Original guide by @m0ek, Red Baron Discord Server

“Vanilla” Japan Guide

Avalanche 1.12.12

Ossu! Welcome to Japan, the powerhouse of Asia. This is a fairly in-depth guide, which will explain every facet there is to Japan.

Not written for any mod in particular, rather this guide is intended for “Vanilla” mods in general, such as: “elwolfmod”, “Catstorical” or “ProductiveMod2”.

Focus Order

List

1. Purge the Kodoha Faction
2. Guide the Zaibatsus
3. National Mobilization Law
4. Nationalize War Industry
5. National Defense State
6. National Research Policy
7. Liaison Conference
8. Greater East-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
9. Marco Polo Bridge Incident
10. New Naval Estimates
11. Fighter Modernization [use on Improved Small Airframe]
12. Army Expansion Law
13. Small Arms Modernization [use on Infantry Equipment 2]
14. Agility Focus
15. Supremacy of the Battlefleet
16. Develop Chinese Resources
17. The Ultimate Battleship
18. Sign Tripartite Pact
19. Strike South Doctrine [demand Indochina asap]
20. Spiritual Mobilization
21. Army Expansion
22. Supremacy of Will
23. Warrior Spirit
24. Coal Liquification [use on Fuel Refining 4]

Political Power Order

The magenta text is bookmarked and will refer you to the relevant section of the guide.

1. Prioritize Steel for Guns
2. Army Offense (Specialist) - Shizuichi Tanaka
3. Silent Workhorse
4. Institute Indiscriminate Conscription
5. Industrial Concern
6. War Industrialist
7. Night Operations (Specialist) - Torashiro Kawabe

[Start of China War]

8. War Bonds
9. Escalate the War in China [if needed]
10. Agree to American Terms
11. Second War Bonds
12. Closed Economy [stay on Limited Exports and boost Germany if you want]

[End of China War - Sep 38]

13. Agility-focused Aircraft Designer (Mitsubishi)
14. Prioritize Army Aircraft Construction

1. Prospect for Resources
   1. Develop Bauxite Deposits & Oil Fields.

13. Chief of Navy
14. Infantry (Expert) - Yasuji Okamura
15. Artillery (Expert) - Keisuke Fujie
16. Commando (Expert)
17. Form Special Air Landing Forces

Decisions

• Annex Siam / Manchukuo: Historical mods have a decision allowing you to annex Siam & Manchukuo. Wait until they complete their industry focuses.
• Prospect for Resources:
  • Excavation 3 unlocks development of the Bauxite Deposits in Sichuan, Yunnan & Shandong. Click the decisions from bottom to top for double development!
  • Excavation 2 unlocks development of the Bauxite Deposits in Palau & Kirin.

Research

• Excavation 3: Required for the Chinese Aluminum decisions.
• Concentrated Industry 3: Never end the China war without Concentrated 3 or parts of the Chinese Industry will be deleted due to missing building slots!
• Artillery 2 & Infantry Equipment 2 & Improved Small Airframe: Since Japan goes Concentrated Industry, it’s important to research and build efficiency on 39/40 tech asap.

Construction

1. Build Civs until you get War Industrialist in ~April 37.
2. Builds Mils.

Japan rivals Germany when it comes to Mil construction speed. Never greed for Civs!

• 10% from Guide the Zaibatsus
• 10% from Interservice Rivalry - Army Dominant
• 30% from Total Mobilization
• 10% from War Industrialist - Takuo Godo
• 30% from rushing Construction 3

  = 90% total

Build infrastructure if you need more resources:

• Aluminum: Shandong, Sichuan & Yunnan
• Rubber: Northern Malay, Southern Indochina
• Oil: South Sakhalin

In early-mid 1940 halt all Mil construction and get ready for war!

Asia–Pacific War Buildup:

• Upgrade the Naval Base in Pusan to level 5 (20 cap)
• Build a level 2 railway from Korea to Siam (20 cap)
• Build two Naval Bases in Northern Malay. One for the Front Line & one for the Air Base.
• Max out Air Bases and Radar all over Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Okinawa, …

Connect all Supply Hubs / Naval Bases with your railway from Korea and change the Motorization Level to ensure all Air Bases have good supply.

Production

Start off like this:

You will gain up to 10 Mils in the first year just from Decisions, Focus & subjects.

Jan 37

Sept 37

By Sept 37 (China War), the Artillery deficit should be equalized. Take 5 Mils from Artillery and switch them to Infantry Equipment.

Next: (Mils in total)

• 1 on Scout Planes
• 10+ on CAS
• 3 on Trains
• 4 on Support Equipment
• 20-30+ on Infantry Equipment

Ask the Axis for an Improved Carrier Airframe license:

You will have neither the modules nor the resources to make good Fighters yet, but that doesn’t matter. The goal is to build up efficiency.

Jan 39

In Jan 39, you will unlock “The Zero”. Switch to Japanese Fighters & Naval Bombers. Utilize every bit of Alu for plane production. [~80 Mils on Fighters asap]

Intelligence Agency

Upgrade your agency 5 times. The rest of the upgrades can be done later! Use your 2 spies to get at least 90% collaboration in China.

