So up until now I’ve been solidly a KGF guy. Guard against the vapid VC win, and go to town in Europe. The factor that always pushed it over the edge is the race to get planes to defend Moscow seemed/is shorter via Europe. They always arrive too little, too late. The politics is much worse in the Atlantic.
But, with Japan starting at 26, it would appear easier to trip them up on their way to 64 than to trip up Germany. I discovered that a vast majority of the American units can make their way to Wake Island. Bring transports and units and drop a naval base t1 and you are in position to move to Guam. Anzac can contribute all air and sea units by t2 and can land on newly captured islands to act as scramblers. You can put out blockers as well.
Your purchases would be subs and planes t1, 2, and 3 so that if the force were attacked your reserves would counter attack. You would take your air units as casualties first so that the fleet would go down. I’m calling this Half the Empire strategy. gotta go.
Not a bad plan, KJF could be seen as the latter approach to winning the game for the Allies though the same political system that Japan stands by still hurts the Americans to do so.
Japan doesn’t have to go to war with the Allies on J1, automatically leaving the Americans unable to do anything initially and any concentrated navy in say the Hawaiian Islands wouldn’t be a stretch for Japan to kill off with their large mass of planes.
For me, I typically bring the fight to Germany for the most part, but all the same I don’t leave Japan open to do whatever they want in the Pacific. While I have operations going on in the Atlantic, I build up a small force of American Units, I build up my navy having hoped that Japan does not destroy it and basically act as a disruption to Japan. Part of what I mean by this is instead of going all out in the Pacific taking it to the Japanese, I do minor inconveniences for them and setbacks like going as far as quickly destroying a newly built navy in the Sea of Japan as well as getting some of their Kamikazes off the board as well.
All in all, the vast size of the Pacific and the constraint of the Americans have to cross that vast size can typically make their fighting ineffective against Japan but having played your cards right, and caught Japan off guard at the right time and you can do some serious damage to the Rising Sun Empire.
@thedesertfox I assume the death of the initial navy. It’s the reserves and their reserves (more planes and subs) that draw units into the same kill zone. So the initial casualty rate is say 20 or 30 percent of the IJN. The reserves kill another 10 or 20 percent AND make the battlefield Wake. The 3rd wave goes at Wake and decimates past a threshold that makes the Japanese threat of Calcutta unalterably behind. It is US vs Japan, mano y mano. China thrives; the UK sends troops to Yunnan and planes to ME or Moscow.
@crockett36 This goes along with my “Against capital ships” video.
@crockett36 I’ve never noticed the size of the Pacific because It’s two to sz6 from the north Pac. And that is all I’m concerned about. Wake does need a naval base.
@crockett36 The Bad thing about this strategy is that a Sealion could occur, and the UK will need a decent amount of US builds towards the Atlantic if London is hoped to be taken back!!!
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, I had my hands full with some stuff.
Anyway, I think you’re headed in the right direction, though I feel like ‘reserves’ is a bit vague and too open to interpretation since that could mean anything and it’s going to take a bit more than building a few ships to beat back the Empire of the Rising Sun.
So what i’ve developed is a simple philosophy I call the “Carrier Race” which can be used for the Japanese or Americans. Basically, this philosophy involves what the name states… of the race to build Aircraft Carriers.
Personally, I’ve found that when Japan or America industrializes Aircraft Carriers, they typically prove incredibly dominant in the Pacific. And the reason for this is because when the Japanese and Americans clash in the Paciific, it is mainly islands, which as you know tanks don’t prove very useful on islands, but you can’t just bring in infantry and artillery to take back important key strategic islands like the money islands, so having carriers with fighters in close support proves incredibly useful for taking out Japan’s sphere of influence.
And thats where the solution stands, since it’s more than likely that you could lose your aircraft carrier and your battleship by a J2 Pearl Harbor with Japan having 4 aircraft carriers by that time to do it. So this would REALLY set your Pacific campaign back by a lot. All the same, you could keep your navy on the coast of California though that kind of defeats the purpose of doing a KJF tactic.
A typical build I like to do is I usually build 2 carriers and a battleship on A1 which can be diverted in the Atlantic or Pacific whatever you plan to do. Or you could build 3 carriers which could be overstepping the boundaries but it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
Either way, the Pacific can be an absolute headache for either Japan or America to deal with depending on the circumstances and obviously the rolling of course, but who knows.
Frankly even if they didnt go after Japan, it’d just be the same thing only Japan is doing it.
Both Germany and Japan have the ability to inflict their will upon the Pacific/Atlantic and the U.S. needs to take the appropriate measures to counter both of these guys at all costs.
@thedesertfox A capital race is sure to involve a loss because you are afraid of losing the expensive units. Try a game where you buy zero capital ships. You depend on the airbases on the board. What I am trying to do is to kill at least 50 percent of the IJN on the cheap. My reserves are planes that can hit the sz around Wake and then land on Wake. And subs which can reach Wake from the west coast. In 3 turns the IJN will run from this fight. When they do, I will reconstruct and move the fighters to Guam. From there you can land in Yunnan or stay there, fortify and move on Phil Islands or sz 6 itself, having made transit in that area dangerous or impossible.
