• When playing Japan, is it worthwhile to attack America? Not invading the US proper, of course, but simply going for Alaska, Panama, Brazil, and Cuba. The idea would be to mess up the US shuck-shuck route at a critical time just as Germany is moving against Russia. Is it worth it or are you better off marching all your infantry to Moscow?


  • It’s possible as an alternate strategy-I know some will argue that you should send all troops to Asia. What I would do is: t1, take Hawaii with 2 inf. This opens up the threat of invasion to all the places you mentioned and could possibly get the US player to focus on the Pacific. It would not be likely to work against an experienced player, but in the right circumstances it could be effective.

  • Moderator

    only when the us is into full shuck-shuck…. then they will have the hardest time to get at you…

  • 2007 AAR League

    I agree with G.I. about taking the Hawaiian Islands, it gives you a good staging point to attack all the before-mentioned places plus Western U.S.A. possibly later in the game 8) .

    (Too bad Illinois didn’t get the win against Missouri yesterday huh Eric)?


  • Usually the US player will ignore Japan and concentrate on the Germany first strategy. This gives you, as Japan, a good opportunity to launch offensives in the Pacific pretty much at will. And you can take Hawaii, Alaska, possibly Panama (and if the US player is not paying attention to defenses Mexico as well at least for a little) and maybe if you can sneak a transport around or are willing to pay the neutral penalty take Brazil.

    Problems with Japan doing this are as follows (and people can comment on these if they see it otherwise):

    1. Japan starts with very low $$$ and really needs to get her economy going so that she can take the pressure off Germany. How she does that is by going wild on the mainland, namely the Russian Far East, China and maybe India. The Pacific has nothing worth value, and even taking Hawaii, Alaska and Panama/Mexico will really not up your economy by much at all.

    2. If I’m UK and I see Japan going into the Pacific I put an IC on India turn 2 and start pumping out. If I’m USA and I see Japan go to the Pacific I put an IC in Sinkiang and start pumping defense into China. If I’m Russia and I see Japan going Pacific I thank God and just keep pumping all troops to the West (against Germany).

    It’s not a bad idea to run the whole Pearl Harbour gambit, as it has its merits in keeping the US naval presence in the Atlantic back a turn or two, but if you’re going to commit even more than one transport to the Pacific offensive I think it’s a transport that could be better served getting Japanese troops onto the mainland. Remember that even if you put an IC on the mainland as Japan the majority of your troops will be coming over via transports from the mainland, so the more trans you have in Japan SZ the easier this is to facilitate.

    I guess I’m old fashioned because I think Japan needs to gobble up IPCs on the mainland for the Axis to have a shot; like I said my overall observation on this is that sending some naval units to smash the US fleet and even one trans to try and take something undefended (like Panama) might not be a bad idea (the Brazil via Peru isn’t bad either) but overall I suggest Japan stick to Asia proper.

  • Moderator

    Kyrial wrote:

    It’s not a bad idea to run the whole Pearl Harbour gambit, as it has its merits in keeping the US naval presence in the Atlantic back a turn or two, but if you’re going to commit even more than one transport to the Pacific offensive I think it’s a transport that could be better served getting Japanese troops onto the mainland. Remember that even if you put an IC on the mainland as Japan the majority of your troops will be coming over via transports from the mainland, so the more trans you have in Japan SZ the easier this is to facilitate.

    depends…if you play with double hit BB’s then you could attack Hawaii with 2 BB and a sub… and on the avarege 2 american hits, 1 on each BB you auto repair them and presto!!!.. then the AC and Fighter can go to the mainland and the Trans. isn’t wasted(neither a Japanese bomber and Fighter from the fatherland either)…


  • depends…if you play with double hit BB’s then you could attack Hawaii with 2 BB and a sub… and on the avarege 2 american hits, 1 on each BB you auto repair them and presto!!!.. then the AC and Fighter can go to the mainland and the Trans. isn’t wasted(neither a Japanese bomber and Fighter from the fatherland either)…

    Point taken, since I never play with double hit BBs I had forgotten to take that into account :D

    But you’re right, if you DO play with the 2x BBs then it’s a viable option. If you’re not playing with the 2x BBs then I stand by my original post.

  • Moderator

    every game I see now has double hit BB’s… they can even go hit India in a turn three Amphibious and mainland assualt and bombard… nifty eh?

    Eric… I’d say, if Germany is getting really pounded, then It might be good to do a diversionary assault on alaska but don’t push it as invasion unless US ignores it(but when is it going to do that :wink: )…


  • When I play Japan, I attack the water around Hawaii, but don’t bother taking the island. The two troops are much better in asia.

    My favorite tactic is to buy an IC in asia and crank out 3 tanks per turn. This works particularly well if UK builds an IC in India. India falls more easily and then Japan can place 6 tanks per turn. This makes them unstoppable.

    When I play the US. I mainly focus on building a navy and taking the water around Japan. If Japan doesn’t have an IC in Asia and the US controls the water, Japan has no way of moving troops.


  • the main point in taking hawaii or alaska is to give the US that much less $$$. an often overlooked aspect of taking american land is SBR’s against the W/US. this can be done from alaska, hawaii, midway, etc. if Japan can get one or two bombers within range, the odds of getting shot down is minimal, and it helps if you have heavy bombers.

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