Japan getting troops to the mainland

[LT04]

What’s your money maker here?

-LT04

[Nix]

I usually buy 3 trns round 1 and then on r2 i build 1 IC and then 1 IC/round if i have cash to fill the existing ones with arms.

[LT04]

Nix,

Where do you put your IC?

-LT04

[Bunnies P Wrath]

I fill up on transports J1.  Depending on the US move, I may or may not build an IC.

French Indochina's good, but India's even better.

[axis_roll]

You didn't mention a combination of the two: Transports first, then IC's later.

India is the optimal Japanese IC location, but won't come until round 3+ (usually)
mainly cause of the supply lines distance.

[ankmcfly]

You didn't mention a combination of the two: Transports first, then IC's later.

India is the optimal Japanese IC location, but won't come until round 3+ (usually)
mainly cause of the supply lines distance.

I agree 100% In my opinion, building any IC with Japan before R3 limits what else you can do. My rule of thumb is
that once the mainland buy (8 inf) won't fill up my available transports, it is time to purchase a summer home!

[DarthMaximus]

I'll usually build 2-3 trns in rd 1, 8 inf + 1 trn in Rd 2 (save any extra ipc), then Rd 3 buy an IC and still have enough to fill 4-5 trns (with island inf).

From then on I may add another trn or so to eventually hit Afr, or if I went after Aus/Nz, I may need a new trn up in the Sz 60 area.

I like to wait on my second IC placement.  39 IPC fills the 11 unit capacity with 3 arm, 8 inf and if you go 5 arm, 6 inf that is 43, which means I have to be trading Novo/Kaz before I really need the second IC.

[Nix]

Nix,

Where do you put your IC?

-LT04

1st in FIC
2nd in Manchuria
3th in kwangtung

Go for breakthrough in middle, and inf/art marches from Buryatia to Yakut to Novo(where they are joined by Arm, then if i got a big stack i move it from Novo to Kazhak to force russia to abandon cauccasus.

[Axis4life]

I played a game once where as I Japan took over most of the globe.  The next few times I played as the allies and my friend (who was one of the victims) played as Japan.  The only piece that my friend really remebered about my Japan strat was that I had an IC in Manch and an IC in FIC.  Now every time he plays as Japan on J1 he purchases 2 ICs (1 for FIC, 1 for MAN).  As an allied player I smile.  Japan needs ICs no doubt but TRNs give Japan mobility and flexibility. You will not build a new IC as Japan that can outproduce Tokyo so TRNs allow you to maximize use of your production.   In short Transports!

[ncscswitch]

I do both...

IC and 2 TRN (with $1 IPC from a bid) on J1.  4th TRN on J2.

That gets me 9 units to Asia on J2, 11 on J3 and beyond.

[ncscswitch]

To clarify, Japan has 1 TRN at the start of J1 (losing SZ59 TRN), buys 2 in J1, so the 4th TRN in J2.

[LT04]

I changed the voting options, by popular demand.

-LT04

[balungaloaf]

oh, then i revote for the bottom selection.

[ncscswitch]

Still don;t ahve the mixed purchase option...

[Baghdaddy]

Normally I would go for transports.
That would be buy two on J1 (fleet total is 3 or 4 now) and on J2 buy one or two more.  Coordinate this with ground unit builds in Japan to fill all the transports and do the infantry push to Moscow.

In the current game, the Allied/UK player (RJ), placed his bomber within reach of Japanese home waters (Novo) and moved his Australian submarine up within reach also (Coral Sea).  This put any unprotected transport build in home waters at risk.  The added cost of either diverting fleet assets to cover them or building cover and still over building to deal with losses actually made me move toward factories on the mainland. Add in that he moved most of his India forces to Egypt and skipped on the UK1 DD vs Trans option.

I built two, one in FIC and one in Manchuria.  Sure, they will never out build the home islands but now my infantry push into Russia is independent of any transport issues.  For 30 IPC I have the equivalent of three transports that won't sink.  I would have spent 24 for those same three transports plus a DD to protect them (12 more) then probably another transport to replace loses (8 more).  So it was two factories at 30 IPC or 4 Transports and a DD at 36 IPC.  The factories are at least one turn closer to the front so discount a turn of Infantry in the pipeline (6X3=18IPC) and now I have 30 IPC for factories vs 54 IPC for transports, DD, and infantry to fill the pipeline.  I will have to build AA guns for the factories to keep the SBR from becoming annoying but they will also be able to move up with the front lines making my kill stacks harder to hit.

As an additional bonus, I can still add transports to the fleet in later turns and if they are not moving gear to the mainland they are now available to support fleet operations / threaten Alaska/Austrialia/Africa.  This decision meant I could send the homeland transport to Hawaii with the fleet for a low odds invasion of Hawaii and the Kwangtung transport is busy supplementing the mainland, ferrying Inf from the islands, and joining the fleet facing India.

I won't claim these are perfect moves but faced with an opponent who was looking to disrupt the J1 transport build, it was not a bad counter.  At least, so far...