How do you play the US?

[Dafyd]

It seems that each time that I have played the US, I have had the same Japanesse opponent.  He has spent alot of his attention in China and looking for a confrontation with a major us fleet but tends to ignore little fleets much to the dismay of his axis partners.  You are quite right “axisandalliesplayer” it won’t work with most players.  I do tend to play Europe side heavy I think because I have played the Soviets more often than anything and felt that if I am the US player than I need to live up to what I have expected them to do. 
I have tried to stay balanced but as you can see by my first post, I will take soem chances and pay a higher price if I think I can get the players that I am facing to eventually make the moves that I need them to in order for my nation’s victory.
With that said, I know that I have a lot to learn.  Please keep the suggestions and strategies coming.

[knp7765]

In our games, when the Allies win it is usually due to the US going strong in the Pacific first. You don’t even have to necessarily take Japan out by capturing Tokyo. In a lot of cases, the US can end up neutralizing Japan. The best way to do this is for the US to capture Iwo Jima as a base for US bombers so they can pound the Japan IC and have subs in SZ 6 to convoy Japan. To do this, you also have to manage to knock out all or most of the Japanese Navy so they can’t kill your subs, either by one big battle between fleets or a bunch of little battles picking the fleet apart.
This strategy also needs the Allies to take at least one or more of the DEI so Japan doesn’t get that extra bonus. Usually, ANZAC and India can help with that. If the Allies can get this done, even if Japan is fairly strong in Asia, they won’t be able to afford to keep funding their troops there and will eventually get whittled down by China and possibly India.
Once you get this done, the US can start sending more stuff to Europe because even if UK and Russia are holding out good against Germany, they are going to need help.

I wish I could give you a certain number of rounds but that really depends on how crafty your Japan player is.

Another strategy I have heard but find hard to do myself is for the US to simply pile defense on Hawaii and Sydney to keep Japan from nabbing that 6th VC and putting most of their stuff in Europe to hit Germany/Italy. This is basically letting Japan “have it’s way” in the Pacific and Asia. I think this only works if you see Japan’s attention is focused on China or Russia. If that is the case, Japan may not be able to afford to go further in the Pacific. However, if you can see Japan is building up for a thrust toward Hawaii or Australia, I don’t think the US can provide good enough protection while still sending a lot of stuff to Europe.

[questioneer]

To play the US against experienced players you need to know one word- LOGISTICS.

You need to spend your money shrewdly, prepare in advance for an efficient shuck route as well along with air support.  This in short is the key to playing the US well.

[Admiral-Nimitz 0]

I skip operation torch for british then go to operation dragoon

[Witt]

I always go Pacific.
I will always have a two Transport shuck sending 4 Ground units min to Europe to annoy Germany, who has to keep retaking Normandy and Belgium. Italy will be collecting no more than one NO, with N Africa and Gib safe, so I do not fear a Southern sweep against Russia.
I suppose I fear Japan’s 20 + Air and 15+ Navy getting out of hand and America then being too far away(West Coast IC, max 10 build).

[majikforce]

My last couple of times playing the US I have fallen in love with sending bombers to London.  Two a round if I can.  Couple that with a skeleton fleet and a two transport shuck to Gibraltar depending on how the UK has fared it seems to give Germany fits or at least distract them from a full out Russian push.  The rest of the US$ goes straight for the DEI.  I am a firm believer in preventing Japan any income.  My buddy likes to take Korea and build a factory with help from those 18 Russians but I think that is fools gold.  I have played him many times as Japan and I welcome that strategy every time.  You can have Korea while I assault  Calcutta protect the DEI and build my income to 60-70, forcing the US to build in the Pacific.  Which allows Germany to go to work virtually without any worry.  You want to stop Japan, as the US go for the DEI and get help from UK, ANZAC and China.  Allied coordination is very hard for the axis to overcome.  Just my two cents.

[ghr2]

I would not care about retaking normandy unless I can do so efficiently, its not like the allies can go much farther than normandy.  Just have a large force in West Ger a maybe a few in paris to threaten a counter.

[ItIsILeClerc]

I start to lean towards thinking the USA is dependent on the Axis plans as well.
I think the consensus on this forum lies at dominating one map with the USA, spending ~80% of its income there. Likewise, spreading its investments ~50/50 is considered a mistake. I think the USA can actually focus down the wrong axis map and it can be really hard to tell which map the USA should focus on. Takes a lot of experience with a lot of possible Axis strategies.

[Spendo02]

The danger with the Americans is not seeing 3 turns out where you want to be.  You have to make this decision based on what you currently see, so it is like playing the stock market.

The only thing you have going for you is most of the strategies are pretty well ironed out and documented so you can make an educated guess based on Axis positioning of what is likely to occur.  And, once you get past the first 2 rounds, everything becomes fairly clear as the Axis reversing course after the second or third round is pretty much game over.

I’ve found that by far the hardest part is planning the US purchase.

The strategy in moves is pretty straight forward:  Go East or Go West.  Win the Ocean.  Keep the pressure on, don’t let there be a lull of reinforcements.

[ghr2]

@ItIsILeClerc:

I start to lean towards thinking the USA is dependent on the Axis plans as well.
I think the consensus on this forum lies at dominating one map with the USA, spending ~80% of its income there. Likewise, spreading its investments ~50/50 is considered a mistake. I think the USA can actually focus down the wrong axis map and it can be really hard to tell which map the USA should focus on. Takes a lot of experience with a lot of possible Axis strategies.

