I agree with most of what Switch says.
I would like people to comment on Japan tactics, what to do if Allies try KJF? What is the optimal turn 1 for japan? How will you start the drive to moscow, best route? India, china, Bury? Industrial Complexes?
Building 3 transports to start with is I believe the safest route to take, and by no means the slowest nor the weakest. Building 3 transport gives you flexibility with your options (invade islands, invade US if that player isn’t too good or if Germany needs time, drop troops in Russia, etc, defend against US navy if they choose to build one). Having a total of 4 transports can’t go to waste, as they will drop 8 troops that are being built every turn in Japan.
Take advantage of the fact that SZ60 already borders Buryatia. This means for instance, that if you have transports off of French Indochina, that they can in one turn move to SZ60 and drop troops from Japan into Buryatia. I like to do something I call swapping: one turn I’ll drop stuff in Buryatia to help the northern assault, and the next turn I’ll take troops from Japan to drop in Indochina, then go back to drop stuff in Buryatia again. It is a good idea to go from both north and south to get the most IPCs and defend your own IPCs.
Also a little tip to maximize your Japan play: on J2 when you have all those transports, you can take infantry from Okinawa and Wake Island and drop them off in Buryatia. On J1 you drop 1 inf 1 tank in Buryatia (3 inf 1 art left in Japan), and believe it or not on J2 if you purchased 2 infantry and do the little island infantry grab, you can drop 7 infantry 1 art into Buryatia, which makes very nice maximum use of your transport capacity.
Also another little tip: when you’re dropping 4 tran of equipment into French Indochina, you don’t always have to build 8 units in Japan to drop in Bury next turn; you can leave one of the tran behind to take infantry from Indies/Pihilippines while the other 3 go back, and use the extra IPCs to get more transports for island hopping or save for complex or airforce or whatever.
In the early rounds, go heavy on INF, next on ART. The reason is, you are going to hit your build limit as Japan in short order, requiring you to build an IC (or 2…) That will be your tank factory…
What switch says is essential. For almost every nation it is a good idea to go heavier on infantry early on. This goes back to the infantry push mechanic in classic, but anyways it’s always best to go with infantry earlier on because they provide very good fodder for future assaults as well as are the most efficient defensive unit so are good to hold territories with. From J2 it would not be a bad idea to buy say 6+ infantry and 0-2 offensive pieces and then save the extra IPCS instead of buying 4 inf 4 tank right away. The saved IPCs could go towards a complex which you will need sooner or later due to mobilization limits.
These “extra” trannies are also your force for “IPC Scaveging”, which means heading to Australia and New Zealand, or risking a trip to Brazil or maybe to Madagascar… 2 trannies for this use is a GREAT idea… filled with Island forces to shuttle around to grab IPC’s, while taking NOTHING away from your continental drive.
This is a good idea, but mainly if you believe German can hold out long enough for those minor IPCs to make a difference. It is more expensive than it looks at first glance to go island hopping: you have to replace the 2 transports if you’re doing it early on, and also you’re 2 transports short of land troops against Russia since they went elsewhere.
I prefer an IC in FIC.
Agreed. This is most efficient position since it’s closer to Africa as well as is the “hardest” to reinforce from Japan.
1. Your turn starts, you have lost your sub and transport (where sits UK destroyer), UK have reinforced the USA Carrier with their Indian fighter. How do you take China? How do you do Pearl Harbor? And what is the best buy for turn 1? Industrial Complex to Kwantung?
This is a difficult position, but you overall should be glad since Germany should be eating up Africa if the Indian fighter was sent to the Pearl Harbor carrier instead of counterattacking Egypt. There are many variations in this scenario (such as if carrier was went with destroyer to kwangtung, if Russia stacked Bury first turn), but generally in my opinion and experience you should still take China and Pearl Harbor no matter what.
While normally this is easy to do, with the UK fighter move it is difficult to function since even slightly lucky rolls could knock out more equipment than you can afford to dissuade counterattack. You have a couple of options:
1. Attack Pearl harbor en masse: send your bb/trans from Japan, caroline fleet, 1 fighter/bomber from Japan, and 1 fighter from the East Indies fleet. Upon inspection you easily bring 3 fighters to Harbor because the fighter starting in the Caroline carrier can land in Wake Island while the other 2 fighters will be declared to land on the caroline carrier. In this case, you are using the transport for fodder. Don’t lose more than 1 fighter since remember you need that occupying force to dissuade a counterattack. Don’t be afraid to lose the bomber! Make sure you have that occupying fleet (bb/loaded carrier/destroyer) or the US will annihilate your navy.
I wouldn’t advise sending 4 fighters (aka sending the Indies carrier east to pick up more fighters). Sometimes the UK is sneaky and sends more than just a destroyer to kill the transport (such as the carrier and transport which he may not feel are going to be useful anyways). In this case you’ll need more than just the BB in Indies to take it out, probably a fighter + carrier to help out is good.
2. Something which I call “fake harbor”: attack Pearl Harbor with the destroyer, 3 fighters, and a bomber. The odds aren’t entirely glamorous, but you have something like an 80% of winning while the rest goes to the defender and tying. The carrier in carolines is declared to move up to wake island to pick up any surviving fighters to make this move legal. The beauty of this is that it leaves no fleet for the US to counterattack in harbor; your destroyer is certainly doomed to die and the wake island carrier group is out of range of the bulk of the US forces. The other reason why this is good is because it lets your transport do what it’s meant to do (transport stuff to buryatia on J1) and leave your battleship in SZ60 to protect against perhaps the solomon islands sub that survived or a couple of other tricks if the Allies still control Buryatia.
Also in general just be conscious that the UK sub sometimes does survive and can be used against you. If you have carriers adjacent to the Hawaii seazone they could be attacked and 33% of the time you’re going to lose the carrier. It’s just a risk you’ll have to be prepared to take. Just remember, Germany should be awfully glad if that fighter is being sent off instead of being used in Africa.
If you don’t like these 2 options, actually I have been considering perhaps that leaving Pearl Harbor alone may not be an entirely terrible idea. It’s a very heretical thought and I admit more than a bit half-baked, but if you lure the US into going KJF, then you have done Germany a great service, as a good German player should be able to take out the UK and Russia alone. Also the Harbor group takes a long time to go to Germany in any case. I haven’t tried this enough and certainly not against good US players so I wouldn’t recommend this normally, but the immediate benefits are obvious: you can focus on the other targets without fear of loss.
Taking China should almost always be done with all infantry from the mainland + 2 fighters. This minimizes your losses, as well as puts your infantry in a very flexible position to either further invade sinkiang next turn, or to counterattack any commando UK/Russian troops taking IPCs from you as you abandoned those territories. You really shouldn’t worry if they take your territory for one turn; you’ll take it back easily (perhaps too easily with bombardment shots :evil:) and it’s infantry you won’t have to worry about in the future as they’re being taken down piecemeal instead of in huge stacks.
But give me your comments and strategy for Japan? How to come fast to Germanys help from the east.
The fastest way to come in is to eventually build multiple complexes (I quite commonly had 3 complexes late game) and produce massive quantities of tanks. I will always start slow with infantry for the first few turns since they’re efficient moneywise to hold territories and provide very nice complimentary fodder while your airforce does the work, but you really have to speed it up if you want to save Germany. Get complexes and crank out tanks at some point nonstop. Blitz all over the place!
