It has been a bit quiet (dead) in this forum for the last week or so. I'm going to do a few mini posts about oddball strategies you can try as various countries. Some may be regarded as gamey or whatever so feel free to express an opinon. Hopefully some of you may be inspired to try an oddball tactic, strategy or tactic. The 1st country I will cover is Manchukuo.
Manchukuo is one of my favourite countries to play as one would think they are designed to support Japan in Asia and promptly get stomped on once Germany collapses and the USSR declearss war on Japan. However you can build Manchukuo into a wurld power I tell ya.
Exploit 1.
You start the game as a Japanese puppet. Start a game and release Manchukuo from its puppet status, save the game and reload as Manchukuo. The main reason to do this is so that you can import resources from other countries as Japan can't supply you with enough rares to fuel IC expansion. I have played a proper game and retained my puppet status.
Exploit 2.
Tech team capture on (Australia rocks)
Basic Idea as Manchukuo (puppet or not)
IC whore until you have at least 40 IC as Manchukuo won;t enter the war until late 41 or 42 when Japan Dows someone unless Manchukuo wants to DoW someone themselves. Use your starting army when Japan invades China. You really only want to level up your army. Start building a army+navy (transports, convoys) in 1940 or army +airforce (tactical bombers). Rather than build a port buy Dalian off the Japanese for supplies and cash which you can stockpile even as a puppet as it is a lvl 5 port facility.
If you build army +navy you can amphibious assault India and beat the Japanese there. Beyond India there is Persia and the rest of the world.
Army +tac bombers. Basically you are going to DoW the USSR once Barbarossa starts or the USSR DoWs Germany in 1942ish. Exploitive perhaps but you have to get rid of around 200 Soviet divisions all up. Carve out puppets such as Kazakhstan and the Transural Republic as they have enough MP and IC to build a few units to help you out. You may still be able to beat Japan to Persia and India as well.
Manchukuo Navy
Easier with tech team capture on as Australia becomes a prime target. Without it you are fine though. Strange as it sound Manchukuo can actually research and build a decent carrier based navy despite having a weak naval doctrine team and no naval engineering team. The secret is Japanese blueprints and Manchukuo's tech teams.
Mansyu Hikoki Seizu is a level 4 aircraft tech team. With Japanese blueprints they don't make a half bad carrier research tech team and you can research CVs and CVLs at a reasonable rate.
Yoshijiro Umezu is a level 6 land doctrine team. Manchukuo has a level 3 naval doctrine team is OK at getting some of the basic naval doctrines but sucks for researching Base Strike naval doctrines. Umezu being level 6+ Japanese blueprints can once again research at a reasonable rate despite not having any naval fields.
Talking about Yoshijiro Umezu as it turns out Manchukuo actually has one of the best land doctrine teams in the game although they don't get him until 1939. Outside of Guderian and Manstein most of the good land doctrine teams in HoI2 are only level 6 or 7 anyway. Umezu is equal in level to the UKs and Australias tech teams and only the USSR , USA and New Zealand have level 7 land doctrine teams. Umzeu is very good at researching the infiltration doctrines having 4/5 fields for most of the tree. Technically he is better than Japans land doctrine team and the UKs doctrine team. He is also very good at researching the Human Wave doctrine having 5/5 fields in several techs for that doctrine and 4/5 for most of the other ones. Manchukuo also has 2 level 5 tech teams that can do a reasonable job at researching armor and they have higher than Hungary and very similar to Romania should you decide that you want tanks. Manchukuo only has 1 Panzer general though.
Best Manchukuo game I ever had with puppet status removed and tech team capture on the Empire stretched from Manchukuo through to the Balkens, INdia and Persia and included New Zealand and Australia. I also had a modern carrier CTF that could engage USN fleets and win. Somewhat exploitive but entertaining enough and it kept me busy for a few hours.
Manchukuo is one of my favourite countries to play as one would think they are designed to support Japan in Asia and promptly get stomped on once Germany collapses and the USSR declearss war on Japan. However you can build Manchukuo into a wurld power I tell ya.
Exploit 1.
You start the game as a Japanese puppet. Start a game and release Manchukuo from its puppet status, save the game and reload as Manchukuo. The main reason to do this is so that you can import resources from other countries as Japan can't supply you with enough rares to fuel IC expansion. I have played a proper game and retained my puppet status.
Exploit 2.
Tech team capture on (Australia rocks)
Basic Idea as Manchukuo (puppet or not)
IC whore until you have at least 40 IC as Manchukuo won;t enter the war until late 41 or 42 when Japan Dows someone unless Manchukuo wants to DoW someone themselves. Use your starting army when Japan invades China. You really only want to level up your army. Start building a army+navy (transports, convoys) in 1940 or army +airforce (tactical bombers). Rather than build a port buy Dalian off the Japanese for supplies and cash which you can stockpile even as a puppet as it is a lvl 5 port facility.
If you build army +navy you can amphibious assault India and beat the Japanese there. Beyond India there is Persia and the rest of the world.
Army +tac bombers. Basically you are going to DoW the USSR once Barbarossa starts or the USSR DoWs Germany in 1942ish. Exploitive perhaps but you have to get rid of around 200 Soviet divisions all up. Carve out puppets such as Kazakhstan and the Transural Republic as they have enough MP and IC to build a few units to help you out. You may still be able to beat Japan to Persia and India as well.
Manchukuo Navy
Easier with tech team capture on as Australia becomes a prime target. Without it you are fine though. Strange as it sound Manchukuo can actually research and build a decent carrier based navy despite having a weak naval doctrine team and no naval engineering team. The secret is Japanese blueprints and Manchukuo's tech teams.
Mansyu Hikoki Seizu is a level 4 aircraft tech team. With Japanese blueprints they don't make a half bad carrier research tech team and you can research CVs and CVLs at a reasonable rate.
Yoshijiro Umezu is a level 6 land doctrine team. Manchukuo has a level 3 naval doctrine team is OK at getting some of the basic naval doctrines but sucks for researching Base Strike naval doctrines. Umezu being level 6+ Japanese blueprints can once again research at a reasonable rate despite not having any naval fields.
Talking about Yoshijiro Umezu as it turns out Manchukuo actually has one of the best land doctrine teams in the game although they don't get him until 1939. Outside of Guderian and Manstein most of the good land doctrine teams in HoI2 are only level 6 or 7 anyway. Umezu is equal in level to the UKs and Australias tech teams and only the USSR , USA and New Zealand have level 7 land doctrine teams. Umzeu is very good at researching the infiltration doctrines having 4/5 fields for most of the tree. Technically he is better than Japans land doctrine team and the UKs doctrine team. He is also very good at researching the Human Wave doctrine having 5/5 fields in several techs for that doctrine and 4/5 for most of the other ones. Manchukuo also has 2 level 5 tech teams that can do a reasonable job at researching armor and they have higher than Hungary and very similar to Romania should you decide that you want tanks. Manchukuo only has 1 Panzer general though.
Best Manchukuo game I ever had with puppet status removed and tech team capture on the Empire stretched from Manchukuo through to the Balkens, INdia and Persia and included New Zealand and Australia. I also had a modern carrier CTF that could engage USN fleets and win. Somewhat exploitive but entertaining enough and it kept me busy for a few hours.