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Having recently bought SC:WW1 and being hopelessly addicted and frustrated in equal terms, I bough SC:WW2 too.

Playing my first game. Axis, green difficulty setting, -20% MPP for the allies. Its May 1941 and France has just surrendered, but things aren't looking so good for my Japanese troops in China. I've thrown everything at it but now morale is of my units on the floor (1% in some cases), sending more corps and armies at this point is just feeding them to the meat grinder. I feel the end to Japanese ambitions in China are over. So here's my dilemma - what do I do next with Japan? Should I evacuate troops from China if I can, or will this accelerate NM loss? Do I declare war on Philippines and hope for easier pickings? Will China become a major threat once it has its ports back?

All advice would be most welcome.

I think the most important thing for you to do (on both fronts since May '41 is quite late for a French surrender), is to learn the details of the supply system and how HQ units can help. Couple that with learning some of the combat modifiers (such as a unit attacks better if it has not moved yet) and using air units to weaken strong pints before you attack them.

In China, it is important to pick and choose your battles. Pay particular attention to the combat preview. Bomber units are critical. Carrier can be helpful (assuming you have changed their mode to bombers instead of fighters) but pay close attention to the casualty predictions for them. You do not want to be losing carrier planes too often.

Resting is often required. Getting a tech advantage and concentrating forces to get battles where you hurt them worse than they hurt you, is the way. Do not hesitate to take a breather when the weather gets bad.

In China, it is also important, right from the start, to build a few garrison units which can be sent to Manchuria thereby freeing a few better units to enter China.

HI Janaka

You may find the following two sections of the World at War Manual useful:

5.15. Maintaining Units’ Combat Effectiveness on page 91

5.25. Further Gameplay Tips on pages 98-99

Not that other parts of the Manual won't be useful too, but these strike me as being perhaps the places to start.

Good luck. [:)]

Bill

Buy out all artillery ASAP, make sure they are NOT set to auto [saving shells for your turn vs. defensive counter-fire]. Given all of the cities and forts you need to overcome arty is essential.

Japs can buy Air Power for China, but it will be obsolete once Chinese get anti-air level 2 for infantry. Artillery is decent option, because you're gonna be there for the duration of the game. I love the Pakhoi training center.

Remember that you don't have to keep attacking everywhere with all units - in Poland that works fine and leads to their collapse, but China is too big and has too much rough terrain. You only want to attack with advantage, and there's really no reason to look at withdrawing completely. If your units are in bad shape then retreat to defensible positions and only attack when you've got 0-2 or 0-3 results, that should let you hold onto the valuable coastal areas basically forever.