Pearl Harbour

Introduction
This is an alternative Japanese opening in standard Axis play where Italy attacks Russia in its second turn and Germany follows in its third for an Moscow attack in G6. The main focus of this strategy however is Japan and in particular its Imperial Fleet. It celebrates the historical surprise attack on Pearl Harbour as opening of the war against the United States of America and by crippling the USA fleet hopes to buy enough time to conquer the Pacific before the USA can recover.

Strategic Goal
By destroying as much initial USA fleet in the first turn of Japan it forces the strongest Ally in a position that it first has to rebuild its fleet before it can go on the offensive. This will buy enough time for Japan to conquer the Pacific before the USA can respond.

Rationale for Strategy
Japan has most expansion potential but is also surrounded at all sides. The Russians in the north, the Chinese in the west, The British and ANZAC in the south and the USA in the west. Against strong and offensive Allied play, Japan will lose territory at the side it retreats. As soon as it commit, it will lose at other areas. While the other naval forces, the United Kingdom and ANZAC are relatively weak, the USA is able to overpower the Japanese fleet in only a couple of rounds. By destroying 1/2 of the initial USA fleet, you buy extra time for Japan to defeat the other allies before it has to deal with the might of the USA. As Axis time is crucial as this allows you to take the crucial VC or even the economic unbalance now in favor of the Allies. Therefore this strategy tries to buy time for the Japan by attacking USA first and make optimal use of the seas to attack either Sydney or Calcutta in J4.

Pearl Harbour
While attacking Hawaii with the full fleet can result into shared destruction caused by the counter-attack of USA and ANZAC, attacking the fleet near Hawaii with only cheap ships and air force you are able to deliver a striking blow while keeping the Imperial Fleet save from retaliation. In order to play as safely as possible you could invade Wake Island in J1, I opt to take Borneo instead. Also keep 2 Fighters in Japan while doing your combat-moves.

Attack SZ26 with 1 Submarine, 2 Destroyers, 2 Fighters and 2 Tactical Bombers. Make sure 1 Destroyer survives to function as blocker against the USA Coast Guard.

In your-non combat moves you move the Imperial Fleet to SZ31 and land fighters from Japan in case you lost any planes in the Pearl Harbour raid.

Dutch East Indies
The most crucial areas for Japan to conquer are the Dutch East Indies. The 20 IPC will lift Japan to a strong economic position while keeping them out of the hands of the smaller Allies (UK and ANZAC) will keep them poor and easy to defeat. Therefore I put a lot of effort in taking the islands as soon as possible. In J1 I attack Borneo with 1 Infantry + Artillery while a Cruiser and Destroyer block it from UK attacks. In J2 I take Celebes and Java with the Borneo forces and surviving troops from Philippines attack. In case you opt for India crush in J2 you also take Sumatra, in case you opt for Sydney crush you take Western Australia instead and take Sumatra in J3.

China
With the main part of the Imperial Fleet doing a Pearl Harbour attack the China and UK might go all-in on Yunnan. You will build a minor factory in French Indo China to battle this, and in emergency case you can also opt to take the money islands in J2 but send the troops to FIC for a J3 attack combined with your other troops and airforce from the mainland. In case you are able to maintain Chine by enough pressure (all not carrier based air force combined with wise movements of your land troops) you will likely secure victory for the Axis in J6.

In worst case scenario, you lost Yunnan, are unable to take it and will lose China in a short amount of time you lost the Pacific. However this strategy empowers the naval capacity of Japan to such extent that the battle is far from lost in this case. Leave Australia for what it is and go for an India Crush in J4 and Egypt Crush in J6. Combined with the G6 attack on Russia this will still result to an Axis win.

Yunnan
You have 4 Infantry, 7 Fighters, 5 Tactical Bombers and 2 Bombers to attack Yunnan J2 while the Allies can have 15 Infantry, 1 Tactical Bomber and 2 Fighters with only Pacific troops. This is too much and will cost you a lot of planes.

Therefore in case of Yunnan fortification do not attack in J2, move your Asian troops to Hunan to you can attack with 1 Mechanized Infantry, 7 Infantry and 3 Artillery extra as reinforcements turning the battle into your favour. Also move your J1 build transports to FIC while building a Naval Base there so you could capture India when UK puts all his troops in Yunnan. In case Russia heavily reinforces Yunnan, also use your naval troops instead of taking the money islands. This results into the following reinforcements (1 mechanized infantry, 12 infantry, 8 artillery, 1 tank) + 4 infantry and air force to attack Yunnan in J3.

