• Trying to make the switch to revised. My fist game as Russia I lost Russia on G2. First game as UK, lost UK on G3. Believe it or not, I was moderately competent at Classic.

    Now I’m being set to play as japan in an upcoming game. I desperately need a crash course in some of the important opening moves. Is it better to kill the UK fleet, or the AMerican one at pearl? Is my goal still to shunt infantry and planes to the mainland? What if the UK fleet unifies? What should I absolutely 100 percent do, and what should I absolutely NOT do as Japan?

    Any help is most welcome. Hopefully I’ll keep Japan until at least turn 4.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Assuming pretty standard results and combats that we’re familiar with on the internet Japan should be faced with the following:

    British Aircraft Carrier, Destroyer in SZ 59
    British Fighter in SZ 52 (With the American fleet at Pearl)
    British Submarine in SZ 45, but your submarine is there as well.

    Buryatia is either unstacked or stacked to capacity.  I’ll assume unstacked for my response.  Same with India.

    Japan 1:

    Buy(30)

    • 3 Transports (24)
    • 2 Infantry (6)

    Combat Moves:

    Battleship, Aircraft Carrier, Fighter from SZ 37 to SZ 59
    Fighter from SZ 37 to SZ 52
    Fighter, Bomber from Japan to SZ 52
    Fighter, Destroyer from SZ 50 to SZ 52
    Submarine from SZ 45 to SZ 52
    Infantry from FIC to India (negate this if garrisoned)
    Infantry from Wake Island, Artillery from Japan to Buryatia if garrisoned with 1 infantry or 2 infantry (add BB shot as well)
    2 infantry, fighter from Manchuria to CHina
    2 Infantry from Kwangtung to china
    2 Infantry, Fighter from FIC to China (1 if India is ungarrisoned so you can walk an infantry in there.)

    All those battles should have a 90% or better probabilty of success for you and leave you in a strong position on the board.

    From here I’d move out to take Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Madagascar and then start loading into Africa.

    Get some Industrial complexes up in FIC and India as soon as they are secure.  That will free up some of your transports for shuttling troops around the mid-east and africa.  Meanwhile, you may want to consider getting 8-10 transports over the next few rounds as well.

    I’d go infantry only for a long time, building tanks will be nice later, but you have a strong air force and you probably wont lose any of it for a LONG time.


  • You’re my freaking hero. THANK YOU.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Thank me after you win. :)


  • What should I absolutely 100 percent do, and what should I absolutely NOT do as Japan?

    I’m sorry I don’t have the 100% answers, but I can give you a few ideas that have been around for a while.

    1. Aim to have 4 transports at the end of J1. They will unlock quick expansion as well as provide naval fodder in the off chance that America goes after you. Going dual complexes off the bat is actually viable if the Allies completely ignore you, but remember that you are purchasing before you see the dice, and naval battles that go badly will unscrew your game very quickly.

    2. Try to take out China on J1. Bury and India can both be too difficult to take out on J1, so you have to expand at least into China before that door is shut to you as well.

    3. Don’t expect the Kwangtung transport to survive. It’s one of those tragic facts of life, like having to pay $30 for gas, just accept it.

    4. When presented with many battles, be careful of how many you take on. Japanese moves tend to be extremely consequential early on due to the high value of naval units and also because of how few mainland units they start with. Try to take the fewest losses and consolidate the Japanese fleet, that is where the strength is.

    5. Don’t be lazy. Don’t deploy transports that are vulnerable. Take a few moments to observe the range of Allied aircraft - would it surprise you that the bomber from E. US can hit SZ60 and land in Buryatia? Buryatia is a crazy landing spot for Allied aircraft.

    6. Take a good look at your transport options. You can grab infantry from areas such as wake island, okinawa, philippines, etc, and still land them on the continent on the same turn. That can help save a few IPCs. You can also offload into F. Indo from SZ60, then the next turn return to SZ60 and offload into Bury. There is some flexibility; you don’t have to make a double transport system like the US does in order to get forces to places.

    7. Fighters are your best defense early on the mainland. 6 fighters + 1-3 infantry can really dissuade an attack.

    8. Don’t push faster than you can sustain. While you may find Russia retreating endlessly, be careful of how far you pursue. Don’t send more than one infantry to take the land unless you have lots of backups following, because Russia can easily blow up a middle-large sized stack and push all the way back if that was the only force you had.


  • China is mandatory, pearl is standard, but if UK goes all in at the pacific, then maybe it could be better
    to just kill all UK naval units and take back Borneo.
    If UK retreats pac then do pearl.
    If UK unifies then kill it or go all in on pearl.
    Think 3 rnds ahead. Make a stack in Sink, secure India, and take Siberia,
    Jap must use both trans and IC to get as much stuff to mainland as possible.


  • @tenth8sphere:

    Trying to make the switch to revised. My fist game as Russia I lost Russia on G2. First game as UK, lost UK on G3. Believe it or not, I was moderately competent at Classic.

    Now I’m being set to play as japan in an upcoming game. I desperately need a crash course in some of the important opening moves. Is it better to kill the UK fleet, or the AMerican one at pearl? Is my goal still to shunt infantry and planes to the mainland? What if the UK fleet unifies? What should I absolutely 100 percent do, and what should I absolutely NOT do as Japan?

    Any help is most welcome. Hopefully I’ll keep Japan until at least turn 4.

    "Is it better to kill the UK fleet, or the AMerican one at pearl? " - depends on the board position.

    "Is my goal still to shunt infantry and planes to the mainland? " - Mostly.  Depends on what they do, but mostly.

    “What if the UK fleet unifies?” - depends on the board position

    “What should I absolutely 100 percent do, and what should I absolutely NOT do as Japan?” - Always build as many transports as you can on J1 (Japan 1, or Japan’s first turn = J1).  You need at least 4 transports to shuttle infantry between Japan and Asia, plus probably minimum 2 more to take infantry off the Pacific islands (where they aren’t going to do you much good) into Asia.  That means you will also need to build more transports on J2.

    If the Allies go KGF (Kill Germany First), you will want an industrial complex at India as soon as you can.  If the Allies go KJF (Kill Japan first), instead of producing industrial complexes, you should think about fighter production along with your infantry.  (Even if you only produce 6 infantry at Japan on a turn, you will still need 5-6 transports; you have a LOT of infantry on those Pacific islands).

    Don’t build infantry on J1, build a tank.  An additional early tank helps a lot because of the early mobility in Asia.  You don’t NEED any more infantry.

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