@Gharen:
Yeah the issue hear being, even if you take the western US, you have pretty much lost the rest of the board and are letting China and UK do a 1 2 punch on you. The reward for taking out just the US is not worth the risk of losing all your mainland Asia holdings and the risk of crippling your navy and airforce. Taking out USA doesn’t guarantee a victory, it just knocks out 1 player. It really doesn’t make it worth while going only after the USA.
I’m not sure I agree, but a prepared US player can successfully defend against this strategy.
Please refer to these threads, listed in order of appearance:
Kill USA First
J1–>Alaska; J3 Game Over.
rethink of USA capture
With that said, that doesn’t mean this strategy isn’t worthwhile pursuing later in the game if the opportunity arises. As a matter of fact, I’m about to go invade San Fran right now…