The difficulty with that, is if the US can switch boards fast enough to the the axis from winning.

[WILD BILL]

What do most buy US1, US2……

W/US I like to place on the Pacific side early, because if Japan delays attack (J3) you can still move your fleet away from port and get into position at Queensland to strike the DEI on US3/US4 when you get a chance (plus you still have the option to move through Panama to go Europe if Japan attacks J2).

Because I only get to place 3 units I like to buy 2 carriers, and a BB for 52 IPCs US1 for the west coast (make a statement). Get the big boats out of the way that can absorb hits and you already have the air to put on the carriers. US2 probably add 3 destroyers for screens and fodder and fighter(s) for allied airbases… and maybe a carrier or couple destroyers for EUS. The first 2 US turns you are building a defensive fleet to withstand a Japanese strike, US3 you start building to go offensive, so subs/air probably. I like a few US subs to trade destroyers w/Japan (economics), and maybe get a chance to convoy some of the DEI until I can take them depending on what Japan does (force them to expose/waist destroyers picking off your cheaper subs).

I have played games where the US and Japan just keep playing cat and mouse w/super fleets and won’t attack each other (very annoying). I have been known to split my US fleet leaving a large carrier/destroyer group to bait Japan into attack as long as I have a counter attack set-up with US subs/destoyers and air power followed up by an Anzac clean-up to finish off wounded Japanese capital ships (can be tricky because Japan could do a hit&run). Its a gamble, but even if you come up a bit short the Japanese can’t replace lost ships and keep the land battle going. Getting Japan to hit you isn’t easy, but they know the clock is ticking… This is normally around the time that Japan is making the final assault on China (or India), so all their air power probably won’t be available (best time to move in?).

US3/4 start piecing together an Atlantic fleet w/UK (Canada) to start a shuck-shuck to Gibraltar. If Japan does a J2 attack, you have the option to move your US1 purchase (2 carriers, and BB) through the Panama canal on US2 (to West Indies) and build on EUS at the same time. US3 all move to Gibraltar…

Building on the west coast US1 just makes more sense to me (unless J1 attack because you may want to go all out Europe) and keeps the US versatile (maybe disguise a Europe campaign).

[knp7765]

Wild Bill,
So if Japan waits to round 3 to attack the Western Allies, you use the US to go after Japan, but if Japan attacks early (J1 or J2), you use the US to go after Europe and leave the Japanese alone?

[Cow]

Several strategies.

1. Full pacific, full usa japan strategy. you want lots of carriers and destroyers a few subs and mostly fighters on those carriers, let anzac take islands with his transports and dudes mostly, you should probably have only 2 transports in the pacific to threaten japan with and some other spots.

Why does this work? Take Japan out of the game then fly fighters from West USA -> Japan sz  -> mid china -> russia. That is how you hold Russia despite having gone pacific all game

2. The Copy Ninja. Look at what naval Japan buys and buy that. The rest you invest into Europe. This strategy works, because you will have the same fleet (granted you want to make your fleet more of an attack fleet so get subs in place of destroyers, just keep 2-3 destroyers around, never buy cruisers, just get 2 subs).

3. Contain Japan. The balanced buy strategy. So to do this you mostly want to contest the cash islands.
   ~

On a side note. You really want to hold the burma road as the allies, that is the key to success. Get Russia moving to china round 1, yes you heard me right, you usually are not at war with Russia anyway, so just move your mech and armor over and your air. Japan’s big stack of air will be no match for a combined china/uk/russia stack with 1-3 anzac fighters on top of it (take java with 2 inf then put a fighter or all 3 on top).

[Cow]

If you go full pacific with Russia and even the med fleet and anzac and india etc.

You want to be aggressive as possible, you have 6 rounds to close out japan and start flying usa fighters to Russia.

So eventually you want a big fleet parked on Japan. So everyone has to keep trading units with Japan otherwise he is just going to turtle in two spots and make you sad with 20 air units.

Sometimes Japan will move a fleet out that is stronger than yours…. however after you attack it, uk comes in and attacks it too then uk wins… or maybe you need anzac to attack it as well. You got to do stuff  like that. Be crazy when you go full pacific.

The way full pacific works is you end japan ASAP then figure out how to get fighters going to Russia from west usa all the way to moscow. It is an easy strategy in my opinion. You just shove everything at Japan. Wow so simple!

~very rarely will you actually conquer Japan, by ending it usually means china and india and slowly reclaiming asia while USA sits on Japan waters preventing him from making any money and that is a Japan that cannot do anything~

[ItIsILeClerc]

I like the description of those strategies!

Never called it like that but according to your descriptions I turn out to be a copy ninja/balanced hybrid ;-).

[Zhukov44]

I don’t think USA has any choice except to face Japan and spend a minmum of 75-80% of its income in the Pacific, at least for the first few turns.  If USA spends “goes KGF” in the style of Revised or Anniversary then you are looking at a Japanese VC win early in the game.  It’s better to neutralize Japan asap and then turn everything on the Western Axis.  Determining exactly when to turn (and leaving Japan in the hands of Anzac and China) is critical.  That said, USA still needs an Atlantic fleet–a pure KJF is an easy with for Western Axis.

[major_payne]

I also find the that the USA is very difficult to play. How does the convoy stratgy work? How does the tech developement work?

[Cow]

I take 99 infantry as a bid for central usa. I lose. That is how I play USA