What to do with British fighter off of India?


  • I can;t remember the last time that Japan did not lose 2 ships to just the US fleet.  3 hits out of 4 rolls has been so prevalent in my last several games that I assume Japan will lose the SUB and DST.


  • Now, let’s assume the fighter missed the Sub on passing.  We have 1 SS, 1 BB, 1 AC, 2 FIG, 1 BMB vs 1 AC, 2 FIG, 1 SS.  Japan get’s 4 hits on round 1.  Allies get 2 hits.  That’s 1 damaged BB and one dead sub.  Cost 8, Reward 44.

    Hmm, this becomes a complicated discussion. A few things here:

    I think you meant to say 1 dest as well in the Japan attack force.

    1 ss + 1 bb + 1 ac + 2 fig + 1 bmb + 1 dest = 20 dice points = 3 and 1/3 hits
    1 ac 2 fig 1 ss = 13 = 2 hits and 1/6 hits

    I think the majority of the time you will see the Americans surviving to round 2 to hit with their fighter, incurring 3 hits total, reducing the Japanese force to 2 fig 1 car 1 bb 1 bomb. The Americans are favored to counter Pearl in this case, so the Japanese would likely instead wish to lose their bomber to keep the destroyer alive.

    A majority of the time, the sub in Solomons will not survive, making the Japanese attack force that more fragile.

    But the Japanese can bring in between 3-4 fighters total, if they really need to. 4 fighters arrive if the Indies carrier moves out east, and 3 is easily achieved just by sending the caroline carrier - the fighter from carolines can land on wake, while a fighter from mainland Japan and 1 from Indies lands on the caroline carrier.

    But the Japanese bringing that much force loses out somewhere. Even bringing the BB as proposed, exposes transports to the Allied airforce. You could compensate by bringing the Indies BB/car to SZ60 to defend, but that leaves the Kwang UK fleet alive, which may later link with the US navy.

    A reinforced Pearl, especially when the Solomon sub is destroyed, and combined with Russian/UK consolidation about Japanese territories, causes the Japanese to give up something. If they go after Pearl, it is no longer an easy decision, they must give up somewhere else or their attack force isn’t generally strong enough, or they have to lose bombers/a fighter in order to preserve the occupying force from a counterattack.

    I

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Yea, I did forget the Jap DD.

    And yes, IF you kill the Sub in solomons and it doesn’t just submerge.  And IF you get 3 hits in Hawaii you can do damage.

    More often then not I never get hits on the sub and I only get 1 hit with the fighter at Hawaii, if I’m lucky.

    Then again, if I do get 3 or 4 hits, then hellz ya, I’m bringing that BB to Hawaii and sinking the rest of that fleet.  1 Less BB for Japan, maybe even a carrier kill if it’s there.


  • More often then not I never get hits on the sub and I only get 1 hit with the fighter at Hawaii, if I’m lucky.

    Hmm, maybe you just need to play more. It’s 66% chance of sinking the sub if you attack with sub/fighter. You are certainly going to see a number of games where the sub survives, but you should more often than not sink it over many games. And it’s more often than not that the Japs get 3 hits instead of 4, which opens up a nearly 100% chance that the Americans score a 3rd hit.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Yea, Tri, no offense man, but 66% to me in my games means 5% chance of success.  I have the absolute worst luck with dice…except in my game against Fox.  Poor man, he got nothing, lost a ton.

    You wanna find out, go look.  I’m not going to post it here.  But suffice to say, it left me aweful tempted to try a KJF strat.


  • He slightly underpowered a couple of fights, but he did get hammered by Dice.  Gibraltar BB still alive, Egypt still UK’s, UK fleet in the Med, and he had to pull back from Western… all on G1.

    It will take a LOT of work to fight back from that.

    Of course Jen then did another option for the UK fighter… it is in SZ15 with a major UK fleet :-)

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Yea.  I figured 4 British Fighters over Europe was a force to be reckoned with.  Also lets England split it’s navy for a change…since Germany’s down to 3 fighters, Carrier, DD, 2 SS, 2 Trn, 1 BB now.

    Of course, it left me weak against Japan and with Japan having a stronger then normal navy.  We’ll just have to see how it plays out.

  • 2007 AAR League

    I’m with Trihero on this one. I go with the retaking of Egypt. My policy is to also bring the UK bomber. Make Germany work for Africa’s IPC’s.

    You guys were discussing what to do with the bomber afterward. My plan following that attack is to package the bomber and fighter together and land them in Congo. Germany will need at least 2 fighters and a bomber in Libya for them to have a significant advantage. If it comes down to having only 1 unit left after the Egypt attack then I lose the bomber because the fighter can land out of range of Germany’s ability to kill it which is exactly what happened in my game against jsp last time I did it.

    The attack on the Japanese sub and landing in sz52 is also a good move. It reinforces the idea that, as Japan, you either come strong to sz52 or you don’t come at all. Anything short of overkill there is just asking for trouble.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    I think the land in SZ52 and the land in Bury are similar in rational.

