Setting allies inaktive?

[Historiker]

Is it possible to set the allies - execpt the Chinese - to inaktive at the Beginning?

[el cid again]

Only if you classify them as Russians. But that would work.

[Mike Scholl]

Cid. Would that work to lock EVERYTHING in China down? Japanese and Allied? Could remove a lot of headaches....

[el cid again]

Hmmm.

I have not thought about this. In my view, WITP is ABOUT the war in China - locking China down completely misses the strategic point - and one ought not to consider trying to do that. IF Japan didn't want to fight in China - or could back out after losing significant casualties there (a political impossibility for the de facto IJA regime) - there would have been no war at all outside China (OR Japan would have invaded the USSR - an interesting thought - Japan fighting the Russians with oil imported from the Allies!).

If China is "locked down" there is no need to send a lot of planes, replacements (vehicles, artillery, things made with HI points), etc to China. So it is a bit like fighting a Germany that does not have to put 2/3 of its troops facing Russia - whatever war it is it isn't WWII.

But if - say - you were a pure naval gamer - and one not (like naval thinkers are) strategically oriented at all - but a GAMER (you love naval battles, never mind why they are fought) - THEN you MIGHT go this way:

a) Define China as part of the USSR (location wise in the location file). ID Chinese units like in RHS - with prefixes.

b) Define Chinese troops as Soviet/Russian

c) Set the Russians inactive

Note that Japan would STILL have the ability to change this - and that entering a certain hex of the USSR would automatically activate the whole thing. Also that Japan could attack the passive Chinese with impunity - a very gamey idea.

[Historiker]

Will the allied units upgrade and be reinforced as usual, when the are defined as russian units?

[el cid again]

Yes - BUT there is a consequence - they will fight as Russians! The national combat modifier - whatever it is - won't be American, Chinese, name it - but Soviet - in a combat routine.

[Mike Scholl]

ORIGINAL: el cid again
I have not thought about this. In my view, WITP is ABOUT the war in China - locking China down completely misses the strategic point - and one ought not to consider trying to do that. IF Japan didn't want to fight in China - or could back out after losing significant casualties there (a political impossibility for the de facto IJA regime) - there would have been no war at all outside China (OR Japan would have invaded the USSR - an interesting thought - Japan fighting the Russians with oil imported from the Allies!).

If China is "locked down" there is no need to send a lot of planes, replacements (vehicles, artillery, things made with HI points), etc to China. So it is a bit like fighting a Germany that does not have to put 2/3 of its troops facing Russia - whatever war it is it isn't WWII.

Note that Japan would STILL have the ability to change this - and that entering a certain hex of the USSR would automatically activate the whole thing. Also that Japan could attack the passive Chinese with impunity - a very gamey idea.

That was why I asked if the idea would work to lock down BOTH sides in China..., Could the Japanese troops there be "defined" as "Russian" too? Idea being to simply lock China up tight and get on with the rest of the war..., giving neither side the chance to "exploit" it.

[el cid again]

ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl

ORIGINAL: el cid again
I have not thought about this. In my view, WITP is ABOUT the war in China - locking China down completely misses the strategic point - and one ought not to consider trying to do that. IF Japan didn't want to fight in China - or could back out after losing significant casualties there (a political impossibility for the de facto IJA regime) - there would have been no war at all outside China (OR Japan would have invaded the USSR - an interesting thought - Japan fighting the Russians with oil imported from the Allies!).

If China is "locked down" there is no need to send a lot of planes, replacements (vehicles, artillery, things made with HI points), etc to China. So it is a bit like fighting a Germany that does not have to put 2/3 of its troops facing Russia - whatever war it is it isn't WWII.

Note that Japan would STILL have the ability to change this - and that entering a certain hex of the USSR would automatically activate the whole thing. Also that Japan could attack the passive Chinese with impunity - a very gamey idea.

That was why I asked if the idea would work to lock down BOTH sides in China..., Could the Japanese troops there be "defined" as "Russian" too? Idea being to simply lock China up tight and get on with the rest of the war..., giving neither side the chance to "exploit" it.

Yes and no. That is, you can define Axis units as Russian - and then they get the Russian national modifier in combat.
But they are still Axis, and are not tied up - in a Russian passive scenario the Japanese can attack any time - and it is IMHO a bad concept altogether.

But you can define an Allied unit as Japanese - and call it Russian if you want to. Then it really would be an Allied unit.
I have a Russian unit in the Manchuria area on the Axis side - a creature of the Nakano School - called a brigade IRL - it was a battalion. But call it Russian or not, it is really Japanese. You can do this sort of thing - but it really would be Allied.

I do not think this is a viable approach - but since I don't understand your goals it might be. Taking China out of PTO makes less sense than taking Russia out. It is the reason for the war - and needs to be a drain on the Japanese military - as well as a source of resources. China also has the biggest of armies on the Allied side in the area - and if it is hard to simulate it - it should not count for naught. Why send aid to China in this case? And if you do not - why is that strength available to use other places? Makes no sense to me.