So, in AA50, one of the great things was that the road to russia from siberia and from china was expanded to take japan many many turns, BUT the road through india was not expanded by much (just burma). This became the best Japanese strategy, after subduing China, and taking some Russian northern territories just to deny income and force a standoff, the main thrust of Japanese units would come out of India. this was helped by the fact that Japanese transports could drop off in French-Indo-China-Thailand, and there could be 3 factories, in Thailand, Burma, and India too.
It looks like Larry finally got it right with this one. China is huge, providing Japan with a great income boost, but also slowing them down, and giving them a very long path to Russia. The path through India looks like it just got bigger by one or two more territories, plus Japanese transports can’t go directly from Japan to Indo-China in 1 turn (2 turns to get to that territory beside Burma), AND while there is still the opportunity for 3 factories, the factories in Malaya and Indo-China are seperated by 2 territories before they get to India (however, if japan gets to india, they could put down one of those 10 producing factories… so this might all be for nothing). This is a massive improvement in my opinion, though I am very concerned about the fact that there are 3 ipc territories down there (he could break up india into a northern and southern india, that way there don’t have to be places for japanese big factories).
This means that the major push to Russia (if there will be any), will come from Japan and Manchuria, pushing through 5 single ipc russian territories on the north, thereby getting to moscow in 6 turns, which is the same as AA50. This is good because in those 5 territories, none of them can host a factory, and none of them hurt russia or help japan too much.
Last but not least, will Chinese infantry cost 2 ipcs or 3 ipcs? Judging from the map, so long as Japan doesn’t get ridiculous numbers of fighters, allowing them to hit Yunnan first turn, the Burma road will fall on turn 2. So do not count on that 6 ipc extra income for longer than 1 or max 2 turns (assuming china going after Japan, an attack on yunnan turn 2 for japan would mean only 1 turn of burma road income for china).
