Maimonides
Emperor
For whatever reason, Italy AI is definitely more successful in Africa in 1939-1940 now than it was in ver. 2.4. In 1941, it seems their offensive ends with Allied counteroffensives.
Thanks! I haven't had the guts, yet, to play an entire game as France.
I thought it might be fun to be see if Chiang Kai-Shek could reunite China rather than fleeing for Formosa as happened historically. I also wanted to try to see why both the Chinese AIs do so poorly. They are almost always wiped out in my games.
Republican Chinese. AI most aggressive. Low difficulty level.
Week 8, 1941:
-My defensive position north of Chengdu continues to hold despite losses. The Japanese Paratrooper that has been attacking me there is finally destroyed by my defenders. The fortifications plus 2 Heavy Artillery are a big help, but I'm still losing Infantry to Japanese attacks at a high rate.
Reminder: the Japanese are sending Type 97 tanks down the road from Sian toward Chengdu. They attack me there w/ 1-6 units per turn. My defending Infantry can't kill their tanks very often so they just withdraw, repair, attack & repeat. It's a battle of attrition that I'm losing so far because they are killing far more of my defenders than I am of their units.
-Another section of track is completed between Chengdu & Mangnai. I have 4 Railroad Construction crews working on this now. It should help get units from my western cities to the front faster & help defenders move west should the Germans ever arrive or the Soviets become aggressive.
-I spot 2 French Infantry in the mountains south of Japanese-held Ansi! They must have marched all the way from Damascus!!! I would have seen them if they came from Indochina. CIV III AI never fails to amaze me.
Week 9, 1941:
-The force that took Canton is now repaired & on the road toward Ningpo. Destination is a siege of Shanghai. I leave 4 Infantry behind to garrison Canton. It's behind the front lines now, but only one tile from a Japanese-controlled ocean & probably within paratrooper range of Taipe & Hainan.
-The Japanese continue to assault my position north of Chengdu. They haven't yet used their air power there for some reason which is good because I have no Flak there & am barely hanging on as it is.
-Japanese Bombers from Shanghai & Taipe continue to raid Ningpo. I haven't seen a Japanese Fighter in quite a while. I shot several of them down w/ Flak earlier & they weren't replaced.
-2 Type 97 tanks attack Ningpo. My infantry there is numerous enough to hold for a while.
-Ningpo produces another sub. This time it slips out to sea heading east. Still no sense in building improvements in a city under air bombardent.
-The British take Mogadishu from Italy!
Week 10, 1941:
-My assault force reaches Ningpo & joins more newly-built Tanks & Heavy Artillery from my western cities. They take some damage from continued Japanese air strikes.
-2 Type 97 tanks attack Ningpo, but are easily repelled my the newly-arrived forces.
-My sub moves east to scout the waters south of Okinawa.
-The Japanese offensive north of Chengu continues. They bring in another Paratrooper unit to help their tanks. The 14 Infantry I marched from the south arrives so I will be able to hold this position a bit longer.
-Another section of track between Chengdu & Mangnai is completed!
Week 11, 1941:
-The Japanese continue their attacks on Ningpo & my position north of Chengdu. Flak in Ningpo shoots down 1 of the 2 Bombers operating out of Taipe.
-The siege of Shanghai begins! I move my assault force out of Ningpo to take up positions on the hills overlooking Shanghai: 36 Infantry, 13 Heavy Artillery, 9 Tanks. I leave 4 Flak, 4 Infantry & 1 Heavy Artillery behind in Ningpo for defense. I am accutely aware that the Japanese control the ocean & are very good at amphibious assaults.
-There are now 2 French Infantry & 2 British Infatnry operating in the mountains south of Ansi. I hope they will be a distraction to the Japanese.
-My sub's captain is suprised to see that the Japanese don't have a unit occupying the Victory Point location on southern Okinawa. Then he get's another suprise: the SAME convoy that we attacked near Manilla steams up from the south. I know it's the same because they never stopped to repair the Battleship we damaged. My sub attacks targetting the 1939 Destroyer this time. The 1939 Destroyer is damaged, but we are sunk.
Week 12, 1941:
-Shanghai falls!!! The Japanese counterattacked w/ Type 97s destroying 2 of my Tanks, but they only had 3 Infantry garrisoned there so my Heavy Artillery were able to redline them for my Tanks to clean up. 2 Japanese Bombers destroyed on the ground in Shanghai! The rest of them had been shot down by my Flak.
Perhaps the best result is that I have finally crushed Japanese air power in southern China. They now only have 1 bomber based in Taipe. My southern citizens can come out of their bomb shelters for the 1st time. This will help allot.
