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.
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Attack the DEI and/or Philippines. Celebes, Java, and the Philippines are all within reach from here.
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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.
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Attack Pearl Harbor. Throw your weight East and try to stall the US for a couple turns longer.
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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