This strategy however assumes that the Allied players will not fortify Yunnan and play defensively as I expect my opponents from reacting to a J1. We are less experienced however so your enemy might not react the same way as I expect mine to do.

Watch Russia Closely
The only power that is able to counter this strategy is Russia. It can group all his infantry at Amur in R1 while sending a mech and tank towards Yunnan, building fighters to reinforce it in R2 etc. Japan is not able to stop this and might have to abandon this strategy as soon as it sees Russia doing this. You could still continue the strategy even while Russia do these moves, but it is a lot more dangerous. However your other Axis, especially Germany should give strong signals it will focus on Russia 100% by building only Artillery. As normal Russian play is very defensive and goes in turtle mode they see Germany buying Barbarossa units, this will hopefully prevent the Russians from doing alternative things.

European Axis Help
Both Germany and Italy will support Japan in containing the USA a bit with sneak attacks.

• German Submarine attacks USA cruiser and transport G1
• German fleet will be stationed at Gibraltar G2, can do sneak attack G3
• Italy invades West Indies I2 to chip away National Objective

Japan Turn 1

Purchase new units
3 Transport, 1 Artillery

Combat Movement
SZ26 with 1 Submarine, 2 Destroyers, 2 Fighters, 2 Tactical Bombers
SZ33 with 1 Submarine, 1 Destroyer, 1 Battleship and two Transports (1 Tank, 1 Artillery, 2 Infantry)
SZ37 with 1 Cruiser, 1 Bomber, 1 Fighter
SZ43 with 1 Transport (1 Artillery, 1 Infantry)
Philippines with 1 Tactical Bomber, 1 Fighter, 1 Tank, 1 Artillery, 2 Infantry
Borneo with 1 Artillery, 1 Infantry
Shan State with 2 Infantry
French Indo China with 1 Infantry
Yunnan with 1 Bomber, 1 Tactical Bomber, 1 Fighter, 1 Artillery, 1 Infantry
Kwantung with 2 Infantry, 2 Tactical Bombers, 2 Fighters
Hunnan with 2 Tactical Bombers, 2 Fighters
Chahar with 1 Infantry
Anhwe with 1 Mechanized Infantry, 7 Infantry, 3 Artillery

Noncombat movement
Move 1 Destroyer from SZ33 to SZ42
Move 1 Aircraft Carrier from SZ33 to SZ35
Move 1 AA to Jehol
Move Imperial Fleet to SZ31
Move used air craft into range of Yunnan
Move two Fighters from Japan and Korea to SZ31 when needed

Place new units
Transports in SZ6, Artillery in Japan

Collect Income
$41 Income
= $41

To be clear, I assume no Yunnan Fortification, in case it is fortified change use of transports as earlier mentioned

Japan Turn 2

Purchase new units
1 Minor Fictory in FIC, 2 Artillery, 2 Infantry, 2 Transports

Combat Movement
Attack Malaya with 2 Infantry + lots of air craft
Attack Celebes
Attack Java
Attack Western Australia
Use Asian troops according to Chinese moves
Attack UK / ANZAC fleets when possible

Noncombat movement
Move Imperial Fleet to Caroline Islands
Send loaded transports to Caroline Islands
Land your planes in Siam

Place new units
Transports and troops in SZ6, Factory in FIC

Collect Income
$56 Income
= $56

Japan Turn 3

Purchase new units
1 Minor Fictory in Malaya, Troops in FIC and Japan

Combat Movement
Attack Sumatra
Attack China
Destroy ANZAC blockers so Imperial Fleet can invade Sydney next turn

Noncombat movement
Move two new transports to Imperial Fleet at Caroline Islands
Send your air force to Western Australia

Place new units
Factory in Malaya, troops in FIC and Japan

Collect Income
$60 Income
$5 Bonus
= $65

Japan Turn 4

Purchase new units
Buy more troops and start expanding your fleet

Combat Movement
Crush Sydney
Push to India
Push into China

Noncombat movement
What is needed

Place new units
Dependent on buy

Collect Income
$65 Income
$10 Bonus
$5 ANZAC Income
= $80

@SS:

I take it 2 battleships for sz 6 ?

Yes that was the initial idea as best choice to win the arms race with the USA as with Hawaii you heal the capital ships. Do you have a better suggestion?

