Do you take Astralia/NZ/Hawaii as Japan?

@MarineIguana:

First of all, I want to say that USA committing any purchases to the pacific is a mistake. For the same amount of resources, the USA can always pressure Germany more than Japan. This is from my experience playing hundreds of revised games, many at a high level.

That said, assuming the US commits to the Pacific…

1. Japan should always sink the US fleet at pearl harbor. If this is done, Japan generally starts with a 1 battleship, 2 carrier, 3 fighter advantage compared to the USA that will take 5+ turns of buildup for the US to overcome.
2. The US can’t make significant advances unless the Japan fleet is destroyed. The best way to stall the USA is to place your fleet in the sea zone off the phillipines or china and deadzone all sea zone within 2 spaces of Japan’s fleet. Have the carriers filled with fighters AND try to have an equal number of fighters in a land territory that can reach all the sz within 2 spaces of Japan’s fleet. For example, 2 carriers can support 8 fighters attacking a sea zone.
3. Japan can continue pushing land units into asia, even with all US purchases going to the pacific. My typical purchases are like 6 inf and 2 fighters. With the Japan fleet off of China

From what I have seen when the allies does a KJF is that, PH really isn’t that easy. If UK commits and is lucky, PH can be very difficult. Complete UK commitment would be  UK india ftr attacking the J sub in 45 with the australia sub, and then landing on PH. The Australia TT taking 2 infs to papua, the indian TT taking 2 infs to borneo, The UK CR attacking the japanese TT in 59 and the India CW either standing in 36 or 49.  At this point, taking PH might be difficult for japan. If they do it with air only (5 ftrs + bomber) they will lose about 3 ftrs for 2 ftrs, 1 cw, and 1 sub. The good news is that they will not lose boats to a counterattack, and can use their boats to deal with the british fleet, the bad news is that they are spread out, will be in trouble on land and will take 3 ftrs in losses for only 36 US ipcs (+ 10 UK).  If they try to do a heavy PH, alot of the uk fleet survives and UK will keep borneo until J3.

I still feel it is a bad move, since you are handing africa to the axis, but japan will be in trouble.

@blitzkrieg:

Hi,

i’m new, and play A&A since december, so i’m not quite good yet and still discovering new options. we started a game yesterday, and i play axis but japan is getting tricky.

it’s J2 now and this is the situation:
i had unfortunate rolls on china so i couldn’t take it but i got rid of the PH fleet pretty easy. (lost the sub)

-UK fleet: BB is together with the US transports and destroyer on the east coast, no UK transports left in the atlantic so no pressure in the next round for germany. the indian fleet is in SZ33.
-the RAF (5 fig, 1bom) wiped out my baltic fleet and is now located at caucasus.
-manchung is taken by 5 rus inf.
-kwangtung IC, 2 fig
-FIC 3 inf, 2 fig, 1 tank
-india 5 uk inf
-china 1 us inf
-sinkiang i us inf, 2 rus inf, 1 rus tank, 1 rus fig.
-japan 4 inf, 2 art, 1 bomb.

i was thinking of taking china with 2 inf and 3-4 fig from FIC.
then take (non combat moves) 2 inf from manilla to kwangtung 2 fig, and my AA and 1 inf to FIC.and locate 4 fig
locate my FIC fleet next to kwangtung, my other fleet in 60.

then drop an AA and 1 tank at japan, trans at 60 and 3 inf in kwangtung
which leaves to:
FIC 2 inf, AA, 1 tank, 4 fig
china 1 or 2 inf
kwangtung 5 inf, 2 fig.

so now my fleets are pretty save, and only my transport next to FIC will probably be destroyed.

there’s 1 us fig at persia and 1fig/1 bom at alaska. uk can’t reach the fleet but may take FIC with good rolls. but then the raf will be way thinner.

please help me out, is this the best solution?

cheers,

BB

First priority should be to recapture Manchuria, which should be easy with all your air power and BB bombards.  Then China , Sink, India.

You did not mention whether the USA was massing a Pacific fleet.  Assuming not, there’s not alot of pressure on Japan, so just try to focus on the best targets where you can take out the most enemy troops with least loss and also balance that against IPC gain per territory.

