I thought I'd try writing a HWW playthrough, as I write myself private ones anyway during most games. Recently I decided I wanted to challenge myself a bit more, having joined games as Nationalist China, Japan and UK, so here we have it: the weakest playable country in Asia. I had three reasons for picking it:
1. It allowed me to return to my favourite doctrine;
2. No matter how full a HWW is, one can be 99% certain that nobody's bagged it yet, so I didn't need to camp out the games page for hours; and
3. I did everyone a favour by taking one of the least popular countries and allowing that game to be replaced by a new HWW with the powerful countries untaken slightly faster than it would have been otherwise.
A disclaimer: I only play occasionally, so I'll probably do a terrible job of running the country and this will end in ignominious defeat.
DAY ONE
Fig. 1 And here we have it: one of the wimpiest armies to grace playable east Asia.
Surrounded as they are by two of the three most seriously powerful countries by far in this theatre (and, in my opinion, the scariest in the entire game), and having a weak army, the new government's first priority was to establish friendly relations on as many borders as possible. Japan being the most desirous ally, a particularly grovelling request was sent.
The Soviet Union instantly accepted, but as her ladyship had not thought to send a trade offer as part of the request, she was obliged to accept an unequal alliance (Right of Way vs Shared Map) rather than risk the wrath of a much more powerful state. Japan was much more reasonable, with the states agreeing to share maps with each other.
International peace and security being secured, Emperor Aragosta's thoughts turned to war. Manchukuo launched its first research project: light tanks and artillery, both level 2. Across the country production of artillery and militia began. Rule no. 1 in the east Asian theatre is always 'invade Manchukuo first', so I'm going to get in there pre-emptively; I've ruled out Japan and the Soviets, which leaves just one easily accessible country: Mongolia.*
An artillery division is staying right there in Hsinking (leaving one's capital undefended is asking for an ally with shared map to backstab you - I should know because I've done it) and Nanching (a port city) is remaining under militia guard, but everything else is going up to the Mongolian border. Having Japan as an ally - meaning there is no pressing urge to leave garrison forces in every city - is a huge relief, but the emperor barely trusts the Soviet Union and it's high on her list of future backstab victims.
I notice that neither of them are particularly strong players. Japan's player in particular fails its country's particular litmus test (i.e. if they don't invade Manchukuo on Day One, they're doing something wrong). Good - makes them all the easier to backstab. The Soviets are locked into a coalition with Britain and France, neither of whom bother me in the slightest as they're a fair way away from me.
As usual for me Manchukuo is already running short on goods - a combination of my habit of having every city on near-constant production (which I feel fully justified in doing here, what with Manchukuo's army being wimpy) and the fact that I focus heavily on ordnance in Comintern and Pan-Asian (ordnance foundries and artillery both chew through goods quite alarmingly). Furtunately the state has powerful - and, more to the point, rich - allies to provide aid, although begging for goods so close to first sealing the alliance is pushing it. Somehow the country is making money, so there's going to be a bit of a buffer before the emperor's chronic financial short-sightedness catches up to her.
Her financial advisors would like to know why she is not developing their industries? That won't take up goods. Most of the cities are already occupied by unit production projects that involve upgrading ordnance foundries, but the rural provinces have no such restrictions... and Yingkow, one of the only two major cities without expensive projects taking place at present, is the country's top goods producer. The other, Harbin, produces food; Manchukuo's agricultural wealth leads to the emperor dismissing industry development there as a waste of money. Metal is her next priority.
The die being cast for Manchukuo's first real war, the emperor loses interest until the first front reports start arriving.
*With the benefit of hindsight, I know what I should have done: declared war on Nationalist China and sent all my forces through Japan. With a neutral country in the way they'd be in no position to retaliate, or at least not without triggering a war with the most OP country in Asia. I did the reverse version of this, and won in a walk, the first time I played HWW, so I really should have thought of this earlier.
Feedback would be appreciated! However I should add that I'm posting on a three-day delay, so it may be too late to take very specific advice into account.
