Kondor, do you usually blitz India with transports on the same turn as the DOW or do you take the land path?

The only fleets I build from scratch as Japan are CVs and transports. No HFs, no LFs (I do finish the ones that are started, however).

Depending on how strong I want to be navally, I start 1 or 2 CVs on the first turn.

Buy a couple of HBs early, and tech up their land attack. They have to be tech'd up to be effective against the Chinese factories. With 4 tech'd up HBs you can do a lot of damage, and if the WA are pressured on all fronts it starts to seem expensive to the WA player to keep funneling the aid to China. The return on investment seems small, 5 supplies repairs a damaged factory that only produces once every 3 turns (and will likely be damaged again before it produces). But if the WA player has the margin to spare the supplies, it still stays as a real thorn in Japan's side.

It is hard for the WA to keep China running if the WA is faced with a full court press in the Atlantic, in which case the Atlantic must be prioritized.

* edit * I should add that I consider the above to be the "baseline", which I do every game. I also always do some preliminary ASW research to make sure I don't fall behind. The rest depends on strategy. Almost always tech up CAGs, but how much and exactly which attributes depends. Then whether land forces get upgraded or built depends on where Japan is going.

ORIGINAL: fcam1387

Kondor, do you usually blitz India with transports on the same turn as the DOW or do you take the land path?

Usually I go with land route... through China and then decide down to India hard, or too the SU...
With transports only if I go for the strong IJN...

Seems there are 4 separate directions to go with Japan, that being attacking Russia (primarily land), attacking China (primarily land), attacking India(could be both land or sea), attacking SE and Eastern Pacific (primarily sea). Depending on which option(s) I take, I'll devote more build time to units/techs where it'll do the most good. A decision as Japan should be taken as early as possible on where to go, and that decision can be influenced by how and what the WAllies/Russia is doing. Attacking Siberia as Japan is imo best during or before Su1941, as any later attack is risking a very poor showing everywhere else. So, if I decide as Germany to attackin in Sp41, I might think seriously about Japan joining in, but perhaps not in Fa41.

Excellent points from above: Japan is unlike most other world powers in that they simply cannot afford to have sufficient dedicated air, ground and sea forces all at once.........
As noted above, multi-role units like teched up HBs and CAGS can serve very usefully for both ground and sea ops (and in the case of CAGs, even air superiority roles.)
Surface naval forces (CVs excluded of course) are mostly worthless, you can use your HFs for shore bombardment and that's about it, even LFs for ASW are costly because they require so much supply when they go hunting subs....so much easier to launch aircraft with good range to go after them (assuming of course that the WA decide to invest in subs-which is very far from a sure thing considering the huge investment required to tech them up to a threatening level.....)
Abve all, Japan needs TFs and supply (40+ per turn if possible.)

The only thing different I would add that is different to Chris's statement is, that the LF's protect the sea lanes (subs) to Dutch Indonisa...I usally upgrade on CAD's and hit Pearl hard, usally you get 5 hits (4 HF and 1 LF), this helps the resourse pipeline to defend...The HB's are great until Americian airpower comes in. Withdraw them out of their range to keep for ASW...ASW is the main problem for Japan, do not neglect teck-ups agianst them...Most land power upgrades do not pay off in the end...The key, sink their transports, and keep yours.

Jon

P.S. upgrade HB's to 5 range...