@ncscswitch:
Nah… just land 1 INF there on J1, invite the Russians to Counter, then hit them with my J1 build plus AF and any BB’s that are in range.
In short, Russia stacking Yakut is a no lose scenario for Japan.
An SFE stack though CAN be a royal pain in the butt for Japan though…
Yeah, that’s why a lot of players I see leave 1 infantry in Burytia. But I never do it.
Thing is, 6 inf in Burytia is OK if you put a UK fighter there. But you have to decide on the Russian move before the German move. So you don’t know if Germany will leave an opening for the UK Indian Ocean fighter (usually this means you don’t know if Germany will successfully take Anglo-Egypt or not). So - usually I will NOT put 6 inf, because I think Germany will probably not leave a big opening for the Indian fighter. So the question is - one infantry or none?
If you could count on Japan diverting a fighter to Burytia, then leaving a Russian infantry there would be good because it would increase the casualties inflicted by the US on Japan in China (or is it Ssinkiang?) But as Japan, my standard is to use the battleship support shot to hit Burytia along with a couple of offloaded units. SO - I think you gain nothing by leaving an infantry in Burytia, but you DO lose an infantry.
BUT - do you lose anything by stacking in Yakut? Sure you do; you lose a bit of time as Russia. But I think it’s worth it because the Japanese player has to take those infantry into account to avoid expanding too quickly (I usually land fighters in Russia, so the six infantry are a SOMEWHAT credible threat).
The way I see it, stacking a few Russian infantry in Yakut doesn’t hurt the Russians. It is almost a negligible threat to Japan, but at least it doesn’t hurt the Russians, so I do it.
(edit) - yeah, the Japanese battleship is often sent towards Pearl, but I prefer to use it to escort transports against possible Allied air. If I do Pearl, I usually do massed air with a destroyer fodder.