How to Win over Japan as Historical Nationalist China (NCNS DLC)

China starts with a large but severely underequipped, army consisting of 85 divisions of four different types — Juntuán, Sanjiao Jun, Juntuán Reformed and Qibing Jun. None of them are very good, with only the Juntuán Reformed being even somewhat decent at most, boasting six infantry battalions and one artillery support company (a very likely representation of the elite German-trained divisions of the National Revolutionary Army).



However, out of the four, we will only employ two of them throughout the war: Sanjiao Jun and Juntuán Reformed, which are the strongest divisions China has at the moment. Given China's limited industrial base, it can't really afford to make any changes to the divisions' compositions for quite some time. At the start of the game, immediately convert every single division into Sanjiao Jun, except for the reformed Juntuáns. Then make four armies and two army groups (two armies for each army group). Only use the Qibing Jun as a garrison force, replacing the default Juntuán.

The following is my order of battle as of the start:

• Army Group 1
ㅤ◦ Army 1
ㅤ ㅤ▪ 24 divisions
ㅤ◦ Army 2
ㅤ ㅤ▪ 24 divisions

• Army Group 2
ㅤ◦ Army 3
ㅤ ㅤ▪ 17 divisions (entirely made up by reformed juntuáns)
ㅤ◦ Army 4
ㅤ ㅤ▪ 20 divisions

(Be mindful that you dont need to name them accordingly to me, i will just be using these designations in order to explain as clear as i can.)

Each army group will have a distinct task. The 1st Army Group is the one that will be in charge of holding the frontline and pushing forward when the moment to counterattack arises. As for the 2nd Army Group, their purpose will be to hold the ports along the Chinese coastline. You can already assign your generals and field marshals, however leave Falkenhausen untouched for now, because in this strategy, you will promote him to a field marshal as soon as you can and assign him as the commander of the faction theater. China doesn't start with two field marshals, but don't worry, as it will get another one as soon as the Northeastern Army territory is annexed by them after a few months in 1936 through an event. It's also important to mention the Guangdong Clique will become your vassal early in1936. When that happens, request their forces (they have 18 divisions) and attach them to your 4th army. However, be aware that these divisions cannot be converted as they do not belong to you.

For this guide, China will not be fielding any division at all. Instead, it will use expeditionary forces the warlords will be offering along the campaign as well as the divisions gained after annexing the Northeastern Army territory and the Sichuan Clique (which will also happen through an event that will eventually fire after the war starts). Make sure to convert every possible division into Sanjiao Jun. Furthermore, appoint Falkenhausen as your Chief of Army as soon as possible in order to start hoarding army experience, and don't forget to train your divisions before the war starts in July 1937. By then, you should already have enough divisions to create a 5th army (as the screenshot below will be showing) — attach it to the 1st Army Group.




Get your 1st Army Group into position along the border with the Shandong Clique and place the 3rd Army (part of the 2nd Army Group) in Qindao. Set the remaining 4th Army to garrison the ports of your starting coastline. This will be the entire purpose of that army, and I personally had more success sticking to just defending the ports instead of also defending the adjacent areas. The 3rd army, for now, will be tasked with covering the rearguard of the 1st Army Group (which will move up to defend the Yellow River) by defending the ports of the Shandong peninsula. As soon as the Shandong Clique joins the war, Japan will immediately attempt to land divisions on the port cities of Yantai and Weihaiwai, north of Qinqdao. This is why it's essential for the 3rd Army to stand by in the area from the very the beginning. And finally, remember to appoint your military high command advisors and theorist. You should pick Xiao Yisu (infantry expert), Chen Cheng (army regrouping expert) and Zhang Zhizhong (entrenchment specialist) for the high command positions, and Jiang Baili as theorist (he provides a 5% defense bonus for divisions).

Ignore the airforce and the navy.

