• Let me explain a bit. The KJF I’m describing is the US going pretty much 100% Pacific and UK is cranking stuff out of India (example: 3 tanks per turn). I don’t know if that’s a standard KJF, but that’s how I nearly got trashed last game.
    Here’s what I mean by the options:
    1. Buying completely navy. Try to stall the US by having a naval arms race.
    2. Build some navy while still throwing some troops at Asia.
    3. Spam land units on Tokyo one or two turns before your navy gets crushed, so that the Allies have a harder time breaking it.
    4. Continue as if the Allies aren’t doing a KJF so that Asia is a mess and maybe you have India when the Allies sink you fleet.

    Just interested to see what others do.


  • Buy much more navy than land. Purchases should reflect specific goals, rather than nebulous ratios.

    The goal is to deadzone/prevent US from advancing onto Japan’s major income islands. Japan can do this with heavy sub purchases and good positioning. Due to the territory structure, allies can’t hope to hold coastal territories, so long as Japan’s navy is alive. Japan at worst trades a couple coastal territories.

    By far the most common mistake with KJF is 1. japan doesn’t know how to attack pearl profitably. 2. doesn’t buy/position appropriate such that US can advance.

    A good japan should be able to deadzone US with 100% us navy buys for at least 15-20 rounds. No joke.

  • '19 '18 '17 '16 '15

    Vote after seeing your explanation :-)…

    My humble opinion is #3 option won’t work without landing force.  I think you will have to do either #1 or #2 depending on situation - but #1 might be necessary at the beginning when US is building navy aggressively against J


  • A J navy off Malaya gives J a lot of options and presents the allies with a number of competing challenges. Keep that powerful enough to offer those options and then build land units.

    If J is dragging US / UK builds into the Pacific then J is making a massive contribution to Axis victory.

  • Moderator

    I voted other, for Navy + Air.  I wasn’t sure if that was included in the all navy option.

    I also think you need you immediately go 100% Pac once it is clear the US is all in.  A few inf for Asia is fine, but given what you start with you really shouldn’t have trouble getting the 3-4 northern Russian territories the 4 US and probably Burma.  Beyond that you have to make sure the US can’t creep up on your islands, so I’d be going all in on Navy/Air.  Ftrs are a good all purpose buy.  If you can get a massive fleet out to Phil Is or Car that helps immensely.  Anything based too close to the coast or too far north/south allows the US to dance around and pick off islands one at a time while using DDs as blockers.

    I’d stay away from too many transports, cause they can’t defend and you’ll never be able to fill them all once US starts to venture out.  I’d stay away from ICs (you can get away with one in Man), b/c again they can’t defend, you won’t need the slots b/c of the cost of buying navy and air, and finally it is something you are going to have to defend.  I’d also limit bomber buys.  They are great at offense and project a large threat area, but they cannot defend a sz, whereas with a ftr you can just drop an AC.  That’s not to say don’t buy bombers, just that you need to be aware of the defensive limitations when you make the purchase.


  • Reason I voted for all land is because if all you build is navy then how are you going to make money? If there’s no backup for Japan in asia then the allies will push Japan out of asia (GB will mostly do this with India) then you can’t out produce US in navy especially if you lose your fleet in sz 37. Also if you do half land and half navy because the navy will likely be destroyed by the US navy because they are mostly building ships so they will out number your ships real quickly.


  • Well the easy answer is ofc “enough” to deadzone the us =) Buy just enough subs and planes to make it impossible for the us to get to the money islands.
    Tbh I havent seen many KJF and I have kinda gone on auto-win-mode once Ive seen someone try as it is impossible to win with…


  • I have to agree with what other people have said here. A combo of subs and bombers and some good deadzoning will keep the U.S. at bay long enough for you to drain Russia and China, and you can’t take India with those purchases, but you can certainly make sure they don’t advance into Asia for a while.

    I think it kinda depends on the bid though. I’ve been playing with a massive bid lately because the map is just broken in my experience… if Germany resists the temptation to drop any money on boats they can reliably wreck Russia even if the Allies are going all out against them. Anyway, with a bid of like 22 the British can absolutely crush sz37 with a pair of additional subs and that can change things a bit. Even so Japan can spend a few bucks on subs and still keep the US at bay (quite literally) long enough to do their part choking Russia. But it’s not worth spending any more money on it after a couple rounds, as you just can’t compete with the constant infusion of carrier decks.

    Hadn’t thought of attacking Pearl Harbor honestly, but if the British hit you in sz37 it’s probably a good way to keep your islands longer. Will have to try that.


  • It seems I am the only one here who has a different opinion than everybody else  :-D the thing with japan is that if you have good navy positioning, you’re starting navy should be enough to hold off the us for a couple of turns without you having to buy anything. During these precious turns, grab as much money as you can in Asia, and then use this income to have an arms race with the US.

    If you start purchasing navy right off the bat, the India will wipe you off off Asia. This doesn’t even take into account russian pressure from the north. So in my opinion, only make navy buys when you have the income to afford it.
    (P.S If you dont do pearl harbor, the us can pretty much put pressure on you without buying anything at all, let alone going 100% pacific.

Suggested Topics

  • 15
  • 7
  • 9
  • 5
  • 57
  • 34
  • 6
  • 32
Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

35

Online

17.0k

Users

39.3k

Topics

1.7m

Posts