How to invade China as Japan

[N-GOD]

My troops are always out of supply in Mengkukuo and i can't seem to do anything about it

[Exicoot]

You don't start with invading China. You start with the Shanxi and the People's Republic.

[Mansen]

To be honest, I'd advise against attacking China altogether. You can puppet them without shedding any blood, and then immediately go after the Dutch island colonies to the south - lot of oil and rubber. They won't have joined the Allies yet, so it's a cakewalk.

Once that's done, you can turn your attention to the rest of the China sub-factions one by one. Sure you won't get full control of Chinese lands, but China is in a really rotten state industry wise anyway, so you wouldn't gain much from fighting a war that can easily last into the 1940s.

Why are you out of supply? Because your infrastructure from your nearest ports (In korea most likely) can't get enough supplies through each province. Check the supply mapmode and find out where the bottleneck is and upgrade infrastructure a bit.

If you ARE going to invade china, set up a defensive front line along the northern border (including in your puppet state Meng..ko..kugu? I forgot their name, and then plan a naval invasion behind the enemy front lines. Then you can easily surround them, and potentially completely starve them out and stackwipe them (If an army has nowhere to retreat to when they lose a battle, they straight up surrender and vanish)

[general fufu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpGZ0plx70&index=6&list=PL59WssMEDO9v331ONNHsmyQ-KHz0TSek9

This guy is doing a great job of attacking china, netherlands and siam in 1937.
He is doing it slowly and manually.
He defeated most of china's army within 10 days leaving them with just 8 remaining divisions.
In episode 15 it's still 1937 and china have pretty much been defeated. It's just cleanup for him now.
And i have learned alot atleast by watching this series. Such as details about division composition, combat width and naval invasion.

China have civilian and military factories that you will get if you annex them.

So if you can do what he do i would say you should definately annex china.

You should watch this entire playthrough if this is your first hoi game like it is for me. Very informative stuff.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by supahotfire:

My troops are always out of supply in Mengkukuo and i can't seem to do anything about it

You need to do one or all of these three things:

1. You need to take a bigger port (ie 24 divisions need a level 6 port to receive enough supplies.)

2. Invade with fewer units (ie dont just dump a bunch of stacks once you take it.)

3. Invade an area with better infrastructure.

Pretty much have to guess because you have no screenshot of your game. Those three things should clear it up.

Your supply map should have given you a reason why those units were low on supply and told you what the chokepoint is.

[Mansen]

Originally posted by Burke:

*Edit: And I disagree with Mansen's assessment on China. It isn't the factories you want to inherit but the potential the lands have. You will eventually run out of space on mainland Japan and need to expand your industry elsewhere. The mainland of China was a boon of space for establishing very safe Nuclear Reactors, military factories and refineries.

To each their own - I never felt like I needed any of the Chinese lands, once I had filled up my mainland, Korea and the Dutch colonies. By that point I was already knocking on the Soviet back door, asking to be let in at gunpoint. And with no resistance locally, or having lost a single division due to Dutch colonies being pushovers, I was in a prime position to blitz them.

This is the beauty of a game like this - It gives you multiple paths. You can focus on China - Or you can peacefully puppet it and kickstart other plans before the world war breaks out.

[Bored Peon]

:facepalm: at you people rambling on and on about focus options.

His mistake is NOT a focus problem. His mistake is a basic game mechanic problem.

[Mansen]

Who are you talking to exactly? We've already touched upon the concept of supply in previous replies... We're talking strategy here.

[xScaramouchx]

Ha, attacking China at the earliest is definitely doable using only your starting units, just don't try to fight head on. I did it by setting all of the regular infantry along the northern border, then making two naval invasions on that peninsula that has a dockyard and a city with my marines, followed up by my motorized/cavalry.
At declaration, I held the northern line, sent in the marines, then the morotorized, and started streaking across to capture key locations and river crossings. China had to pull back troops from the front line, my regulars could advance, and I then call in the garrison forces to hold the gained territory.

The war was over and I had control of all of China and it's allies by '38, and I could do it faster a second time.