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Now to what I was wondering was what is the best way to keep Japan off of Russia’s back and how much is the right amount of british involvement in Asia. The way I stall Japan usually is by spending about 10 ipcs on navy and airforce to make the Japanese build a navy or have me knocking on their back door. I also build an IC in India for the British and crank out 3 tanks a turn.
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The bristish player alone has several options to stall the japanese, but it depends from the overall situation before the british move: Have the russians fortified Buryatia with 6 INF? Has Germany attack EGY such heavy that a counterattack is suicidal? Has Germany set pressure by building many trannys, so that the british have to fortify the UK and have no money left for asia?
If EGY can be counterattacked, then maybe two INF from IND with the FIG there goes to EGY, perhaps assisted by the british BMR. In that situation a IC in India is not commendable.
If EGY can not counterattacked, than you have several options with the asian forces:
(1) First turn overall attack: attack SZ 59 tranny with DD; attack Borneo with two INF from India, supported by FIG (FIG can be landed on CV); attack New Guinea with two INF from Australia; attack SZ 45 with sub. Intention here is to give the japanese to much targets for the first turn attack and get some IPC for the first turns.
(2) Gather all british navy in SZ 30, including FIG, including several INF from India or Australia; options are a second turn attack of East Indies with four INF or moving to SZ 28 and unload troops in africa. The fleet can continue to atlantic theatre or stay in the area, combined with IC in SA, which produce INF/ARM for the first turns followed by naval units and counterattack the Japanese Imperial Navy.
(3) attack SZ 45 with sub and FIG and land FIG at US CV in SZ 52; attack SZ 59 with DD and CV; move australian tranny to SZ 42 and into the atlantic; use the indian tranny to bring two INF to africa via SZ 33
(4) British IC in India and US IC in Sianking. Both must be support by russian troops for some turns. You will not hold these ICs for long, but maby buys time for crushing Germany.
(5) Attack SZ 45 with sub. Attack SZ 59 with FIG only and land the FIG at BUR (only if the russian have stock INF there). Bring the BMR to NOV or EVK. If you can afford, bring the two FIG to WCA. Intention is to counterattack after Pearl Harbour and bring pressure to SZ 60/61, so that the japanese player need protection for his newly build trannys (Note also that both the FIG from hawai and the BMR from EUS can attack SZ 60 if there is a landing place in BUR).
The next options I have seen or use in games, but I would not recommend these against an experienced player:
(6) Attack FIC with INF from India and FIG, land FIG in CHI. Use navy to attack japanese tranny and sub and give the japanese many targets for the first turn. Perhaps the two FIGs survive the japanese attack.
(7) Build IC in Australia and save money, move all fleet to SZ 30, build FIG/BB there and meet with US fleet as SZ 45. The US player also must buy navy at pacific, game will be a KJF. Perhaps you can get some of the japanese island with the british to get more IPC. Problem here is that UK spend many IPC in pacific (and none in the first two rounds in europe), and Germany becomes a monster. Russia is under heavy pressure, and africa may be a problem too.
You also have the option to go pacific with US to stall the japanese, and handle Germany with UK/Russia only, but these is a complete different approach. You may buy two CV and one FIG or CV/BB, followed by heavy sub and/or trannys and FIG overbuild and start island hopping (have in mind that a rightly placed CV can bring 4 FIG to an attack). One milestone here could an american IC on East Indies, pushing the japanese back to homeland and switch to KGF.
Hope that helps …
