Getting tanks as Japan

[IgnacioLuchaLibreNacho]

are tanks as japan worth it. Research or building them?

[GIJoe597]

In my opinion, it depends on what you are going to do with Japan. I always take out the USA when I play Japan, then move on USSR. Tanks come in handy in the US, not as much in eastern USSR.

CV's and CLs are my priority, as long as they are golden you can spend research anyway you see fit. Especially after much conquest.

Since Japan has no manpower issues, I will move forces to western USSR to augment Germany. This allows Germany to conserve manpower which is not an issue with Japan, as they have plenty after they capture all of China. Throw in India and Japan can field 5 full armies of either mech or Leg infantry.

The bottom line is, play how you want to, either for roleplay or fun reasons, do whatever you want. Once Japan has conquered the Pacific and the US, there are no resource limitations.

As an aside, I always upgrade infrastructure in bad terrain when I am attacking.

[dhbaer]

I would say if you want tanks to attack the US or Russia (as you don't need as a player to take out AI China), then join the Axis and buy them on production license from Germany. You can research the Land tech traits, but let them do the tank research for you.

[sotaponi]

Not sure whether it's necessary as Japan, since they do have a lot of leadership, but if you're all occupied in researching naval and aircraft techs and want to ease some of the load, then I'd probably go for the production license route, as well. Which I guess is relatively viable. At least I had a lot of fun using them when playing as Republican Spain, researching essentially nothing but regular infantry, industry and air+land doctrines. Otherwise it's just too easy to fall too far behind in techs. Especially if you research mountaineers, marines, and other techs for more specialized units. (My multi-role fighters licensed from the USSR still stood no chance against the German Luftwaffe, however. Despite me being up to date what doctrines were concerned. But maybe that's aiming a bit too high, anyway. And going for both interceptors and bombers is already too much for Spain to handle what doctrine research is concerned. Even after conquering France and co...)

Something else worth mentioning is that units produced via license can't be upgraded unless you research the upgrades yourself. You just have to keep building new models and maybe use them at the most important locations. That, and I think they are also built as reserves. Just some things to keep in mind.

[IgnacioLuchaLibreNacho]

Originally posted by sotaponi:

Not sure whether it's necessary as Japan, since they do have a lot of leadership, but if you're all occupied in researching naval and aircraft techs and want to ease some of the load, then I'd probably go for the production license route, as well. Which I guess is relatively viable. At least I had a lot of fun using them when playing as Republican Spain, researching essentially nothing but regular infantry, industry and air+land doctrines. Otherwise it's just too easy to fall too far behind in techs. Especially if you research mountaineers, marines, and other techs for more specialized units. (My multi-role fighters licensed from the USSR still stood no chance against the German Luftwaffe, however. Despite me being up to date what doctrines were concerned. But maybe that's aiming a bit too high, anyway. And going for both interceptors and bombers is already too much for Spain to handle what doctrine research is concerned. Even after conquering France and co...)

Something else worth mentioning is that units produced via license can't be upgraded unless you research the upgrades yourself. You just have to keep building new models and maybe use them at the most important locations. That, and I think they are also built as reserves. Just some things to keep in mind.

I have gone the license route, getting medium and/or heavy tanks from germany. and if I do at all research tanks, I stick with 1936 tech and leave it there, only ever upgrading 2 cavalry brigades to light armor and send them to where ever I see fit. IIRC upgrading units is a hell of a lot faster than building the desired unit on its own. But the IC going to filled with warships, infantry, convoys, and aircraft all the time, so squeezing in tanks never seems right to me as they take a good chunk of the factories.

TBH I in my 4K hours of this game, I haven't invaded the US as Japan, so im not sure how ill do without tanks. Im sure I can take on the US by spamming infantry w/AT support though, Japan dwarfs the US in terms of manpower. And in my German games, the infantry gets so much combat experience from Poland, France + Belgium, the Soviet Union, and England, that the US forces stand no chance cause we all know they don't do anything but consume fuel and supplies.

[GIJoe597]

Originally posted by Hemagglutinin1Neuraminidase1:

TBH I in my 4K hours of this game, I haven't invaded the US as Japan, so im not sure how ill do without tanks. Im sure I can take on the US by spamming infantry w/AT support though,

I have also done it with leg inf divisions, works well as long as techs are current.
Infx3/ART/AT. I also add 3inf and 1 Arty to the Div HQ units. I use them as any other division. Does wonders for the generals stats.

I also heavily use air power, I have been playing since 2009 and never played a game without a large Air Force. Logistics Bombing have saved me more times than I can count.

[IgnacioLuchaLibreNacho]

Originally posted by GIJoe597:

Originally posted by Hemagglutinin1Neuraminidase1:

TBH I in my 4K hours of this game, I haven't invaded the US as Japan, so im not sure how ill do without tanks. Im sure I can take on the US by spamming infantry w/AT support though,

I have also done it with leg inf divisions, works well as long as techs are current.
Infx3/ART/AT

I also heavily use air power, I have been playing since 2009 and never played a game without a large Air Force. Logistics Bombing have saved me more times than I can count.

Does large air force include CAGs, I get about 12 carriers with a full complement of CAGs, and build very few land based craft cause of the IC concern I mentioned. But ya know CAGs cant perform certain tasks. This particular game I bought 3 Stuka wings and they have lots of xp, and my bombers also have good xp. What does thou recommend for and Air force so I may move the Emprie across the ocean

[GIJoe597]

As Japan I also build IC from the start of a 1936 game.



