Nationalist China Guide Please.

[chc28sfu]

I have tried to play Nationalist China and read a lot of guides but got so confused. Some guide said to upgrade infantry equipment. Some said AA and some said Eng. Man!!!!! None of them work for me and I get very frustrated. Anyone have multi success to finish off Japan?

[mk11]

Not the latest version but my experience was.

1. I couldn't hold at Beijing
2. Instead fallback to the Yellow River and the mountains of Shanxi, level 2 or 3 forts
3. Watch out for the Japanese coming round through the deserts in the North
4. A small force to guard the ports and a mobile force to isolate and eliminate Japanese landings
5. Infantry, using the first upgrade, with engineers and some cavalry reserves
6. Don't forget to protect the Vietnam border for when the Japanese may occupy that

Eventually, counter-attack in the North then join up with a thrust along the coast to create a mega-pocket.

[CH13F]

hmm. i played a lot as chienese factions.
important rules are

-other chienese factions and japanese mostly inf based so cannon and infantry based templates works well.
-protect your pre defined ports. ♥♥♥♥ always spam large landing parties non-stop. you ll roll your eyes when you keep hear naval invasion alerts.
-you cant have air superiority aganist ♥♥♥♥ with most chinese factions at start but keep producing fighters. eventually your numbers ll be equal
-try to end japanese chienese war before late 1941 before japan starts attack philippines and pull allies to war.
-korea s very important. your only ticket to ♥♥♥ home islands. build airport there and send paratroopers to hiroshima or more to north then send some troops and finish em.
-infstructure in china especially manchuria and northern mountainous parts very horrible. keep building infstructure. engineer companies are a must imo. signal company also helps.

other than that its a very buggy part of world therefore im not gonna link you any guides. most of them dont work.

note: i still dunno why steam censoring j.a.p word

[chc28sfu]

thank you for you guys' advice. I still have more questions. Should I go Arti or upgrade my inf equipment first? Also, should i finish off the warlords first or the communist first?

[chc28sfu]

and should I build the forts behind the Yellow River as well?

[mk11]

I think I built level 2 forts behind the river and level 3 or 4 in the open gap between there and the mountains.

From recollection I didn't attack the communists, took out Shanxi so I could get to build a few forts in there. Also you need Yunnan for some useful resource focus or other. I think I formed the faction with the other warlords.

You need more divisions than you start with to be able to hold the line and protect the ports so priority is getting enough divisions deployed. If you were clever you could divert the better infantry equipment to the more important divisions and keep the old stuff for the troops countering landings. I can't remember your research situation but if you can put maintenance in some of the cavalry that counter Japanese landings you might be able to get some good equipment capture.

[Reaper King]

As nationalist china heres the way I beat japan.. Set your factories to building Midium Bombers (switch to cas when you unlock it) and guns. Change all of your base infantry to the best template. This will be the backbone of your army and what will hold the frontline against china .Rush down the subjugate the warlords path and pray. If your lucky Gaungxi wont submit. At that point rush in with your army declare war and crush them. If you get a fats war great less time spent dealing with them and more time readying for japan. if its a slog also great you can now build up army experience to get rid of your army corruption de buff. Either way this is the best path. At worst they all submit in which cas you now have eneough troops to garrison your coast. If they dont then you can quickyl sweep up some more of your cores without spending insane ammounts of pp while helping get rid of your army debuff. Once your done with that kill communist china. Again they can be a distraction whcih you cant afford. Once all that is done train up 70 of the chinese garrison divisions and set them to gaurding along the coastline all key point. (The key thing is to make sure your defending your ports as long as you do that its very easy to mop up any japanese invasion attempts. Once all this is done start building a nice mix of Mill and Civilian factorys and work down your focus tree. Your now in the waiting phase. At this point it just waiting for japan to make the move.Once japan attacks just play passive. once you have freed yourself of the debuffs launch your offensive. Hope this helps.

[trooperrob]

It is very difficult to take communist china first as you have to cross a river into mountains.
I find putting two units into every port and all the rest of the inf on the border.
I build aa and arty (start 1 factory each as available) and issue as available. take any other states before the japan war.
holding the border requires lots of micro. Use Field marshal with defensive traits, get the infantry staffer giving inf bonus. You want the 30% extra entrenchment on at least one field marshal, good if you can dig in. There is another trait boosting defence by 10% I think if you cant dig in. (for another FM, I think they are exclusive)
Have plenty of inf and I use cav, if org is hit badly, retreat that unit and move another unit up to the front. Use spoiling attacks to attack a sector only to reduce its attack into another province.
reform the army asap, and let japan bleed by attacking.
Use the river if you lose Bejing initially.
It is most important to hold the ports, so put more units near and next to the ports to deny landings resupply.
I don't use planes, as no oil, convoys will get intercepted. I dont put all of my inf to the best template as it may not give you enough units to cover the border, ports with enough spare to move around to recover. I create a template with just 2 inf. It allows you to have a number of units you can change to inf to get troops to where you need them in an emergency.
Once you get through the reforms and have an easier time you will be ok.
Holding the line before getting some reforms involves having 4+ units, at least one or two with aa / arty, on the north east, and watching org very carefully.

