Colonial Empire An Alternative Strategy for Japan

Why go to war against those hapless Chinese? After all, they are the same mankind as you. Although they are hoaxed by those Western imperialists and learn to hate you without any reason, you can show them you are not their rival. And they are not yours, either. Those western colonial powers are.

This article will describe an ahistorical route Japan can choose in the 1936 GC. This is called "colonial empire" pathway. The strategy is simple: take all the weakling European countries' belongings while avoid going to war against the British too early. [NOTE: After playtesting this strategy it is not clear that it is at all viable, due to certain key points. The UK seems to be hardcoded to declare war on Japan if Japan attacks the Dutch, regardless of how good relations are, negating a major point of this plan. It also does not seem possible to put a Naval Base on Curacao, as it is too far from any other Japanese base.]

Important Points

You need to keep good relationship with all the superpowers, a.k.a, UK, France, USSR, USA, and Germany. Except for the last one, all of the rest are in bad relationship with you from the beginning. Do a lot of trade with them and they will grow liking you. Also pour some IC in consumer goods. That'll give you money for research and support your diplomatic moves. In this strategy diplomacy is crucial for you.

Also you need to keep your belligerence down. Specifically, avoid getting 80 too early. 80 is the magic number USA will gear up for war. You don't want to awake a sleeping giant too early, do you? Unless you do not want to fight USA, the answer should be no.

Start

Start from 1936 GC, put your production slider heavily on supplies and consumer goods. Trade supplies with every major power to get everything else you need. Don't worry about the steep price, these investments will reward you handily. The most important countries in this strategy are France and UK. Try to boost relationship with them as high as possible. When necessary, use influence country (you need a lot of money to do this, for sure). You don't need to produce a lot of units, BTW. A long series of light cruisers may be nice for the gearing bonus. Ditto for infantry divisions and engineers (you will need it a lot later).

Release your puppet Manchukuo. They are a liability as your puppet and some bigots in their government will cause you a lot of trouble. You can even pull off your force there to put them into some place more worthy. DON'T get entangled by them. You can always attack and annex them later, but now just leave them as they are.

Intervene into Chinese Civil War

From the start you have the option to invade Guangxi Clique when they DOW at Nationalist China. That will boost your IC a little bit by grabbing Guangzhou and some resource-rich area from them. Also Hainan as a nice springboard for further conquest.

Invasion of Dutch East Indies

You can do it either before or after Marco Polo Bridge Incidents. Doing it before is preferable but you may need some luck here. Normally your relationship with France and UK should be good enough to keep them from intervening. Strike quickly and snap up all VP provinces in Dutch East Indies. They won't put up even token resistance. In the meantime still keep good relationships with the UK and France. They may cancel trade agreements, but you just bribe them and negotiate with them again. Sue for peace with the Netherlands. You don't need a lot of provinces: just ask for those resource-rich ones, like East Java, Banka Island, South Sumatra and South Borneo. Don't forget to ask for Curacao, you need it for the next phase. don't ask for Batavia. You may have to try this several times before a deal is agreed

Note that there is a disadvantage to attacking the Dutch East Indies before Germany has conquered the Netherlands' European provinces. Germany's conquest of the Netherlands leaves the Netherlands East Indies the only remaining territory in Dutch posession. If you attack the Dutch East Indies after the Dutch have lost their European holding, you can annex the Netherlands and seize their sizeable stockpile of resources -- thus making up for Japan's limited ability to produce the same.

Invasion of Portuguese Africa

Build a naval base in Curacao. Wait your belligerence to drop (Hirohito will drop your belligerence in peace time) a little bit. Build up good relationship with UK and France, and virtually every one else.

By mid-1938, bring some army units to Curacao and DOW Portugal. If you cannot figure out how to send armies in Curacao : select the REBASE mission in the transport unit's detail (right-clicking on the province does not work).

