Japan AI - strong and weak points

[GiveWarAchance]

I like to play this game as Germany and Italy and I put Japan on AI control and I never interfere with them.
The Japan AI is quite good at doing amphibious assaults on islands like they did historically and actually does it better than I do which is one reason why I like the AI to control Japan. They smash Pearl, grab Hong Kong, and then send out all the transports to many islands and warships carefully lead the way to protect the soft transports who are grouped up like baby ducks which is much better than I do with Japan. They took over Philippines, Thailand and even Guadalcanal right after smashing Pearl. Dutch cruisers and subs were able to sink a transport unit and destroyer group.
But Japan does poorly in China.

In China, there is a bottleneck problem at the island of Haikou which dooms Japan's position in the south. There is a corps trapped on Haikou island which leaves an HQ trapped up against the Chinese who can attack the HQ as they please and eventually wipe out the Japanese in this area after a few years. In the center and north of China it is a stalemate and then Japan slowly loses and gets pushed out of China. And China AI is very good and uses both tanks and artillery to support their troops. Japan does not build tanks or artillery so they are limited to grindy infantry fighting.

I recommend these small changes:
1) swap the corps on Haikou with the HQ on the mainland so the HQ is safe on Haikou island and the corps can hold off the Chinese.
2) script Japan to build some tanks like maybe 2 tanks sent to China plus 1 or 2 artillery would be about right. Historically they sent tanks to islands too but maybe not in enough numbers to equal a unit in this game. It is possible they are building ships and air force which is a poor choice cause of the demand for troops, artillery and tanks in China and in southeast Asia area while they start the campaign with a very strong navy already with some more already in the pipeline.

[BillRunacre]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.

Just looking at Haikou, and the game starts in 1939 with the Corps to the north of the HQ, yet it sounds as though they swapped places in your game?

[firsteds]

It is very common in my games against the AI for the corps to advance on Naning and the HQ to advance two hexes on move 1 or 2 and yes, it gets wiped out or reduced quickly. So I agree with the OP that something is not quite right with the AI initial approach on this peninsula. Could it be solved by the presence of a garrison there so that the HQ doesn't act as a virtual garrison? (Just for the AI, PBEM players only make this mistake once).