Thank you my lord.
Japanese Ideas, read at own risk :)
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Japan VS. US
Its my expieriance that Japan usually does win, with VP’s or taking India. A&A Pacific is probably the least historically accurate veriant of all of them… which is good because otherwise the game would be no fun. In fact if you wanted to make it completely accurate, Japan would keep its 19 per turn but US’s would be closer to 200 or 300! But 75 is still alot, and if gives US (obviously) an advatage over Japan (the highest Japan can conceivably reach without winning the game being in low forties). But even still Japan’s navy, large and mobile island army AND, possibly most importantly, their first turn attack against everything for ones makes Japan a formidable opponent. Unless Japan has some serious bad luck the game should be pretty close most times.
A&A Pacific is, in the opinion of me and the person i play with, a 1v1 kind of game, i play against my dad in Pacific most often, playing Europe or my friend’s world edition with groups of friends because it has more accomidating numbers (plus in Pacific the India/Australia is not that fun to play, so in reality its US V Japan).
I thinkt he ultimate downfall of people who say Japan has no chance is two things,
1) they dont fully use the turn one ability of Japan’s, by fully use i mean destroy you can conceivably without leaving yourself open to a substantial counterattack.
2) They are overwhelmed and disheartened by the US players superior money and production, as Japan you cant win in a straight up fight every turn. In fact… most likely you cant win a straight up fight after turn two. With Japan you need to split US fleet, or draw them away before its fully ready to come get you. You also cant afford to let the American player sit and build up, because if he just sits and builds up with you just watching he will surpass you in just a few turns… even if your making the low forties. What i do with Japan is, after obvious first turn of attacking everything like crazy, i harass where i can but pull back to the sea zones near Mariana’s and Iwo. Both of these places have airfields that can be stationed with bombers and excess fighters that dont have nearby carrier, I also heavily fortify the bases the US will need to do the same to me, places with airfields to limit their offensive potential.
If your playing a very good and prudent US player, they will wait until they are MUCH stronger and come for you… if your playing me, they will come soon, leaving themselves open to bomber, fighter attacks from islands and your combined Eastern fleet sent against them. But lets assume your playing someone who IS prudent, they will still eventually come for you, theyll have to otherwise theyll lose the game… and if they just sit there and let you win then they arent as prudent as me and you thought are they?
Anway, if you are up against the vastly superior US fleet then you may have to do some tricky running work, harrasing and running via ports you control, where as they control none. You keep drawing them in, keep bringing them into areas where you have your airforce fully ready and willing to surround and crush their fleet. All the while you building up bombers or fighters that can reach them from Japan. Now if they dont follow your running, and they head straight for a blockade of Japan and wait for you, you must asses their fleet. Is it mostly defensive? (if it isnt hungry for a desisive battle it probably is) defensive being carriers and fighters, they are dangerous weapons offensively and defensively, but even more so defensively. But if its mostly Battleships and Destroyers, it is not nearly as strong defensively as it could be. So, if your opponent is low on the carriers and defensive planes, attack him with your fighters and bombers, and navy, rip him a new one!
But lets say he is carrier strong, he has the best mix of fleet, some Battleships to soak up hits, destroyers for their nive firepower and anti sub, Carriers and planes for their huge potential in the seas and islands that you need so desperately to protect. Lets say his fleet is much superior to yours defensively and he refuses to engage you on the offensive with that fleet. If he does do this, one of four things will probably be happening.
1) he sits there and waits for you to come to him, and lets the victory points shoot up because he refuses to fight you for your money and fleet.
2) he starts building transports and marines to come and get Japan or the surrounding islands, if this is the case you should once again use your bombers and fighters from your airfield islands to destroy the transports, if he is giving them a little escort when he buys, use some small navy or just chance it with your planes, either way, he should lose boats and leave his men stranded. (hopefully if he breaks through you will have fortified your islands well enough to atleast detest the beaches anyway leaving it open for airial counter attack and thus making it useless for an airbase. this is assuming he doesnt go straight for Japan, if he does INFANTRY INFANTRY INFANTRY.
3) he starts building bombers to come try and give himself the offensive edge he needs, bombers are great weapons! But they need somewhere to land, this is where your heavy island defenses pays off, he will have nowhere for his bombers to land, as long as your deep enough inside your own territory. This option will probably be his long term goal after option 2 (above) so ideally you would stop him in option two before this stage.
