I don't see any flaws with that opening. My personal preference now is 4 inf 3 art; there's more offensive punch to that and more expendibility than 5 inf 1 art 1 arm, although the arm is more flexible.

Some alternate things to think about is W. Russia + Ukraine attack, and also the Russian Triple attack. Both of those are riskier, but more rewarding as well if you do them correctly.

As for Japan stacking 4 inf to Buryatia, there's nothing you can really do about it. I kind of like that opening now because you can push straight to Novo/Kazakh/Evenki without any delay, which is worth more IPCs than island hunting is plus it's getting rid of Russian IPCs, which is your main target.

If you're Russia, just keep running away and don't let the Japanese attack a stack of inf with inf + fighters; let them advance then you trade the territory if you can.

I like Lucifer's cat headphones avatar, very cute!

Only problem is if Germany gets U-boats, you can forget about KJF.

Needless to say, I'm currently running 67% wins 33% losses in KJF with two apparent wins on the horizon, barring abnormal dice.

Win rate alone doesn't validate the strategy. Your victory over me hasn't even begun to dent my view on the strategy. I simply made a mistake in exposing the capital which could have easily been avoided, and you made a mistake in exposing Caucasus, but the difference is that if we both avoided those errors, that Japan is extremely tough to crack and has lots of income while Russia was boxed in on both sides with low income. I just didn't see the possibility of the KJF.

Pretty bad rolls for ger?  tongue As average, you should lose 1 or 2 figs (one on z1, other in z13). The fig in ukr is the classic R1, and I would like you try Nor, Wru and Ukr at the same R1  cheesy

Well I'd hit Ukraine and let the Germans take their chances at getting burned badly of half their airforce. UK doesn't need a bb for naval protection if half the German airforce is gone after G1.

Well, don't think of it as throwing it away, think of it as trading in for a 3 fighters and a bomber (1 fighter 1 bomber in SZ2, 2 fighters in SZ13).

Everyone said KJF was impossible, but that's hardly been the case.  Hard, but not impossible.

You continue to create strawmen. No one said it was impossible, just not optimal given normal dice.

Everyone said Russia and half of England couldn't box Germany in alone, but that's almost easy now.

You still can't. You clearly haven't shown that yet.

Everyone said Africa was hopeless for the Allies.

Oh really, is that why the Axis gets a bid?

Everyone said Japan should reinforce Germany in the med to keep Africa

That's certainly one way to do it.

Everyone has been wrong at one point or another.

Of course, but that's a pretty useless statement, that would be like saying the sun is hot. Why not give it some relevance, such as the sun is x degrees but due to x distance and the atmosphere we can manage to survive?

Here is relevance: some people are less wrong than others, and that's how the same people continue to get wins.

Anyone think about a German build of another transport in SZ 14?  Dumping 4 ground units into Africa seems like a lot, but Africa is also worth 4 ground units in value AND if you can get England and America to focus on Africa, who's protecting Russia?

That's something almost everyone has thought about, but it is difficult, because you have to build protection for it or keep your bb/tran in that seazone that turn. That means you're probably not offloading into Libya unless you want to get chewed up by the defense there or the Allied units in Algeria. Plus, you're still going to attacked by 3 figs 1 bom from the US at some point, and the extra doesn't help against that. It just siphons more units from Europe.

Obviously it will have bugs that need to be worked out in real games. I'll never say that any strategy is foolproof, but I'm nearly convinced that an SAF IC is not only possible but can be very helpful in a KJF if not also in KGF.

Man strategies really do come full cycle, don't they? Peter Morrison's movies posted over two years ago advocate double ICs; one in UoSA and one in India to contest both Asia and Africa. He also advocated running away with the Baltic fleet. Interesting how old ideas get reincarnated like this.

Nice read, one thing I noted really quickly as I skimmed through was:

3 inf, 1 fig Kenya. Germany likely wouldn't risk a 1 bmb, 2 arm attack there on G2 which is the maximum Germany can bring short of a 3rd bid armor placed in Libya.

Just wanted to say that if Germany is in the habit of taking Egypt hard and bid 1 arm to Libya, it is possible they will bring 1 inf 1 arm from S. Europe, which makes it 3 arm that can blitz to Kenya, not 2. I still don't think they would be willing to take that attack, but just to clarify a small detail.

I think with a little tweaking, that this opening could even be used with a KGF strategy as well. Again, with a priority placed on defense of the IC and destruction of the Med fleet, you could let the UK fight for at least the Southern half of their African IPC's while the US prepares to make their landings through Norway instead of the Algeria landings and the slow crawl through north Africa. As long as Russia can at least keep trading Persia with Japan, the Japanese fleet wouldn't be able to land in Kenya right next to the IC without having to spend extra money to set up a rotating transport system from India. And the remaining UK funds could be used to buy TP's and ground units for Norway, with the TP's covered by the US fleet, or to buy strictly air units for added defense of the IC if need be.

