Hate the cardboard factory/airfield/naval base counters? ANSWER INSIDE!

Huh? How in worlds would one keep track of such a mechanic lol  :lol:
Aircraft only get the bonus if they share a tt with an airbase
If there is not an airbase in a tt then no aircraft get the bonus movement out of that tt

A counter to Kaufstick’s plan?

My group has been working on various things to see if there’s a good counter to the Malayan factory.  We think we’ve come up with a few tactics that seem to work pretty well.  Well enough that the Allies might just have a chance.  Of course, there’s probably some slight tweaking that will wreck this whole thing like the India Crush move, but the American tactics seem to work no matter what is happening on the West side of the board.

1)  Abandon India.  It’s going to go down anyway, right?  Hit Japan where it hurts, land units.  When China retakes Yunnan, Britain can move 1inf from Burma, and land their 4FTR and 1Tac there as well.  Combined with the 4 Chinese Inf reinforcements and whatever was left from taking back Yunnan, and there is a stack of 7-9INF, 4FTR, 1TAC.

The problem for Japan then becomes whether or not to attack the stack.  They will only have 2INF that can attack and all their planes, so if they attack on J2, they will lose a lot of their stacked airforce.  If they ignore it, that stack moves into China and begins to retake it.

When Japan takes India and has a Malayan factory, the stack is well away from them by that point, making it harder to finally stop them.  It’s an ever-growing stack of Chinese infantry defended by UK planes.  And all they need is to hold Kweichow, and US FTRs from Guam can join the fight.

The Chinese/UK stack as akin to a cancerous lump in the Japanese controlled mainland.  Chemo costs planes, but to ignore them may be death as well.  The Chinese stack grows very quickly in the beginning, much faster than any Japanese land units can be put into the interior.

The upside for the Allies is that if Japan does attack on J2, it really slows down their Indian offensive, making them completely dependent on the Malayan factory with little chance of taking India before J5 or J6.  If they let the stack go, they won’t have China under complete control for even longer.

The one flaw I see that we have yet to try is the India crush where Japan loses planes on J1 to put more land units in Yunnan.  If China can’t take it back on C1, then UK can’t reinforce with planes and the strategy is defeated.

America strategy to follow.

What’s worked for America.  It’s more than a cat and mouse game; it’s simple avoidance.  The strategic advantage for Japan is all of the little islands they can land on.  If America moves to Wake Island, than Fighters from Truk can attack them and land on the Marshall Islands.  The list is quite large.  To that end, America needs to take the undefended and monetarily worthless islands if they are to make progress.

On US2, the consolidated Hawaiian fleet moves to Wake, combining with the US1 purchase which can also make it there.  They send a lone transport with a land unit to take the Marshall Islands.  With that simple move, both the Japanese and Truk air forces can’t reach the US fleet.  They’ll lose a transport, but nothing else.  Plus, the land unit-strapped Japanese have no transports to spare, as the J1 buy of 3 TT are all going towards India.

Also on US2, America might purchase a naval base for Wake, threatening more unprotected islands.  The goal is to sacrifice transports to take islands, islands that prevent a concentrated Japanese counter-assault.  By themselves, the Japanese airforces on Japan or Truk aren’t enough to go on the offense against a concentrated US fleet.

The US repeats the process until they reach either the Chinese mainland, or a DEI.  Japan doesn’t have the resources on the first few turns to buy sacrificial transports and land units to retake the islands, so the US sees some gains in the first few turns.  It’s worked well on the first couple of games as the Japanese player hadn’t encountered it before.

To help facilitate, the ANZAC player saves money and may be required to put a naval base on New Guinea, New Britain, or the Solomons.

We’re going to try again, but with the Japanese well-aware of what the US is going to try.

thanks BadSpeller!

Thanks guys…my friend and I believe this rule is huge for Japan since it allows Japan to build fully loaded carriers quite easily at crucial times in the game, so many extra planes that can land on new carriers.

Makes it tough on the Allies whenever they get in close.

@moompix:

The destroyers are the ones with the squared end.

The Cruisers have two pointed ends.

Accidentally sent this in a personal message, but anyway when I got the 1942 edition, I thought that’s how it was orignally. Somebody on BGG said otherwise so I’ve been using them backwards. Thanks.

@Krieghund:

Yes, you must do it at the beginning of the Combat Move phase.

So my understanding is “Declaring War” is a separate step in the turn sequence done before Combat Move, since it is not necessarily done in combination with any combat move but applies to all combat moves.  If the is true, this distinction would also keep a player from being able to decide whether or not to declare war (for the sake of convoy raids) after he/she sees the outcome of his combats with other powers (e.g. having retreated into convoy zone of a power with which one is not yet at war).  I’m guessing this is all true?  Thanks for your answers Krieg!

PS- speaking of declaring war as it’s own step in the turn sequence reminds me of an episode of The Office (American) when Michael steps out into the office and shouts “I declare… BANKRUPTCY!”  :-D

Yes, as long as it is a named island.  Island’s without names are not playable spaces in the game and cannot be used for anything, even landing your own planes, troops etc.

makes me wonder how much the game was actually “playtested” honestly.  The errata is going to be bigger than the rulebook.

Maher C.

I think that they should re-issue a second edition and provide it to those who bought this shabbily tested game (don’t get me wrong, I like it and it has potential).  The should as least give those that purchased the disaster version with some sort of coupon or rebate.  Yeah right, like that’s ever gonna happen.