- You'd have the opportunity to portray battles that (AFAIK) literally have never been portrayed before in any game ever, like the battles in Manchuria in 1931-33, Shanghai in 1932 and 1937, Wuhan in 1938, Changsha in 1943.
- The fighting in China involved plenty of combined operations. Both of the Shanghai battles involved air battles and amphibious landings, as did the advance up the Yangtse in '37 and the fighting in Southern China (i.e., the landings in Guangdong in '38 and the capture of Hainan in '39), so plenty of scope for naval/air action.
- A Japanese China campaign could segue easily into an SE Asia campaign in Indochina, Malaya, Burma, and India, and then maybe defensive fighting against the Americans and Soviets.
- Fighting against the Chinese would be a great way of building up experience and simulating the advantage the Japanese had. Japan basically used China almost like a speed-bag before heading on to fight the Western Allies, and whilst technically they were in many ways behind them for a lot of the war, they had the advantage of experience until too many of their veterans became casualties.
- This would be one of the few WW2-era theatres of war where the traditional disparity of numbers would actually be realistic rather than wildly ahistorical (I'm looking at you, Allied Corps).
Suggested line-up:
- Manchuria 1931 - Fighting for Harbin perhaps.
- Shanghai 1932 - Street fighting waiting for amphibious reinforcements.
- Operation Nekka 1933 - Japan's first blitz, through the Great Wall and into the province of Jehol (ReHe).
- Inner Mongolia 1936 - Steppe warfare.
- Shanghai 1937 - A much bigger battle than the 1932 fight, both inside the city and its surrounding area, with the Japanese heavily outnumbered.
- Yangtse Valley 1937 - A Blitz up the Yangtse (Changjiang) to Nanjing
- Wuhan 1938 - A massive battle in central China
- Southern China 1938-39 - Landings in Canton (Guangdong) and Hainan.
- Khalkin Gol 1939 - Japanese versus Soviets.
- Indochina 1940 - Time to beat up on the French a bit.
- Malaya 1941 - Destroy Force Z, invade the peninsula
- Singapore 1941 - Blitz the city before the defences become properly organised.
- Burma 1942 - Capture Rangoon, take the oil fields before the British demolish them, and cut the Burma road.
- Arakan 1942-1943 - Survive the British attack and then counter-attack.
- The gates of India 1944 - Capture Imphal and Kohima and sucre the Western border of the empire.
- Operation Ichi-Go 1944 - Take the airfields around China quickly to stop the Allied air-offensive
- Leyte 1944 - Defeat the US in a combined air and sea offensive and buy time for the Empire.
- Manchuria 1945 - Survive the USSR offensive.
- Operation Olympic 1945 - Defeat the US invasion of Japan and bring the war to a conclusion.