• 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17

    Hey all,

    Hope everyone here had a great Thanksgiving weekend (or just a great weekend to our Canadian neighbors and any other internationals that may be on these boards  :-D).

    I was curious as to a strategy I use not infrequently to see if anyone else has used this and what they’ve thought of it. Unless I’ve missed it, I don’t think I’ve seen it really discussed much here: Using the Caroline Islands as a triple threat move for the Japanese in the early stages of the game.

    I’m going with a general assumption of Japan staying out of war with the Western Powers until turn three here (unless of course in your minds this could be done earlier). But by building a few transports and stacking whatever troops you can/want to in the Caroline Islands, you could do a few things from here.

    1. Attack the DEI and/or Philippines. Celebes, Java, and the Philippines are all within reach from here.

    2. Attack south into ANZAC territory. This could mean a couple things I suppose. Take the Solomons (for the NA/take away an ANZAC NA), New Guinea, or even a strike against the Australian mainland.

    3. Attack Pearl Harbor. Throw your weight East and try to stall the US for a couple turns longer.

    4. Feign movement in the South Pacific but then attack Kwantung. This of course adding extra fire power to your mainland assault.

    Or any mix of these if you so choose.

    The biggest reason for doing this in my opinion is to keep the Allies on their toes/guessing as to what you might do. This could make ANZAC build defensive ground troops instead of planes to support elsewhere, for example.

    I understand that some of these things are preventable. The US could just build a destroyer screen around Hawaii, ANZAC could do the same in SZ’s 45, 46 and 49, etc. But the main purpose is to put them on an unsure defensive footing, and might force them to spread out defensively more than they may have otherwise.

    Thoughts? Does anyone else attempt this? Or do you all find it to be a waste of time? Does a potential early DOW by the British and ANZAC make this null and void?

    Happy Holidays all,

    Chris

  • '15

    Wait, you mean you do this without DOW J1?

    I had never considered that.  Interesting.

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17

    @Shin:

    Wait, you mean you do this without DOW J1?

    Yes, sorry if that wasn’t clear. I’m going with an assumption for this particular scenario of no DOW J1. I fully understand that this is not something a lot of people would do, but thought I’d get opinions on what they thought if they did wait for a DOW J2 or J3. Again, this could be thwarted by an earlier Allied DOW, but maybe not?


  • The problem is not the US/Anzak blocking.
    The problem would be a UK.Pac/Anzak blocking to prevent Japan getting the money islands quick.


  • In my current game J DOW in turn 2. Gained the money island objective J4 and, so far, every subsequent turn.

    I have tried DOW in J1 and J3 in previous games. At this precise moment I feel best about J2 as it allowed me to focus J1 on China and unit placement for a hard hitting J2.

    But I am only on my 5th game (I think) of G40 so other contributors will have more experience.

    My challenge with J is not when to declare war, but how to break beyond eliminating China (unless it gets R help) and merely holding the money islands. In particular US can openers for ANZAC attacks keep J very busy holding on to what it has. I did take India in one game, but that left the J fleet so far out of position that it was then on the back foot elsewhere!

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17

    @aequitas:

    The problem is not the US/Anzak blocking.
    The problem would be a UK.Pac/Anzak blocking to prevent Japan getting the money islands quick.

    So what if Japan sees that move and, knowing ANZAC has sent ships to block the money islands, they don’t just head down and attack Sydney with the troops from the Caroline’s?

    I get that the DEI’s is the ideal place to go, I usually do the same thing. I’m just throwing a scenario out there and kind of playing devil’s advocate to see what people would do to stop this. With what aequitas said above, Does that move necessarily make Japan do an about face and change strategy, or did they force the Allies to commit somewhere, opening up someplace else, in this case a potential attack on Sydney? If we go with an assumed J3 here still, Japan could realistically have five or six loaded transports to launch an attack with, without completely neglecting the mainland. With ANZAC unable to produce more troops, I could see Japan still being able to move into the DEI’s within the next turn or two. True, it would be later in the game than normally desired, but the shock effect to the Allies could offset that?

  • '21 '20 '18 '17

    The most valuable thing about Carolines Japan sea units is that the ANZAC player cannot safely stage his navy onto SZ 54 and cannot even hide in SZ 62.  AnZac wants to be on SZ 54 because SZ 46 and 42 are so oddly shaped that they give you access to everything in that region.  You can ward off ANZAC (until US DoW) with only a few units (one loaded carrier, an land based air pair, one sub, one DD) and kind of paralyze them, but they aren’t much of a threat anyway.

    If Japan brings any more than that, its going to look like an invasion of Australia is coming.  Otherwise, moving the Japanese fleet to carolines isn’t any more effective than being on SZ 6 or SZ 36.  If Japan puts too much on the carolines, the US can “split” Japan by screening SZ 34 and 35, preventing a relief of the mainland.  And moving a huge sea fleet east over to the carolines is the opposite direction from where most of the $$ is.

    So, to sum up

    1. the carolines are good because you can threaten from there, but losing them means very little loss of position for Japan
    2. you are too far south and east to threaten key objectives unless you are attacking ANZAC’s capital or trying to suppress them
    3. an Japan vs American attack would be better and more safely staged from SZ 6 (except he can screen you on SZ 25 but that’s knocks).
    4. splitting Japan’s fleet or moving it more than 1 turn from Japan can spell disaster if America knows what its doing especially if he can block your counter-attack of fresh units from SZ6 on whatever survives
    5. watch for an American sea base on Aleutians, wake or midway these are giveaways to his strat…

  • I tend to J2 (never J1, IMO too much advantage in holding off a round) and have started putting a few units in the Carolines on J1. At worst it doesn’t change anything, at best it gives a few strike opportunities. Unless your plan is a very early (J4) India capture, it’s a good move.

    I have been starting with a BB, loaded carrier, sub, dd there and sometimes a transport as well. The merits of Japan taking the inf off Carolines to use in attacking other islands are worth discussion, since they’re the only Japanese land units in the starting setup that typically don’t get used offensively. Even the Paulau inf gets used for Celebes often, and the inf in Iwo Jima can be utilized without going out of your way too much.

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