Best things for USA to do

[madscientist]

Since the game is slanted in favor of the Axis, what are the best things to do as USA? Here are my suggestions:

US1

Purchase: 2 battleships and 1 cruiser

These are to go on the Pacific coast. I have done the math, and if Anzac builds a destroyer 1st round, and Anzac takes Java and builds an aircraft carrier 2nd round, then the allies will have a sizable navy in the Pacific, leaving USA to concentrate on Europe for 2-4 turns.

Note that if there is a J1 DOW, USA will have  a major factory on the west coast, so you could build more than 3 units. If that’s the case, then I would recommend 2 des 1 AC and 2 ftr.

Combat: usually no combat unless axis have declared war. If that’s the case, take over Brazil with 1 trn from East US.

Non-combat:

Move 2 inf from Western US to Central US. transport 1 art from Western US to Hawaii.
Move transport from Hawaii to west coast. Note that you should still have a mech inf there. Move both airplanes from AC on west coast to Eastern US. Move AC from west coast to Hawaii, land 2 Hawaiian ftrs on it.

On the east coast (including central USA), you should have enough land units to fill 4 transports.

Place 2 BB and des on west coast (sz 10).

US2

Purchase:

6 des, save 4 IPC’s.

Non-combat: move all ships on west coast to Hawaii, including those built on US1. transport 1 mech inf from west coast to Hawaii. You should have a sizable fleet there now. Don’t forget, Anzac builds an AC this turn. Anzac needs to save its fleet including 2 ftrs (but you can waste the transport taking Java).

Place all 6 des on east coast.

US3

Now in games I play, there is usually a J3 DOW by this point. I will plan for either.

Purchase: 2 AC, 1 ftr, 1 cru (2 IPC’s left) You c should have 3 planes in east US to fill the 2 AC’s.

Combat: watch to see if Tokyo is vulnerable. This doesn’t always happen, but it does sometimes.

Move entire Hawaii fleet including all land units to sz 54. Have Anzac move their fleet there too on their turn.

Place all units in East US.

If there was a J2 DOW, US will have 20-30 IPC’s more, which I would spend all on trn for the east coast.

US4

Purchase: 5 trn, 1 AC with 2 ftrs, 1 cru.

Combat: attack dutch east indies with fleet off Australia. Try to keep the fleet together. Have the Anzac fleet reinforce the US fleet.

Non-combat: move entire east coast fleet to Morocco, including as many land units as you can, including units from Brazil. Now you have a fleet off Morocco that will be difficult for Germany to deal with, even if they are using the “build mainly bombers” strategy.

If axis try to block your fleets with destroyers, then take out the destroyers with planes and non-combat the fleet past that sz on the same turn!

[Don Bosch]

I’ve ony played about 5 games by now, but here’s what i think:

There is no way you can say what is “best to do turn 1 -4” playing USA. Playing USA is verry hard in my opinion. You always have to wait and see what the Axis are doning, then decide what you need to purchase so you can make plans for an attack on maybe turn 4/5/6….

After Japans turn, study the board and ask yourself questions such as:

• Did Japan bring you into the war?
• Did Germany had a good turn against the Royal Navy and can they do Sealion? If so, you should buy Navy for the Atlantic so if Germany takes London you can liberate London.
• If ANZAC keeps its Transport and Destroyer (Japan can attack it with 1 Destroyer) and you’re at war, better to take Dutch New Guinea as ANZAC instead of Java for the 5 IPC NO-bonus.
• Do you own the Phillipines? If so, retreat your sub, Destroyer and fighter to Australia.
• Did Japan attack Hawaii? Can you do a counter attack?
• Did Japan had a good first turn? lost any planes?
• Did Germany had a good first turn? lost any planes?
• Does Germany have sub’s left in the Atlantic?

Things i miss in your stratey:

• not enough transports (no transports bought till turn 4)! you can attack the Axis navy, but you can never take any land in Europe or any islands in the Pacific. You’re not much of a threat the first 4 rounds since you can only kill Navy but not hurt the Axis economy. I think you’ll eventually need: Europe +/- 10 loaded transport, Pacific +/- 5 loaded transports. And again: first check out the weak Axis spots and land there in force so you’re untouchable.
• Why buy cruisers and battleships? expensive units you can only use at sea. Better to buy AC’s, Destroyers and Sub’s. Sub’s are cheap casualties and good offensive units, also great for convoy. Destroyers are great blockers and cheap casualties against an enemy air attack. Loaded AC’s are best defense units and you can use the planes on the AC’s for defense as well as an attack on land/defense on land.
• Buy a few S-bombers, great range and usefull for SBR against German/Italian factory’s.

