AAP40 Day 18 from Release Date–Opinion poll: What round should Japan attack on?

i like to play pacific 1940 2nd ed with my friend a lot but he always kicks my ass as the allies. both of us have the same amount of experience in the game having played pacific against each other about 3 times. every time i get bogged down in china due to the massive amounts of Chinese infantry, my navy gets destroyed by Americas in every single operation and and by the time uk gets to china and the anzac starts island hopping, its over. does anyone have any tips or strategy i could try out to help me or maybe a video that could explain how exactly i could try to pull off a victory? thanks :)

actually the us can enter war if any territory in n. america is captured.

Well, Kat, here is the dilemma:

If you allow Japan to take Hawaii, the following turn Japan swings down to Australia.
Add up the victory cities: 2 starting cities, Phillipines, Hong Kong + Hawaii = 5 total.
Sydney is 6. No need to slog through to India.

If you surrender Hawaii on J2, Japan could conceivably win the game outright on J4.
J3 fresh troops from Japan land on Hawaii. New Zealand falls. Don’t forget Australia does not get to scramble fighters because they are considered a continent, not an island.
Third CV returns to Phillipines to help with ANZAC attack.
J4 fresh troops arrive in Hawaii; existing troops shuttled to Queensland or New Zealand, depending where ANZAC defends.
At best Sydney holds out until J5.
As Japan I could send out DD screens to delay US counterattack.
Also, if Hawaii falls on J2, virtually every fighter in Asia I have will be in Hawaii by J4.
The scrambling rules allow ALL fighters to defend sea zone around Hawaii.

@MaherC:

come on TripleA!

It will take a while (if ever) before there’s a playable version of Pacific because of all the rule changes. But let us hope a little longer…

Buying a major IC by J3 is risky (like everything else) because you need to spend at least 30 IPCs for turn to fully use it otherwise J is wasting production capacity. And Japan needs destroyers, destroyers and destroyers to take hits and deal with subs.

Whackamatt, I would like to know when you predict the Japanese will be done with China and India if you attack on J1 as you outline, and the UK buys almost exclusively infantry with just a couple artillery thrown in.  Lets say you think you can be celebrating We Love the Emperor Day in Calcutta on turn 6 (I don’t have a number, I’m just throwing it out there).  Can the US lock down San Fran, Honolulu and Sydney before then and destroy the IJN at Carolines?  Making the Japanese investments in Asia (two ICs + several armor and infantry per turn) may give you a solid hold on Asia but the expense may still put you woefully behind the US and ANZACs.  Then there is the final problem.  The Japanese player can OWN Asia and it won’t matter if the US and ANZACs can take the home island.  I’m not trying to shoot your plan down, I am just trying to see if you have thought this out a bit further.  It is easy to look at an early Japanese move and think, “this is over.”  But that is the same way it was on December 7th when they hit everything.  I think the Allies will still have quite a bit of fight left in them.

If US decides to build up in HAW seazone, your aircraft are useless for a complete round (or more). Because you can’t fight that seazone (6 spaces). As US player I would just sit tight, build up and move to Japan via a northern route. Or go to Indies via southern route (Australia). Or build up TR with loads of cargo to take out Carolines. For every fighter it costs Japan it costs an inf for US.

And I think it will be a very dull way to play, or am I mistaken?

One other thing to keep in mind as well, Uk can move DD and Cruiser to SZs 37 & 42 to prevent a J2 capture of Sumatra, along with the deadzoning of Java that makes DEI dangerous to japan all game long.

One other thing I noticed, if Japan controls all of asia and the Philippians, not counting and DEI territories, they only make 2 more income than the US.  With that in mind, I don’t think I would mind sacrificing India to give the allies a stronger hold in DEI with naval buys as UK.

Todd,
You get an AB & NB on the Caroline islands at set up along with a ton of ships in the area. All you need to do is transport more ground units in, and you’ll get your wish.