I played a game once where as I Japan took over most of the globe.  The next few times I played as the allies and my friend (who was one of the victims) played as Japan.  The only piece that my friend really remebered about my Japan strat was that I had an IC in Manch and an IC in FIC.  Now every time he plays as Japan on J1 he purchases 2 ICs (1 for FIC, 1 for MAN).  As an allied player I smile.  Japan needs ICs no doubt but TRNs give Japan mobility and flexibility. You will not build a new IC as Japan that can outproduce Tokyo so TRNs allow you to maximize use of your production.  In short Transports!

When I play FTF I look at the units I am going to send into battle and then count my opponents units.  Just doing that generally gives me an idea of how the battle will turn out.  If I have any doubt about wehter or not I will accomplish my mission then I may not attack.  Most the time I know the approxiamate result of the attck based on experience.  Of course lucky rolls can change all of that.

The US supplying Russia via Alaska is very easy for Japan to counter.  Also this method does not boost the US IPC level.  While this seems very selfish If the US is going to attempt to topple Japan in the Pacific, they need to get their income level up, while taking the Japan economy down.  So I agree with switch that the Island hopping srtat is much more effective.

I don’t use one during games.  Unless there are some unholy dice, I can usually forsee the outcome of a battle.  Besides I think if you base all of your attacks on the results of a simulator you are taking a lot of the fun out of the game.

I do use a simulator to run mock battles when I am trying to work on a strat.  Maybe the use of the sim during my little strategy sessions helps me predict outcomes in a face to face game, but I would never have my opponent wait while I did a number crunch.

While I have had some success not attacking Pearl, in an all out KJF I think you may be better off hitting Pearl and hitting it hard.  If you go heavy it deters a US Counterstrike on US1.  If the US does counter attack they will be left with little to no units.  Japan still has the East Indies fleet and the US (if they countered) would have no capital ships. Advantage Japan.  I also don’t like the idea of just leaving the US an AC, make pay for it if they want to build a fleet.

Sending units to Africa as the UK is a great way to stall the Germans taking your IPC.  Couple that with US landings in Algeria and Germany will either have to dedicate serious resources to Africa (Hooray for Russia) or they just focus their spending on crushing Russia (More money for UK).

Apollo you are correct in your assesment that the UK pacific fleet is dead you just have to choose how it dies.  Whatever you think is the most effective use of the pieces.  I generally send the DST to kill the JPN TRN.  The fighter either secures the assault on Borneo or kills the JPN sub, whatever I think will slow the Japanese juggernaut.  The attacks are risky but 5 extra IPC for the UK never hurts.

Once the JPN infrastructre on the mainland is set up (2 IC and and 4 TRN) you can make advances towrds the US.  I would forget about Midway and take Hawaii instead.  It’s worth one IPC and can be used as a “staging area” for any US assault. You can go north to either Alaska or W.Can orsouth to Mexico.  If you have the TRNs take both.  It takes a dedicated effort for JPN to take the US but you can’t let it detract from the assault on Moscow.  That being said the assault on the US is not a good primary  JPN strat.

Art is an asset when you build a lot of INF and are pressing an attack.  They are a solid purchase for Germany for sure and the UK.  Russia has limited use for ART.  After the first few rounds Russia is generally think of ways to stave off the incoming attacks, so why would you spend and extra IPC for a piece that offers no defensive advantage.  So I guess I would say that ART are worth it if you are pressing attack, not so much for defending the homefront.

Yeah $30 dollars in planes means no TRN and INF coming at me so I’ll throw some extra units towards Russia because the UK is not coming to the rescue any time soon.