• A Solomon strike simply does NOT pan out against a skilled Axis player.
    (quote from switch) i guess i am technologically challenged as well :|
    especially on usa1, japan crushes your fleet, with 2BB’s and mass air the “wash” isn’t, usa gets wiped and japan loses a trannie  :-P

    is usa4 too slow? india usually falls j3 (unless it is abandoned on uk1) and j4 they are really ramping up in asia so taking some pressure from there is good, the crux of the biscuit is whether or not to loss of european pressure can be handled by uk/russia.  usa walks a very fine line if they go two front, but that is what i am determined to try next time i am usa (of course our games are for fun, not tourney)


  • Switch,

    Skilled or not, if the english player do what they have to do, i.e. take out the tranny, sink the sub and land their fig at pearl… there is a high chance that the Japanese player is left with only a BB an AC and a fig (or two) after Pearl. This small fleet won’t be able to face what the US is putting on the water this turn. So this mean they need to regroup. If they don’t then my plan will succeed. But if they do… and as you said if they strike at Solomon with everything they have on J3… then it was a lot of money spent by the US to sink a part of the J navy. But the dice can play a big part in this… and Japan can loose a lot… so it’s not really a waste on the US part. After all a BB, an AC, a destroyer, a sub, two trannies and 2 figs are not so easy to sink (22 total defense and 9 hit points total)

    So I guess you’re right… a skilled Axis player would be able to avoid this… but I’m still convinced it’s a good move to make because there is a lot of other things you can do to avoid a confrontation with the J fleet.

    To Crit… why I think US 4-5 is too late… well going against Japan on US 1 like I mentionned takes about until US 4 to become a real threat (having a complex in the Pac with a fleet to defend). Let’s say you start doing what I said on US 4… that means that the US will be a threath at about US 7 or 8… which is way too late to make a difference. For exemple:

    Build the fleet on US 4
    Move it to striking distance on US 5
    Take one island on US 6 (or Japan if not defended…)
    On US 7 you can reach the coast of Africa or Asia… hence you’re able to slow Japan a little.

    But you must admit that by J6 or J7, the Japanese player has a solid hold of the mainland and he won’t need his fleet to support his invasion… so he’ll be able to easily counter the pressure.

    But at the start of the game, when Japan needs his trannies to convey his troops, he can’t afford to go around chasing the bait that is the US fleet.

    Well it’s nothing but my opinion…

    Wood the Rook.


  • Also Switch…

    You mention ample evidence of the failure of a Solokmon strike in some of the games on this site… but I’ve never seen a player attempt to solely take one island and hold it. Can you please direct me to a game where it happens… or where at least the US player tries to do it. And do not mention your game against Octo… you failed to do anything good with the US navy.

    Wood the Rook.


  • woodie,
    how are you losing you 2nd jap BB? if you position yourself right on j1 then the solomon fleet is sunk j2 and with smart buying (imho) you are still putting grunts in asia(i.e. a complex j1) i know alot of people disagree with that preferring 3 trannies but with that IC on j1 then another later you can do things with your fleets you might not have been able to otherwise


  • To see a major attempt by the US in the Pacific, go back about 5 screens on the Games thread to my game with Ezto.  He tried things like grabbing Wake to use as a static AC along with massed fleet.  You will see how easy (and relatively cheap) it was for Japan to counter even the MASSIVE builds by the US in that game.

    There is another more recent game that I played, cannot remember the opponent, but I tried a Solomons strike after doing a pretty good job of getting most of Japan’s navy in Turn 1.  My surgical strike team was immediately sunk, though I controlled Solomons for the duration of the game with 2 stranded INF.  Not like Solomons does you any good.  Pearl and midway are both superior bases for use against Japan, and you can;t even IC Solomons since it has no IPC value.


  • Crit,

    The Japs rarely loose their second BB, I was saying that at pearl, they only have one BB left. Sure J can move it’s second BB into position right away, but it’s rarely done since most player attempt to sink the UK fleet with it. I assume that if you’re aware that the US are going in the Pac, it’s easy to position your fleet to counter most of the threat in the Pac… but that should slow down the troops deployment in Asia… unless you build one or two IC like you suggested.

    So I guess that this strat works well when most players expect a KGF strategy.

    Switch… I’ll have a look at those games and write back later. Thanks for the info.