A simulation of the defense of Hawaii against a USA3 attack would be:

(Minus casualties from Pearl Harbour)
6 Fighters, 1 Battleship
3 Tactical Fighters, 1 Cruiser
3 Aircraft Carriers, 2 Destroyers
= 189 IPC

2 Fighters, 1 Battleship
1 Tactical Fighter, 1 Cruiser
1 Destroyer
= 71 IPC

• 52 IPC (USA1) and 72 IPC (USA2) = 134 IPC + 71 IPC = 205 IPC

Based on this simulation (at least it prevented the USA from spending anything on Europe map) it is not a good idea to defend Hawaii against a USA3 attack, better counter-attack again on J4 and make sure you build up enough fleet to hold it for 1 turn as soon as you captured Calcutta.

An alternative option is to sail south to Caroline Islands and Australia to combine it with an India Crush in J5/6. As you forced the USA to build 100% combat ships until USA3 they will lag behind in having transports ready to prevent having you 6 capital cities in J5/6.

The European Axis Builds will likely be:

G1: 2x Infantry, 6x Artillery
G2: 7x Tanks, 3x Mechanized Infantry, 1 Bomber
G3: 7x Tanks, 3x Mechanized Infantry
G4: 5x Bombers
G5: 5x Bombers

I1: 1x Tank, 1x Mechanized Infantry
I2: 1x Tank, 2x Mechanized Infantry
I3: 1x Tactical Bomber
I4: 1x Fighter
I5: 1x Fighter

Thank you for your feedback gentleman, let me start off to explain my situation.

I play with my father and brother 2 or 3 times per year and enjoy this game so much! Personally I get a lot of joy out of trying to figure new strategies and optimise them build on feedback from the forum. We are definately not experienced online player but play the game some 10 years now and have a lot of fun playing it (10-12 hours gaming, crazy haha)

I tried the online game but I prefer to play it face to face as you have the laughter, the excitement and the beer together. So unfortunately I will not be able to test my strategies against you for now, maybe on holidays or something I will try again.

Hopefully this will not result into you abondoning giving feedback as it is so greatly appreciated :)

Back to the strategy:
The idea is to win for Japan in the Pacific, so Honolulu and Sydney as VC. With J1 it is easy to force the Allies into defensive modus and especially the UK can be neutered early on, while USA is most dangerous ally. Both China as Russia are unable to contest the seas of the Pacific.

You take Hawaii in J2, but you do not defend it, you move on to Sydney. You can try to take it in J4 and forgo the islands, but I prefer to do it J5 and focus on getting the islands first as these are a hell for the Allies to retake while add crucial income.

The USA can therefore take Hawaii back in USA3, but it will lag behind the Japanese fleet 1 turn so is not able to help defend Sydney on time.

In case you do you J1 and manage to kill the UK battleship + ANZAC destroyer and transport with your own destroyer the pacific is only defended by
UK: cruiser, destroyer
ANZAC: cruiser

While Japan still has
1 battleship, 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 2 submarines.

It can take casualties against philipines fleet or battleship though. So luck is indeed important in how much you are able to keep after J1 attacks.

So in J1 I take Borneo. I will also try to save the cruiser against the BB attack. In my J2 I might have that transport + 2 philipines transports plus Japanese fleet (bb, cr, dd, 2 sub minus casualties) + bombers and maybe some aircraft from siam to attack possible allied fleet protecting. UK can attack Borneo transport that will delay the conquest of the money islands but I think the odds are still in my favour even with main fleet at hawaii?

In any case if UK or ANZAC contest the islands, they lose their fleet next turn by Japanese counter-attack and because of their limited income they will have difficulty of recovering fast.

Japanese has 3 transports, build 3 more in J1 and another 2 in J2 so I will be able to respond where I am needed. The defence perimeter 5IPC bonus is nice, but in case the money islands are contested I can send my J1 buy transports to the money islands instead.

J1: 3 transports, 1 artillery
J2: 2 transports, 2 artillery, 2 infantry, 1 minor on FIC
J3: dependent on situation, stack FIC

If the Allies are more defensive as response to the J1 devastation it will be easier to reign the pacific ofcourse. Especially that destroyer vs destroyer battle for ANZAC is a really important one, as it takes out the transport and forces ANZAC to rebuy it in his first turn. All the fleet buys are great as I plan to take Sydney in J5.