-Khotan produces my 1st Bomber! It rebases to Chengdu to harrass the Japanese. They still don't have any aircraft operating in that area. The battle north of Chengdu continues.
Weeks 13 to 23, 1941:
I have to stop the narrative here to report a BIG problem for China.
It is at this point that I realize that I have no Coal. I can't start production on Tanks & my Railroad Construction crews can't do anything but sit in the tundra & freeze.
I never got a message saying, "You have lost your supply of Coal!" as normally happens when a trade agreement ends. I was also trading 2 Luxuries to the Soviets for about 110 GP per Turn. Checking the Trade Advisor, I find that I now have no trade routes to any other nation at all. I check the road between Kunming & Mandalay & find it intact. The only explaination I can find is that the razing of Singapore or Kuala Lumpur was the culprit. Did one of those cities have a trade route Wonder?
I check with the Soviet ambassador to find they have gone from polite to annoyed. This is very bad as it makes it more likely they will side w/ the Axis.
Looking around the map, the closest coal is west of Japanese-held Peking. I have 1 Tank in production. After that, I am screwed. The only ground units I can make are Infantry w/ an Attack rating of 2 or Flak w/ an Attack rating of 1... I can't fight all the way to Peking with 8 Tanks.
I could build a road to Soviet territory, but that would take many Turns & would invite an attack from the west. Those remote mountains are my best defense. Even if I built the road, there's no guarantee the annoyed Soviets will trade w/ me again.
I have every resource, but Coal & Rubber. I can only make Flak, Infantry & artillery.
I have 2 more ideas to solve this:
1. Take Chang Mai & it's Rubber from Thailand. I'm not sure if I will be able to build a better unit with Rubber, though. The Civilopedia is unclear. I might not even have the forces to take Chang Mai. My remaining tanks can't get through the terrain & my Infantry has a 2 Attack rating.
2. Take out the Communist Chinese. They don't have resources I need, but it would be easier to reopen trade with the Soviets & I can defend their territory better than they can.
This is a major problem for China & must be a big part of why Chinese AI always get wiped out. It may be a game-ender for me. I don't want to spend hundreds of Turns only being able to produce units with an Attack rating of 2. Even Swordsmen would be better, but they're not in this mod.
Historically, China was isolated, but the Allies were able to supply them via the Burma Road. I have built that road & kept it open, but still have NO trade routes at all.
-My Bomber in Chengdu destroys the roads over the Silks near Japanese-held Haichow after a couple of tries denying the resource to the enemy. It then begins bombing the enemy units attacking my fortifications north of Chengdu.
-My assault force rests & repairs in Shanghai & then I decide to go for Nanking since Shanghai was so lightly defended. I take Nanking, but lose 3 precious Tanks to Japanese Type 97 counterattacks. I'm down to 4 Tanks with 1 in production. After that, it becomes a defensive war for me.
I'm tempted to go for Haichow with my 5 last Tanks, but perhaps Communist Kashgar should rejoin us before I run out of an offensive capability...
-That Japanese convoy returns trying to retake Shanghai with 2 Marines, but my garrison holds. My 3rd sub catches them & finally sinks the 1939 Destroyer on it's way back to Okinawa.
Japanese AI is not repairing the vessels that escort it's Transports...
It feels good to be able to damage the enemy at sea after such a humble beginning. It has been my hope that operations like these will distract the Japanese from their highly successful offensives in the South Pacific & give my allies down there time to build their forces.
-I have Land/Air 1940, Land 1940, Light Land 1940 & Light Land 2 1940 & will have Air 1940 in 3 Turns. I'm ignoring the "Sea" techs for now. I must find a way to build an offensive ground unit.
-The U.S. continues to hold Cagliari.
-The British continue to hold the Solomon Islands. Though I keep expecting to see Rabaul or Darwin fall, it hasn't happened, yet. No activity at all from British Hong Kong.
-I haven't seen another Allied ship in the Pacific since the British unit tried to penetrate the Formosa Straights many Turns ago.
-Africa has been interesting to watch so far. Despite a few recent losses, Italy has done very well there. Here's a list of the African cities currently under Italian control: Benghazi, Tobruk, Addis Abeba, Nampula, Beira, Maputo, Lubango & Huambo. I've never seen Italy AI do so well in southern Africa.
-NONE of the unaligned nations have gone to war yet. I set AI agression high to avoid this, but they won't fight at all so far. Of course, all eyes are on USSR. They can swing the war one way or the other.
) But anyway, it runs fast enough on my comp.... I'm not too much for WWII, but I enacted Poland and "Denmark Norway" and set the date to jan, 1939, among other things so, it's fun. Hey, great job on it though. Europe is litterly littered with cities and the scenario has tons of units. 