    In the former you are attempting to force Japan to use more navy then normal in Hawaii in an effort to weaken them.  In the latter you are trying to force Japan to use less navy or forgo the attack and thus strengthen America.

    Both achieve the same objective.  America is stronger compared to Japan then if the British fighter just landed in India and thumbed it’s nose at the whole war.


  • Just hit Hawaii with fodder sub (if survived), destroyer, lots of air.  Most of rest of Jap fleet parks at Solomons.

    You can lose a fighter or two in exchange for not committing the Jap fleet to a counterattack by US battleship, transport, two fighters, and bomber.


  • I prefer to lose those FIGs, along with an AC, taking out the BB, TRN, and some US AF on the counter-attack.  Make them treat my AC and FIGs as a defense total of 11 instead of an attack total of 7.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Yea, if you can work it out that way.  If all you have left is a carrier, I’m hitting Pearl on Counter attack.  You have much more then a carrier and MAYBE a fighter and I’ll just kill off Germany.  Not worth the extra round to get the battleship over and the potential to loose a fighter.  Japan will surrender when Berlin falls anyway


  • Except in JSP and U-505’s game :-)


  • You don’t need the fighter in India on turn 1. If you have 4 infantry there and Japan attacks it with 4 fighters they will lose multiple fighter if it wants to take India and will have to forgo either pearl or China. (Unless there is a bid in FIC)
    Of course if they prepare to take it turn to and you want to defend it you need the fighter around but then UK1 fighter india and UK1 fighter sinkiang transpose.

  • 2007 AAR League

    multiple fighters? uk should b happy if they take out 1 because statistically it is 1/6 so if they only get to fire 4 shots thats less i cant do math but japan can take it on J1 if they realy wanted to … they could sacrifice fighters if they r desperate and if you didn’t take out the transport there is no need for fighter sacrifice because you can send in 4 inf nd a bomber


  • Well of course you take out the transport. With the destroyer it’s 6/7 to succeed. With the carrier as well (and frankly I see no better purpose for the carrier) it’s 100%.

    If you leave 4 infantry in india and Japan attacks with 2 infantry 4 fighters we have and preserves 1 infantry to take India we have:
    Attacker wins 71%
    Expected casualties:
    None 5%
    1In  13%
    1 ftr 2%
    1In 1 ftr 14%
    2 ftr 1%
    1In 2 ftr 17%
    1In 3 ftr 12%
    1In 4 ftr 7%
    2In 4ftr 29%

    Assuming no possible counter that’s an expectation of
    -26.83 Japaneese losses
    +10.5 British losses
    +4.38 expected territory gains
    = -11.95 IPC for the Japaneese

    And that doesn’t  include forgoing Pearl Harbor which is something like ~+20 for the japaneese. I would be more than happy to give up any strategic advantages India has for such a huge economic windfall.

  • 2007 AAR League

    @Infantry:

    Well of course you take out the transport. With the destroyer it’s 6/7 to succeed. With the carrier as well (and frankly I see no better purpose for the carrier) it’s 100%.

    If you leave 4 infantry in india and Japan attacks with 2 infantry 4 fighters we have and preserves 1 infantry to take India we have:
    Attacker wins 71%
    Expected casualties:
    None 5%
    1In  13%
    1 ftr 2%
    1In 1 ftr 14%
    2 ftr 1%
    1In 2 ftr 17%
    1In 3 ftr 12%
    1In 4 ftr 7%
    2In 4ftr 29%

    Assuming no possible counter that’s an expectation of
    -26.83 Japaneese losses
    +10.5 British losses
    +4.38 expected territory gains
    = -11.95 IPC for the Japaneese

    And that doesn’t  include forgoing Pearl Harbor which is something like ~+20 for the japaneese. I would be more than happy to give up any strategic advantages India has for such a huge economic windfall.

    Better use for the carrier would be to save it to eventually be used to carry the fighter to maybe go island hopping when japanese fleet is distracted by the US. and i dont know wut yur numbers mean exactly but 3 ipcs is one less infantry that britain can build and 1 more that japan can build so if -11.95 IPC is wutever u say it is it will pay for itself in 4 turns but there is also the luck factor and everything which is the reason why you can’t only go by math


  • Always remember any defense of India means UK is giving up 6-9 IPC in Africa, with a potential loss of up to 11 IPC’s if you add Madagascar and Trans-Jordan.

    Madagascar usually is not worth the cost to Germany, but Japan often claims it in Domination games.


  • 1)I got the numbers by multiplying each expected casualty percentage by its value.
    2)But Japan can overwhelm any defense of India (if they feel like it)  in three turns so you never get five extra turns out of it. (One turn of profit is built into the calculation)
    3)Island hopping is a lot easier if Japan does India over pearl on turn one.
    4)If the dice hate you all your endeavours are doomed anyway

    Of course for me it’s a moot point since I agree with ncscswitch and leave India with 2 men in order to recapture Egypt.

  • 2007 AAR League

    I recapture Egypt too i’m just saying

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