put it this way, when I play revised or v4, I almost always be 4 tanks and an artillery and I always attack ukraine and west russia and if you stack karelia I always send every available unit (unless it is revised and your bid was 9 and you drop 3 infantry on europe, in which case I buy 3 infantry 3 tank and kick you out a round later). I race for berlin in revised. v4 allies get hit with such a hard nerfbat… it is harder to race, because you can’t just buy transports and men so you end up playing the money game, which is why I don’t play v4 and play revised.
in AA50, axis usually have all of africa, while I got italy and france. berlin usually goes before or at the same time as moscow. When I am japan, it is all about india burma FIC ICs spamming tanks. chucking 4 tanks of japan a round as well. screw australia, screw new guinea, screw new zealand, screw those islands, RUSSIA NOW. I do take egypt/transjordan and cross the canal if i can.
Screw east indies complex… especially in tech games, you have to keep your naval back in case of long range aircraft, especially if you were able to cross canal. Vs people who put full egypt bid… I go italy bombard caucasus, germany slam, japan drop persia. Game is won or lost in caucasus and axis got the odds so F IT. So what if there is a 20% chance I will be unhappy and lose, this is a dice game and you got to gamble at some point.
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Vance Japan goes before USA. Japan is usually busy with dutch islands/calcutta on that round. USA don’t need to fly jack in, russia can just hold it (japan usually out of range with air as well).
Japan can’t go south and be north at the same time.
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Japan deals with them later, like way later. There is not much income up there. just 3 korea and 3 manch, sure you can go further south, but then you are in range of the full might of japan… you don’t want to do that usually.
Like I said, it depends if you are going full pac or not how things look for japan. Yes, you need those units to do KJF. Yes you are racing for japan before russia falls.
Yes it is a race. Yes you can win the race. Yes KJF is a viable strategy. Lots of allies players chant PACIFIC PACIFIC PACIFIC. Yes I do this from time to time. It is easier than atlantic / split income. I usually provide UK with fleet to convoy 97 or drop men off UK with… but that is it. I almost never invest in transports for the atlantic and if I do it is because your japan is weak.