@Yanny:
Wouldn’t you think it would panic the US more to threaten Brazil and set up an IC in South Africa?
I definitely agree, and what’s so great about the move is that 95% of the time the US is totally out of position to help with Brazil after US1, so they have to backtrack to defend or counter, then you just pop over to South Africa. You make the US defend Western US and Panama on US1, then defend Brazil on US2 - that’s the last thing the US wanted to be doing on their first two turns! Then on J3 you move completely out of their theatre of operations and are over securing Africa for the Axis!
If you ignore the overall strategy and just analyze this tactic on it’s own, it is awesome - a virtual no-lose tactic for Japan that gives the US all kinds of problems early. The problems with this tactic are the negative consequences that manifest in the overall strategy later in the game, and those problems tend to outweigh the early benefit you get from this Japan opening. Nothing beats an immediate concentration of Japanese infantry rushing towards Moscow.
But it’s excellent to use for a quick Axis win against a poor Allied opponent.