Why does Japan's army suck so much?

[G19]

I got wrecked by china.

[Şeyma]

it doesnt

[ÆRIE]

git gud japan wrecks china

[Ikazuchi]

Probably supply issues, if you do not have much experience with supplies by sea because you always played european majors it is a concept you must learn.

[The Former]

This is a loaded question without near enough context to give an answer. Have you added forces to the front, or are you using only what was there at the start of the game? How many have you added? What invasion route are you using? Do you have air superiority? Are you using CAS? What about artillery, any of that? Is China fielding mountain infantry? Are you?

There are a number of contingent factors that might go into why you're losing. Identifying them is the key to victory. By all rights, Japan should have superior ground troops, unless you've been completely neglecting infantry tech. That only gives them an edge, however. Wars are still won and lost strategically. Just look at how the US got driven out of Vietnam as an example of how superior armies can be defeated by poor strategy and logistical issues.

[Tao]

I love playing as Japan. I have some advice for you.

1. Focus on your supply. Since you are in China, you will have very little supply. Very little infrastructure, vast land, and you have to move your divisions over a sea.

2. Be sure to get rid of the Marco-Polo debuffs. I have seen people manage to pull off the war with the debuffs, I personally can't, and I would assume you can't either. Be sure to begin removing it in your decisions tab. Just sit there at your Chinese border. They will not invade you, China has like 1 cruiser or something.

3. If for some reason you are unable to push through your land border, try naval invading. I like to have backup divisions sitting on the mainland, not for defending my island, but for support naval invasions. Once I naval invade, I would send a few of those troops to the spot I invaded.

I think the reason AI Japan always loses the war in China is because they keep SO many troops on their island for defense. It is a problem since it is pointless to do so. No one is invading that island in the China war.

[Gamer Maid]

I can give you my strategy. I think it's the easiest way to win against China :

- Just build civilian factories on your core and one airport lvl 3 close to Beijin.
- Keep 12 infantry 24 width and delete the rest. Put your divisions on the chinese border on the 3 tiles you have. Put 3 divisions on each tile then let the 3 others behind.
- Keep some all of yours old BBs on sea where the front line is
- Put 3 factories on fighters, 3 on CAS, 5 arty + 5 on guns then you just have to balance your production on arty and guns for what will come next.
- Go strait line to Marco Polo focus then declare on them without invating your puppets.
- Train your CAS and fighters by 100 at the time, you should have 200 of each before the war starts. Put 3 groups of 5 DDs on patrol with one naval zone each. Put the rest of your fleet on naval strike.
- Wait for China to attack your divisions then when you see that one group of 3 divisions is half org, switch them with your divisions you have in reserve. Keep an eye on this since you don't want them to have your airport.
- If your killed their ships (5 cruisers and 2 DDs or something like that), take off your DDs then use some subs.
- Pretty fast you will have enough to change the template of your divisions so deploy a all army of 7/2 with support arty only and an other one of 20 width pure infantry with also support arty only.
- Deploy your divisions as soon as they are ready (even lvl 1) then, when you will have all of them start to take off the nerfs. (you need to pay 20 or 25 pp every 30 days)
- Train your army and prepare a naval invasion on Qingdao with your 7/2.
- When you landed you need some micro management do force them to move west. Deploy the rest of your 7/2 on the frontline then you have to move north west and south at the same time. South because you have to reach the other supply zone to bring your army of 20 width. And North-West to make a connection by making a big pocket of chinese around Beijin.
- Once the pocket is dead, keep pushing South with your 20 width pure infantry then with your 7/2 push in the middle until commi China borders then use your 12 divisions from the start on Shanxi (I prefer to switch them to 7/2)
- Keep pushing with some micro here and there (don't forget your planes you need the XP for max range on your Zero-Sen. Just don't forget to balance your production to not have too many deficit of arty compares to guns.

At some point you will start to miss some equipment. Personnaly I don't care because I can keep pushing anyway since you are much stronger than them and I don't care about resistance, I just let the easiest law to not have too many garrisons and i'm always fine until the end. Just after the end of the war I take the War Bonds for 50pp then justify on Siam. Sometimes you will have some warloards that won't join the war so don't forget to declare on them. You can also justify on Tibet but you won't always be able to have them in the peace deal. If you want to be sure than Yunnan and Xinjiang will be in the peace deal you need to have one division on one of their core before the capitulation on nationnalist China.

For your army you just need the first research of Superior Firepower and +10% soft attack for your arty before you start to attack. Don't forget to make some Air Doctrine with Ground Support before to stack 500 air xp. You don't need 1936 fighters. Just focus on your industry. My record is around March 38 for capitulation of China. And don't forget the extra org from the second research of Superior Fire Power when you will have 100 xp.

[Ikazuchi]

I think an "in depth" strategy will not help OP much since the issue seems to be more basic.

[Gamer Maid]

Originally posted by Ikazuchi:

I think an "in depth" strategy will not help OP much since the issue seems to be more basic.

Well he didn't tell us that much so ... It's kind hard to talk about a strategy without writing a book lol.

[Ikazuchi]

Originally posted by NapoLeo:

Originally posted by Ikazuchi:

I think an "in depth" strategy will not help OP much since the issue seems to be more basic.

Well he didn't tell us that much so ... It's kind hard to talk about a strategy without writing a book lol.

True, but it is all guessing.
He might be bad at all kinds of aspects of the game..
The biggest beginner trap as japan is supply on mainland china, or at least it was for me back when i started to play some years ago.

[Gamer Maid]

Originally posted by Ikazuchi:

Originally posted by NapoLeo:

Well he didn't tell us that much so ... It's kind hard to talk about a strategy without writing a book lol.

True, but it is all guessing.
He might be bad at all kinds of aspects of the game..
The biggest beginner trap as japan is supply on mainland china, or at least it was for me back when i started to play some years ago.

That is why I use the strategy that I wrote, because you don't need to improve the supply.

[G19]

Originally posted by NapoLeo:

Originally posted by Ikazuchi:

I think an "in depth" strategy will not help OP much since the issue seems to be more basic.

Well he didn't tell us that much so ... It's kind hard to talk about a strategy without writing a book lol.

I tried to use 20 width infantry with artillery to defeat the Shanxii, but it took a month. And it took 2x as long to defeat the san ma, after I defeated them I declared on china, I managed to encircle around 20 chinese divisions but they broke out and encircled the tank division that encircled them, then communist china was able to encircle all my divisions on the chinese border in shanxii. How could this happen to me?!

[Gamer Maid]

Good question ^^ Push in mountains is always hard except if you can afford 40 width tanks with a lot of planes. But you don't need it with Japan. You have the industry to push on a very large frontline which is a much better plan is this situation. I don't know where I can send you screenshots. I would try to send you my strategy with illustrations ^^ .

[BALTBVLL]

make 48 divisions, 24 40 width 15 infantry 4 artillery with full support divisions, 24 10-16 width infantry with no support divisions. Field 40 width against nationalists and 10 width against communist china. Build ports to fix attrition.

[Şeyma]

just kill china and ignore the warlords, they will cap when china dies with the united front. hold their front line with ♥♥♥♥ divisions and manchuko trash

[Astra Militarum]

I won with Japan on regular with slightly buffed China and i play 99% with cheats cause i cant be half assed to learn and play properly. So pls git gud.