WarScore Advice as Japan

[Arakash]

I'm looking for some warscore advice as Japan vs China. (1871-3)

Ive already defeated China militarily and occupied all of its objective cities(ive moved the story of it down a bit)
My Warscore is now ~400 (edit: Its going up slowly) Id be surprised if their NM was over 30(edit:They arent on the objective screen so im not sure).
What id like to know is whether i should wait and hope the warscore will go up over time to hit my target of taking colonial Korea(1400 warscore) or whether to settle for Formosa(~400 warscore)
Just to be clear, this is a colony trade rather than a province trade, as i dont have claims on either.

I heard of an automatic victory mechanic related to NM in a few other AGEOD games, but im not entirely sure its in this one. If you know either way please let me know.


As for the 1871 War with China Story. (Somehow this turned into a long story)

It started off in 1871 when i wanted to test out my 1870-1890 infantry and cannons vs a Major nation.
I launched a campaign into Korea, which i was able to blitz right until i was stopped by the Chinese forces in Manchuria (2-3k power)at the Yalu River.
I didn't breach those lines until the spring of 1872 where a series of indecisive battles left me in control of Mukden (the major Chinese city/depot/objective in the area).
I was fairly surprised by how poorly my troops were doing at the time, i had expected the tech difference to give more advantages than it did. (if i had waited another 3 years i think they wouldve been much better.)

After a few more battles, I was able to corner, trap and besiege the Manchurian Chinese force in Jirim (now around 1k-1.5k power from memory around 60-100k men) but not before it had delayed me from capturing Beijing before it was reinforced before Winter 1872.

The force in Beijing was around 6-8k, between 400k-500k men, led by generals who were far more skilled than my own. (5-5-2 was the commander i think, compared to most of mine which were 3-1-1 or 3-2-2 at best)
It was also sitting on a large city and a large depot, in hills, which made it very secure.

Some maneuvering and costly battles in early 1873 gave me a stroke of good luck when one of my forces was able to briefly take Beijing and destroy the depot before retreating.
This and the losses in battle clearly put the very large stack under some supply pressure because in mid 1873 it moved out of Beijing, leaving a small force there and placed the majority inside Tianjin to recover.

By this point id gathered some 10-11k combat power in the area, so i took a risk and moved them into Tianjin, hoping i could trap the entire force or at the very least make them attack entrenched positions to break the siege.
The first battle was the really decisive one, according to the screen I lost, but casualties were around 80-100k for me and 60k for the Chinese in 2 battles, but my forces were not forced out of the province, so they continued the siege.
Several battles followed over the next month or two, most of which i lost according to the screen, but clearly the Chinese were unable to decisively defeat me, so were eventually worn down and without enough supplies, were forced to surrender. (I think around 80-100k surrendered in the end)

Since then i occupied all their objective cities and haven't seen a stack larger than 500 power since.
Ive had no end of annoying rebel uprisings though.

Chinese NM was so low that i even managed to sink half of the Beiyang fleet (which had ironclads) with Wooden Screw Frigates and Battleships, i imagine because they had no will to fight. Still that's a pretty embarrassing loss imo.

[Kensai]

I would go for Formosa. You are at least three decades early for Korea. I would take Formosa, continue building a formidable Imperial Army and Navy and then find a chance by late 1800s to do another war with China to get Korea. Yes, you could go for Korea this early but you will have to sweat a lot to conquer most China as you wait for the warscore to go up. In the meantime, I don't think it's in your interest to have a very weak China as it is kind of a buffer in the Far East.

In some of my early games it even stopped Russia as it was colonizing a couple of times.

[Arakash]

I would go for Formosa. You are at least three decades early for Korea. I would take Formosa, continue building a formidable Imperial Army and Navy and then find a chance by late 1800s to do another war with China to get Korea. Yes, you could go for Korea this early but you will have to sweat a lot to conquer most China as you wait for the warscore to go up. In the meantime, I don't think it's in your interest to have a very weak China as it is kind of a buffer in the Far East.

In some of my early games it even stopped Russia as it was colonizing a couple of times.

Thanks for the advice.
I decided to take the Formosa deal because as you pointed out, it would take a lot of sweat to hold the Chinese territory long enough to get that much warscore. (i was already experiencing revolts every 2nd turn)
I was also right in the middle of a financial crisis, which was making my economic situation a lot more vulnerable than it was a few years ago.

On keeping China relatively strong, I probably sabotaged myself there. By destroying between 7-10k power of troops, i probably put a serious burden on them for years(maybe over a decade, i dont know their income) in order to build that up again.