My CV fleets consist of 3xCV/3xCL. I only build enough CAGs to base on the CVs. I never build more to "swap" out after battles as some do. I have never built more than 12 CVs at a time, this gives me 4 CV fleets.

My Air Force generally looks like this,
INT 24
MR 24
TAC 16
CAS 16
STR 16
NAV 12 (or less)
TRANS 6



I am retired Air Force and I am partial to air power. I use it heavily in every game I play that has aircraft. I do micromanage everything without using AI.

[IgnacioLuchaLibreNacho]

Originally posted by GIJoe597:

As Japan I also build IC from the start of a 1936 game.



My CV fleets consist of 3xCV/3xCL. I only build enough CAGs to base on the CVs. I never build more to "swap" out after battles as some do. I have never built more than 12 CVs at a time, this gives me 4 CV fleets.

My Air Force generally looks like this,
INT 24
MR 24
TAC 16
CAS 16
STR 16
NAV 12 (or less)
TRANS 6



I am retired Air Force and I am partial to air power. I use it heavily in every game I play that has aircraft. I do micromanage everything without using AI.

Do you have the IC for squeezing in Land units with your air and warships, that is a ♥♥♥♥ ton of planes, especially the four-engine planes. My father came from the Navy and Coast Guard, so I tend to focus on the navy, 3 carrier fleets of 4CVx4CL and as a result have a lot of fun bombing any enemy port that contains ships. As Germany I go crazy with plane building cause you get more IC

[GIJoe597]

When building IC from start, after you conquer all of China, DEI/Britsh Raj and the USA, you have more than enough ic and resources to build anything you want. At least I tend to stop once my IC reaches 500.

I do not tend to need much IC for navy once I have my navy set as I seldom lose anything larger than a CL.


I like to keep 8 STR/CAS/TAC in eastern Siberia and 8 of each in eastern Europe. This allows me to have 2 wings of 4 each active as needed. I use all in a squadrons of 4.

Be aware, I do not play for min/max, I play for what I think is fun/plausible, mostly. Which is why I never have fleets larger than 6. I know people make fleets of 30 or more, just not for me. Also, all this is in single player. Multiplayer is a different beast.

[Catgirl Béatrice]

Originally posted by GIJoe597:

I never have fleets larger than 6. I know people make fleets of 30 or more, just not for me. Also, all this is in single player. Multiplayer is a different beast.

What do your fleets look like?

[GIJoe597]

Originally posted by GIJoe597:

My CV fleets consist of 3xCV/3xCL. I only build enough CAGs to base on the CVs. I never build more to "swap" out after battles as some do. I have never built more than 12 CVs at a time, this gives me 4 CV fleets.

Early BB fleets 3BB/1CA/2CL

Later BB fleets consist of 2BB/1CA/2CL

[Weezerfan420]

Almost never worth it unless you plan to invade the USA or the USSR - China and SEA is basically all mountains and jungles and your tanks will get completely chewed up, far east USSR is also mountains, so unless you plan on a full occupation of Russia the IC is better spent on ships and planes.
Infantry is more effective in China and SEA.

[Kysakabi]

Originally posted by DiGiorno® Garlic Bread Pizza:

are tanks as japan worth it. Research or building them?

Fino

[Kysakabi]

fino

[sotaponi]

Originally posted by DiGiorno® Garlic Bread Pizza:

TBH I in my 4K hours of this game, I haven't invaded the US as Japan, so im not sure how ill do without tanks. Im sure I can take on the US by spamming infantry w/AT support though, Japan dwarfs the US in terms of manpower. And in my German games, the infantry gets so much combat experience from Poland, France + Belgium, the Soviet Union, and England, that the US forces stand no chance cause we all know they don't do anything but consume fuel and supplies.

I only played ~150-200 hours and the last time I played as Japan was 5 or 6 years ago, but I never invaded the USA, either. In particular because my game often starts bugging in the late game, with the clock being stuck on pause. Still one of the most fun nations to play as IMO, because you get a lot of action and have a chance to make use of pretty much every unit type.

My division set up resulting in a lot of fun as Republican Spain invading Portugal, Greece and Turkey (the latter for an USSR land connection enabling lend-lease later on), followed by blitzing France and cheesing the UK was...

Per province (you can attach brigades to an HQ by pressing R):
1x (1 HQ + 1 INF + 2 ART)
5x (1 INF + 2 ART + 1 AT)
(With superior firepower doctrine, it's obviously +1 support brigade.)

No idea what the best setup is and whether it works against the USA, but I found that I did relatively well cramming multiple 1 inf + 3 support brigade divisions into a province. Usually 5, since that's how many you can attach to an HQ. And I then always move my HQ division + the 5 attached divisions as "one" unit. (I find that letting all HQs fight also solves the problem of attached brigades running out of radio range a lot. At least for me. Since they're usually in the same province.)

Maybe I'm kind of hijacking the thread a bit, but does anyone here know whether this make sense or is wasteful? I read the wiki, but didn't find anything about support brigade width. But I do think that using multiple smaller divisions let me perform better by getting more frontline width faster. Meaning never using 2 inf in a division. Or maybe I gained more firepower due to the greater number of support brigades. I don't know which one it was. But I'm really curious about whether backrow width is infinite and it thus reasonable to create divisions consisting of only 1 inf + support? Or 1 tank + support?