Grab Cape Verdes from Curacao (be sure you have the range, so make up your fleet with your most advanced CAs, BCs and BBs, although actually it does not matter anyway since Portuguese Navy is pitiful). Attack the Azores and from there, hop into Portugal's home territory. Grab everything they have there and then sue for peace. Ask for every thing other than their 5 national provinces. If they do not accept, grab Bissao, Cabinda and normally they will cave in. Now you will have two firm naval bases in the Atlantic Ocean (the Azores and Cape Verdes), also Portugal's Africa belongings (Angola and Mozambique). As a bonus you will also have Macao and East Timor.

Invasion of Belgian Congo

Now await the development of Europe while building up your navy. Wait well into 1939, maybe early 1940, after Poland has fallen, to DOW Belgium. Attack Belgian Congo from Angola, using infantry with engineers. This will take some weeks but once you grab the two VP provinces close to the coast Belgium will normally cave in. (Having German troops along their border may be a reason.) You will have all the Belgian Congo which is very rich in metals.

Watch the Great Show in Europe

Now you again wait for developments in Europe. France and UK may start to influence you, which is sweet. Just wait patiently. France and UK may build up troops along the border of your African possessions, but with Germany at their gate they won't be able to attack you. When Germany initiates its attack on the west front, France often falls quicker than in history, because a good chunk of its troops will be garrisoned in French Equatorial Africa. Ditto for UK. With most of their African Legion in Rhodesia and South Africa, Italy can steamroll Egypt and Sudan.

Annexation of French Indochina

When France falls the vichy event will be triggered. After Vichy France forms, you will receive an event to request Indochina . Choose ask for Indochina and Vichy will usually accept. Don't ask for Madagascar since the chance of suceeding is very small.

[ ]{#Allies_or_Axis,_that’s_the_Problem} Allies or Axis, that's the Problem

Now you are in a situation virtually to choose between the two major alliance. I would say choose the Axis, simply because they can offer you more than the Allies. Once you join the Axis, be quick to take out South Africa. They've got 5 VP provinces, and 4 can be reached immediately by your troop from Mozambique and your marines from the sea. Marching into the last one takes some time, though. In the meantime send a troop North into British East Africa and cut into Lake Victoria and eventually Kigali. Use infantry with engineers. After you annex South Africa, the British troops in Rhodesia and Nyassaland will be trapped and out of supply. Don't worry about them now, just use garrisons and a few divisions to keep them encircled. You can grab them bit by bit later.

Assuming Germany did its homework in occupying Netherland's European provinces, attack Netherlands's holding in Indonesia and annex it. After Amsterdam falls, the capital will move to Batavia and you will end up with all of the rest of Netherlands' territory. That's the reason why you do not take Batavia in your previous campaign, because in that case you need to grab every small island piece by piece or Germany will get the lion's share of them. Also attack and take Malaya. Don't bother to lean on Siam, they will be a good buffer state between Burma and your Indochina possession. Don't bother to attack Burma either. Just move your troops quickly into India and occupy it. By this time most of the Indian army should be in the Middle East so this will not be hard.

What to do next depends on your preference. You can try fighting the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic Ocean, where your carriers and superheavy BBs (Yamato and Musashi) will come in handy. You can also try helping Italy to invade the Middle East. In the Pacific theater, you can annex Australia and New Zealand, then the rest of VP islands in the Pacific.

You may be able to annex France by the middle of 1941. After defeating the Royal Navy, Britain is yours to take. Then you can try to play with your armies to help Germany to conquer Soviet Union.

Invasion of the USA

This should be relatively simple. You can use either Canada or Carribean islands as a staging point. The USA AI is coded to deal with a Pacific campaign, so often you can catch them by surprise from the Atlantic Ocean. However, if you really go into war against the USA, strike quickly into their home territory and take out most of the east coast provinces to severely cramp its war economy. If the war goes into attrition you will find yourself overstretched.

Invasion of China

Why bother? They don't have much to offer anyway. You can try if you want a tough fight. Especially if you are in war with Soviet Union. Invading China in 1941 will be much harder than early date because the quality of their army will be much better.