In the two previous games I won at AAG40 I was helped out by the fact that the U.S. player dropped almost all of his purchased units into the Pacific map. This culminated in a massive fleet/air battle in the Pacific where the U.S. lost everything and Japan scampered away with a shadow of itself left. But the U.S. player spent two more rounds rebuilding the Pacific fleet. By that time, and with no help putting pressure on Germany in the Atlantic, Moscow fell. So, Gargantua’s counsel of getting U.S. to overextend in one theater played out here (although not intentionally pursued on my part).
As Japan, I took out China and most of Asia coming close to India. I just couldn’t get enough troops to mount an attack in India as it was by that point similar to Moscow with large stacks of infantry supported by fighters.
When I say “classic strategies die hard” I mean that it is hard to let go of a strategy that worked for so long in the classic game. It is in my DNA to crush Russia with the axis. But in global I don’t see Japan pushing large stacks at Moscow, but “bilking” the reds out of IPC’s is efficient enough to put pressure on Russia in tilting the economic advantage towards the axis in Barbarossa.
I just haven’t played AAG40 enough, nor with alpha rules, to have the experiential knowledge of what is Japan’s best course of action. I couldn’t take India before but that may have been because the U.S. employed it’s full economic force in the Pacific pressuring Japan. To these inexperienced eyes in this new version of a classic game it seems entirely too easy for Japan to overextend itself by doing too much: putting some pressure on Russia, taking out China, going for India, and fighting off the U.S./Anzac fleet is a tall order for one economy.
In the classic version purchasing the right units for your long term strategy was a key to winning. Many more variables in this new version. It may be that game experience will be the best tool, including failing at some strategic gambles. Hearing other players game experience can certainly help curb the failure rate for me though!