@genken Thank you very much Panther & Taamvan…
Alternate strategy for Japan
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Hey guys wanted to get your ideas for a game i’m gonna be playing next week. I’ve never played Japan despite the fact that I’ve played 10+ times. Everybody is big on the Calcutta crush although I’ve never seen it successfully pulled off in anyone of my group games. It definately has its merits because of how devastating it is to the allies if successful. I look at it as high risk high reward. The two problems I have with the Calcutta route are firstly if you’re not successful you’re pretty much screwed, secondly I dont like my entire fleet all the way down by India while the US has a huge fleet sitting off the coast of Japan convoy raiding it and making it very easy for them to take back the Phillipines. In the meantime the Japanese fleet had to engage the small British fleet in order to open the way to Calcutta. I realize that the Brit fleet will be wiped out easily but can still weaken the Japanese fleet somewhat so when you have to swing it all the way back toward Japan to confront the Americans your fleet will be somewhat weakened. I still support the idea of plowing through China building a Factory on Kiangsi and trying to push towards Calcutta that way. My proposal is a J2 attack against Australia. First Round purchase 2 transports and a minor for kiangsi. Second round you now have 6 transports. bring your entire fleet and amphibious force to take the phillipines while your land units take Hong Kong plus the usual in Yunnan for the Burma road. The Allies will probably think a Calcutta is being prepared but instead J3 attack queensland with everything from the Phillipines. This will put you one step from Sydney and probably will give you Anzac. I like this because t forces the US to attack your fleet off of Queensland bringing that to a head. Even if you lose you’ll still break the strength of his fleet and now it will be so far from Japan that you can build another fleet….if he tries to build another fleet he’s taking valuable pressure off Germany and you could get a win on the Europe side of the board. He will only have transports and units to try and dislodge your Japanese units on Queensland. If he can’t severely weaken you it could very well be lights out for Anzac. Then America has to decide if they want to liberate Anzac or take needed resources away from the Europe board. Is this a viable alternative to the dreaded Calcutta crush?
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Generally speaking allies like to stage from queensland already because it is in range of the dutch islands… although I have noticed some players who stage from hawaii or caroline, but I like that because it is make calcutta super easy.
ANZAC take is rough against pacific heavy usa players and/or if anzac is fighter happy.
Everybody is big on the Calcutta crush although I’ve never seen it successfully pulled off in anyone of my group games.
Like you said it is high risk and high reward. It requires J1 or J2 DOW, because lowering uk pac income is so critical to the success of japan. It also requires an airbase off of kwangsi and sometimes a naval base to blast off and hit india at that critical moment.
you also have to hold shan state or yunnan at some point… so if china stacks up szechwan round 1… you need all your air in kwangsi ready to hit that, because you do not want that to get to yunnan or burma.
Calcutta is not for everybody, it is a gambit, though you can usually get 70-90% odds, what is left is half to a few of all your air units, so
I recommend just getting the money and maintaining your position on the board, even players that plan Calcutta and get everything setup and ready to go end up not pulling the trigger sometimes.
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IF you do J3 DOW and still want to have fun in calcutta. delay your J2 airbase buy, get all transports and men. position fleets right over british islands you wish to grab. J3 DOW. drop airbase and naval on kwangsi.
from there you blast off and hit india. problem is holding yunnan or shan state on that round, which is why I like J2 DOW, I plan for it with the airbase on j2 and the transport j1 buy islands out of the way etc etc…. units coming down etc I prep for it indeed, but I don’t have a binding resolution with myself to do it (basically it is fun and if i got the odds I am going in).
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Dawkland, you don’t need to actually take India to make it irrelevant. If you take Borneo, Malaya, and Hongkong their income is $7 and you could also put a sub or 2 in z39. Maybe even SBR them.
When you do your Queensland maneuver, don’t land all of your ground forces. Drop most of them, but hold back an infantry and armor on one of your transports. That way when he counterattacks Queensland and maybe wipes them out, you can still take Sydney next turn with your air units and the 2 ground units you held back.
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^ what he said.