Things you could/should always do turn 1:

• if you are at war: take Brazil for 2 IPC’s and 3 free infantry.
• buy 1 or 2 AC’s and NO planes, you already have 2 planes on the mainland and 2 on Hawaii. Use your starting units first. you can buy extra planes later.
• buy 1 destroyer for the Atlantic so you can defend against German sub’s suprise strikes.
• buy 1 transport for the Atlantic. This way you can (if necessary) land 4 land units in Gibraltar/North Africa turn 2.

Correct me if i’m wrong :-D…
Also, please don’t criticize my grammar, i’m from Holland  :-)

[SubmersedElk]

The US is the long-term balance power for the Allies. It is IMO the hardest country to play because you need to plan several turns in advance with purchases and positioning, at least through midgame.

The US should pick a side of the map to focus on and put just enough on the other side to provide counterpressure threat.

I personally tend to use the first round to create a threat against Japan, and thereafter build mostly for an invasion of Europe. A lot of others swear by building up the Atlantic first and addressing the Pacific later.

It is a good idea to watch others’ games and see how they play the US and see what works and what doesn’t. It can be a very detailed challenge.

[sophiedog2]

Move all ships and land units to the Pacific and use only bombers against Germany.

[knp7765]

Usually, the allies have best success if the US goes strong after Japan first, especially if Germany doesn’t do Sealion. UK will be able to harass Germany enough that Germany won’t be able to go all out against Russia. So, Russia should be able to hold out until the US can get into Europe.
First the US should build a power fleet – all warships and planes. Hunt down the Japanese fleet and try to force a big battle with them. Even if the US loses that battle, Japan will lose a lot of their fleet and the US can replace their ships much easier than Japan. So they can keep sending more warships out to finish off the Japanese fleet. Then the US needs to occupy SZ 6 with subs and convoy raid Japan silly. Also, take Iwo Jima and start SBRs on Japan. You will pound them into the poor house.
The Chinese and Indians should be able to start whittling down the land force on the continent while ANZAC starts taking islands away from Japan. Before long Japan won’t be getting enough money to be able to build units and they will be neutralized.
After that happens, keeps some subs in SZ6 and some bombers on Iwo and everything else can start heading for Europe.

Now, if Germany does take London, that’s obviously a different matter. Then Germany will have no one bothering them while they go barreling into Moscow. Also Italy will just have a grand old time taking over Africa. They may even go through the Middle East and threaten Russia from the south or threaten India from the west.
In that case, I think liberating London and getting UK back in the game is paramount. This will mean letting Japan romp through the Pacific and Asia for a few rounds but that can’t be helped.

Don’t try to split the US resources evenly between both theaters. I’ve found that when the US does that, they don’t have quite enough in either theater to stymie the Axis. The most they will do is perhaps delay them.

[Don Bosch]

@knp7765:

Even if the US loses that battle, Japan will lose a lot of their fleet and the US can replace their ships much easier than Japan. So they can keep sending more warships out to finish off the Japanese fleet.

I think that’s a good strategy knp. Build up your fleet with warships and planes and go after Japan first. Fast enough to stop Japans economy from growing. Japan’s economy encreases faster than Germany’s economy, thats why you should go for Japan first (if Germany doesn’t do Sealion).

However, i don’t agree with you saying: “Losing your entire fleet is worse for the Japanese as for the Americans”.

I think it’s worse for the Americans to lose their fleet for a few different reasons:

• by the time a major naval battle takes place between US and Japan (round 4 – 7), Japan should be making 50 – 65 IPC’s so the Japanese can rebuild their fleet just as fast as the US.
• The US must build their fleet in Western US, so its a long way towards Japan after rebuilding your fleet.
• When you lose your fleet, there is no threat from US towards Japan so the Japanese can expand their economy knowing that it will take about 3-4 turns for the US to rebuild. In the meantime they can geather more income in Asia/Russia/Islands.
• US is the nation that sould be extremely carefull with its units because the US can not build its economy and the Axis can.
• If the US loses it’s fleet in the Pacific, they have lost their only source of power in the Pacific. This means they should rebuild in the Pacific and ignore Germany for another 3-4 turns, or ignore the Pacific and head for Germany. A painfull decision for the US in this phase of the game.
  -If you lose your fleet against Japan, you are trading your warships against Japanese warships without actually taking something from them. The US should always win a major battle so they can take some land afterwards.

This is why i agree with you when saying: “The US is the most difficult nation to play”. You should be extremely carefull with your units and can’t afford to make mistakes or take a gamble.

[Nippon-koku]

Usually in the minority here but I’m a firm believer you build heavy early in the Atlantic and then catch up in the Pacific.

