@genken Might be cool to have a house rule that 1) 1, 2 or 3 the ship is damaged in a way that it moves at half but attacks full or 2) 4, 5, or 6 it is damaged in a what that it moves 2 spaces but attacks with a hit on 1 or 2 vs 4 normally.
From many games of trying both J1 and J2, I have found that the former is more advantageous if you have average luck. The latter is a better choice if you are worried about getting diced by a stubborn UK battleship that never misses while your blind Japanese pilots circle around hopelessly. J3 just plain stinks and is usually a sign of a novice Axis player.
I agree with Simon about the use of US transports in the Pacific. You wipe out the Japanese navy and take back the islands and the mainland. Shuck your troops to Europe and take out Germany and Italy. Japan will be forced to surrender. You know, just like WW2. Unless the Japanese player has been smoking crack you will spend all day assaulting Tokyo while Germany makes mincemeat out of Russia and the UK.
Yes, he is!
Checked the rules again and, darn I missed that paragraph (I think I thought it was entirely dedicated to ‘bridging’).
But below bridging it says “(…) once it offloads, it can’t move, load, or offload again that turn”.
Assuming a J1 DOW and a Japanese fleet sitting on or around Hawaii, how many turns will it take for the US to neutralize Japan in the Pacific? 3? 4? Its about the equivalent of waiting a few turns as Japan before the US can DOW. The tradeoff is Japan gains very little economic advantage and just keeps the US busy in the Atlantic until Japan loses most of its fleet that it cannot replace.