Has anyone tried a J1 invasion of Alaska?

Thank you for the clarification. :)

I wouldn’t imagine building an mIC there ever worth it, but that’s just me.

Crockett36, just an FYI this is a Pacific 1940 thread, NOT a Global 1940 thread. So keep in mind your parts about defeating Germany are invalid in this particular situation  :-)

To sort of piggy back off of crockett36’s post though, for those that apply to a Pacific 1940 game, you’ll definitely need to look at how the whole game plays out. By that I mean, you’ll probably need to be prepared to be semi-aggressive with ANZAC and UK both with an Alaska strategy. As Crockett36 points out, you’ll be throwing most of your force that way presumably, so that leaves Japan to (also presumably) focus efforts north as well. If that happens, you’d want to be ready to pounce as ANZAC and UK, wouldn’t you? Attack the Caroline Islands, fortify the Philippines and DEI, etc.?

That all said, the other tricky thing about this strategy is knowing you start out on the second foot to Japan. they get to go first, so will dictate play a lot. Also depends on when Japan attacks. They start out with an obviously significantly larger naval force than the US, and could potentially leave enough force to deal with Alaska, and also continue to strike south. If a J1 happens, I think an Alaska build up is rather difficult.

But, if it’s delayed to J3, with a US entrance to war on US4, then you may reasonably be able to have built up a decent size force to do this. Again, assuming you coordinated with ANZAC and UK as well. This might all be pointless to do if ANZAC has only built defensive ground forces, or UK gone all ground force to help China, etc. You’d essentially have an empty theater in the south where Japan isn’t getting hit in that case. Or, by staying defensive, might allow Japan to still do what needs to be done in the south pacific without jeopardizing it’s Alaska force much.

@dinosaur:

Yes, they made an exception for Japan although you never “Build” an IC there.  Also they made the funny rule about only scrambling planes from an island, and Japan is able to defend herself while New Guniea (I think?) is split into two TT.  There are a few contrivances on the map like that.

If you are not playing by the OOB rules, then you can scramble from any TT, with an airbase, bordering a SZ.

@Whackamatt:

Well, I suppose the US economy could go up if they took some DEI, but really, if that’s happening, that it’s pretty much over for the Japanese anyway.

Not in my game  :-)  Func really likes to snipe at those DEI islands.

Sure, I hear what you’re saying, but it really didn’t take me long to get the fleet back to a position.  And I don’t recall the ANZAC transport being an easy kill in J2 - my opponent doesn’t throw it away so easily.

And what else is there for the Japanese navy to do?  It’s not like the USA navy is going to move in right away because of this move.  There’s till plenty of navy at the Phillipines.

I have no need to persuade you.  I think it’s a good move, and will likely do it again in the future.  Yes, it invites ANZAC to attack you with fighters (depending on how much J brings down) and perhaps invites the USA to venture farther west, but that’s fine with me.  It’s like a trap.

@UN:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@UN:

Did you also put in the 10 Chinese infantry?  :?

yeah. Keep in mind that japan had 8 more planes than the allies.

I still call it luck. Grumble

I have a question. I think, since Japan has no navy at ALL in the Dutch East Indies I can have ANZAC send its submarine fleets to disrupt convoys there. But I’m not sure exactly how convoy disruptions work. It said it can’t exceed the combined IPC value of all adjacent territories or islands in the disrupted sea zone.

So if I had 4 submarines in SZ42, the most amount of IPC I can destroy is 19 IPCs (3 from Malaya, 4 from Sumatra, 4 from Java, 4 from Boreno, 3 from Celebes)?

Z42 only borders Java, so you can only disrupt Java for 4 ipcs

So my group has completed a game where Japan went for America.  We figure that whether or not Japan wins is dependent on a few things.

I don’t remember whether the final assualt on WUS happened on J3 or J4.  I think it was J4, and they waited until J3 to attack Alaska?  Either way, the statistics were about a 45% chance for Japan to take WUS.  They needed some AA misses to throw it in their favor.

There really is little that the UK and ANZAC player can contribute to the defense of WUS.  The best thing for them to do is go crazy in the absence of the Japanese forces.  By the time America fell, the UK had liberated most of China, and had several rounds to build up a navy with the help of the DEI income.  Australia also had a bonus going on, adding 2 loaded carriers to supplement defense of the UK fleet.

Japan thought about going straight for Australia, but the UK fleet with transports(deploying from  Kwangtung and Kiangsu factories) was already threatening Japan.

While America had fallen, they only gained +10 income from America, +Mexico +Alaska, while giving up on their territories in the Chinese mainland.  They were being out produced by the Allies, and out of position to restablish a hold on the mainland.

If the Japanese do not take NSW in turn 1, the ANZAC folks can put their destroyer off New Guinea.  With a destroyer there, the Japanese can not reach NSW from the Carolines in a single turn.  The Japanese would have to attack the destroyer in turn 1 or do some other move to open up the sea lanes to NSW.  For these reasons, an early attack on NSW does not look very good.