Early investments in the east can pay off quickly.  I’m a big fan of 4 transports, 1 DD and 1 CV in EUS on US1.  The Atlantic Allies have to create a threat early or Germany will run away with the game.  Japan can certainly become a beast, but you can harass them enough to at least slow them down a little (i.e. get the Siberian troops to Amur turn 2, do what you can with China, etc.)  Even after Japan gets India they still have to get Sydney or Hawaii.

Something that is always odd to me: the general consensus seems to be that the US should attack Japan first.  However, the popular thinking on the Axis side is that Germany can take Moscow by turn 5 or 6.  If Germany can take Moscow that early, effectively ending the game, then why wouldn’t the Allies want to create a strong Atlantic presence first?  :?

[SubmersedElk]

It’s tough to give up the opportunity to gang up on Japan early, because once they get rolling they’re harder to stop than Germany is. I guess the presumption is that with proper play, Russia can be held on long enough to put Japan on its heels and for the US to switch focus to the European theater.

[taamvan]

The big difference between KJF Pac first and KGF Atl first is that Japan can and usually will activate war early, whereas Germany will almost never activate early (assuming that London cannot be lost so quickly when played by any competent player).

That means that if you build Pacific first, those units can deploy and be useful as a deterrent and threat-projection whereas the units build in the East have to sit there and wait until US4 to actually move out, and then only to take Gibraltar.

One of the more interesting suggestions I have heard is to feint your intended direction during US 1 and US 2 (building the intended pacific fleet off the east coast) and then on US 3, move the entire thing to SZ 11 or SZ 28 and add it your US3 buy.  The fact that America appears to be KGF may cause Japan to over extend (at sea, past SZ37), and then have to scramble backwards to meet a big new threat.  However, this whole movement is way too slow to surprise much of anybody.

The inherent problem with KGF in my opinion is that Germany is too well defended, with too many critical objective territories that you need to take (Norway, Gibraltar, Rome, Normandy, Denmark, etc), and you only get 1 wave of troops to accomplish your initial goals in Europe.  If you spend money on warships and planes with the US, they take forever to get into position, and your ground forces are too weak.  If you don’t, Germany has enough planes to threaten to wipe out the entire stack.

You can dance around the periphery, wasting time (with the US in Africa or Malta etc.) but all the while, Italy and Germany can produce 20 infantry for less than a single turns income and use already existing planes to threaten your beachhead.  Italy only has to protect one square, a square that is well within striking distance of Germany (as are all the other potential targets).  Its very easy to “slam the door shut” by blocking SZ 112 or SZ 92.

If you have a truly lordly stack of land units by US 5, then you could potentially take Denmark with the UK;  based on the rules this is one of the most important territories to protect because the US can threaten Germany itself.  But when this goes down you had better have a truly lordly stack, since at that point Germany vitally only needs to protect one of two territories in depth (either Denmark or Germany) and then, against a power that has to use stratty bombers for its offense (never fighters; they cant reach the key territories without other footholds).

Defending the Atlantic Wall is one of the few things that Germany or the Axis can do while simultaneously sending virtually everything against Moscow.

[ampdrive]

If you really want to keep your options open build a naval base in central america.A fleet parked in sz 64 can reach Gib,New Zealand,Alaska,Hawaii,Nova scotia.You don’t need to be at war to do this.

[Don Bosch]

@ampdrive:

If you really want to keep your options open build a naval base in central america.A fleet parked in sz 64 can reach Gib,New Zealand,Alaska,Hawaii,Nova scotia.You don’t need to be at war to do this.

Anyone ever tried this with succes?

[teslas]

@Don:

Anyone ever tried this with succes?

Yeah, sometimes, I plop down a naval base on Southeast Mexico, if it comes to be that I want to shift theater of operations for some reason. Gibraltar and Hawaii are “only” two turns away from one another. Mind you, there is necessarily an entire turn where there’s basically no, or at least much reduced, American pressure on the Axis while you’re doing this. Most of the time that this happens, I’d feel that America is in a somewhat weak position and is doing a hail mary, but not always.

@ampdrive:

You don’t need to be at war to do this.

While this is true, I don’t see a reason why you’d build a naval base there and then sit off of the western coast of central america in SZ 64 for US 1-3. If you’re in the Pacific, it’s much better to stage off of Hawaii. If you’re going to send something to the Atlantic, I’d rather just have those 15 IPCs in extra units and stage in the east coast. I don’t think the “what’s America going to do?!” problem for the Axis is anywhere near worth the 15 IPCs it costs America. Maybe I’m wrong (because I almost never see a game without a J1 DoW, and so the US is always on time to the party), but I’m probably not.

edit-
Note: I’ve not read anything in this thread but the most previous comment. I’m saying this to excuse myself if someone has already said what I said, not to be rude.

