Hello, I play pacific 1940 a lot. I have also played global a few times. Pacific 1940 second edition is a great game but I can almost easily win every time if I’m Japan and I attack on the third turn. A new rule was passed around late 2014 to allow the USA to receive a 30 IPC bonus if Japan attacks or declares war on them before turn 4. This seems to balance the game a little but I can still always win with Japan. The strategy for Japan is pretty much the same. Take the money islands, build a minor in French Indo China and Kwangtung and knock out China and India. Post in the Philippines with your huge navy and three fighters that can scramble and those six deadly kamikizes. Let Anzac and USA come to you so you can use the fighters to defend at 4 when the big navy battle happens. Eventually you will be making more than the allies with the money islands NO and the India NO. You should be around the 70-75 mark. Then when the time is right strike at Sydney or Hawaii and hold it and you should win as it will be six victory cities. For the allies, man this can be tuff lol. You better hope Japan attacks you on turn 1 or turn 4 because turn 2 and especially 3 it’s going to be difficult.
1: China: buy men and hit and run and fall back to the north west of China. You will be lucky if the Burma road is open more than two turns. Pull back and make Japan come to you.
2: UK: pull everyone back to India and just buy men!!! Try to bring your navy down to Australia and unite them with Anzac and hopefully later USA. If it looks like India is going to fall then pull your airforce out and send them to Australia to hopefully land on a Anzac or American carrier. If Japan hasn’t declared war early then take as many islands in the south as possible .
3: Anzac: small ships and transports are good. if it looks like Japan is going to invade then pull your forces to south Australia because from there you can hit any territory. Use your small ships to convoy raid or unite with the main USA fleet. Queensland is a great staging area for the allied navy early in the game. Also since there’s a airbase there fighters don’t hurt also since they can scramble.
4:USA: the big boy lol. The problem is when USA is neutral she only makes a freaking 17 ipcs a turn. While Japan is around the 40 mark and Japan has soooooooo many aircraft at its disposal. USA I say aircraft carrier early then mainly subs, destroyers, and a transport every turn with land units. A few rounds into the game get a navy base on the Johnson islands and start combining your fleet with the Anzac fleet and hopefully a small UK fleet. try to take the money islands by sacrificing transports because Japan will have a bigger navy early in the game. When the time is right move to Dutch New Guinea with your fleet and prepare for the big battle. Sometimes it’s better if Japan attacks you and sometimes it’s better if you attsck them. Hopefully you will have a lot of subs at your disposal. If you win the navy battle then Japan is pretty much toast even if they have India and China. Good luck and let me know how the war goes lol. I am playing anniversary edition on Saturday 😜
Slightly nerdy question about the upcoming 1940 game maps…
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…and I apologize if this question has been asked/answered/buried in the posts somewhere…
It occured to me that there was an opportunity for a tiny new (though possibly interesting) wrinkle in game setup. With the 1940 sets being sold seperately - though with rules to combine them - will the maps be designed in such as way that the players could configure the maps so that the maps/countries join from either the East OR the West? i.e. linking up the maps with the US in the center of the game, rather than Europe/Asia. :?
… I’m not sure if the game would be all that different, but you never know. From the historical perspective, it was logical to break up the USA on the original map, as it represented the logistical choices facing the US relating to which theatre in which to deploy. But…seeing/playing the board from a USA-central position might be illuminating. Probably most players wouldn’t want to play that way, it would inconvienence the Germany, Russia, and Japan players, and benefit only the USA.
thethedew
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Welcome, thethedew!
No, the maps aren’t designed to work that way, though there’s nothing stopping you if you really want to do it. I’ve actually tried playing with them joined at the US, and it really messes with your thinking in central Asia. It’s just better to do it the traditional way, with the map edges in an area of the globe that doesn’t see much action.
