The conveyor belt technique I’ve put together has worked out so well that now I cannot get Japan to win the game. It’s like if I know this technique, and I’m allied, my victory is preordained. I even enhanced it by having the Chinese abandon all of Asia in favor of Szechwan and Yunnin. It turns out they’re a menace if they do that. And it further shields the UK from invasion, giving them even more time to get dug in.
So I’ve been working on a procedure to defeat the conveyor belt, but I’m consistently unsuccessful. I figured out a way to guarantee the US cannot push units through the DEI, by controlling Java with a sizable fleet, an airbase and naval base and 4 planes stationed there. No one would dare touch it, and they didnt. Blockading that valuable SZ cut off the flow of arms into Asia (except for planes). Instead though, US sea and land units were backing up in australia and eventually pushed north into the carolines, taking them with ease and eventually Japan. It was just ridiculous. Japan cant cover the entire left half of the board!
So tonight, I set it up again and wondered what many of you have no doubt pondered. What if I just put the Asian and DEI invasions on hold and sent everything straight at America? Now I’d never tried this before because you have to assume that Larry went this over a dozen times just to be on the safe side. But the Japs have so MANY planes… If I could just land them in say, Alaska, and I used them flagrantly, could I defeat the US at the beginning of the game? Could I overcome that one round of heavy US production with the meager lands units I could ship over?
And lets up this ante further. What if the US KNEW I was going to do this, and abandoned their posts to push everything into a WUS defense? If I could still beat them anyway with average rolls, I knew I could use it against an Allied player that I felt was aware of the belt technique. I cant detail every unit movement here, so I’m going to summarize. This only takes 5 rounds, so it wont take long for you to test. I performed the best moves I could for the US to prevent its collapse. The key is to control Alaska so you can land your planes to use them in the assault.
In order the save time, I did not play ANZAC, the UK or China. It’s possible that these units could affect the outcome of this battle, but I dont think so. Bear in mind that my attack does not begin until round 3, so they cannot use US facilities and land to get across the Pacific faster until round 3.
Round 1: Condense all JIN on SZ6. Condense all planes but 5 on Japan. I left the ones in Kiangsu, Okinawa and Formosa to attack the Chinese for IPC production. I didnt want to pull all planes because I needed a little flexibility if this was to be a reliable strat. I didnt actually perform any attacks in China, so I did not receive this benefit. Build 1 Transport and 3 Tanks. That should leave 1 IPC.
I built an aircraft carrier for the US and moved two of their planes onto it to protect SZ10. It might be a better choice to instead build inf or mech inf and actually abandon the existing carrier to have more land based defensive units. I moved the Hawaiian planes to WUS and the philipino bomber to Hawaii and the fighter to Guam. The philipino destroyer cant participate in any useful way. All US transports ultimately met the destroyer in Hawaii to avoid destruction.
Round 2: Move the entire fleet to SZ8. This includes 4 tanks with 4 inf. Purchase 3 transports that will eventually move 4 inf and 2 artillery. That should leave 6 IPC. You may want to buy 2 infantry for Japan in case the Brits decide to take advantage of the situation with their 2 transports. If they did, my remaining asian planes would react.
At the end of this round, the US could have moved 3 Inf, 1 Mechanized, 1 Artillery and 1 Tank into Alaska to defend it. I did not do this in my simulation. If I had, it would have been harder to conquer Alaska, especially if they moved planes into there. If they had, that would have taken the 6 planes on my carriers away from the SZ10 naval engagement that is going to happen in the next round. But if he had emptied his carrier(s) of planes, that would have just made the SZ10 engagement equal out. Further, his lost land units would hamper his defense of WUS. I would have lost units as well of course, to the average toll of my 4 infantry, leaving 2 art, 4 tanks and all my planes. Based on this, I felt the US was better off attempting to hole up until their superior production made it impossible for the Japs to break in. With the US’s 23 IPC, I built 7 Infantry, leaving 2 IPC.
Round 3: Japan declares war and US production increases to 62 collectively. Buy 2 transports and 4 Inf. The 4 SZ8 transports dump into Alaska, as do the 3 from Japan for a total of 4 tanks, 8 Infantry and 2 artillery. IF there are protecting units there, I’ll add probably 4 planes from the carriers. 3 Destroyers join the transports in SZ2 to protect them from the 3 US bombers scavenged from across the map. Depending on how he’s arranged his planes and fleet, I may set aside more ships to defend them, but 3 is more than enough typically. My fleet moves to SZ10 and wipes out the US resistance sith style. In my case, the US had two loaded carriers as part of their complement, and all I lost was a sub and a destroyer. All my capital ships were oblated (damaged). If I had to pop something other than a sub or a destroyer, it would not be a bombarding ship! So a plane would be destroyed and then immediately replaced from Japan, which is 5 airbased moves away!
