HA! Turn China into a great big impassible void.
Yeah, I see what you mean about having transports rather than ICs. That’s another rule with China that I don’t like; any ICs placed there by Japan simply get removed if any Allies take that territory. I’ve always kind of thought that the ICs should simply remain there unused so Japan has a chance to take them back. Then again, that’s not very realistic. Since China can’t use ICs and no other Allies can use it because it’s Chinese territory, it wouldn’t be likely that Allies would leave an IC sitting around that they couldn’t use. Plus, the transports would be more flexible.
Yunnan would be very hard to keep hold of. Manchuria and Kiangsu are both reachable directly from Japan. With Yunnan, you would have to also keep Kwangsi to be able to keep pouring troops in from Japan, then it would be one more move to reach Yunnan. Japan would have to have a big head start there.
The motivation Japan has in the game regarding China is to pluck the relatively easy IPC and prepare for either Moscow ( vie China) or India. Knowing this and the Historical reality of how unrealistic is was for Japan to conquer them in 3-4 turns, I propose something like this:
I favor items 3 and 4
IL,
I like your ideas. #1 definitely has merit.
Not crazy about #2 although I understand where you are coming from. Just don’t like the idea of boosting the Chinese Infantry’s defense like that.
I REALLY like #4. It would be better if China Infantry were a little cheaper. After all, if there is one thing China had it was manpower. Plus, no more than what China makes, it wouldn’t be terribly overwhelming, but it would make Japan really commit if they wanted to defeat China.
As for #3, I find that optional rule interesting. Especially since I’ve never been a fan of Japan rushing for Moscow anyway. However, I’m a little unclear as to your wording. You suggest making certain Chinese areas “impassible”. What if Japan really wanted to snuff China out – kill ALL Chinese troops and take ALL Chinese territories. It sounds like this rule would make that impossible, as there would be certain Chinese territories that Japan could not take because they would be considered “impassible”.
Also, if this were the case, would Chinese troops be allowed in these “impassible” territories? If so, wouldn’t that kind of create a safe haven for China to just keep adding more and more men until they end up with some huge stack of infantry? Or is no body, not even China allowed in the “impassible” territories?
One more question; What would be the “impassible” Chinese territories? I am assuming it would be the three that border Russia.
Good ideas, I think the best ones to use would be 1 and 4 though.
The idea that Chinese units can’t attack until they’ve reached critical mass has real good feel to it, very period correct and something specific for China that makes sense. It shows the reluctance that Chaing had to commit to any major battles against Japan while his armies were exhausted by nearly 4 years of war at this point, very good.
Idea 4 just makes sense, for a country that had an inexhaustible manpower infantry should be easier to get especially when it is their primary unit (and in some circumstances the only unit they can buy). I also fee that this would help balance having option 1 in place, sue the Chinese can’t attack unless they have 5 infantry or more but with Chinese infantry only costing 2IPC watch how quickly i’ll reach those numbers.
Also, if this were the case, would Chinese troops be allowed in these “impassible” territories? If so, wouldn’t that kind of create a safe haven for China to just keep adding more and more men until they end up with some huge stack of infantry?
Ya know, if you played the rule like that, it would be a great war to represent guerrilla forces that were in action during the war. It could be a nice way represent the communist Chinese forces in the north while not trying to carve a second country out of China.
As far as impassible areas, China could not build from them and Japan can’t enter them.
So China could move into them, but remember this is just the bordering Eastern areas of China/Soviet Union.
Another idea is just to stop blitzing ( all units move one space in Chinese areas)
What about Chinese infantry having an attack value of 1/2. In other words, if you had four Chinese infantry in a territory you would get two rolls at a 1? Gets to the same idea IL was getting at, especially if combined with infantry only costing 2 IPC each.
Thats true but remember to consider the designers intent and make rules that look like something that are clean and less fidgety.
So perhaps 2 IPC infantry, no blitzing in China, and China needs 2 infantry to get one roll in attack, or?
Instead of inventing new combat mechanics, or making China an exception to universal rules, why not just use this?
Chinese units may move into any friendly, hostile, or neutral territory during the combat or non-combat movement phases. However, they may never enter Russian territories for any reason.
@Young:
However, they may never enter Russian territories for any reason.
That brings me back to one of the first problems I have with the China rule. Okay, so China CAN attack Korea. Well, say Japan plopped a Major IC there and has built up quite a bit of defense. Chinese forces building up in Manchuria may not have enough to attack Japan on Korea, especially since most of their attacking power will be infantry @ 1.