The Chinese industrial base is poor and cannot fully attend the needs of the army rightaway. For that reason, now and throughout the war, the great majority of the military factories will be assigned to infrantry equipment production. Don't bother with support equipment, trains, planes and trucks; for now, just assign one factory to artillery and that's it. Everything else shpuld be producing infantry weapons. As the situation improves later on, it's ok to add a few factories for other sorts of equipments and vehicles, but the priority must remain on the guns until Japan is fully pushed out of the mainland and give up. Make sure to trade your civilian factories for resources even if china has very little of them; and whenever you complete your research on more advanced infrantry weapons, do not replace the outdated production line, instead just create another one with your up-to-date weapon. Doing otherwise will severely slow down your production and harm your army effectiveness.



It's important to keep in mind that the nation's stability affects the percentage of factory output, meaning the more stability you have, the more productivity your military factories will have. As China, you will have a few government advisors that can significantly increase your stability, and, in my opinion, you should hire them right after you assign Falkenhausen to the Chief of Army position. The advisors are: Li Sen and Tao Xinghzi. Furthemore, I also choose Chiang Ching-Kuo as my
final third advisor because he increases the amount of political power generated per day.

Time is short, so China must prioritize the most essential focuses. I found this following path to be good to beat Japan:

1. Dang Guo;
   
2. Promote the National Currency;
   
3. Three-Year Plan;
   
4. Extend Compulsory Education;
   
5. Send the Urban Students to the Countryside;
   
6. Military Affairs Commission;
   
7. Protracted Warfare;
   
8. Defense in Depth;
   
9. Guerrilla Warafare;
   
10. Bog them Down in the Center;
    
11. Utilize the Terrain.

The war will initiate before the last one is completed, but the player should continue with "Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty". One may also opt to go for "Decisive Battles" instead of "Protracted Warfare". But i personally prefer the former since its path provides defensive and entrenchment bonuses. Be advised that after picking one side, the other one will locked until the player completes the last focus of each respective path.

When the player completes the "Protracted Warfare" focus, "Defensive Posture" will automatically be chosen as the sub-doctrine for the infantry section — replace it with "Large Unit Tactics". To push Japan back, China needs something to strengthen its attacking capabilities, and this sub-doctrine will complement their military nicely because it reduces combat width, supply use and experience loss, plus it increases breakthrough, soft attack and division recovery rate. As far as i know, it's not possible to get another sub-doctrine before the war initiates, following the historical path, but the next one anyways should be "Grand Assault" for the operations section.

China starts with just two research slots, unfortunately. I believe the player should prioritize researching the radio, machine tools and concentrated industry techs first, and then proceed towards support weapons, infantry equipment and artillery techs. Lastly, get construction and excavation techs. These are the most essential technologies that will get the player through the war against Japan.

So basically, this is what i would prioritize in order:

1. Radio, machine tools and concentrated industry;
   
2. Support weapons, infantry equipment and artillery;
   
3. Construction and excavation.

There isn't much to say about construction, this is pretty straightfoward: just build military factories in Shangai (it has the most advanced infrastructure out of all your provinces) until the end of the war. If Shangai reaches its maximum building capacity, build them in Qinqdao.

In early november 1936, Zhang Xueliang will propose to meet with Mao and create a united front against the Japanese — accept it. A new faction will be created, but not all warlords will immediately join it. Upon its creation, the player will be given the option tho choose a short term goal — pick "institute a joint command structure" as the picture below shows. In order to complete it, the faction needs to have a certain amount of fielded divisions by its members, and as far as i know, they player won't be able to complete it until the war starts. By fullfiling that goal, the player will then be able to create a faction theater.

In early July, the marco polo incident will take place. Pause and slow down your time speed. This is something you will do constantly in order to focus on micromanage your divisions and carry out other tasks. Select the first option to initiate the state of war between China and Japan and advance the time until the warlords join your faction. Once they do it, your faction will complete that short term goal you had selected back then and you will able to create a theater as the image below is showing.



Select "add theater", assign Falkenhouse as the commander (this is why we promoted him to a field marshal), select the regions on the map for your theater and click on "select max capacity". After doing all of that, click on "create".