    Wood the Rook


  • It sounds like it would be a fun strategy to play if playing someone inexperienced, but the Pacific is so big there is really no threat from Japan for quite some time.  I think it makes more sense on a normal basis to use USA to help fortify Africa, and then build up a tranny system (supported by fighters or a bomber or two) to hit hard into germany.  It takes so long for Japan to move anywhere that America could effectively tunnel forces through africa to prevent Japan from putting pressure on the caucauses (I think as early as turn 5 you can have forces in transjordan 2 inf/1 art/4 tanks/plus air, plus whatever units britain has decided to move into that direction) if you feel that is a worry.  I just think against a skilled player concentrating on Germany is far more worthwhile for the US.  It would be fun to try the island IC though :)


  • Does anyone who plays as the US advocate the buying of bombers?  I would think that it would be a good idea to maybe have 3 or 4 bombers with 4 or 5 fighters to back up your troops D-Day’ing France or Germany.  I realize that the bombers could get shot down, but with a 1 in 6 chance, that’s 4 out of 24 chances, pretty low deal.


  • well 20-25 games later my friends and I still use the box rules so generally we always see america getting bombers and attempting to go heavy bombing. im good with rolling 1s (i am know as the pewpew man for double snake eyes) so I haven’t noticed heavy bombing to be too terribly wreckless.  It is a bit unfair but it still takes a long time to amass enough bombers/infantry to actually give you an advantage in a battle and I find that if they are going to go heavy bombing, 7-8 jet fighters with jet fighter defense is an ample counterattack.


  • First, set up a US fleet to kill the German Baltic then Mediterranean fleets.  Get 6 transports; three to move troops from E. Canada to UK (you march infantry from E. US to E. Canada), and three more to move troops from UK to wherever (Norway, Karelia, Archangel).

    On the way, you will probably drop some guys in Africa.

    Then you take the remnants of the US fleet and go hunt Japan.

    What happens if you just try to build against Japan?  Germany gets Africa and uses those IPCs to beat the crap out of USSR.  UK without Africa can’t produce a lot.  UK cannot reclaim Africa because Germany can smash the UK fleet with the German Med fleet and fighters and bomber.  Germany is rich, UK and USSR are poor, Japan still runs cheapo infantry into the mainland, but switches to fighters and infantry instead of infantry and tanks.  It takes a long time for a US Pac fleet to get going; two battleships, two carriers, a destroyer, four transports, five fighters, and a bomber are no joke to face down, and that’s what US is up against.

    Late game, Japan is an easier target than Germany, because Germany can defend its capital with mass infantry, but also use those massed infantry to attack.  But Japan can’t attack anyone unless it has navy and/or air.  Once US has control of the islands and Asia, Japan can build 8 IPC worth a turn, hopeless.


  • I would agree that it is generally a waste to put any kind of US fleet in the Pacific. That is why I was asking about garrisons for the west coast in another thread. My experience with US Pacific fleets is they are manmade reefs very soon. I have been having much better luck staying out Pacific. You need too many transports and too much to protect them from what Japan already has in the water to accomplish anything. You might draw off some IPCs from mainland Asia. You can put all those trannys in the Atlantic and protect them with much less and still buy infantry!

  • 2007 AAR League

    ive tried the pacific strat 2 times, once i worked great with a usa ic in east indies, once was a dismal failure


  • And TC…

    The East Indies combo success was a fluke.


  • What does “fluke” mean?
    Isn’t it supposed to be some kind of an anchor, I don’t think I get your point switch.

    -Daniel


  • It was an odd case.

    Against typical dice and traditional strats, the success TC had in that game would not repeat… thus a “fluke”


  • oh ok thanks…

    I was thinking it was something like that, but I had never heard the expression before and when I looked up the word I just couldn’t get it to make any sense at all… (some part of an anchor).  :roll:

    -Daniel


  • It may be a “hick-ism”

    I am from the PA mountains afterall, where we pronounce ‘creek’ as ‘crick’ and pronounce ‘you’ second person plural as ‘younz’
    :mrgreen:


  • I would support the contention that it takes more than one victory for something to be a proven strategy.

  • 2007 AAR League

    Combining the Jap fleets in SZ59 (Kwangtung) allows you to continue to shuttle troops to asia and be in a position to obliterate the US Solomon fleet if it moves to take one of the high IPC islands.  The US fleet would be gone before you had a chance to build an IC.

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