• I am in the middle of my first game we play whenever and do not just sit down and play the whole thing. Any way I’m wondering if im in bad shape im Japan and he is the allies. My income is only about 6 less than the U.S and I am about to capture India which would give me 5 of the 6 VCs having Tokyo,Shanghai,Hong Kong,and Manilla. However my biggest fleet is off of India and i have none of the DEI also the U.S is within strking distance of Japan and Shanghai. My only defense in Shanghai is an aircraft carrier with 2 fighters, and in Japan I have 2 BBs and 8 Inf. Also I am wondering which is easier to take Hawaii or Austraila for the last VC’s and should I use my spending to attack or defend.


  • Depending on the specifics, you should be ok. Sounds like you let the allies grab Caroline Islands, if he is able to hit the Asian mainland. I always keep a small fighter force there to protect it from small transport fleets.

    I would get the Dutch east indies islands as soon as possible to boost your money.

    Keep whats left of your air force on Japan for extra defense. Scramble is Japan’s biggest advantage in Pacific.

    I believe Hawaii may be easier to take then Australia as you can build transports on Japan and threaten a take over the next turn. If the U.S. is being stubborn, build a few extra carriers to break his defense of Hawaii. Remember if you stage your planes properly, it is possible to launch planes from the carriers, have them land on an island and send an equal number of planes from Japan that may now land on the carriers…Double the air force for the attack effectively.

    If Hawaii is too hard to grab, consider a major factory on Malaya for quick access to Australia as your last city. That location would help in securing the Islands.

    If you can draw the American fleet far into the south Pacific, be mindful that transports from Japan can take the Canadian territory above W. USA. Build bombers the turn you land on Canada and they can strike from Japan and land on Canada as the 7th movement point. This works best if you can stage infantry in Japan, plop down a bunch of transports (7-10) when the Yanks head Southwest and catch Hollywood unaware. Remember, it would have to be a large force, somewhere between 14-20 land units since the US will have 1 production to prepare. If you are in the 48-60 IPC range with Japan, you’ll have 4-5 bombers for offense. Don’t forget, you can hide some of the land units in plain site by dropping them in Korea, it will look like you are marching into Asia if done early in the game.

    Hope this helped. Good luck.


  • Thanks he has not taken Caroline Islands (we are both new), but rather going straight for Japan with 3 carries and 2 Bbs and a destroyer and transports. So I should to clarify buy transports to take the East Indies(I have none) and draw the U.S fleet south, so i could fake an attack at Australia to draw them down then attack Hawaii or Canada. Again Thanks alot.


  • Yep, you pretty much need at least 3 transports for Japan at least during the first 4 rounds. Its fairly common to build 3 transports on your first turn. If you lose them all, then taking islands is impossible.

    Its a good idea to keep at least 3-4 air units in Japan during the first 3 turns especially, to help defend Japan or any naval builds via scrambling. I also prefer to keep 3-4 air units in caroline islands to prevent a single transport from taking early on, after round 2, you will need to re-evaluate its defense, I commonly use my surface fleet minus the carriers as they head to India early on.

    Its commonly acknowledged that Japan’s best chance to win, is by attacking on round 1. There is even a new setup for the game that the game designer has put out on the forums to adjust this bias. But that is only a problem once players have played it enough to figure out this “best” move.

  • '22 '19 '18

    @basebalp21:

    I am in the middle of my first game we play whenever and do not just sit down and play the whole thing. Any way I’m wondering if im in bad shape im Japan and he is the allies. My income is only about 6 less than the U.S and I am about to capture India which would give me 5 of the 6 VCs having Tokyo,Shanghai,Hong Kong,and Manilla. However my biggest fleet is off of India and i have none of the DEI also the U.S is within strking distance of Japan and Shanghai. My only defense in Shanghai is an aircraft carrier with 2 fighters, and in Japan I have 2 BBs and 8 Inf. Also I am wondering which is easier to take Hawaii or Austraila for the last VC’s and should I use my spending to attack or defend.

    I would pull my AC with fighters back to Japan.  Let him take shanghai, Japan is more important.  I would buy 3-4 subs, and some airforce to scramble if he decides to attack Japan seazone.  Finish off india and send whatever airforce back to help sink US navy.  If US takes Shanghai, then use your navy (2 BB, AC, 3-4 subs, plus airforce) to sink his navy.  Depending on what he has and how the dice roll he should lose a big chunck and you may lose a sub or two since you can take 3 hits (2 BBs and 1 on your AC) before you lose any pieces.


  • @JamesAleman:

    Its a good idea to keep at least 3-4 air units in Japan during the first 3 turns especially, to help defend Japan or any naval builds via scrambling. I also prefer to keep 3-4 air units in caroline islands to prevent a single transport from taking early on, after round 2, you will need to re-evaluate its defense, I commonly use my surface fleet minus the carriers as they head to India early on.

    Much like the UK, Japan is not considered a “Island”.  Scrambling is not allowed with planes sitting in Japan.


  • @Dark_Destroyer:

    @JamesAleman:

    Its a good idea to keep at least 3-4 air units in Japan during the first 3 turns especially, to help defend Japan or any naval builds via scrambling. I also prefer to keep 3-4 air units in caroline islands to prevent a single transport from taking early on, after round 2, you will need to re-evaluate its defense, I commonly use my surface fleet minus the carriers as they head to India early on.

    Much like the UK, Japan is not considered a “Island”.  Scrambling is not allowed with planes sitting in Japan.

    As far as i know Japan is considered an island in the game, hence can scramble. Unlike the UK…


  • @Dark_Destroyer:

    @JamesAleman:

    Its a good idea to keep at least 3-4 air units in Japan during the first 3 turns especially, to help defend Japan or any naval builds via scrambling. I also prefer to keep 3-4 air units in caroline islands to prevent a single transport from taking early on, after round 2, you will need to re-evaluate its defense, I commonly use my surface fleet minus the carriers as they head to India early on.

    Much like the UK, Japan is not considered a “Island”.  Scrambling is not allowed with planes sitting in Japan.

    See page 22, AA Pacific Rulebook bottom of page last sentence under the section “Industrial Complexes”…“Industrial complexes cannot be built on islands (Australia and Japan are the exception)

    Based on the above sentence, for game purposes Japan is considered and island.

    See page 8, AA Pacific Rulebook center of page, right column next to the photo of wake island, section called: “Islands” first sentence “An island is a territory located entirely inside one sea zone.

    You may note that the map shows Japan fits inside one sea zone…sea zone number 6.

    Therefor, in our games we permit Japan to scramble. Hope this helps.


  • It does!  Thanks for the rulebook notes.  Makes taking Japan that much harder, little OP’ing… but it is 4 on 1.

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