The first fix I attempted was to alter the turn order such that China moved first (before Germany). I found that this helps considerably, perhaps more than one might expect. It allows China to consolidate all their starting units along a defensive line of their choosing, and gives them additional artillery at purchase because the Burma road is open.
It doesn’t handle everything, but I think it is superior to OOB.
Another thing I’ve noticed, and maybe others feel this way too, but I think the Mongolia rules work against China. I admit to being a little puzzled by the handling of Mongolia in this game. It receives a lot of special attention, has its own rules, is divided up into several territories, but still doesn’t seem to provide the real deterrent to war with Russia that it promises. Once Mongolia goes red, it is fairly easy for Japan to punch holes into northern China, hot on the heels of retreating “Russian” infantry.
In addition to Mongolia, the fact that China has only 1 flying tiger, really prohibits their ability to trade territory with Japan (even weakly defended territories) so they are always losing more infantry than they can replace. Japan is able to mobilize and attack from multiple territories at once. It frequently possible for Japan to spam 4 to 5 times as many units in the area as China can each round, and often these are fast moving units like Mech and Tanks.
All this leads me to think that something more is needed, so the idea above seems like it could be interesting.
