How do you properly defend coast line?

[Honcho]

I’m trying to play as China but Japan naval invasions messes it up.

[Ëvïlnïck8 ゴゴゴ]

Put atleast 1 div on the port tile's.

Depending on your tactic, put divisions in reserve behind the port or next to it.

If you dont want to let the Japanese land, put a div or 2 on the coastall tile's right next to the ports, the AI likes to sometimes send divisions next to the port to land and then attack the port from land.

Though, this can be abused to kill off Japanese troops to let them land next to the port and then kill them with reserves nearby.
Though in my option, China has weak templates & the big army debuff in the beginning so I would advise againts letting the Japanese land as even withouth port it can take a while before you can succesfully kill them. And if the Japanese take a port it will be difficult trying to push them out.

[TasteDasRainbow]

Set an army group on garrison specified to ports. Try to maintain air superiority and have CAS support when possible.

[Razor Feather]

Also don't be afraid to make a special, smaller/cheaper division template just for coast garrison duty. Because naval invasions have huge penalties to their stats, even a puny 8 combat width pure infantry division can hold out for a meaningful amount of time, and using those small units makes it a lot easier to cover the whole coast.

[velvetcrabman]

Best using fallback lines to position troops in port as well, that way won't have to watch an entire army running to defend one as a landing happens where they used to be......

[crazy rocker]

u could try building coastal forts all along the coast and put 2 divs in them. that usualy stops them landing but now and then they will still beat ur defences and get ashore so keep a reserve to go in and take out the invaders. as long as they dont capture a port they wil be low on supplies so fairly easy to beat.

Doubt u will be able to build forts all along the coast and enough troops to cover every beach before the Japanese invade though. U also need to watch ur back cause when France falls Japan gets indo-China and can attack from the rear. (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos.)

If u can hold out long enough and take a lot of the ♥♥♥ territory on the mainland they should surrender and give u Korea as a puppet in the piece deal.

[Dank Williams]

1. Use Cav to garrison coast
2. Naval bombers on coast water tiles

#2 Gonna be tough as China, I'd just spam out divisions like crazy and be ready for em.

[Segert]

make 2-4 battalion division. Dedicated for coastal defence. add support companies. and that should help defending coast lines. At least long enough for reinforcements.

[Izlude-Tingel]

There's no need to use Cavalry and if you are not grinding Cavalry Leader or using them as faster fill in behind units early on you want to get rid of cavalry as soon as you can. The reason being is that Cavalry uses 20% more Infantry equipment and doesn't take advantage of many doctrine choices.

TLDR : Use infantry to guard ports and garrisons with the Area defense Port and Coast order. Also consider using some behind your lines to assist guard supply trains and hubs since that has changed with the update. The last think you want is supply being cut.

[CrazyEight]

One easy way is to have many small divisions set to garrison the coast (Be sure to set them to guard ports and coast line) Equip them with engineering teams and if you can manage it, AA Guns and artillery support. Once they get set in they will be hard to dislodge if you have enough of them. Again, you want these division to be small, but you want to have many of them. Enough that if one division falls there will be more to replace them in combat.