New Player to the Game!

[LilTheo]

Hi everybody, I’m a brand new member to A&A.org and a brand new player to Axis & Allies the board game.

I recently purchased Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 and played my very first game last night. I have a few questions.

Let me give a little bit of background on my game. I was Japan, my two other players were the United States/China, and Great Britain/ANZAC. I started out and built up my fleet a little and reinforced my coastal holdings in China and waged war there. Bad dice rolls for two straight turns left China in a stalemate, but on the second turn I declared war on the Allies and took Hong Kong and started an advance toward Calcutta.

I took the Phillipines, Borneo and Celebes, but I paid very little attention to the United States as I hoped to finish off India and China relatively quickly. China became a stalemate, as the protected Burma Road turned China into a haven for artillery, but I started to encircle the northern and northwestern provinces with fast attacking and fast moving Mechanized Infantry. China was now in a pocket.

The United States, even around turn four was still just massing ships in Pearl Harbor, and ANZAC was doing very little. The war turned sour when the British troops reached Hong Kong, and a British battle fleet effectively ended my reign there. I didn’t have enough time to get the Japanese troops deep in Chinese territory back to the coast, and they pushed me back up to Jehol.

At about this time the United States started a huge campaign of island hopping, taking the islands of Iwo Jima, Guam, the Phillipines, Borneo, Celebes, et cetera. Where is the Japanese fleet you say? Beneath the waves thanks to British bombers.

Perhaps it was because it was my first game, but I just feel there are so many fronts and I’m unsure which front to fight first!

Please help.

Thanks!

[calvinhobbesliker]

Try declaring war on the first turn. This allows you to kill the british and american transports, making them unable to take the DEI.

[Stoney229]

I noticed no mention of the DEI.  These are very significant, since controlling those four territories alone is worth 20 IPCs to you, and not controlling them is worth 20 IPC to the Allies!

[Todd7912]

Welcome to the game! Now you can develope a twitch like the rest of us whenever we see a die roll of 6.  :-D And you can spend countless hours playing and even more hours thinking about how to play, and loosing sleep with everyone here at this forum. Starting to play this game is a decision that will affect your relationships and your budget. But don’t worry, it is all worth it!!!

20 years from now you (like us now) will be saying, “When is the next one coming out?”

Have fun!

[robbie358]

I agree with the others, welcome.

the main thing to remember (about all A&A games) is never to leave your units anywhere they can get killed.  Since you can’t land air forces on areas that you just took, make sure to only attack with the minimum land forces required to take the territory.  This goes both ways too, if you see a big pile of your opponents pieces in range of an attack don’t ignore that possibility.
You say the Burma road was protected but if you hit it with only a few guys and ALL the planes you can muster it goes away very quickly.
Also, don’t keep any forces behind when you attack, move everything that you have to the front, you can always build units to protect yourself if it goes bad.
Another tip is that because all combat happens at one time, a single destroyer or cruiser placed next to an enemy fleet can block the entire force from attacking your precious islands.  For example, a US player worried about Hawaii will throw a destroyer in between Japan and Hawaii, because the japanese fleet will have to kill the destroyer before it can move all the way there.  He could attack just with planes but planes don’t get you control over territories, only land units ferried by transports would.  He could also move there on non-combat, but then the US would have an attack on him with everything they’ve got.

[Clyde85]

I too am new to the site, but have been playing this game for nearly 15 years. welcome to the family.

In regards to a pacific strategy I believe that China is a place for mis-placed agression. I dont think you need to advance more then 4 provinces in to China, taking Yunan, Hunan, Anhui, and Charhar. This reduces China economy by 1/3 and denies them their NO, it also keeps your units close enough to the coast to pull them back if they become needed else where.
The key to winning comes from taking and holding the southern resource area which include Maylay, Kwangtung, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, French Indo-China, and the Philipines. By taking this area you will double Japans economy and reach a parity with the US. Also, this area will put 2 more VC under your control, which are the objectives you need to win, and gain you some of your NOs.
From here its key to make swift work of India, throwing everything you can aginst them. The quicker this is done the beter (turn 4 or 5 ideally). Then you will be free to finnish of China at your leisure.

After that its really up to you. I like to go after the Anzac’s as taking their VC is harder for the US to take back. Best of luck, hope this helps