Wow, thanks! I agree that the Allies were played well, too. This game was on the edge.
Special thanks to ME1945 who widened my horizon with crazy and crafty ideas to play Japan in a way I would have never dared to play.
Dunno, according to my conservative play I never had to make concessions to the Russian front which I consider top1 priority and I would have taken a walk to Egypt in case I believed Japan might collapse. But crafty ME1945 always managed to put Japans head out of the sling.
Dicewise I believe the Allies were preferred in the early game. Although Germans had good early turns, Japan had a rough time early. The Malaya disaster mattered a lot and the UK Burma attack went clearly above average.
After that the Axis always got the dice they needed. 2-3 Japan turns were planned on the edge and they worked out, so did the German Normandy attack that had some risk, too. And then there was of course the sz19 triple attack.
I still believe that even with the Russians sinking the TTs the Axis had a very good position but in case Normandy would have gone worse this game would have been still open.
I would like to know: I stopped breathing when I saw ME1945 offered a 50% for the Chinese on the Japanese army before stacking Burma. I would have attacked with China without hesitating. What made you skip that attack? Were you confident having a winning position at this point avoiding any risks?
I found the Russian play quite passive, sometimes I was happy about Russia not being more pushy. Also it imo did not pay off to let units die at Iraq and put the 2 tanks out of the game for 3 African IPC.
Also I was a bit worried about what happened if US would have gone for a risky move now, stacking Finland, air striking the Vyborg guys or putting 10 more air to Norway creating unbearable threats. However with 87 IPC there would have probably been ways to defend it while Japan would in fact create VC victory threats soon.
Again, I am glad for this new Japan experience I only had by having such a creative partner. Kudos to ME1945 who not only played Japan excellently but also gave valuable input in order to gain German dominance in Europe.
Also thanks a again Adam for the great sportsmanship, as usual!