I recommend upgrading like this:

• Decrypt USA, Raj, Canada (if AC) & whoever else you can afford to. (Australia, Brazil, Mexico, …)
• Infiltrate Armies & Airforce for better stats from Intel Advantage.
• Before going to war:
  • Invisible Ink [+20% Intel from Infiltrations & Networks]
  • 2x Government Cypher School
  • Make sure to have strong Intel from Networks & Spy Planes.

Army

Start off by 1 division training. The first Army XP purchase is always:

“State serves the Military”

Promote Shizuichi Tanaka and give him the trait Offensive Doctrine. He will become the Chief of Army.

[Doctrine] GBP

General Grind

Some mods like elwolf come with pre-grinded Generals and disable XP gain. Skip ahead to the China War.

The goal is to grind level 6 generals and assign some of them as advisors.

These 3 Generals are of particular importance:

• Shizuichi Tanaka: Chief of Army. Level 6 = +10% Attack
• Keisuke Fujie: Artillery advisor. Lvl 6 = +15% Att / +10% Def
• ???: Commando advisor. Lvl 6 = +15% Att / +15% Def

Get a Commando General by selecting Inventive Leadership and promoting Field Officers. If you’re lucky one of them will roll the Commando trait when promoted.

If not, you will have to grind Commando in the strait of Haikou. Try to push a good chunk of divisions into the island, then attack using a General without traits!

Tips & Tricks

• 0.45 base XP gain for traits
• Field Marshals gain XP at a rate of x0.3
• Trait XP gain is scaled by 1 / (1 + number of earned traits)
• XP gain scales up to 4x relative to: (YourDamage / EnemyDamage)
• XP gain decays by 0.03 per hour in combat
• Bold Attack gives a +50% chance of gaining additional +1 Attack on level up
• Use support attack to avoid accidentally walking into a tile. (Ctrl + Alt + RMouse)

China War

You have ~350 days to kill China. Be very careful to stay below 90% capitulation progress, otherwise your collaboration government will end the China war too soon.

Train 96 of these divisions and put them into 4 armies. I like to keep 1-2 Armies on the China land border, while using the other 2-3 to invade Shanghai and Guangzhou. Aim to encircle large chunks of the front.

Wait for Concentrated 3 to finish, go Closed Economy and capitulate China.

Asia–Pacific War

Your number 1 priority is to larp in Asia and bang your head against Mass-Mob. Take away all the Allied Rubber by killing Singapore and launch Naval Invasions into Ceylon, Andaman, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, …

If the Allies commit more than just the Mass Mob minors to Asia, your priority shifts to not dying. Amtracs & Amphibious Tanks will kill even your best Anti-Tank Infantry and the only way to stop them is through Air & Naval power.

Templates

Japan's templates are mostly influenced by the need for AT. Swap an infantry battalion for 2 AT battalions if needed.

Flame Tank:

Navy

Light Cruisers outdated. Carriers overrated. Torpedoes evaded. Long have we waited. Battleships have been located !!! 
 
Hitprofiles have changed drastically in 1.12 and BBs & BCs are by far the biggest beneficiaries. Torpedoes have a hard time hitting them, rendering screens & light attack ineffective as a result.

Finish the Soryu Class CV in production as well as the Destroyers & Submarines.

[WIP]

BB2 Armor 3

Refits

• Select Naval Refit Yards.
• Upgrade Fire Control & Radar for better Hit Chance.
• Select the Battlefleet Designer once/if you unlock it.
  • Refit the starting Heavy Hulls.

Admiral Grind

[WIP] - Koga

Otherwise use Isoroku Yamamoto with Concealment Expert assigned.

Select the Navy Spirits Instilled Aggression & Night Fighting in the Officer Corps.

Doctrine

Fleet in Being is better with full doctrine, Trade Interdiction requires less XP.

Naval Hit Chance

hoi4_sheets

[WIP] Submarine Build

• Pacific Fleet Designer for +25% Max Range
• Trade Interdiction right side

Naval Regions

If you’re getting raided, block off these regions to ensure the safety of your convoys. Any submarine that dares to enter will get killed by your naval bombers. Build a Port in Taipei for supply in Taiwan.

Air

Air has a big impact on Japan's game. Under green skies your infantry will be able to push and your navy will win engagements.

Unfortunately the Allies will always have the better Fighters, so Japan has to make up through Quantity. Don’t be scared to trade unfavorably. Your planes are very cheap and every plane you shoot down is one less plane on D-Day.

Fighter

Replace Self-Sealing Fuel Tanks with Non-Strategic Materials UNTIL you get the Alu from Prospect for Resources.

Zero (Carrier Fighter) Hayabusa (Fighter)

The Zero performs slightly worse than the Hayabusa, but makes up for it by being cheaper.

Close Air Support & Naval Bomber

• Add Non-Strategic Materials ONCE you run out of Aluminum.

Tactical Bomber

Japan only rarely builds Tactical Bombers, but they can be useful to bomb out Air Bases & Forts.

Scout Plane

Air Recon gives you up to 20% Army & Air Intel.

八紘一宇