Be advised that you can always make changes on your theater, such as adding or removing a region and replacing your commander.

Guangdong will ask you to join the war — deny it. Set up orders to defend the ports in the Shandong peninsula for your 3rd Army and draw a fallback line for your 1st Army group behind the yellow river as the images below shows. Remember that at this point, the 4th Army should already be garrisoning the ports of your coastline.





The rest of the frontline can be held by the walords, but one should pay close attention to the areas nearby, for there is a chance the fallback line may have to be extended depending on the situation. The warlords will also start offering expeditionary forces to you — accept and attach them to your armies. This part right now can be very tough, and the player will need to pay attention to the battles going on, micromanaging divisions to reinforce losing battles in order to prevent a Japanese breakthrough. HOLD THE LINE, don't let the Japanese advance even one inch. Make sure to use the "coordinate defense" option in the political tab (that you earned through the "Bog them Down in the Center" focus). You can also send attachés to your warlords to increase war support and earn other bonuses.

Also pay attention to your coastline, because the Japanese will throw a myriad of naval invasions against you. Remember: the 3rd Army will guard the ports of Shandong and Qinqdao (for now), and the 4th Army will guard the ports of your starting coastline (Shanghai, Donghai, etc.). It's OK if they manage to land troops around, as long as they dont take the ports. In fact, i would argue this is a good thing, since you can destroy their divisions, rendering Japan even weaker. Just make sure to micromanage your divisions here as well. Whenever a naval invasion occurs, take a few divisions that are standing nearby to assist the other divisions who are defending the port.

By early 1938, Japanese lines should start to weaken. You can draw a frontline and set up a offensive line, as shown in the screenshot below.



Make sure to train your armies until they reach the "trained" or "regular" level, but obviously don't train every single army at once. And also, wait until they achieve maximum planning so you get the maximum amount of planning bonus before you start pushing. Once you complete the "Serving the Country with Utmost Loyalty" focus, you will have a range of options to follow from here.



In this case, I chose to follow the middle path up until its end to improve my logistics and remove the debuff on my manpower. But that's not necessarily the most optimal way to keep going right now. One may also opt to go through "Decisive Battles" and "Prepare the War Zones". I took those two focuses after finishing the middle path.

And one more thing, keep an eye on the fascists and communists in your country. Support for non-aligned will eventually wane, which may affect your stability, so make sure to decrease their political support with the options you have in the political tab.

Once you are ready, start battle-planning. But don't let the AI do the job entirely, the player should also aim to create encirclements and take supply hubs to weaken the Japanese even further and minimize any chances of a counterattack. Whenever you capture a port during the offensives, use your 3rd Army to garrison it. Three armies should be enough for your 1st Army Group to advance towards Korea, so more or less around when i took Beiping, I just sticked to three armies and attached my extra divisions to my 3rd Army.






You can mostly ignore Mengjiang/Mengkukuo and even let the warlords guard most of their border at some point. Focus on capitulating Manchukuo and securing the Korean Peninsula. Once the world tension reaches 50%, you may request the soviets to provide you with land-lease, and once it reaches 70%, you can also request it from non-aligned states. You can try improving relations with nations such as Turkey and Iran to make them more willing to send you aid. As of the time I'm writing this guide, receiving land-lease from the United Kingdom and the United States is pretty useless since it requires convoys and Japan will start sinking quite a chunk of them until you are left with no convoys at all. Stick to countries that can provide you aid by land. In my case, however, i managed to defeat Japan before i could request any land-lease.

After you are done with those focuses I had mentioned before, you can take the "Initiate the Gung Ho Movement" and follow its path to the end. It gives you more military factories and improves your military production.

After forcing Mengjiang and Manchukuo to capitulate and securing the Korean Peninsula, Japan will sue you for peace (be advised this may take a few days to happen). Congratulations, now you can easily build up and strengthen your industry and your military, and attempt to either integrate or conquer the warlords. Survive until September 2nd, 1945 without losing a coastal state and you will earn "The Coast is Clear" achievement.