Now, for the sake of argument, say any Russians in the far east territories have already been killed or were called back to Moscow and there are all these Russian territories undefended. Japan sends a couple of tanks up and starts gobbling up all those easy Russian territories. Then here is China with a large force sitting in Manchuria but they can’t send any guys up to liberate the Russian territories behind the blitzing tanks, or perhaps even split their Manchurian stack and send some guys to Amur to try and box in the Japanese on Korea. So, while China may not have enough to actually attack Korea, if Japan wants to branch out from Korea, they will have to commit a sizeable force to do so and possibly leave Korea vulnerable to Chinese attack from whichever stack the Japanese don’t attack.
Random addition:
All rules are as is, except add that, China can attack ANY territory containing atleast 1 japanese unit, or that is controlled by Japan, in the Combat Movement Phase.
That gives China the power to snipe transports if necessary, and take over ANYTHING Japanese on the mainland, without allowing them to go through allied territories.
Random addition:
All rules are as is, except add that, China can attack ANY territory containing atleast 1 japanese unit, or that is controlled by Japan, in the Combat Movement Phase.
That gives China the power to snipe transports if necessary, and take over ANYTHING Japanese on the mainland, without allowing them to go through allied territories.
This seems reasonable, I mean we don’t want to totally screw Japan with China, do we?
@Young:
Random addition:
All rules are as is, except add that, China can attack ANY territory containing atleast 1 japanese unit, or that is controlled by Japan, in the Combat Movement Phase.
That gives China the power to snipe transports if necessary, and take over ANYTHING Japanese on the mainland, without allowing them to go through allied territories.
This seems reasonable, I mean we don’t want to totally screw Japan with China, do we?
Simplest and most reasonable compromise on the rule I have seen. Flexibility without a signifant historical compromise. I like this better than oob.
why not let china place there inf. in any original chinese territory even if they don’t control them. if it’s unoccupied then they gain control, if it is occupied then combat insues as soon as the territory is attacked by an allied power or on Japan’s combat phase which ever one comes first.
why not let china place there inf. in any original chinese territory even if they don’t control them. if it’s unoccupied then they gain control, if it is occupied then combat insues as soon as the territory is attacked by an allied power or on Japan’s combat phase which ever one comes first.
So, say Japan fights for and takes Yunnan with 1 infantry, 1 artillery and 1 tank. Then suddenly 3 or 4 Chinese infantry just “pop up” amongst the Japanese units? I’m sorry, but that’s just silly.
There are a lot of good ideas here that’s for sure. Some, like IL’s ideas are great theme based ideas that real capture the essence of the China theater and others, like Gar’s are great from a game play mechanic point of view. I think any of them would be an improvement to the existing state of affairs for China’s movement restrictions.
why not let china place there inf. in any original chinese territory even if they don’t control them. if it’s unoccupied then they gain control, if it is occupied then combat insues as soon as the territory is attacked by an allied power or on Japan’s combat phase which ever one comes first.
I like this idea, but it would need to be controlled. Making it so that the Chinese could mobilize new units (maybe 1 or 2 infantry) in any original Chinese territory that is unoccupied might make this better, and again, a great way to represent the guerrilla and partisan warfare that was a major part of the fighting in China during WW2.
@Young:
Chinese units may move into any friendly, hostile, or neutral territory during the combat or non-combat movement phases. However, they may never enter Russian territories for any reason.
I see the thinking here, but I think its entirely to arbitrary, Japan should not have a way to “opt out” of Fighting China. I think having something in place that would want Japan to keep some portion of China under occupation (I would have thought the victory city would have been reason enough but I guess i’m just old fashioned :| ). Placing a penalty on Japan for doing so by removing China’s movement restrictions is a good idea and giving China the ability to become more of a threat is even better.
Perhaps making it so that once China captures all of its original territories it’s movement restrictions are lifted. This was Japan will want to keep at least one Chinese territories under its control to keep them in check. However, lets up the ante here, if Japan is pushed off the Asian mainland (for sake of argument lets keep it to all non Soviet land territories) China can place an IC in Shanghai which will be their capital for the remainder of the game and can purchase units normally. This way even if China is able to move and attack where ever she wants, Japan still has a chance to push them back before China gains the ability to deliver the knock out blow to Japan.
and just to note, I would have to believe that by the time either of these instances were to happen, the game would be all but over for Japan anyway.
