The response for that Shadow is for Japan to not sweat. Calm, rational, deliberate action.
You don’t have to counter every single move as Japan. You don’t have to, for example, worry about killing the destroyer off Kwangtung. What threat does it really pose if your navies are defendable? Zero. Kill Pearl and China, bring your E Indies fleet to clean out the carrier and transport, and an inf/ arm to F Indo- most likely the Brits lost 2 infantry taking it (at least). Bring 5 infantry and 2 fighters to China. Sure it’ll cost more than normal but you’ll win. Send an extra fighter to wherever the British fighter landed (either China or off French Indo). Allow Russia to step into Manchuria. With a 3 transport (placed in SZ 61)/ 2 infantry build you’ll crush all 6 if they brought them. If less it’ll be even easier. Hey, they’re dead Russians, which is good. Do the normal Pearl strike. Expand as usual on J2 and beyond.
Yes these moves slow down Japan, but they make Germany’s life easier. With the moves you described German armor is racing south in Africa, and once Japan has taken out the Brits in the pacific theater on J1, India is ripe for the plucking for either Japan or Germany (G3 med fleet escape). Personally I’d rather conserve the British carrier, transport, and fighter. On UK4 they lock down SZ12 while the combined fleets are hemming in Germany in the north.
The first time someone sees an aggressive Britain in the pacific it might freak them out, and they might do something silly, but if you’ve been around the block a few times…
I’m not saying by any stretch of the imagination that these are bad moves Mr. Hawk. I’m pointing out how I would counter them and the game-wide ramifications, in my opinion.