In best case scenario (UK does not attack borneo transport)

J1: pearl harbour, borneo, philipiness + extra
J2: hawaii, money islands
J3: malaya, defence perimeter islands
J4: quensland
J5: sydney
J6 onwards: back to hawaii again

So what about UK and China? Well FIC will ofcourse prove crucial here and I can add another minor on Malaya as soon as I get it. I will push against China and then be forced to retreat, if I play it wise I can retreat in time in order to keep China contained while it grows back again. Those 2 infantry with artillery per turn from J3 onwards will ofcourse be really good. Even when China will overrun me, I will be a juggernaut and can attack anywhere at the coastline with several transports.

Same for Siberian forces, I need to contain them, so not lose my head and send all troopa into China. Defend the border with 8 inf and several fighters.

UK, I want to get 2 subs before India convoying it. Combined with UK having lost Borneo, Kwantung and Malaya it will not be able to push hard, especially when FIC is healthy fortified.

In any case, using Pearl Harbour as Japan strategy will result into a very fleet centered Japan so lots of navy builds and likely a massive fleet battle against the USA along the road.

EDIT: I realized an even better alternative. After Sydney go on to India. USA will likely defend Hawaii heavily as soon it retakes it, so taking Calcutta instead might be easier. You can decide at J5 though based on the situation.

What you did with the Pearl Harbour is to keep the USA out of the game for at least USA4 because it will have to rebuild, only builds warships in USA1+2 and start building + advancing from USA3 onwards but when he want to combine it lags behind a turn. In all this time you were expanding as Japan and taking over the pacific islands.

Therefore the rationale behind this strategy is that all the Allies can be contained with minimal troops while USA is the Allied wildcard and by going in hard vs hard you negate this.

@Arthur:

Your plan still has the big three weaknesses that I mentioned:

1. The Japanese fleet off of Hawaii can be decimated or completely destroyed on US1/ANZAC1.
2. Yunnan will be recaptured and held too strongly for Japan to retake on J2.
3. Without most of your fleet, you are going to struggle to capture and hold the Money Islands.  
        -Borneo gets recaptured on UK1 and Anzac sinks the transport on AN1, setting you back in the money islands.

There is nothing wrong with preferring face-to-face matches.  Do have a battle calculator so that you can run a bunch of options to decide all reasonable responses from the opponent.  You miss out on a bunch of possibilities if you are just judging with your eyes.

Ah thanks sorry I overlooked them, thanks for pointing out!

Can I solve them by

• only air do pearl harbour, rest waits at Wake Island as suggested
• having all not carrier aircraft air in range of Yunnan
• get two man on borneo

I could solve the borneo/yunnan problem by taking only kwantung with the transport so kiangsi troops can all attack china.

EDIT: OK some ideas, I will just accept that Yunnan will be difficult but still go for Borneo, I use 2 infantry and block the Allies from attacking the transport.

Cruiser blocks 37, Destroyer from 33 blocks 42 (instead of attack anzac transport). Conquering all the money islands in J2 is just too sweet and opens up a ton of options early on such as going towards Sydney or Calcutta.

I use the Carrier and its air from from 33 to the Philippines instead of Pearl Harbour.

I do a historical pearl harbour instead of going full on hawaii, so in J1 I attack with:
1 sub, 2 destroyers, 3 tactical, 3 fighters, keeping 1 destroyer alive as blocker.
Main imperial fleet get stationed at Wake Island, if attacks by USA air sacrifice air.

In J2, go to Carolines with main fleet and three new full transports so you have the option of doing a Sydney or Calcutta crush in J4.

I indeed give up the defence perimeter islands NO and the hawaii NO for an earlier capital crush in the pacific as the USA is able to contest the Hawaii NO constantly while taking out sydney or calcutta is extremely difficult to retake as Allies.

Attacking the USA so early will hopefully result into a slower USA that starts to attack the same turn I capture the Australian or British capital. As I can be at the other capital in two turns I hope to get a J6 victory.

The best option is to invade Sydney first, as it is easier for the USA the reinforce, it is more difficult to reach with reinforcements and more difficult to contain.

In J4 you are able to invade Sydney with
6 transports, 1 tank, 4 artillery, 7 infantry + 3 tacticals/fighters + bombardment (2 battleship, 2 cruiser) minus casualties

Sydney can have 13 infantry, 1 artillery, 2 AA, 3 fighters. Hmm those odss do not look good.

