It seems to be a popular view that Japan is wasting its money if it buys a complex before it has maxed out the first one (i.e. is transporting 8 units/turn to the mainland). However, I am of the opinion that 2 tran 1 IC–this is assuming $1 bid to Japan–is the optimal J1 purchase for getting units to the mainland quickly. There was an old thread (sorry, I couldn’t find the link on my first search and I’m too lazy to look harder) that had some calculations to this effect, but for the short version, consider:
—If you build 3 tran on J1, you can put 8 units in Asia on your second turn. However, with 2 tran 1 IC you can get 9 units there: 6 from your three transports, and three more from your complex. With a 2 IC purchase it’s down to 8 again, one from your transport and 6 from your complexes. (I’m assuming throughout that the UK killed your transport in SZ 59 so that you only have one to start with.) So if you’re trying to get as many units to Asia on J2 as you can, 2 tran 1 IC is the way to go.
—4 tran on J1, using a bid of $2, is also a good way to start fast. However, in this case your capacity outstrips your income; it will be a couple rounds before you can actually get new units fast enough to keep your transports busy. The 2 tran 1 IC buy is better optimized at keeping your production/transport capacity matched up with the number of units you can afford to produce. In particular, a 4 tran J1 purchase enables you to put as many as 10 units into Asia on J2 if you clean out Philippines, East Indies, Okinawa, and Wake, but then you run out of island units and can only make up to 8 new ones in Japan. So you get a lot of inf on J2 but it’s more of an anomaly, where the 2 tran 1 IC buy gives you a smoother and more continuous startup.
—As far as location, I like FIC the best. Kwang is farther from Moscow than either Fic or Man, so if you’re trying to put pressure on the Russians quickly you want either Fic or Man. You can supply plenty of troops to the northern area from Japan itself, so the complex is needed more on the southern end. Plus it enables you to get to Africa, Caucasus, etc better.
—So far I’ve been assuming KGF. In KJF you should certainly be a bit more hesitant about getting factories up quickly. However, I’ve found that a FIC complex, which is always where I build on J1 if I build a factory at all, can be very helpful in KJF. Ideally when defending against an American fleet you want to defend as far out as possible, e.g. with a fleet in the Caroline or even Solomon islands. However, if you’re forced to fall back, FIC is a great fallback point. The key thing about it is that it borders all three of your valuable islands. If you get in trouble you can fall back to SZ 36 and build more ships there to join your retreating fleet. Often this will be enough to prevent the Americans from taking any of those expensive islands right away. If your only factory is in Japan you’re forced to keep your navy farther north to incorporate the new builds, and the Americans have an easier time getting to the southern islands.
J1 Two IC Build
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I may in my current game :-)
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well done then. Im talking about LL btw.
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I’ve taken Russia on J4 and on G3 before. But it’s ultra rare and usually against someone who decides to buy tanks on Russia 1 or even worse, I’ve seen a 2 fighter build on Russia 1 (classic.)
But they have it right, in classic AND revised Japan is pretty immune to American aggression for a couple rounds at least, maybe even 3 rounds so clearing islands is easy. The bad news, cleared islands are easily conquered. Which is why, normally, in a KJF situation I like to leave 1 US Infantry, 1 Armor, or 2 Infantry on conquered islands with value on them. (New Guinea, Philippines, Borneo, East Indies, Philippines, Okinawa, Hawaii.) That way if I loose the fleet somehow or Germany sneaks out they cannot liberate my islands.
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well done then. Im talking about LL btw.
What is LL? all the acronyms are confusing sometimes.
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Low Luck
Basically you add up all the attacker’s attack values and divide by 6 and that’s the number of hits you get (any remained rolled on one six sided die for a potential extra hit.) You do the same for the defender.
For insantce, if you attacked 3 infantry with 3 fighters and 3 armor you would have the following:
Attacker: 3 Armor, 3 Fighters combined attack value of 18. 18 divided by 6 is 3. Attacker gets 3 hits automatically.
Defender: 3 Infantry combined defensive value of 6. 6 divided by 6 is 1. Defender gets 1 hit automatically. -
thanks for that tid bit.
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well done then. Im talking about LL btw.
This is ADS, but the dice are not the factor… 14 German ARM in Ukraine, and 7 German FIGs on the board (plus the 26 INF, 1 ART, and 6 ARM that Japan has in Asia) seem to be the key.
:mrgreen:
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no arguing that.
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How about this crazy J1 build:
1 IC in FIC, 1 IC in East Indies?
EI threatens Africa, the red sea and Persia all one TRN move away, and can fill 2 TRNs each round. With this build I think the Axis should be able to take Caucasus pretty quickly and also control Africa and the Mediterranean, and Australia.
EI and FIC are also well placed to defend Japan’s high-IPC islands.
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I think it might be too slow for taking Asia and too fast for taking Africa.
Japan’s main problem is that it needs to build a large amount of infrastructure to support it’s troop movements. In your case, you would still need to build a bunch of TP’s. Exclusively building the infrastructure first and the troops later leaves the allies with too much time and money. Japan has to split it’s income to simultaneously build the infrastructure and the troops to keep up the pressure and also ensure an adequate income to expand which means, in my opinion, TP’s first, IC’s later.
Japan will make more money because it will take Africa sooner but it will be at the expense of Germany. Germany needs some or all of the African income in the early rounds and Japan taking that money will leave Germany short.
It might work if you just abandon Africa with Germany and go strictly Europe but I think it will only benefit the allies. Russia will be able to keep less troops in the east because Japan will be spreading themselves pretty thin early by going after Africa and a strong US push into Africa and the Med will leave Japan with too many territories to attack and defend with little chance of being able to concentrate it’s offensive units firepower.
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In my two recent games however Russia has kept nothing in the East anyway. I guess you would still have to build more TRN anyway. Maybe the EI IC is a better build later on.
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