• '22 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16 '15 '14 '12

    (posted this in another thread but felt it could use its own topic)

    Right now I am seeing the Axis go J1.  J1 is fairly devastating for the Allies.  I have to figure a good response.  With J1, Japan can cut India off at the knees and keep Anzac weak, meaning only the US can do anything about Japan.  The US going full tilt against Japan means Germany can plow the USSR or prop of Italy.  A true strategic dilema for the Allies.

    Right now I am starting to believe the only way for the Allies to win is to “Press the Flesh” with the Axis.  By that I mean maneuver the allies into any and all combat situations even if the odds are against success.  The idea is obviously to wear down the Axis and hope eventually the Allied monetary superiority will allow the Allies to prevail.

    There are two tricks to it.  One is that the monetary superiority will only last about 4 rounds or so, and if the Axis are able to break through and get the DEI or the middle east, even with diminished forces, the Axis can still win. So there is a role reversal here.  The allies must act with haste while the Axis can actually act more cautiously as they build up their power.

    The second trick is obviously while seeking battles they will lose, the Allies have to do so with measured caution.  You can’t just through away units, and have to make some serious calculations about how much the Allies are willing to trade off against Axis units – say 3 allied infantry for every 2 Axis?

    Lets face it.  Defense is poor in Axis and Allies, and the dice can be very unfriendly to defenders.  But them’s the breaks I suppose.

  • TripleA

    Usually against a J1 DOW. I like to do round 1 full europe buy and pacific mostly after that. Just messing with germany a little say in norway or something helps out. Plus you need to guard london still even in the later rounds… germany making 67 on rounds 4+ and london just being london… you want something near by.

    In the pacific people usually hoard their units and then swarm all at once. If you go full pacific Japan will start to play more conservative and it will be awhile before you make progress against japan.

  • '17 '16 '13 '12

    With a J1 attack, the Japs will be spread pretty thin with their ground troops. I think in that case Russia can move down to attack Mandchuria / Korea or at least keep that threat alive. If Japan ignores Haiwai or only weakly hits it, then I would build Pacific and overtake Japan’s naval capabilities / keep them on their heels (bombers can be useful in that regard as Japan will need to defend the DEI).

    If Japan clubbers Haiwai really hard (hard to the point where it weakens the rest of their objectives), then just move your fleet to the Atlantic and go crush Italy.

    With a concerted, aggressive effort, Russia, China, UK, Anzac and US can wear Japan down in the first 4-5 turns. The UK / Russians don’t expect much help out of the US anyway in early rounds. All the US money and the tactical initiative from being at war early gives great advantage to a smart Allies player.

    Example of tactical initiative would be to help UK make Gibraltar a hub for threatening West Germany, France and Italy. Also, US can activate Brazil and pick up troops there (these IPC add up).


  • Buy 8 Subs on US1 and place them in the Pacific.  Move all your ships to Hawaii, including aircraft to either retake that SZ or invite Japan to strike again.

    The 8 SS counter if Japan strikes those ships in Hawaii, plus aircraft is a big deterrent for any further Japanese Advances towards Hawaii.

    From that point just keep leveraging the SS against Jap fleets and putting 2-3 more SS per round in the Pacific.  It really puts Japan in a quandry as Japan has to invest in DD which are more expensive than your SS and less offensively capable in order to protect her fleets from 8-10 SS as fodder with the capability of first strikes against non-DD screened fleets.  By keeping the SS in Hawaii, it puts a serious threat on ANYTHING Japan wants to mobilize out of SZ6 without keeping an extensive homefleet to protect it.  To me, forcing Japan to keep a homefleet, or abandon SZ6 has a significant ability to slow down a Japanese waterballoon effect of leveraging an empty Pacific of Allied ships - which is the real benefit to the J1 attack - the ability to move with impunity and force the expansion of Japanese holdings.  Remember, with those SS you can let Japan take those DEI, and you can just convoy them instead of investing resources to reclaim them all.

    With the Pacific settled in that fashion, you can start diverting resources to the Atlantic to fortress up Gibraltar and shut Italy down (which really only requires a few surface ships and SS to convoy Italy out of the game).  Even the UK can assist with this, as after the threat of Sea Lion passes, the UK can start filtering SS into the Med which allows the US to get the TT rotation going to start landing groundforces in Europe WAY too early for Germany’s tastes.

    The long/short of it, is:  Use the SS of the US to slow down Japan, use Anzac/India to retake DEI once the tide has swung and then convoy Japan the rest of the way.  Do the same to Italy, and now you’ve effectively isolated Germany against the Allied game of IPC attrition.

  • TripleA

    Omega1759

    You can do this against a J2 dow or a J3 dow just as easy. Japan can either be south east asia oriented or play a defensive game.

    Japan is just hard to deal with because of all the air being so flexible. It is more apparent in low luck games than dice.

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