4) he keeps buying what he has been traditionally buying, more strictly naval units. if this is true you should send your big navy, to go destroy his smaller newly built navy. this may expose your navy but by using your ports (which you have captured in the opening stage of the game in your wild expansion fest) you can outmaneuver his big navy if he trys to get you in a pincer movement. If he does, evade if you think you’ll lose, or stand in fight if theres a good chance youll win, or almost win. Remember your bombers and fighters on the airfielded islands though, they are key to your whole defense, your harrasing, and your offense rest on the shoulders of holding the out bases to give you the mobility and deprive the US player of it. Mobility is the name of the game.
Anyway, this wasnt supposed to be this long… guess i just kinda got into it, but if youve made it this far thanks for reading, and your a better person then i. Good Luck using this if you choose to.
P.S its a strictly VP strategy, and most of your buys should probably be fighters or bombers. -
These are some interesting thoughts and are largely accurate when you consider that Japan likely has to pick and choose its battles carefully.Â
Here are some of my experiences in well over 100 games of AAPacific against top notch opponents including FTF and PBEM games at Days of Infamy.
1. If you play to 22 VPs, without any modification of IPCs or units, a competent Japanese player will always beat a competent Allied player. In my opinion, the game is not balanced at 22 VPs but gets close to balanced at 24 or 25 VPs.
2. If the game is a VP game, the key to the game early on is how long Japan can hold sz28 and FIC. Later in the game it is how long Japan can hold sz38 and the Philippines. Holding sz28 prevents the Allies from retaking DNG which is usually the first of the islands retaken by the Allies to get Japan below 40 IPCs and 4 VPs in a turn. It also denies the US the naval base at Papua and usually in New Britain which means that US reinforcements build in sz9 are two turns away from the important sea zones rather then 1 (if the US could take advantage of the 3 space movement for port to port).
3. If the Allies do not carefully protect India and Austrlia, Japan can always end the game by capturing one or the other by J4. Conversely, if the Allied player plays a proper “Anti-crush” strategy, Japan will succeed in capturing India only with good luck and cannot succeed in capturing Australia.
4. Piling large numbers of units into FIC allows the Japanese to hold the 9 IPCs represented by FIC, Siam and Malaya until at least J4 or J5.Â
5. Holding sz38 and Philippines until J6 means that Japan can usually get 2 VPs right up until J6 or J7 which usually means victory. The VP results would go as follows: 3-4-4-4-3-2-2=22. If playing to 24 VPs, the VP results would be 3-4-4-4-3-3-2-1 for a Japanese victory on J8.
6. The Allies can’t afford to wait to build up their fleet before moving against Japan. If they do, they will find that the Japanese fleet of 3 BB, 4 AC, several DDs and numerous transports backed up by at least 8 fighters (and perhaps more flying CAP) along with blocking subs will be impossible to dislodge from the Philippines.
7. The tactical key to the game for both sides is the proper use of subs and substalling. If you understand and take advantage of this concept you will greatly enhance your chances of winning whether you play Japan or Allies.
8. AAPacific is by far the most tactically and strategically challenging of the A&A Games. Rarely do you see the huge stacks of units that routinely appear in AAEurope, AA 2nd and A&A Revised. The game is usually over in, at most, 8 rounds (playing to 24 or 25 VPs) and therefore is much more intense and interesting then other versions, especially AA (2nd) which can bog down in long monotonous repititions of territory trading.
9. If you want to review numerous detailed tactical and strategic discussions about AAPacific, you should visit, the Days of Infamy Bullpen, hosted at the Wargamer’s Club message board.  http://p201.ezboard.com/bwargamersclub
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thanks for the comments, i played another one tonight and although my opponent hasnt played the allies that much because i love to play them whenever we play, he didnt have as much experiance. He was too conservative with navy, anyway… I thought about some of the things you said and i agree with you, that in most cases its VERY difficult for the allies to win if their opponent is setting up for VP victory. Anyway, thanks again for comments.
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Hello there!
I’m sure Japan alomost always wins when going for 22 VP’s.
I wonder myself what to do with allies to avoid that very same ending.
It sounds very interesting to me what u said about Subs and substall.
Could u explain?
I suppose u mean US subs should try to substall Japan fleet/s while conquering
and island to go bombing Japan.
Is it?
Thanks for u’r attention,
I hope for a kind answering
Best whishes, Stefanilli ; )
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