Good morning gents,
I generally agree that the G40 game balance favors the axis. This is not based on their advantage in pieces, or even economy–it is based on their initiative and their “white player” first mover advantage. There are no allied strategies that can be pre-supposed to be successful until you see how the game plays out. And, as you do gain this information, the Axis are better able to adapt and take advantage of this than the Allies are.
I do have several suggestions that make the Allies somewhat harder to beat in the Pacific.
1) Move the Chinese holdout to Kansu, not Sikang or Szechwan (“Chicom”). Retaking Yunnan is tempting, but if Japan already has their MIC down, it is probably better to draw them Northwest than South. If Japan intends to attack Russia, being up north is not a problem for them, but if they have to chase you that direction, it puts them out of position to attack UK Pacific. If Japan does not have a plan to strike Russia, it will be fairly obvious (abandons Manchuria), and it would then argue for keeping all 18 infantry there to pin down any Japanese troops (and block a retake of Korea, if that happens).
2) Russia will often have to move their pieces West, but if they don’t, and Japan doesn’t build its MIC in the north, then it cannot possibly defend against Russia, China, UKPac, ANZAC and US.
3) The primary US goal is to pressurize SZ6 and take Korea, going south puts you way out of position. Building a Naval Base on Wake or Midway makes it impossible to screen you out from SZ 6. Even if you lose the battle, you can reduce the threat, expend his kamikazes and follow up. If his fleet goes south, you can screen it by blocking SZ 21-23and “break him in two” by preventing his separate fleets from all converging back on you.
4) on J3-J4, Japan will try to make threshold income by taking the spice islands, and this is what will cost them a bunch of their ships. Fighters on Australia, malasia and NGuinea and US carriers can attack detached fleets.
5) After Taranto, land your planes on Malta, not Syria. This pulls Italy west instead of East just like Chicom pulls them north not south. If Italy can cross the oil states, UK Pac is finished.
6) if Japan threatens UK Pac directly, buy only infantry and camp within one space of your capital. Their goal should be to take over Ceylon and use it as a landing pad. Screen SZ 37. But if they don’t, packs of UK mechs and tanks can ward any Japanese stack within range. You will likely only get to make a single attack to retake Siam, Malasia, Yunnan etc…Make it count.
7) Declare war with UK2-UK3 if this is the only way you can gain your bonuses on a certain turn. The penalty in the Pac game is that the US loses its bonus, but there is no bonus in the Global setup.
8) you cannot directly bomb Japan into submission or retake it with force. You have to smash its income by destroying its ability to move in and out of SZ6.
Japan can do everything, and can smash any stack, but they have to telegraph that intention at least one turn ahead. They can take all the territory they like, the only reply is to trim them back slightly.
Many of the conversations here try to focus on the exact detail of where certain ships and captures will occur on turns 3-6, and how many of those moves can be accomplished simultaneously. This isn’t very productive, as it tends to exaggerate how thinly Japan can practically be spread, and implies a false sense of certainty about what they will do. They do have a ridiculous amount of planes–and it actually is quite a good idea to use the Japan Dark Skies strat to kill every Chinese piece even with sacrifices. You will not be able to focus every US dollar on the Pacific, but you can get pretty close. Beating either axis player in detail is uncertain, cannot be accomplished by naked gambits or stratagems, and requires patience.
However, I have never seen a scenario where (for example) all the UK air and all the Siberian forces converge on the defense of Moscow. Everyone says that this is possible and desirable, but it never happens, and Russia falls. I am not that certain that G40 is all that unbalanced, assuming that the Allies take extreme measures to prevent endgame. It is simply an unplayably long game (More than 10 turns, tending to 14-16, we did 8 in 12 hours…) that people analyze on the basis of assumptions, the conduct of the early game, and their personal observations and biases.