The US currently has 24 IPCs, with which she purchases 8 Infantry to continue fortifying WUS against the coming assault. She could have used the bombers to attack the fleet or the transports, but she needs them as high value hard hitting units. They only defend on a 1, but that still has value. I decided against attacking the transports. If the US popped 4 transports, there would still be 3 that would bring across Infantry and artillery while the tanks rolled through BC. Right here I think is the most room for wiggling. Risk the bombers and maybe stick 1 man in BC to prevent the blitz? It might work. I didnt try it. To prevent something like that as Japan, I might have secured BC with a few infantry to keep the channel open (eventually replacing them with the 4 infantry just created in SZ6). At collection time, the US receives 60 IPC’s (down 2 from Alaska).
Round 4: (I skipped japanese purchasing from this point on.) Japan moves all her planes into Alaska (8 Fighters, 6 Tacticals, and 4 Bombers not including the carrier armaments), and the SZ6 transports with 4 infantry moves to join the rest in SZ2. If they were never touched, you’d have 4 tanks, 12 infantry and 2 artillery. But my guess is you’d be down 4 to 6 infantry, so we’ll just say 6. The SZ10 JIN never moves because the Philipino destroyer currently in Hawaii would just love to get in there to block a bombardment. The exception is moving a carrier to SZ2 to protect the transports and one destroyer to SZ10 to prevent a purchased sub from disrupting bombardment.
The US has 60 IPCs, and so you need to go bang for the buck here up to a maximum of 10 units. So you have two choices. You could buy 10 tanks for 60 IPC or 8 tanks for 48 IPC and 1 destroyer for 8 IPC to block bombardment on Round 5. Losing 4 bombardment hits because of that destroyer would hurt the JIN, but the two tanks it prevents from existing is not to be ignored. I opted for 10 tanks, but it could really have gone either way. Japan has so many planes it really doesn’t matter. Just make sure you specify your carrier planes for the amphibious assault if a US destroyer appeared at the end of round 4!
Round 5: Let the mayhem begin. Bring all transports, men and equipment down from Alaska. Engage all planes, carriers included against WUS. IIRC, I had 11 fighters, 9 tacticals, 4 bombers, 4 tanks, 4 infantry and 2 artillery. The US had 14 Infantry, 11 tanks, 1 artillery, 1 mechanized, 2 Fighters 1 tactical and 3 bombers. Of course I rolled bombardment and anti-aircraft first. When all was said and done, I had specifically left 3 fighters to rejoin their carriers, 4 bombers, 4 tacticals and 1 tank. I collected 60 IPC’s from the US along with a 10 IPC increase.
It later occured to me that the US might have set aside units in BC to retake WUS, knowing that I would leave only one land unit in there. On round 4 I did not build anything, but I could have built two transports with two tanks. On round 5, the attack round, I could have moved those two transports/tanks along with the 2 infantry I could have built in round 2 over to SZ2. I then could have used them with an 4 unit amphibious bombardment to retake WUS permanently and claim another 60 IPC the US had collected at the end of their round 5 for retaking WUS.
Now of course, I dont exactly know what would have been happening in the rest of the world, but I find it hard to believe it would have made any difference after all this had taken place. This all assumes that US player knows its coming. Even if they suspect it, they’re not likely to move EVERYTHING to WUS right away, which would waste valuable time. Taking this into consideration makes it even more likely this strat will work even with slightly unfavorable rolls. The rules about sparking war are almost all against the japanese. Using this technique actually reverses that disadvantage. The US sees it coming in round2, but they cannot attack because technically, the Japanese have not committed a hostile act. Cheers.
EDIT: I decided to factor in UK/ANZAC assaults to see if they could take japan or stop the flow of transports or perform game tipping convoy disruption. In 2 rounds, the brits could bring a BS and 2 transports with 4 infantry to Japan. Or if they wait for their cruiser and destroyer, 3 rounds. ANZAC could bring in 1 transport with 2 infantry, 1 destroyer and 1 sub.
Previously I neglected the japanese infantry in Carolines and Korea. These units would need to be moved into Japan and reserved for an eventual attack. The land based japanese units in asia would need to be shuffled in such a way so as to prevent easy access for planes of either faction to set down anywhere. So long as they didnt make it to Korea, they could not be used to attack Tokyo. If I saw a british fleet moving up the coastline, I would attack them with my bomber, tactical and 3 fighters. ANZAC could not get to the same SZ to back them up. With average rolls, the british fleet would be destroyed, and I’d be two fighters, or a bomber/fighter. That would eliminate the british transports as well. I would station the remaining planes on an isle in the way of ANZAC’s travel path and any additional loaded transport the brits may have produced in round1, say Okinawa. If they steered clear, I would move those planes in round 4 to Japan to soak up hits from the two offloading ANZAC trespassers. This would be comfortably enough to hold japan until round 5 when I produced more infantry. If I really felt the need, I might have reserved 1 additional japanese infantry that was intended for the WUS assault.