OK, the US can only land on Japan with 2 infantry and 2 fighters (+ possibly 1 bomber and the bombardment shots) so that isn’t really a threat if Japan builds say, 4 inf and 2 fighters on J2. Plus an attempt to land on Japan would most likely result on the US fleet being attacked and destroyed on the next Japanese turn.
On J2 Japan can simply build infantry and fighters on Japan and send the fleet to land on FIC/Burma, stalling the UK advance and preventing any transports from being built on India.
Unless the initial transports survive (and they should be primary targets for Japan on J1) you need to buy ships to defend transports built on India, otherwise 1 bomber in Japan (or 1 carrier on SZ60) can sink them.
You’re risking a bit on India…
J1: buy 2 bombers and 1 sub. Sink all remaining UK ships and land everything on Burma.
J2: attack India with 7 inf, 2 art, 1 arm, 4 ftrs, 3 bombers, 1 cruiser, 1 battleship. UK defends with 1 AAGun, 5 inf, 2 arm, 4 ftrs and 3 bombers… 60% for Japan.
The overall odds would depend on the number of Allied fighters (and Russian armor) but even without Japan attacking India it has forced the Allies to defend it (at the expense of other areas, like Europe) and avoided being forced to defend SZ60 or to lose ships to the UK/US.
On J2 the fleet could then swing back to SZ60 to add more ships or to SZ61 to land more ground units on Asia. Or even send the transports to crack Egypt/Africa open for the Germans/Axis to take…
Japan’s fleet can be like an octopus at the beginning… you can try to squeeze it with the Allies but it can slip and slip and will only be caught if it wants to, makes a mistake or if there’s nothing else to hide.
Thanks for your reply again. Well yes, Japan could buy 2 Bombers, 1 Sub on J1. But the point is, Japanese player would never expect U.S. to buy 3 Bombers and 1 Sub and position all of it’s 5 FTRs to attack everything around Japan. Most Japanese players think that U.S. will go Solomon-Phillipines/Borneo way and not the Iwo-Jiwa-Manchuria or Kwantung way. Point is to draw Japanese fleet away from the FIC, and that can’t be do if U.S Fleet goes to Solomon.
So let’s be realistic, Japanese player will most likely never build 2 Bomber and 1 Sub on J1. So Japan has only J2 turn to do something about what I suggested to do with the U.S. on US1.
This strategy works a lot better of course as it is when you play in real terms, which is that you never tell your opponent what you will do with the U.S. So a Japanese player will most likely go for some kind of Transports, INF mixture on J1.
Yeah, it’s 60% for Japan if they attack India so it’s very risky, but I would have not 5 INF on India but 6 INF, (3 originally, 1 from Burma, 1 from Iran, 1 from Egypt + 1 Art). So 6 INF, 2 Tank, 1 Art, 4 FTR, 2 Bombers. I could also move Syrian INF to Iran on UK1 and further to India on UK2 which gives me 7 INF. And the U.S. “sacrifise” FTR from Szechwan to go to India, so that would be 5 FTR on India.
So you managed to draw away 1 U.S. FTR only but the rest of the attack can be done against the fleet, I don’t need to invade Japan, I can just send 2 U.S. INF to the Phillipines and the rest attacks Japanese fleet.
So as I said, Japan can only build something with a punch on J2, because a Japanese player can never know what USA will do on US1, so a Japanese player will most likely never build 2 Bombers and 1 Sub on J1 turn, units Japan is building will be soft targets for UK Bombers, such as Transports and Destroyers, so they will need additional support and Japan would expect U.S to go Solomon.