The UK is in a rough spot in Pacific. It’s difficult to talk about strategy for a specific Allied power in this variant, because all the powers must work together and each power is just a piece of the puzzle, but I will try to address just the UK.
You must be wary of Japan’s strengths, a massive air force and a massive navy. With a naval base on Hainan, India is two moves away from Japan. This means that you must have sufficient forces within one move of India proper that are sufficient to hold off a naval assault on Calcutta. (Forces beyond this capacity can venture into China once you are at war with Japan.)
If Japan can hold Yunnan and land its airforce there, the entire Japanese airforce can hit India. This means that Japan cannot be allowed to hold Yunnan, but this is difficult to prevent if Japan truly throws everything at taking and holding the province. (Fortunately, taking and holding Yunnan typically means that a naval assault on India itself is delayed by at least one turn.)
Because you are making less money than Japan throughout the game, you must have help to hold if Japan goes for a “fast India kill” approach. Ideally, you will get reinforcements from ANZAC in terms of fighters and possibly some ground forces. At the very least, the ANZAC fighter and infantry in Malaya should be brought into Burma and then to India as soon as possible. Ideally, ANZAC fighters from Australia should also be brought in for the defense of India.
While you have a respectable navy, it is not a match for Japan’s. In this variant, the UK typically uses its navy in three ways:
1. To block a Japanese attack on the “money islands” (Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes)
2. To prevent Japan from getting support shots during an amphibious assault on India itself.
3. In conjunction with naval forces from ANZAC and the US, providing a 1-2-3 punch on Japan’s forces as a counterattack.
The exact nature of your naval movements depends on which of Japan’s movements you must counter. It’s helpful to think of it as “how many turns can I slow Japan down if I do this…” – you must hold until the US can come into the game and put pressure on Japan.
You must exploit Japan’s weaknesses, namely:
1. Lack of ground forces on the mainland.
2. Limited logistics – Japan can only build in bulk in Japan.
As a general rule, you should ALWAYS kill Japanese ground forces if you can do so without weakening the defense of India. Japan’s limited logistics and light ground forces on the mainland are factors working in your favor. (This general rule also applies to China and, to a much lesser extent, ANZAC.)
Japanese factories on the mainland are very common occurrences because of limited logistics. When these factories are built on Chinese territories, don’t overlook the possibility of 1-2 punching them in combination with the US and ANZAC to take the territory and thus automatically destroy the factory.
Stray Japanese transports should always be killed if possible, but your air force is small and limited in range if you want to stay within range of India for defense. (Don’t overlook the possibility of using French Indochina as a landing base for your aircraft following an attack on Japanese transports.)
An early declaration of war against Japan can allow you to kill vulnerable Japanese fleet elements. The possible advantage here is that once Japan is at war because of your declaration of war its transports cannot be loaded in a hostile sea zone. If you can delay an assault with forces that could be loaded onto enemy transports, this may be an option for you. (Remember though that this allows Japan to attack you without bringing the US into the war!)
How you play the UK early in the game depends heavily on how Japan plays. If Japan’s first action is to load up transports and head them to the Carolines, you can figure that you have some slack before the storm hits India and you should probably make your first build a more aggressive one (possibly a tank, a mech, and a fighter) that can threaten Japan on the mainland and cut his income from territories in China by blitzing and killing Japanese infantry…
On the other hand, if Japan’s first build is transports you have to consider the possibility that those loaded transports might be hitting India two turns from now and you have to build more defensively (typically three infantry and two artillery with the UK’s starting 17 IPCs).
Once the US is in the war, your primary job as the UK is to not get killed AND to counter Japan’s moves on the mainland in conjunction with Chinese forces, but that is typically several turns into the game.
I’m sure other folks have some thoughts on this matter.
Marsh