What are the most important sea zones?

Hawaii, Japan, Malaya, Carolines and Philippines. If you manage to grab even half of these (along with the NBs there), you can easily respond to pretty much anything thrown at you.

Hawaii is great for simply deploying fleets to various sections of the Pacific - be that Australia, Japan, New Guinea, WUS or anything in-between.

Japan, whoever possesses this pretty much has  control of the game. If US grabs it, they can block a good portion of Japanese income. US can, of course, land troops in Korea as well. If Japan has it, they can get fleets to Carolines, Philippines, Kwangtung and Hawaii right after making them.

Malaya, for the sole reason of controlling pretty much all of SE Asia, including the all-important DEI.

Carolines, good spot to hit ANZAC from and a good way of getting fleets from South to North quickly, or vice-versa.

Philippines, for US NO and controlling pretty much the entire coast of the mainland. The 2IPCs also help.

Voted.

The top 5 are really the most important of the game because

1. if the sea zone around Japan is ever controlled by the US, the allies will win
2. if the US can get a fleet to the carolines, and it survives, the allies will win
3. the best two places for the Japanese fleet are the Philippines (threatens Queensland, Carolines, and all DEI), and outside Japan (threatens Hawaii)
4. if the US or ANZAC can get transports (defended mind you) outside Queensland, they can take out the bulk of the Japanese income advantage
5. if the Japanese can grab Hawaii, it’ll set back the US for quite a few turns… meanwhile anything the US has in Hawaii threatens not only Japan but Korea (major IC!) as well

I see Mayala has a vote or two, IMO the territory is more important than the sea zone for both the Japanese and the allies

BTW, I’ve only ever seen one ship in SZ59, it was an ANZAC newly-built-transport running away from the Japanese in the Philippines.

Funny stuff :))

Hawaii is my favourite. You pretty much control the Pacific as Japan if you control it. You can attack any thing the US has half way to Japan.

Good poll. I think you could have a different answer depending on the point of view of the two sides.

For example, right now I think the most important SZ for the Allies is SZ54. It is absolutely critical that the Allies be able to operate out of that SZ. The fact that it has a naval base which allows Allied ships to reach all the critical land territories (PI, DEI, Singapore, Guam, Truk, Wake , Hawaii, Marshalls, Marianas) is of the most importance to the Allies. The fact that it has no airbase scramble ability makes it a challenge to operate out of. CVs are needed to provide defense.

For the Japanese, the most important SZ kinda changes with the game flow. Singapore is the most critical until the Japanese secure a major IC there. The PI is an important base along the lines of Truk, for the Japanese to use as an interior line of movement for it’s fleets when shifting to meet US threats.

The one SZ that reamins consistently vital to the Japanese however, is SZ6. Korea is the Achilles Heel for the Japanese, and must not be allowed to fall into US hands to the point where the US have an opportunity to place an IC. That means air control of SZ6 is vital. The US want to get Iwo for this as it allows US fighters and dive bombers to contest the sea batle zone, and it allows US bombers to reach a land battle in Korea (or to bomb installations in Japan, i.e.-> the Japanese airbase there).

**Good poll question! **