Playing China Limitation

[ShadowofGod]

I've gotten to 1895 playing China. My big problem is that my steel, manufactured goods and coal - all the things I need to build up a navy so I can keep Japan at bay and challenge Great Britain for control of Hong Kong and Malaya, keeps fluctuating no matter what I do and how much I appear to produce on the Ministry of Commerce screen. No matter how I set my domestic consumption.

Therefore I have a lot of trouble building railroads and the more expensive factories that I want, not to mention navies. Meanwhile I have lots of useless cash.

[loki100]

don't think its just a China issue - by 1895 all those are in very short supply on the world trade, so hard to buy and state cash tends to expand out of control.

Solutions? Me, I'd make sure I have trade fleets everywhere and then make close friends with someone - the US maybe the best choice. Aim for a commercial agreement, even with poor diplomatic values you'll get it if you use the 'support' option often enough and also deliberately (use the T screen) buy from them. Once you have this and relations > 25 then start building coal mines in their territory. I did this very successfully with Italy and managed to avoid the worst of the late game coal shortage as a result. That coal will make it easier to undertake a mild industrialisation plan (ie domestic steel and manufactures), that may just give you the industrial base you need.

Having said this, there may well be very specific Chinese related problems I'm not really aware of

[HerrDan]

[quote]Having said this, there may well be very specific Chinese related problems I'm not really aware of[quote]

Specially because China is not designed to be playable, as it's a very backward and explored country in this period. In any case Loki's advice are all great and belive me Coal is short for everyone late game, even I that play with Germany that is a industrial powerhouse with HUGE production of coal, sometimes have to save some and stop selling for a turn or two in order to build up a stock when I need to do something "special" .

Listen to Loki, he knows very well what he says about the game, even though I can't really understand why he doesn't let his cats shine like they should

[Jim-NC]

You are probably caught in a spiral of not having enough materials. You need coal to make any factory run, but don't have enough (if you have less on hand than what your factories need - check via F4 screen - then random factories shut down), and you need Mechanical Parts as well to keep you coal mines and factories open. These appear to be the limiting factors, and can cause swings as different factories shut down each turn due to a lack of these goods. The problem is the game doesn't tell you what is going on, so you don't realize this happens. For a good example of this, check out Loki's AAR, where he and I discuss the problem with production (specifically coffee I think), and he realized he had a massive coal shortage. Then it shows how he fixed the problem (went to America to build mines).

[ShadowofGod]

Thank you, Jim. I suspect it's something like that.

I don't know if all the time I've poured into China will come with the big anti-European colonial climax that I was looking for. My diplomatic leadership is still minimal, although I could improve it if I wanted. I'm more concerned that my ability to purchase what I want and build a navy. What would be really cool would be to ally with the Central Powers in the Great War, and knock Britain and France out of Asia.

[HerrDan]

Thank you, Jim. I suspect it's something like that.

I don't know if all the time I've poured into China will come with the big anti-European colonial climax that I was looking for. My diplomatic leadership is still minimal, although I could improve it if I wanted. I'm more concerned that my ability to purchase what I want and build a navy. What would be really cool would be to ally with the Central Powers in the Great War, and knock Britain and France out of Asia.

The Kaiser aproves that!