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Inactive game, wasnβt paying to much attention, still won.That polish guy wrote:
In your Luxembourg victory thread, you were attacking an enemy tank with artilleryCarking the 6th wrote:
Prove it.That polish guy wrote:
But I bet carking still does that
No more talking or I make you look at an AK-47 with the barrel of the M-16
Un-American
Or a T-34/85 with a 45mm gun
Look at the thread and tell me if you were so bad
I didn't even read the wiki 
Same I taught myself how to play
The wiki didnβt exist when I started playing 
DAY TWENTY
While I wait for last night's page to reload, to rehash: if everything's gone according to plan, neither of the Chinas should exist anymore. Of course, things won't have gone according to plan; there's going to be some pocket of resistance that's broken into one of my cities, or even if I have killed the Chinas I'll have a British invasion on my hands. But nonetheless, ideally that is what I should be seeing.
Let's see how well reality matches up to that:
Fig. 60 Well, almost.
The Communists are indeed completely dead, and the Nationalists are going to follow suit within six hours. There does indeed seem to be a significant pocket of resistance up in the northwest, but if I remember rightly most of the units should be dead, and I have all the cities; I just didn't think to set any of my armies to claiming all the provinces behind it. Furthermore my invasion of Burma is going significantly better than I was expecting. There does seem to have been some resistance and a counterinvasion of sorts, but I have both the cities so it's simply a matter of holding them until I've cleaned out the remaining armies.
France appears to have declared war on me now, but that's alright because Australia's nearly finished French Indochina off already.
Furthermore, Australia seems to have accepted my province exchange for the last Chinese province I was missing. Australia and I have some sort of non-aggression pact; they messaged me suggesting we don't fight and I agreed. That had better hold, because they're in the perfect position to backstab me in the Indochina region.
And now for something completely different:
Fig. 61 Good job my progress on the mainland makes up for the lack thereof here.
Last post I failed to include a screenshot of Qing Honshu because I'd already used up all ten of the slots I had, so consider this one a screenshot primarily of that. We won't talk about all the convoys I sent over to Kyushu, and how there's a conspicuous lack of Manchu armies there now. Nor will I make any mention of the suspicious bombardment marks around the point my convoys were meant to disembark. I almost hesitate to check the newspaper to see if any of them even made it onto dry land before being slaughtered.
Finally, I think I'd better make my mind up about my next front in a hurry:
Fig. 62 Mongolia is a wimp. Can't even stand up to an AI? And the really funny thing is they're one of the few humans in the game who's still active themselves.
I made a serious mistake in not continuously attacking them earlier. I probably wiped them out of proper units and if I'd stuck with it I would have won. Mind you, then I wouldn't currently be holding all this sweet Chinese territory, so y'know...
I still have two choices and I'm having trouble deciding which is more viable:
1) Turn on Mongolia while they're weakened, i.e. Stratagem 5, Loot a Burning House. If they're already devoting all their strength to a losing battle with Xinjiang, they won't be able to prevent me from sneaking in round the back and taking them out. The disadvantage being that I'll still have Xinjiang on my hands, with my border right up against their highest concentration of troops, and my popularity is low enough that I'm likely to have neighbouring AIs declaring war on me of their own accord pretty soon.
2) Attack Xinjiang's core provinces while all their troops are up north fighting Mongolia, i.e. an indirect version of Stratagem 6, Clamour in the East and Attack in the West (indirect in that it's Mongolia doing the clamouring and not me). More like Stratagem 12, Take the Opportunity to Pilfer a Goat, in that I'd be seizing the opportunity to invade while they aren't in a position to defend properly. This has a similar disadvantage to the first one; Xinjiang's longest border is with me, and they're in a position to launch several counterinvasions at once if I try anything, so I'm going to have to spend several hours moving troops onto my border in defense.
Or, of course, I could go with my original plan: Stratagem 9, Sit in the Mountains and Watch The Tigers Fight, and then attack the winner immediately afterwards. That actually sounds like my best bet, and the least risky, meaning today is going to be devoted to two activities: fortifying my western border, and cleaning up the remains of my last three enemies.