Nicely worded.

Retreating is not good, do you want the battleship to repair?

ROFL

Oh and I agree!  cheesy

Bean I'll deport you... Where would you like to go?

GG

Is this one of those litmus tests?

Good reasoning, but the Germans also have to give up a lot to try to claim both BBs as well. They would be pitting 3 figs vs a bb, 1 inf 1 bom 2 sub against 1 bb 1 sub 1 tran which often loses them a fig if not a bom, and Egypt would be very risky. I'm kind of inclined to let them try it and get burned. That's a lot of battles with success very far from guaranteed.

What we're talking about liberal borderlines between the US and Mexico? 

I've done a little reading on the forums here, and heard some people say that this revised edition is well balanced,

Well, I'd have to say that people agree it's well balanced - if you give the Axis a bid of 7 IPCS to place on the board or keep in their stash. That usually gets you an inf/art in Libya to overpower Egypt, causing the Allies some distress.

Battleships are busted.  I mean really, really busted.  The western US fleet is absolutely unstoppable, and will wipe the floor with Japan every game, no matter what we've tried as counter-measures.

Meanwhile, UK drops an industrial complex on India and between Russia and Britain, they squeeze Japan off the mainland

There isn't an easy quick way to solve the problem. But let's keep some basic Japanese principles in mind

1) Kill the fleet off of Hawaii if you can, otherwise you're in really deep doodoo.
2) Don't try to offensively take on the US fleet. It is already formidable at the end of US1 defensively. Navy is where the defenders really shine on defense, so be careful.
3) Maintain a fleet of 4 tran to ship units from the mainland
4) Instead of trying to hold all your territories, look for a weakpoint, or if there isn't one, then centralize your units and simply trade territories. For instance, is India as easy to defend as it looks? It really isn't. If you take China on J1 with all your men, on J2 walk those men to F. Indo and offload 4 transports into F. Indo. Suddenly India is staring at massive force of 13-15 inf 1 art 1 arm 6 fig 1 bom 2 bb shots. Realize that India isn't invincible, and it is costly to hold if you are willing to sacrifice the short term.

If you can't beat India, then simply trade territories with it. Mass units in Kwangtung, and make sure to collect the money from F. Indo every turn. From Kwangtung you can trade China, Manchuria, and F. Indo. There's no way you should be getting pushed off the mainland for a while.

Also, don't try to get into a naval game with the US early on. You need to boost your economy first. I wouldn't recommend buying much more navy for the first couple turns.

At some point buy a carrier, and you have a nasty defensive fleet of 2 bb 3 car 6 fig 4 tran 1 dd and maybe 1 sub. That's plain nasty. I would be hesitant to attack that any time soon with the US. For those 16 IPCs spent you have a great defensive navy. They would need a shitload of battleships in order to try to attack that, and a lot of fodder too so their battleships don't die.

There's absolutely nothing the Allies can really do to stop Japan from dropping 8 men every turn for 4-5 turns. Use that to your advantage to increase cash flow in Asia, and push up to Novosibirsk. With Germany hailing in from the West, Russia will dry up fast. Russia can't dump 8 men into north asia every round. And all you need to do then is keep some men in Kwangtung (build a complex there at some point) to trade F. Indo.

And also, don't get your navy trapped. There's no need for that. And please, don't sit there if you think the US can overpower you. At some point your nasty defensive fleet is no longer nasty enough, so at that point, run away towards Africa. Don't let the Americans trash your navy. Let them spend tons of money on navy, and then when they're about to blow their load, whisk the target away. When you run away, it's time to use those excellent 6 fighters on the mainland for pushing and defense.

Meanwhile, Germany can get a solid start against Russia, but it gets bogged down rather quickly, since Russia just buys pure infantry and sits back to defend along the Caucus/Russia line, giving up Archangel and Karelia to solidify itself as a 2 zone front.  Germany can't really break into the Middle East, because the line in the Caucus is held by the USSR and any forces sent to Africa get gangbanged by the UK and US.  If Germany's initial Med. forces take out the UK battleship by Gibraltar, and the northern fleet heads along the Western Europe coastline, they can shut down the US Eastern transport lane and hold Africa, but doing so costs you resources that could be used to buy tanks to try and wear down the USSR.

Germany has to win the game, because Japan is getting slowly slowly pushed back. So what Germany has to do is take Africa first. Make sure you're doing this. That's what turns Germany into a 50 IPC monster against Russia's income which should be in the teens very soon with the Japanese marching infantry stacks along the north.

I can ramble a lot more but  you have any other specific questions?