The Japan Playbook

you have 3 territories that do not implicate the mongolian rule, so if the russians depart, you can always take those with extra transports without ever comitting to a major invasion

if the russians stay, or add a fighter, they can tie up some minor forces and, at a critical time, lure japan into a diversionary attack that keeps them up north.

eiher way, the money is down south, not up there.  Still, you can take it all, provided you dont dilute the japanese fleet or money push

@Charles:

4.  If your planes have any movement points left, they must try to land elsewhere.  If the planes have used their full movements and their carriers have been damaged, the planes are destroyed.  Ouch!

That’s in the case USA attacks.

If USA was on the defensive side (Japan attacks USA fleet in sz6) the planes are allowed 1 step to find a safe landing space, not 4. That can be an Allied-controlled territory 1 step away or an undamaged carrier with room to spare 1 step away. In this particular case : Korea or Japan (if Allies control it) or a carrier in sz5/7/16/17/18/19.

In games with big bids for the Allies (35+ PUs), it is possible to hold Yunnan by adding in an additional Chinese art plus flying in an additional two or three Russian planes that were bought before the game started.  If Japan pushes all of their units to Kwangsi on J1, the Allies will have to vacate Yunnan before J2 or face annihilation.  However the Chinese can counterattack or strafe Yunnan on Ch2 since the Japanese air force can’t land in that territory, seriously harming Japan’s ground strength in Mainland Asia.

Russia will have to methodically retreat back towards Moscow for the first three rounds with this plan.  The upside in Europe is that the US can execute a KGF plan since there is less urgency in the Pacific theater.

I was leaning toward a J2 attack, however, once I calculated that it was impossible to claim the $5 NO for the Islands at the end of turn 2, I choose to stick with the J1 attack.

If the US keeps investing heavily into the Pacific, Japan has two choices:

Get all the IPC you can early (per Cow’s strategy) or…

Play turtle in SZ6 and take the long road into Moscow from the East which generally requires an IC on Manchuria/Korea or both.  In particular you let the US spend its IPC to get a fleet to take out yours in SZ6 and utilize Kamikaze to disable CV so the US aircraft cannot land and have to splash.

You have opportunities to get the Japanese Air Force into Europe as early as J4 (J1 Chahar, J2 Suiyuyan, J3 place AB on Suiy, J4 fly as far as Leningrad (Kansu - Novo - Volo - Arch - Novg).

With the AB at Nov, J5 will be a full pummel of Moscow’s MajorIC allowing German Air Force to assist in the advance of its ground units towards Moscow.  You can also open up doors for the Germans to blitz by trading Jap aircraft to open up spaces the Russians thought they had defended.  J6 is a suicide of Aircraft against Moscow to weaken the garrison on Moscow for a G7 attack there.

You can also decide to rush for an India Crush and instead of turning to face the Allied fleet Post India Crush, race instead towards the Med to assist Italy in taking and holding Egypt with your fleet.  Building IC in Kwang and FIC assist in getting more units on the board once you sacrifice SZ6 to the US.  Realize you can stop the US from loading units onto a TT from an IC in Korea every round by just buying a DD in SZ6.

I played a version of Cow’s J1 attack where I had the US fleet chase me around the Pacific - sent a TT with a small fleet of CV, CR, DD and TT (with 2 Inf) from SZ6 to Caroline to Line and was in position to land Jap units at the Panama Canal.  I ended up taking NZ instead of Pamana due to a 10 SS purchase by the US when I was at Line Islands.  The US/Anzac eventually chased down and sunk that fleet, but that occurred by the time I got it all the way back to Java and had crushed India - sometime around round 6 or 7.

Just remember, even if Japan loses Tokyo, the Axis still needs to lose Berlin for the Allies to claim victory.  There are plenty of possibilities for Japan to assist in the European theater for the Axis win in Europe.

As for the Pacific - I have played Japan the last… 6 or so games and I have yet to win in the Pacific.  The closest I came was with Cow’s J1 attack but I was short 1 TT to take Hawaii which was unguarded.

France is already at war with Germany and Italy when the game starts.  It may declare war on Japan on any of its turns.

I have been wanting to play that game with america. If japan goes all out after India it falls into the strategy even better.

I THINK the US could pump troops from alaska into siberia threatening all kinds of stuff if that japanese navy wanders too far south.

If the imperial navy stays near japan sending only a minor amount of troops to the DEI India’s air force and modest navy become more relevant. The round 4 clash between the imperial navy and the american fleet should be pretty even and america wins an even trade.

In the atlantic would you send a bomber to england and offer a supporting destroyer and transport a turn? The British navy better have their stuff together or else germany……