Matrix Games Forums

I need some ideas / opinions regarding japanese oil. Previous games, oil has always been an issue for japan. My most recent game (all options on) Global, I decided that I would make the indonesian oil the number 1 priority above all else. Therefore I set fewer troops in china and more troops and ships aimed at indonesia. I wanted to make sure I could capture it all in one go, without losses and make sure I had enough troops that I could have a unit sitting on top of each of the 4 oil points. In my previous game, I was frustrated to have an allied partisan appear quickly after my capture of the area and the allied player was able to land it on an oil point on island (not walking distance in otherwords - I would need to ship someone there) This game, I made sure I could capture and immediately have troops on all 4. This has worked great, but I find that I lost ground, and time in China as a result. I was able to capture singapore, but my problems now are in Mainland china where I was not able to really push them well, and now there are many chinese units all over the place.

Can a good japanese player handle singapore / indonesian oil and mainland china well and at the same time? I ask, because while I have gotten better as japan, I feel I am not as good with them as with Germany.

Thanks.

Once Japan goes to war with the Western Allies it gets tougher to control the Chinese due to the demands of Naval action. But what you ask for can be done. The easiest way to handle China is to cripple their position and/or economy before going to war with US/CW.

It was bad luck to get the partisan. However, it takes less effort and troops to take Batavia and wait one turn. Once Batavia is taken, NEI is conquered and all the hexes go to its conqueror. One caveat, you must prevent Allied units from returning to base in the oil hexes and thus keeping them Allied controlled.

In my very limited experience china seems like a real quagmire for the Japanese- sucking in good units and HQs with major partisan and supply headaches. If China is not going to be conquered then maybe Japan should go on the defensive in China and concentrate on trying to grab why resourceS it can from
New Caledonia to Burma ( burma oil is tough to snag although the Burmese partisans can help), and build synth oil. To me it seems the primary objectives for Japan are to conquer NEI and capture Rabaul.

But good point about allied units returning to base and blocking the automatic capture of oil in those hexes.(Borneo)