[Reaper King]

Originally posted by trooperrob:

It is very difficult to take communist china first as you have to cross a river into mountains.
I find putting two units into every port and all the rest of the inf on the border.
I build aa and arty (start 1 factory each as available) and issue as available. take any other states before the japan war.
holding the border requires lots of micro. Use Field marshal with defensive traits, get the infantry staffer giving inf bonus. You want the 30% extra entrenchment on at least one field marshal, good if you can dig in. There is another trait boosting defence by 10% I think if you cant dig in. (for another FM, I think they are exclusive)
Have plenty of inf and I use cav, if org is hit badly, retreat that unit and move another unit up to the front. Use spoiling attacks to attack a sector only to reduce its attack into another province.
reform the army asap, and let japan bleed by attacking.
Use the river if you lose Bejing initially.
It is most important to hold the ports, so put more units near and next to the ports to deny landings resupply.
I don't use planes, as no oil, convoys will get intercepted. I dont put all of my inf to the best template as it may not give you enough units to cover the border, ports with enough spare to move around to recover. I create a template with just 2 inf. It allows you to have a number of units you can change to inf to get troops to where you need them in an emergency.
Once you get through the reforms and have an easier time you will be ok.
Holding the line before getting some reforms involves having 4+ units, at least one or two with aa / arty, on the north east, and watching org very carefully.

I agree with almost everything except the planes part. You have land border with russia. As long as you go down to good relations path with russia you have plenty of access to there oil and some of their divisions. So it is up to OP how ever do know you can totally run CAS as you can trade with russia for oil.

[HunterFromAbove]

What would be a good land doctrine to pick in this case?

[IDerpedYourMom]

Probably superior firepower if you go inf/art

[Reaper King]

Originally posted by Park 1VP:

Probably superior firepower if you go inf/art

+1 to what he said. Mass assult is just dumb.Grand Planning again is lame .Also if you play the long game you can easily get past 100 milli factorys so its well worth going down superior fire power and then using both your massive manpower plus industry to rush every one. The onyl other one worth thinking about is Biltzkrieg and thats more of a meme doctrine seeing as you are still fighting in asia.

[Mikey]

Build up lvl 3-5 forts on the frontline and if need be further back to delay the ♥♥♥ offensive. Don't bother calling in Shanxi as it will only dillude your line and you can't build forts there (unless you get them puppeted before the war starts... yes that is possible and no still dont call them in).

Set up your forces and send your filled out armies up north to hold the line towards Japan and Mengkukuo.
The rest of your forces should garrison the entire coastline with emphasis on the ports. If you lose a port you are screwed. Any fresh forces deployed should help out with the garrison.

You will lose ground. The job here is to hold them long enough for your XP to build up, remember to do the military decisions whenever possible to get rid of the malus and don't attack just defend. With some micromanagement and some attention you should be able to hold them near Beijing and once you've removed the malus hit them with everything you have

[chc28sfu]

well............ I have tried couple times already and decided to give up. However, thank you for you guys' help. Man....... playing Nationalist China SUCKS!!!!!!!!

[Kinski]

Rush the focus to puppet the Warlords. (50% for each of them to accept, I don't know if influancing relations helps)
Use your PP to annex those puppets that accepted as soon as possible after that. (Takes a lot of time and 450PP each)
At least the Guanxi Clique should accept because it's the strongest warlord with a lot of ressources. Not accepting makes the game a lot harder.
Try to overrun the warlords that refuse with your bigger army as soon as possible to annex them and don't get any problems with them because of the power struggle later.

You need to get rid of your army debuffs as soon as possible.
For this you have to do the focus (army reform) and then spend 100 experience each time.
Play defensively until all debuffs are gone. Once the army reforms are finished Japan isn't as scary as it was before and you can continue to build up your army until you can push them back to the sea and conquer Manchuria.

After Korea is liberated you get the event to peace out Japan.

[trooperrob]

If you have 5 or so units in Bejing, when you get attacked, it will show red, you are losing.
with speed on the very slowest, check the timing and the org of your units.
If the time to lose goes below say 30 days, or the org of a unit is low, order one unit to retreat, and cycle another in. You will be able to hold.
If you have an inf general, with a 30% entrench field marshal, and full entrenchment to start, you will have time. any arty or aa will drain the japanese faster, I cancel the fighter production, and produce all rifles with 1 aa (1 arty when available). Import steel for those from russia.
create a new template of the existing inf + 1 more inf, and then in time have new versions with arty/aa or both. prioritise Bejing for that. Those are your main holding units, with low quality inf as port, filler, lessor sectors. research Rifle 2 (possibly even before industry research) and 1 support weapons before the japanese war.
2 garrisons in each port + some more to hold / repel attacks when you can afford. units next to ports will be worth it for defence if you can afford them.
Ref Oil / fighters. I havent tried oil from russia because you also lack rubber and you need factories for rifles / arty / aa, but if it works for you...
Use your starting planes over Bejing to help, but you will lose some.
have all your forces trained to expert before the start of the war.
I dont bother with support weapons until I get the aluminium. You cannot afford engineers.
The 30% field marshal bonus with some arty or AA will tear up the enemy.
ensure you have dug in with full org before the war, and are not still training.