Editing Flames of War/Tactics/Japan (section)

==Early/Late/Pacific war==
Looking at the early and late Japanese equipment you would notice that the only real differences are that by late war japan has a few new options in the form of 2 self propelled guns, a upgraded chi ha with a better gun and some better AT-guns in exchange for losing the option for cavalry formations, the rest is mostly the same.

For '''early war''' Japanese equipment is mediocre but serviceable, your tanks are lightly armored and armed with infantry support guns so while they can go toe to toe with some of the lightly armored tanks like the BT-5/7 or the Panzer II they will struggle to kill anything heavier, AT guns have enough AP to kill most light and medium tanks from the front but same as the tanks will struggle against the heavier ones, your artillery is cheap but lack the smoke bombardment of late war and the saving grace is that your infantry is really good being fearless and veteran or trained with all the Japanese special rules that make them a threat, really the biggest issue in early war is the lack of smoke that is crucial to a army that does most of their damage in the assault. TL;DR: In this period japan plays as a nation with mediocre firepower and lightly armored tanks but with top of the line infantry and cavalry that have excellent morale as expected and are very dangerous in the assault.

In '''late war''' you are absolutely screwed on the technological side, by this time your hardware is hopelessly outdated so you must leverage the superior morale of your soldiers and be ready to spend a lot of lives fighting against a enemy that has better and more guns and tanks than you, it didn't work in the actual war but you might have better luck with it. So in late war japan plays as a infantry-centric force supported by outdated tanks and guns with mediocre artillery or you can embrace the meme and bring a tank formation full of pre-war tanks and hope for the best.

'''Pacific war''' only really comes into play in Japan vs USMC games, although non-officially it can be a excellent way to do the Burma theater fighting against some early war British lists, as it's a alternative point system that was made to reflect the realities of the pacific theater where outdated equipment remained in use and top of the line gear was rarer, they achieved this by making everything cost in points the rough equivalent it would cost in the early war so expect a price hike on everything that isn't infantry.