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If you notice, the board is centred in european Russia, and it’s the obvious choice since main action was that front. Also, this way Pacific and Atlantic are also not cutted in zones where action is supposed to happen so it’s the logical choice
Usually world maps are centered in the country for the map is done (USA’s ones center in America, spanish or french ones in western Europe and japanese ones in Japan). I heard of some middle age maps form muslim countries centered in Arabia and oriented to south instead the traditional north, go figure :lol:
But none of those proyections are OK for Axis and Allies. I think that in this point, the map, the designers made the best option possible centering it in european Russia :-)
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For the record: old AAE was centered in Germany and old AAP was centered in central Pacific (not in Japan, in that map Japan even it was not complete). Also the best options, and probably will be keep for the new versions at some extent
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Even if you could. Why would you?
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eh.
I suppose I would do it if I hoped it would provide some insight into playing a role differently. Sometimes in awkwardness different perspectives have been found. My least favorite viewpoint in looking at the map is north facing south (ie upside-down) but it has occasionally been useful.
But, as I noted in my post, and has been reinforced by others in this thread, the tradeoff would be sacrificing playability.
shrug< I just thought it might be cool if the maps were designed so there was an option to do it that way.
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I guess it would be interesting to try it.
I can’t beleive that you have already been smitten.
I will balance it out for you.
Welcome to the forum.
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Well then someone will have to design a map that fits in the middle so the maps are connected and look like they belong. I think they missed the trick on that.
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If you notice, the board is centered in European Russia, and it’s the obvious choice since main action was that front. Also, this way Pacific and Atlantic are also not cut in zones where action is supposed to happen so it’s the logical choice
Usually world maps are centered in the country for the map is done (USA’s ones center in America, Spanish or french ones in western Europe and Japanese ones in Japan). I heard of some middle age maps form Muslim countries centered in Arabia and oriented to south instead the traditional north, go figure :lol:
But none of those projections are OK for Axis and Allies. I think that in this point, the map, the designers made the best option possible centering it in European Russia :-)
Actually, world maps in America tend to have Europe in the center. Usually they are drawn such that the western tip of Alaska touches the left edge of the map.
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If you notice, the board is centred in european Russia, and it’s the obvious choice since main action was that front. Also, this way Pacific and Atlantic are also not cutted in zones where action is supposed to happen so it’s the logical choice
That’s the main point, North America is the only part of the world unimportant enough to be divided. It sees the least action by far.
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the war was in europe it would make sense
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The board would be split at India if you did it the other way which would not affect Europe.
It would affect all those Japanese tanks moving west into Russia.
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@Brain:
It would affect all those Japanese tanks moving west into Russia.
Let’s pray this is not going to happen again …
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just saw the set up and stuff. no you cant really afford to ignore china. so no i doubt that will happen again
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Welcome, thethedew!
No, the maps aren’t designed to work that way, though there’s nothing stopping you if you really want to do it. I’ve actually tried playing with them joined at the US, and it really messes with your thinking in central Asia. It’s just better to do it the traditional way, with the map edges in an area of the globe that doesn’t see much action.
So……YOU HAVE PLAYED AAE40!!! Already?
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@Craig:
Welcome, thethedew!
No, the maps aren’t designed to work that way, though there’s nothing stopping you if you really want to do it. I’ve actually tried playing with them joined at the US, and it really messes with your thinking in central Asia. It’s just better to do it the traditional way, with the map edges in an area of the globe that doesn’t see much action.
So……YOU HAVE PLAYED AAE40!!! Already?
Yes, he has. Someone has to playtest the games.
And yes I brought this topic up when looking over the Global rules since it wasn’t stated in a way I thought that it should be. Luckily it was cleared up to my satisfaction and the map goes together in Asia.
Yes according to the pics of the P40 map- there is no border so you could place the maps joined at US or Asia (assuming the E40 map is the same)- anyway you like-that’s kind of a nice option. :-)
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Oh thats good news. I wont have to make a map section to fit them together now. whew!
Also, Germany gets some access to India on the Europe map, which is nice.
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That is awesome, I just did not realize that they had already gotten past the preliminary stages with AAE40.