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Actually just wiping the Brit fleet holding Malaya, Hong Kong and Borneo does starve UK east and neutralizes them so maybe making that the objective is preferable to the Calcutta gamble. One thing that kills me though is if you go after the islands you cant leave transports unguarded which means that you have to split up your fleet to defend them. If you do that the US can eat your navy up a little at a time. One of the things I like about the Sydney Startegy is that it forces the US to attack your fleet down there and whether Japan or the US wins that engagement whoever walks away is gonna be weakened. Having a weakened US fleet far from Tokyo and Mainland Asia is a positive in my book. When I play America my first two rounds of production are all fleet for the pacific I go after the Japanese fleet and have had success doing it. If I see the Japs split their fleet apart I’ll attack no questions asked. I use the Carolines as my staging area as I rarely go for Japan early. And since my friends have seen me do this I’m sure they’ll pick up my tactics. Going for Sydney prevents me from having to split my fleet as well as keeping the US far from Japan. But i could see a more static kind of play with Japan where the objectives are to hold Malaya, Borneo, and Hong Kong while keeping the Jap fleet together and close to mainland Asia. It’s not as aggressive but it’s safe play that may require the US to dedicate turn four or five production to the Pacific side helping your German friends win from there side.
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just do J2 DOW you can take pinoy and 3 islands without losing a transport and having them well defended…
do not let china stack szechwan, this is important, because china merging with uk in burma road is really bad.
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Don’t mean to sound like a n00b Cow but I’ve seen in may of your posts pinoy. what the hell does pinoy mean lol.
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slang for pilipina. flip. philippines. most people just say flip.
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Don’t worry it is not racist, I seen a calling card called call pinoy at a gas station.
Anyway, yeah you could stop the russians, it’s just such a huge investment to deal with something that can retreat. meanwhile allies are banking off the dutch islands. if you wait to DOW on J3, allies make 2.5 times more than you ><. They also block your transports with destroyers if you don’t have them hovering over the spots you want. It is worth it for them too, because for each 4 dolla spot they block you from with a destroyer they get 4 bucks that you are not getting. Also usa at queensland means you have to send out a blocker or split your fleet up or just part ways with a transport or two.
you just got to find something that works for you. round 2 works for me i deal with the russians with a minor ic.
i keep an airbase in kwangsi. manchuria is a killzone. once he takes that OH IZ ON.
because china stacks up in shensi round 1 (because you kill him in szechwan no prob with all your air and lose 3-5 fighters to kill 10-12 inf and a fighter) so that is where he goes sure you can drop an airbase round 1 but he does get the 2 more inf from suiyuan making fighter casualties like 7 or 8. he could just stack kansu.
anyway point is
usually people pull manchuria and korea westward to deal with the big chinese stack that holes up over there. There is a handfull of ways to do japan effectively, I just think J2 DOW is easier, get the islands out of the way hole india to india while pushin chinese off. i spam 3 inf a round off a minor takes 3 rounds but i get enough to push up there. I don’t really care if usa chucks fighters on korea when i push for manchuria everything is in japan and that stack is dead the turn after to the full might of japan.
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this strategy works out great!! thanks for the tipp.
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@Cow:
Don’t worry it is not racist, I seen a calling card called call pinoy at a gas station.
Anyway, yeah you could stop the russians, it’s just such a huge investment to deal with something that can retreat. meanwhile allies are banking off the dutch islands. if you wait to DOW on J3, allies make 2.5 times more than you ><. They also block your transports with destroyers if you don’t have them hovering over the spots you want. It is worth it for them too, because for each 4 dolla spot they block you from with a destroyer they get 4 bucks that you are not getting. Also usa at queensland means you have to send out a blocker or split your fleet up or just part ways with a transport or two.
you just got to find something that works for you. round 2 works for me i deal with the russians with a minor ic.
i keep an airbase in kwangsi. manchuria is a killzone. once he takes that OH IZ ON.
because china stacks up in shensi round 1 (because you kill him in szechwan no prob with all your air and lose 3-5 fighters to kill 10-12 inf and a fighter) so that is where he goes sure you can drop an airbase round 1 but he does get the 2 more inf from suiyuan making fighter casualties like 7 or 8. he could just stack kansu.
anyway point is
usually people pull manchuria and korea westward to deal with the big chinese stack that holes up over there. There is a handfull of ways to do japan effectively, I just think J2 DOW is easier, get the islands out of the way hole india to india while pushin chinese off. i spam 3 inf a round off a minor takes 3 rounds but i get enough to push up there. I don’t really care if usa chucks fighters on korea when i push for manchuria everything is in japan and that stack is dead the turn after to the full might of japan.
You can always let the Russians advance, and then after they have moved through/split up TT units from Japan across to retake territories you lost. By that time you’ll be able to start reclaiming your lost ground in China with the Aircraft you’ve freed up post India Crush.
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Well written Cow.
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@Cow:
slang for pilipina. flip. philippines. most people just say flip.
off topic: pinoy is tagalog (main filipino language) for filipino. Pinay is filipina
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