In this case, you can take out 5 inf with relatively little loss, and the gain is 3 IPC versus 2 in China, so thats your best choice.

@ncscswitch:

To get THAT much Japan hardware in range of the US for J2 would mandate that Japan was effectively going KUSA, with commensurate loss of income in Asia.

Not really.

7 Infantry, 2 Fighters attack China with the two fighters coming from Manchuria and FIC.  These fighters can land in Japan.
3 Fighters, Battleship, Carrier, Destroyer, Submarine, Bomber attack SZ 52
Fighter, Infantry, Armor attack Hawaii

2 Fighters from the SZ 52 battle can land in SZ 45 on the carrier and battleship from SZ 37

now, without building a darn thing you already have:

2 Battleships
2 Carriers
6 Fighters
1 Transport
1 Destroyer
1 Submarine* (If it was not lost)

vs

1 Battleship
1 Transport
1 Destroyer
3 Fighters (Assumes the fighter was lost in Hawaii)
2 Aircraft Carriers

I did not give up anything in Asia, but I did station everything in range of America.  The transport in SZ 52 can easily pick up units in Solomons to attack Australia with two bombardments if I don’t need them.

Or, don’t attack Hawaii and add 1 fighter to the defensive forces, but don’t risk losing your infantry and armor in the process.

Odds:

Attacker: 2 Battleships, 2 Carriers, Transport, Submarine, Destroyer, 6 Fighters (2 Fighters in SZ 52 can attack and land back on Wake), Bomber (assumed stationed at Wake where it can again land)

Defender: Battleship, 2 Carriers, Transport, Destroyer, 4 Fighters

(note, this does not take into account any builds for Japan that may or may not be in range of SZ 55.)

I have the Japanese winning over 99% of the time with losses of transport, submarine, 2 fighters.  I believe that is a rather good trading position for Japan.

@newpaintbrush:

@ncscswitch:

There are so many problems with OOB rules that basically no one uses them anymore.

He’s callin me basically no one.

Wah.

my second ˝karmation˝ goes to you

I like to build transports first because they can get free units off the islands and also help capture Hawaii, Aus / NZ, India and Madagascar.

Thank you kindly

@ncscswitch:

Off topic folks.

Technically, you could call these illegal/legal moves.

Beer helps this visualization.

:mrgreen:

Hi Hannibal (ante portas),

In fact, I agree with pretty much you said. Surely I couldn’t keep up with your tactical understanding when A&A was new to me. So congratulations at first.
Nevertheless there’s some more input. Just my humble opinion:

Except of the Baltic AC in your first round, ships usually don’t buy for Germany. If you really want to build 1-2 Subs/Trans in the Baltic each turn you’ll have to stay there with your own navy or they’ll be sunk immediately with british airforce. UK and US can together close you up in the Baltic and wait for your attack, of course it will be costly for them, but usually more expensive for you.

You are quite right about going through the north is a superior strategy. Karelia is a very strong position for both sides. As the axis you should take and hold it in the first round. UK has different options to support Russia. His support in NWY can be strafed to death by your forces in Karelia. Better to cut of your supply lines in EEU after your Baltic fleet is removed. Or, most likely, he can support Archangel, so you’ll meet the main UK/Rus forces in ARC.
If you wanna go south through UKR, Russia will concentrate it’s forces in CAU and the UK can take a lot of your income away from you. You won’t be able to trade more than one territory with Russia (WRU), but it’s harder for Russia to trade a lot of countries (due to the max. of 3 Ftrs)
In fact, I most likely wait in KAR until the japanese player puts preassure on Russia which forces the allies to retreat on my front, then I take a step into WRU.

Don’t underestimate a US counterattack on Pearl Harbour. Especially if the go KJF it’s very hard to replace your lost navy again. An aggressive british opening in the Pacific and a Pearl counter, 2 ICs in IND and SIN and Japan is in big trouble.

You are quite lucky that your Russian player is rather predictable. Maybe he should be more aggressive, attack UKR, build some tanks or even a Ftr, etc.

These are just my opinions and can, of course, vary in different games and against different ways to play. I hope this gives you some input.