Wholeheartedly agree with the consensus here.
With the Uk completely gone, USA must destroy the kriegsmarine US3 and after that the game looks as as follows:
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Japan versus the USA + ANZAC + China + Siberians (no need for them to retreat to Moscow during SL) -> loosing proposition for Japan.
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Germany (after taking heavy losses) + Italy versus Russia -> loosing proposition for Germany. Maybe stalemate, which is also bad because once Japan is done, the USA joins the fight.
No need to liberate London. In fact, if the USA does do that, Hawaii will most likely also fall into Japanese hands (too much spending in Europe from the USA). That’s a tip for Japan right there ;-).
Calculate what the USA is spending in Europe and if there’s >120IPCs from the USA spent there (so not counting units that were already there during setup), Japan can swing east and J9 grab Hawaii as well. The chance of that is very good if the USA wants to liberate London. Buying enough to sink the Kriegsmarine (if protected)/have a decent escort, costs the USA >110IPCs already…
So if you want to ‘play the player’ and you know your USA opponent will (most likely) try to liberate London, go for it and have fun winning in the Pacific :-D. Just don’t overdo it in Europe by trying to protect your kriegsmarine at all costs. This just invites Russia into Berlin (too much fleet spending from Germany). Or, if done carefully enough, it causes the USA to spend even more in Europe, further ensuring a Japanese victory in the Pacific :evil:.
Be wary of the USA player though, who is able to spend/send TUV worth hundreds of IPCs to London (liberating it), then swings back all the units into the Pacific to arrive at Hawaii US7…
So, ‘know thy enemy’ looks very important to me if you want to do this.