Japanese Strategy with Alpha 3

Okay, I didn’t think you would commit your entire northern JPNese force to the Russian cause… As a “solid Russian player”, I would be very pleased with myself having diverted a large chunk of your attacking units for 4-6 rounds by using my delaying tactics
Also, I would use the Mongolian forces to take Manchuria, Chinese territories and perhaps more, as those will have been left empty by your attacking force

Why don’t you just go through China to take Stalingrad (and its IC), and avoid the Amur issue altogether?

I’m always very pleased when my territories fall apart around me for no real purpose as well. The only units you’d be tying up would be my land units, and frankly they’d still be gaining IPC’s every round. My aircraft would be tied up for a maximum of 2 turns and it’s incredibly worth while.
I’d covered the Mongolian question in my previous post but I’ll reiterate:
I could do 1 of 2 things, either leave some Inf in Manchuria as it starts with 6 and not all of them are needed to wreck Russia, moreover any planes I use in the battles have to come back to a friendly space in my non-combat move phase, so putting 1 or 2 of those fighters/tac bombers back in Manchuria would be MORE than adequate to deal with the 2 Infantry that could attack me in response.
The other option would be to simply attack Mongolia at the same time that I attack Amur. The units in Jehol would be enough if I contributed 1 or 2 infantry from Manchuria.
Going through China and attack Stalingrad would A) take a hell of a long time to even get there and B) leave 18 Infantry sitting on my boarder.
With me focusing some aircraft north for a turn or two doesn’t tie up my entire army in Asia, if you look at Japans troop allocations in other zones it’s certainly not left wide open for China to go on an offensive and there is plenty left to attack the infantry china has to defend.
It doesn’t tie up my navy, doesn’t limit me too much in terms of my other objectives in Asia. I don’t see any reasons why doing as I’ve described is a bad strategy for Japan.
Also, Russia can’t take control of Chinese territories, the most they could do is help defend them, and if you think a max of 6 infantry is going to keep China safe you shouldn’t be playing Axis & Allies.
C

The only way to solve this is to play an online match against each other  8-)

Plow through Northern China and spend all your cash doing it. You will reach Moscow before Germany.

I attacked Amur with JPN this weekend to test the new rule. Interesting side effect was that it was hard for the Russian infs to block the progress of my troops because I could now also go through Mongolia, maybe clearing 1 or 2 converted Mongolian inf in the process, and thus circumvent the Russian infs, block them from both sides so that they were forced to attack me.

I think the new rule might actually be in JPNs favour

Go after Russia on J1 in the last 2 games Japan has done that and the one time it cost Russia all 18 Inf the other time it was a stall tactic, leave a man or 2 and step back then do it again.
  Look at the results Russia is loosing land value and Japan is gaining income, use your boats and planes to make the job easier and quicker also hit China and set up for Island grabbing on J3.  A factory is a good bet on J2. I also like a naval base at Hainan early in the game it makes it easier to get to India
  If ya play every week then experiment with it  always try to keep your opponent guessing wit a new strat.

In our games, Yakuts is worth 2IPC, and russia gets 12IPC when attacked to build a minorIC there as well as the Mongolian infantry. Makes it much less appealing for Japan to attack.

I like that Rule Clyde. Have you also considered making one of the Russian territories on the eastern side worth 0? So Russia still makes 37. Also maybe having japan get 12 IPC’s if Russia attacks manchuria or korea?

Something we’ve played with has a house rule (still trying to work the kinks out), if the terms of their non-aggression pact are violated and Japan attacks Russia, Russia gets 20-25 IPC’s (we’re having a bit of a hard time deciding what’s balanced) worth of units to place in any Russian territories they originally control on the Pacific board.
We also haven’t worked out something for Japan in the event Russia attacks Japan early, not that that is likely to happen often.
We ignore Mongolia because I think it’s a completely ridiculous rule. And Mongolia would never have sided with Japan.
I’m open to suggestions and ideas, so lemmy know if you have any thoughts.

C

so you don’t have anything to prevent russia from attacking japan? maybe 12 dollars immediately for japan and 21 for Russia if Japan attacks first?

We haven’t really run into the problem of Russia attacking Japan Turn 1, mostly because of what Japan starts with in Korea and Manchuria would obliterate the Inf they could use.
Japan usually attacks Russia on their first turn (at least in the group I play with), so it’s almost always Russia getting the fuzzy end of the lollypop.

C