[SubmersedElk]

The port in Mexico is very powerful in theory and not all that useful in practice. If the US is moving fleet between theaters then the war is already won or lost; it’s a three-turn affair to get a fleet from one theater into play in the other.

[Young Grasshopper]

I’ve decided to start hatching a plan to go after Tokyo, basically the starting units in the Pacific will create a southern force that will go down to Queensland and wait there until the northern force builds and moves toward Tokyo. This should eventually force Japanese ships north and away from the money Islands where the southern American force will strike and take away income. This will only work if the Northern force is strong enough to threaten Tokyo, and not just strong enough to convoy, if Japan builds stacks of infantry on Tokyo before taking Calcutta, that would be a good sign of reverse economics for Japan, but it will cost the Americans a lot and they might possibly need a factory in Alaska.

[teslas]

@SubmersedElk:

The port in Mexico is very powerful in theory and not all that useful in practice. If the US is moving fleet between theaters then the war is already won or lost; it’s a three-turn affair to get a fleet from one theater into play in the other.

It’s not always three. It could be as little as one depending on the situation on Gibraltar/Hawaii, and then there’s the threatening of the projection of power on the following round. Anyway, you’re right, it’s likely 3 turns until you’re attacking something (unless the Allies aren’t doing very well at all), but it’s not quite technically fair to say it’s three turns to get things into play or three turns until you’re affecting the other theater.

[AldoRaine]

I think the best thing US can do is early in the game is help make sure Italy never leaves Europe.  This can be done with some transports and a small fleet.  So most of my first two round buys goes to this objective.

With the help of the German Air force alone Italy has a good chance of taking Egypt if US goes to heavy in the pacific.  But having a sizable US invasion force on Gibraltar early in the game will force the Italians to play defensive which buys uk time to lock down africa.

I am convinced that if the allies want to loose the game early they will let the axis run wild in Africa.  The allies need to be making more or at the very least nearly the same IPC’s as the Axis if they want to stand any chance due to the axis central location on the maps.

The allies need to secure the board where they can first and this can be done in the Med with early US help,

[Spendo02]

@Young:

I’ve decided to start hatching a plan to go after Tokyo, basically the starting units in the Pacific will create a southern force that will go down to Queensland and wait there until the northern force builds and moves toward Tokyo. This should eventually force Japanese ships north and away from the money Islands where the southern American force will strike and take away income. This will only work if the Northern force is strong enough to threaten Tokyo, and not just strong enough to convoy, if Japan builds stacks of infantry on Tokyo before taking Calcutta, that would be a good sign of reverse economics for Japan, but it will cost the Americans a lot and they might possibly need a factory in Alaska.

US1 I almost exclusively by 3 CV.

Placed in the Pacific, I can land 8 FTR/TAC on them (start with 1 CV already).  Max production for US is 7 FTR, so it works out pretty well considering where I will send them (see below).

US2 I typically buy at least 2 BB and a SB.  I buy 3 BB if at war and a SB.

US3 I buy/fill TT

US4 I send US 1 - 3 purchases to SZ 7

US5 I take Korea or Japan depending on where I have better odds; obviously I go for Tokyo if I can take it - even with massive casualties Japan will be hard pressed to liberate its island capitol.

Japan in most incarnations of a KIF has a hard time addressing this type of pressure near Tokyo if it’s fleet goes anywhere south of Flip in the Pacific.  By waiting as long as I do, Japan is only going to have 1 purchase round to address the threat which makes it difficult to truly defend.

I also make every single DEI expensive for Japan to take (flying ANZAC/India aircraft) to slow down Japan’s economic expansion and stymie them trying to get economic gains from the DEI while also putting their navy in positions that require multiple turns to return to Tokyo.  Every loss of hardware, ground units or aircraft by Japan to achieve this end is, in my mind, fairly traded.

This also applies to the Burma Road.  I’ll continue to send ground units from India to force Japan to fight in a corner it wants to control.  It may have to trade aircraft to achieve this objective - which is again, part of the strategy.

It does leave Germany free to run around in Europe of course… but if I beat Japan before Moscow falls, I feel I’ve won with the US.

[Young Grasshopper]

@SubmersedElk:

The port in Mexico is very powerful in theory and not all that useful in practice. If the US is moving fleet between theaters then the war is already won or lost; it’s a three-turn affair to get a fleet from one theater into play in the other.

I can testify to this conclusion as I have built a naval base in Brazil twice this month, and didn’t feel as though I was ahead in either game.

[Charles de Gaulle]

Has anyone else tried a naval base on a conquered Palau island? Real game breaker if you can hold your ground.

[Nippon-koku]

@Charles:

Has anyone else tried a naval base on a conquered Palau island? Real game breaker if you can hold your ground.

Interesting.  My only question: other than getting to Malaya in one turn, why is that spot any better than Caroline Islands?