A J1 move south would allow this move to proceed two turns without recourse. By then, it might be too late for the Japanese.
@nolimit I have a solution for that which involves having 6 fighters in England t1 and adding a destroyer to whatever fleet remains in the Atlantic. I would bring the cruiser in 91 and Canadian destroyer and the rest to 106. Some of the planes in the Med can land in Gibraltar and be ready to defend London or attack the invasion fleet. I would try to eliminate any remaining subs. Instead of fortifying I will try savaging the Germans invasion force with air and ships.
Definitely a more interesting and bare bones way of going about fighting the Japanese…
So many years back when I was still playing mini 1941 edition with a buddy of mine, we always had the Battleship race to see who as America or Japan could get the lead in battleships since that was the way to win the Pacific. Having gone from 1941 edition to Anniversary, America was capable of building 2 battleships a turn making me stumped as to how this was fair until I found the catch as to which carriers were the way to go.
I’ve done the math, and a whopping 2 battleships matches up to a carrier with 2 fighters on it, which as you know is not cost effective.
As for not buying capital ships… I’m trying to see a scenario of how this works out for the US. America not buying ANY capital ships? 0 battleships and 0 carriers?
So to be completely exact, America begins with 5 planes on the Pacific side of the board. Each of these planes is capable of reaching Wake Island as expected, you can even bring a bomber if you’re really tryna jazz up the airforce. All to which can reach Midway or Wake Island on Americas first turn. Now, seeing as there are 4 frickin’ fighters just chilling in one spot with like, no ground forces acting as backup, I as Japan won’t have attacked on J1, have built like 2 transports the firs tturn or a transport and a carrier to hold more fighters.
Now assuming you move your navy to Wake to protect from an amphibious assault, you’re effectively throwing you’re navy out the gate since Japan starts with a far stronger navy then the Americans, and as for subs well… destroyer. That’s all it takes to make any surprise strikes completely incapable as well as the mass amount of Japanese planes that can then strikea the submarines with access to destroyers. So I really do not know why the IJN would run from this fight… the potential to bring in 4 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers, 2 submarines, and like 4 to 5 transports of units all crashing down on Wake Island, only for the entirety of your navy to be destroyed, not only that but the only airforce you had in the Pacific.
Also, there really isn’t anything stopping me from taking Wake Island and Guam even on a J1 attack and setting up a Japanese sphere of influence with the large naval presence to go along with IJN blockers to prevent you from making amphibious landings…
I mean, I’m not saying anything’s impossible, but if America doesn’t build capital ships then they’re gonna die… they’re sailors are gonna die, and they allies are gonna’ die. There just isn’t any other way of countering the large IJN naval presence then to fight guns with even bigger guns.
@crockett36 That just means you’re giving ITALY a Free hand in the Med+Africa by devoting needed units away from the Taranto Raid and N Africa, with the US going Full KJF then ITALY becomes a Monster together with Germany!!!
@nolimit said in Converting to KJF:
@crockett36 That just means you’re giving ITALY a Free hand in the Med+Africa by devoting needed units away from the Taranto Raid and N Africa, with the US going Full KJF then ITALY becomes a Monster together with Germany!!!
That’s the way it should be with if Italy had correct leadership. Its more fun when Italy and Russia shows up instead of getting beat up most times. Just more fun for Italy and Russia players. Just saying.
@gen-manstein Not so fun for RUSSIA if the US goes KJF, the Russians need the diversion of US+UK Allied units in W Europe if the European Axis are to be contained!
@nolimit said in Converting to KJF:
@gen-manstein Not so fun for RUSSIA if the US goes KJF, the Russians need the diversion of US+UK Allied units in W Europe if the European Axis are to be contained!
Thats why you LL to Russia each turn and those allies figs can fight else where and no bid needed.
@gen-manstein We’re talking about oob rules here not house rules, hence why a KJF would be hard on Russia…
@nolimit said in Converting to KJF:
@gen-manstein We’re talking about oob rules here not house rules, hence why a KJF would be hard on Russia…
I know. Killin me !
Once u put in a bid it’s no longer oob. It’s a house rule game now.
Yeah well all the same if America doesn’t prioritize Japan then Japan’s gonna go frickin’ nuts in the Pacific and just swallow up any IPC’s the Pacific Allies had and win the game for the Pacific so you’re left with the 2 choices of which is the better way to strike at the Axis.
Hence why at the end of the day, the Axis have the optimal advantage over the Allies. The United States can’t definitely pick one side of the world to fight on over the other without major loose ends to deal with to which the game is being threatened with an Axis victory.
@thedesertfox Which is why a KGF is the best way to go, especially if there’s a Sealion- just make sure that Sydney+Hawaii is stacked up with units and make Calcutta a very costly win for the Japanese!!!