The current affairs check being done, I then went on to upgrading as many of my food industries as I could afford. I did it to rare materials yesterday, which still doesn't seem to have been sufficient, but oh well.
My paratroopers are ready; I'm sending them off to Japan. Hopefully an aerial attack on Kyushu will be more effective than a sea-based one, although I'm far from sure I have air superiority either.
Fig. 63 Also if I build another one I can collect the rookie Green Devil achievement.
I have made one slightly odd decision: I'm going to leave the Nationalists with one province for a bit. Reason being I have a huge number of revolts looming on the horizon, and no prospect of capturing a capital in time to boost my overall morale enough to prevent them. Therefore I'd rather they revolt back to a country I'm already at war with, so I can march straight back into them with no consequences rather than be obliged to conquer Tibet or Bhutan to get them back (not that the latter would be much of a problem). As for the possibility of Australia getting them... look, I'm running out of provinces I'm happy to trade off for them and I won't be able to afford any other payment.
I don't give a damn about ex-British territory, on the other hand; worst case scenario is I go down twenty victory points and half a dozen units get stranded there until I get short-term right of way from Australia. I only invaded it out of opportunism, so it won't hurt my Qing goals.
Doing some scouting above Xinjiang, it would appear that they have Level 1 heavy tanks. OK, heavy tanks, fine, they'll be a bit more work to dispatch than the light tanks I have, but 1) level 1 for crying out loud, 2) Pan-Asian's heavy tanks suck compared to all other doctrines except Allied.
Sleep well, Mongolia. You've been a good ally. I'll most likely invade you in the morning.
You better betray Australia first chance! They are in a perfect position to naval invade you in China and cause chaos. Best put them on the back foot when you have the chance.
You are evil for betraying your ally
That ally better learn to fight AI first, damn. Also didnβt you betray Germany? SMH.That polish guy wrote:
You are evil for betraying your ally
No he went afk
and disbanded the coalition
Come on bro this is the backstabbing person what were you expecting?
@That polish guyβs rules of war
1.always spare Poland.
2. Donβt betray your allies.
3. Always spare Switzerland.
4. Donβt kill wounded units.
5. Troll enemies with the militia storm
6. Always say hello at the start of a game
@Lady Aragosta's rules of war
1. Initially befriend everyone on your border, plus anyone else who'll accept
2. Assume every ally plans to betray you unless you receive proof that their plans are otherwise
3. Trade freely, so people will be happier to give you stuff when you need it later
4. Give all the AIs right of way, you never know when it will be reciprocated
5. Build whatever you can afford, it's better to have two dozen militia units than just three heavy tanks
6. If a distant and powerful state is willing to befriend you even for the short term don't look a gift horse in the mouth
That last one also covers any objections people have to my alliance with Germany. Until I'm in a position to win without being in their coalition (and I'm rapidly approaching that position, as his VP count has remained stable since last week) I'm going to stay friendly. Backstabbing people who you are in no position to actually invade gets you nowhere.
The real problem with me is that, especially in a game where there are no real consequences for actions, I have cynical expectations of fellow players' conduct. So far those expectations have been fulfilled, but that could well be a self-fulfilling prophecy given my own conduct.
@Carking the 6th which is better
Sun Tzu* would beg to differ:That polish guy wrote:
4. Donβt kill wounded units.
Stratagem 22: ιιζθ³/ε ³ι¨ζθ΄Ό (Shut the Door to catch the Thief.) If there are wounded enemies lying around and you're in a position to dispatch them you should, unless you want the battle to be dragged out or to resurface (and, in this case, allow the units to regain hitpoints).
*It's unclear who actually wrote the 36 Stratagems but it almost certainly wasn't him, but all the same.
Both. Both is good.
@Carking the 6thβs rules of war
There are none. Itβs war.
What are the Geneva suggestions about anyway?
These all end in AUs where people blithely sling nuclear weapons around and almost nobody has any grounding in basic nuclear deterrence. Including proper rules would end very, very badly.
I wonder how some of the people who play this would fare if placed in charge of an actual country for the duration of a war.
And then there are people who whine about the game 'already being realistic so we should add such and such'.
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