Hello, I play pacific 1940 a lot. I have also played global a few times. Pacific 1940 second edition is a great game but I can almost easily win every time if I’m Japan and I attack on the third turn. A new rule was passed around late 2014 to allow the USA to receive a 30 IPC bonus if Japan attacks or declares war on them before turn 4. This seems to balance the game a little but I can still always win with Japan. The strategy for Japan is pretty much the same. Take the money islands, build a minor in French Indo China and Kwangtung and knock out China and India. Post in the Philippines with your huge navy and three fighters that can scramble and those six deadly kamikizes. Let Anzac and USA come to you so you can use the fighters to defend at 4 when the big navy battle happens. Eventually you will be making more than the allies with the money islands NO and the India NO. You should be around the 70-75 mark. Then when the time is right strike at Sydney or Hawaii and hold it and you should win as it will be six victory cities. For the allies, man this can be tuff lol. You better hope Japan attacks you on turn 1 or turn 4 because turn 2 and especially 3 it’s going to be difficult.
1: China: buy men and hit and run and fall back to the north west of China. You will be lucky if the Burma road is open more than two turns. Pull back and make Japan come to you.
2: UK: pull everyone back to India and just buy men!!! Try to bring your navy down to Australia and unite them with Anzac and hopefully later USA. If it looks like India is going to fall then pull your airforce out and send them to Australia to hopefully land on a Anzac or American carrier. If Japan hasn’t declared war early then take as many islands in the south as possible .
3: Anzac: small ships and transports are good. if it looks like Japan is going to invade then pull your forces to south Australia because from there you can hit any territory. Use your small ships to convoy raid or unite with the main USA fleet. Queensland is a great staging area for the allied navy early in the game. Also since there’s a airbase there fighters don’t hurt also since they can scramble.
4:USA: the big boy lol. The problem is when USA is neutral she only makes a freaking 17 ipcs a turn. While Japan is around the 40 mark and Japan has soooooooo many aircraft at its disposal. USA I say aircraft carrier early then mainly subs, destroyers, and a transport every turn with land units. A few rounds into the game get a navy base on the Johnson islands and start combining your fleet with the Anzac fleet and hopefully a small UK fleet. try to take the money islands by sacrificing transports because Japan will have a bigger navy early in the game. When the time is right move to Dutch New Guinea with your fleet and prepare for the big battle. Sometimes it’s better if Japan attacks you and sometimes it’s better if you attsck them. Hopefully you will have a lot of subs at your disposal. If you win the navy battle then Japan is pretty much toast even if they have India and China. Good luck and let me know how the war goes lol. I am playing anniversary edition on Saturday 😜
Japanese airbase strategy?
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Having finally gotten a few games on both sides under my belt, I was pondering some alternative strategies. One thing I’ve found as Japan is that a large portion of my naval budget went to carriers, in order to leverage the massive number of planes you start the game with. I was wondering. Has anyone considered forgoing carrier purchases, using the ones you start the game with to grab territory then buying airbases for a few key islands and using those airbases as “fixed carriers” Seems like it might free up a good chunk of change for destroyers and subs.
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Having finally gotten a few games on both sides under my belt, I was pondering some alternative strategies. One thing I’ve found as Japan is that a large portion of my naval budget went to carriers, in order to leverage the massive number of planes you start the game with. I was wondering. Has anyone considered forgoing carrier purchases, using the ones you start the game with to grab territory then buying airbases for a few key islands and using those airbases as “fixed carriers” Seems like it might free up a good chunk of change for destroyers and subs.
Or you can capture US airbases. I always take Guam to prevent US bombers from hitting SZ6 and if you are looking to hit Hawaii you can take Wake and land plenty of fighters and bombers there. The other option is Midway but it is farther to the Carolines and the Marshalls and it might be a good idea to have other islands close to escape US counterattacks.
As to building airbases I only tried doing it at the Solomons (the Marshalls or any other islands are far from any big targets) to prevent the US fleet from moving into NSW’s sea zone. But the real key to projecting power might be simply to conquer and hold New Guinea and drop your airforce there. Of course this has the inconvenience of J how having a lot of places out of position to move elsewhere, even with an airbase there. -
Having finally gotten a few games on both sides under my belt, I was pondering some alternative strategies. One thing I’ve found as Japan is that a large portion of my naval budget went to carriers, in order to leverage the massive number of planes you start the game with. I was wondering. Has anyone considered forgoing carrier purchases, using the ones you start the game with to grab territory then buying airbases for a few key islands and using those airbases as “fixed carriers” Seems like it might free up a good chunk of change for destroyers and subs.
Or you can capture US airbases. I always take Guam to prevent US bombers from hitting SZ6 and if you are looking to hit Hawaii you can take Wake and land plenty of fighters and bombers there. The other option is Midway but it is farther to the Carolines and the Marshalls and it might be a good idea to have other islands close to escape US counterattacks.
As to building airbases I only tried doing it at the Solomons (the Marshalls or any other islands are far from any big targets) to prevent the US fleet from moving into NSW’s sea zone. But the real key to projecting power might be simply to conquer and hold New Guinea and drop your airforce there. Of course this has the inconvenience of J how having a lot of places out of position to move elsewhere, even with an airbase there.Of course, an airbase on New Guinea doesn’t permit scrambling, as New Guinea is not an island by game definition as it has a land border. Unless this has been identified as an exception in a new errata ruling.
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No, New Guinea is not an island. Islands must be contained in a single sea zone, and New Guinea is split with two sea zones.
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No, New Guinea is not an island. Islands must be contained in a single sea zone, and New Guinea is split with two sea zones.
Yes and the scramble ability is one reason I to build the airbase on the Solomons instead of New Guinea.
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Yes and the scramble ability is one reason I to build the airbase on the Solomons instead of New Guinea.
Wait, you mean the Japanese want to try and build an AF on Guadalcanal and the US want’s to prevent that? Wow, it sounds quite a bit like what really happened. ;)
As I said in another post, I really get the feeling that the designers put a lot of effort into encouraging players to follow at least some parts of the historical goals and strategies actually used in WW2.
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Yes and the scramble ability is one reason I to build the airbase on the Solomons instead of New Guinea.
Wait, you mean the Japanese want to try and build an AF on Guadalcanal and the US want’s to prevent that? Wow, it sounds quite a bit like what really happened. ;)
As I said in another post, I really get the feeling that the designers put a lot of effort into encouraging players to follow at least some parts of the historical goals and strategies actually used in WW2.
Yeah, but building the Solomon airbase is another Japanese historical mistake that I won’t be repeating again ;)