OK, I give up the DEI NO with sumatra in favour of taking Western Australia in J2 with 1 transport containing 1 tank + 1 infantry. Then in my J3 all my Asian airforce can land in Western Australia for a J4 Sydney Crush while that transport can still take Sumatra in J3. The tank in Western Australia can still participate against Sydney attack.

Suddenly you attack with
5 transports, 1 tank, 4 artillery, 5 infantry, 11 fighters, 8 tactical bombers, 2 bombers + bombardment minus casualties = dead Sydney

A0: 10
A1: 20
A2: 9

It has 39 IPC to build a defence, every investment in ships or fighter will make it easier for me.

J5 fly back to Asia
J6 crush India

Only thing that is scary is Yunnan. I do have minimal 4 land troops (hopefully 3 more) + 9 fighters, 6 tactical bombers and 2 bombers to attack it in J2 though so can hopefully persuade the Allies to not stack it. If I do not have to attack Yunnan all-out in J2 I can attack Malaya instead which is a much nicer target as I can build a factory there in J3.

To extra annoy the USA I will attack its cruiser + transport with a sub while also doing 106 with two subs.

Correction: I will crush Sydney in J4 with the following numbers

7 transports: 1 tank, 6 artillery, 7 infantry, 11 fighters, 8 tactical bombers, 2 bombers + bombardment (minus casualties)

J1: 3 transports + artillery - Pearl Harbour
J2: 2 transports (loaded) + minor in FIC
J3: troops in FIC and Japan + minor in Malaya
J4: troops in FIC, Japan and Malaya - Take Syney
J5: troops in FIC, Japan and Malaya
J6: defend Japan against USA - Take Calcutta

Likely actions from USA
USA1: rebuild fleet
USA2: rebuild fleet
USA3: hawaii
USA4: Japan or he tries to liberate Sydney in USA6 by taking caroline islands, in which case the Allies have lost as I can reinforce with planes, make sure I have a blocker close.

UK income
UK1: 8 IPC
UK2: 5 IPC
UK3: 4 IPC
UK4: 4 IPC
UK5: 3 IPC
Crushed (24 IPC - 8 infantry to build additional troops lol)

I hope my 7 artillery buy for Germany and tank + mech for Italy will force Russia into defensive mode, when extremely lucky he will even shuffle his Siberian troops back to Russia!

Rationale for Pearl Harbour strategy: Imperial Fleet gets to be useful all turns
1: attack 1/2 of USA fleet, threaten Hawaii
2: position so you force ANZAC and UK to defend, also threaten still weakish USA fleet to not come to Hawaii yet
3: destroy blockers and surround Sydney and keep USA threatened (altough now USA likely strong enough)
4: crush Sydney
5: only turn doing nothing useful
6: crush Calcutta

In case something went terribly wrong and the mainland is getting overrun by UK, Chinese and Russian forces in your Japanese turn 2/3 decide to leave the Pacific for what it is, do an India crush in J4 and go for Russia crush helping the Axis out at the Europe map. You can attack Egypt for example in J6 with your 7 transports + fleet + air.

In case USA is agressive right off the bat in USA1 I can simply unite my fleet in caroline islands so he is unable to attack as it would be suicide. He will lag two turns behind in getting the USA fleet to equal strength right?

I indeed realized I can not take Hawaii, but still do pearl harbour and take sydney or calcutta in J4 instead. What do I miss?

Imperial fleet is at least 2 BB, 3 full carriers and cruiser when combined, USA can’t defeat this in USA2 with only his coast guard.

@Marshmallow:

Well, the big thing that I see is that committing to war with the US so early means you pretty much have to keep the US engaged, and doing this early limits your income potential.

I’m not saying you can’t make this work (I have a detailed plan that gives it a good chance of success in my list of various openers), but what I am saying is that early losses for Japan without securing sufficient income for replacement is a dangerous path that basically requires you to be consistently lucky to win.

Marsh

I do make sure I take all the DEI in J2 which is +20 though. If I am correct if you have kwantung, malaya and the border chinese + DEI you are in a good financial position as Japan even without conquered capital.

As Germany + Italy focus on Russia, I plan on sending their fleet to irritate USA also (Italy getting west indies (I2) while German u-boat tries to sink his cruiser in G1.

Thanks for your excellent observation. I will organize this mess that so far have been mainly uncoherent unlogical statements withour any clear purpose. To be updated!