New Axis strategy….has not failed yet....

@arthur-bomber-harris said in A Nameless but Effective China Strategy:

Round 2: Japan captures 3 out of the 4 of the following territories: Malaya, Java, Sumatra, and Celebes. In your game you only captured Malaya.

Everything goes down the drain if you don’t have a strong J2 turn.

I’m not a fan playing against myself - it can make you go blind and miss obvious moves. The J1 was Cow, and J2 - 3 were Andrew’s moves from our mini-test.

The real problem is turn 3. The Allies have mid-sized fleets off both India and Queensland. As for as I can tell, Japan has 3 options for J3:
*Option #1 - Put the IJN in between the Allied fleets. This is what Andrew did, and is probably the least bad option. Most likely outcome is you trade the IJN for both Allied navies.
*Option #2 - Attack one of the fleets. Face the multi wave counter attacks ready on either side. Most likely outcome is you trade the IJN for only 1 of the Allied navies.
*Option #3 - Retreat north. Allow the Allied fleets to merge into a fleet bigger than the IJN. I haven’t played against this yet, but it feels like Japan is turtling.

Note - the absolute best realistic outcome Japan can hope for in the first 2 options is wounded capital ships limping back to a NB while facing another turn of Allied attacks.

I really hope I’m missing something and there is a 4th option.

It projects a bigger threat by still allowing a destroyer and even a carrier if you want to reach 54 in case America or Anzac puts a blocker in 46.

I find this move allows more flexibility than keeping that carrier off Carolines.  Granted, it doesn’t allow me to move 2 carriers back to 6, but I’m never going to do that anyways; I want to bring them to the money islands to protect my transports.  And provided that I commit myself to taking at least either Indonesia, Celebes, or Philippines on J2 (a no-brainer), then that carrier off New Guinea won’t be out of position.

So the major advantage, besides the one I listed at top, is that it allows you to get 2 more planes into any fight off 54 without requiring you to leave a carrier out of position.  You just have to remember that you’ll be shuffling your planes all around on to different carriers when you plan out your J2 combat.  Planes from your carrier in 36 should land in Asia, making room for the planes from the carrier off New Guinea, which hop over to make room for the planes from Carolines.

@teslas:

edit-
Brazil seems inferior to Central US/SE.Mexico? Both are 4 away from SZ 92. Both are 6 away from London.

The Central US territories additionally also allow it to get back to Hawaii. Brazil does not. Any reason why you prefer Brazil?

You’re probably right.  Two things for you to consider, though.

One is, maybe USA is not at war yet so you can’t land on Central USA.  Maybe ANZ or UK has taken Brazil.

Second is, you do have more options to get deeper into Africa.  But you’re probably right - Central America would be better in many cases.

Taking out SZ 97 is the most crucial move for UK 1.  Even if Germany is threatening Sealion all UK has to do is send the strategic bomber + the SZ 98 fleet (assuming a sub bid) and they have a 78% chance against a 3 fighter scramble.  The only other viable option is buying an air base and Non combating the SZ 98 fleet over to Gibraltar.  This is an inferior move in my opinion.  Smashing Italy’s Cruiser, transport and BB on turn 1 is just so good.

Good suggestions, except it leaves me wondering about Japan putting some, even a little, pressure on Russian.  Like I said before, it is in my DNA to squeeze Russia with the Axis.  It may be that your suggestions are the best route for Japan but including a smaller invasion of East Russia.

I agree with Frank T and Brado… but I build 7 more transport during G2 (which brings them to a total of 10). Italy must focus on Egypt at first (taken at I2) and then hold strong Gibraltar to sceal Med Sea and US footstep to Europe.

Battle for Russia will be long and with a slow start, but will succeed. You have to cause many frontline… and Japan should attack Russia the very first turn.

@ Rock’n Roll : Yes, I won 4 times here…

Minor ICs can be built on any territory you control worth 2 IPCs or more.

I am in a Global game now.  We just finished Round 9 and decided on a break for a while.  I am playing Germany and the Russian player is also handling China.
Germany captured Paris Round 1, forced a Sealion Round 2 and was successful but at somewhat high cost.  Round 3 took the 3 big neutrals - Spain, Sweeden and Turkey - which also took a fair amount of resources.  Therefore, I don’t think I was able to build up enough in the east for Barbarossa like I would have preferred.  I had a good force by end of Round 3, but it certainly could have been better.
Italy really struggled with Britain in Africa and the Med.
Japan took a gamble by bringing USA into the war Round 1 by attacking Brits and the Philippines.
As for Russia, first three rounds she spent building a lot of infantry along the border with a few artillery and tanks.  Round 4 Russia actually attacked Germany, which I really was not expecting.  Sank all my transports and took an unoccupied Sweeden from me.  Round 5, she had destroyed all three army groups in Europe, took Warsaw and was only frustrated by Finland with a bloody repulse.  Round 6, she threw a massive army at Berlin.  Lucklily, the last couple of rounds of combat went my way and Berlin survived with just 1 fighter unit left.  Both sides were severely depleted but Germany still had her capital.
Fast forward to Round 9. 
Now Germany is getting strong again, starting to advance into Russia itself and threatening Leningrad.  German Navy has been sunk by the US Navy and they keep fighting back and forth over Spain, which US currently holds with a fairly strong force. 
Italy finally finished off all British and French troops in Africa and has a tank running around blitzing territories.  Most of Italy’s resources have been spent trying to help Germany with Spain and threatening Russia with a small force from the south.
Japan has all but destroyed China – 1 territory and 1 infantry unit left.  They have grabbed Calcutta and control Eastern Asia and the DEI.  However, both the Imperial Navy and the US Navy have been slugging it out and are almost non-existant.  Also, Japan has tanks creeping west toward Russia.
So, while Russia is still a ways from being “out of it”, they are in pretty bad shape.  I have seen this in other games as well.  Russia is just too dang big and can’t seem to get a decent number of reiinforcements to the front.  When they start a big offensive, if it runs out of steam then it seems like Germany always grinds them back.  Unless the US can get over there with a large enough force to really threaten Germany in Western Europe, Russia will be taken out and then Germany will have plenty of money to deal with the US and push them back out of Europe with help from Italy.