J1 Openings

[Vareel]

I was wondering, now that most have gotten a chance to look at the board, and a few lucky people have been able to play a game, what are your ideas for J1.  Not a unit by unit breakdown (too many), but an overall concept.  This is what I wish to try.

Obviously hit china hard, taking Yunnan and advancing as far as possible.  I would move the SZ 33 fleet to SZ 45 grabbing 2 inf off of the islands.  I would send the SZ 6 fleet down to SZ 36 and hit FIC with the 2 loaded transports.  I’d leave the 2 Inf in Siam personally.  Then i’d make sure to land as many planes as possible on Hainan, all the strat bombers and i’d try for 2-4 regular fighters.  I’d purchase 3 transports and save the rest.

With that, I would be able to threaten any move from UK/ANZAC to get there NO islands, and possibly sink there transports.  On J2 I would declare war, start grabbing the Indies and use the 3 purchased transports to hit Philipeans and Kwangtung.  With luck I would also be able to sink the UK and/or the ANZAC transports/fleets.

Any thoughts?

[tloger]

Relatively similar to my inital opening.  I bought a carrier, transport, and one inf my first purchase, and bought carriers and trannies throughout from there.  At turn 4 I had 7 fully loaded carriers and 5 transports.  Japan had a beastly Navy, and I utilized my subs and DD’s for convoy capture to draw UK and Anzac away from taking Islands.  I felt I had sufficient ground forces from the start and didn’t build to many land units.  I delcared war on J2 by the way.  By the time US got rolling my Navy was too overwhelming to contend with.  Uk had some breathing room and started to press towards FIC and China a little.  But I placed a Minor IC in FIC which gave me just enough to repel them along with my Trannies shuttling units down from Japan.  I am amazed at the size of the Japanese airforce in the beginning, even with all of those loaded carriers I still had air superiority on the main contin

[Admiral_Thrawn]

Does Japan have way too much air power? I haven’t played yet, but I have never seen so much airpower for a setup in A&A before. They have way more airpower then everyone else combined.

[Vareel]

True, although there are a ton of planes all over.  I think defending transports is gonna be a huge deal in this game, as is dancing around everyones airforce with your boats.

[Bigtiti]

full attack first round on british battleship, kwantung and phillipines

[Driel310]

We played our third game this afternoon and although the Allies are doing a bit better (as with every A&A game, allied play is the hardest to master), we still don’t see why Japan would not attack on J1.

Really, maybe we are morons, but as far as we are concerned the whole political stuff in this game can be thrown out of the window.

Just a simple calculation:

• Japan attacks on J1, so USA gets a +40 boost to her income. (-40)
• However, you attack and take out Kwangtung J1 (minus 5 NO for UK + a swing of 3 IPC on income) (+11)
• You also attack and take Phillippines J1 (minus 5 NO for USA + a swing of 2 IPC on income) (+9)

So declaring war on turn 1 is not a 40 IPC boost for the Allies, it’s only 20 IPC. But for that 20 IPC boost, the Allies lose the following units, they otherwise would have moved to safety:

• 1 UK BB, 2 UK trns, 1 US DD, 1 US trn, 1 US ftr, 1 US bmb, 2 US inf (note: I didn’t include the infantry in Kwang, cuz they will die anyway).
  A total IPC value of 77 IPC……

Plus, the 20 IPC boost for the US will produce units far far away from the front. The 77 IPC of units you kill are directly in your playgarden (tactical advantage).

So, please prove us wrong. The political rules are nice, but not when Japan will always attack J1…  :wink:

[hyogoetophile]

Declaring war on J1 gives the US +40 on US2 as well, which means +60 IPCs over the course of two turns compared to the 77 IPCs of dead Allied units. And you have to remember that the Allies on average take down a few infantry and most of a fighter, and Japan gets +5 on J2 (J3 is pretty much a foregone conclusion).

US:  60 + 12 (2inf .66ftr) = 72
J:  77 + 6 (2inf Kwa) + 10 swing (Kwa/Phi on J2) = 93

Even on a pure TUV-vs-IPC scale, Japan only comes out about 20 ahead.

[Vareel]

Positioning.  UK/ANZAC cannot get there island NOs on the first turn.  Japan cannot even hit any of the money islands turn 1, so why would she?  Also, the US fleet in SZ 35 has no where to really go, other than maybe guam and land airplanes there, where it would be safe, it can be destroyed later.  Same with the inf there.  And finally, japan only starts with 3 transports, no where near enough to start grabbing the money islands and get units into the south pacific.  There are absolutely, in my opinion, no targets that you can hit J1 that you would be unable to hit J2 that would be worth starting the war so early.  What is the UK BB/2 transports gonna do on UK1, take samutra and Java?  If they do you smash them J2 anyway.  All of this in my own opinion of course.

[Driel310]

Why are you guy so focused on those NO’s? I mean it’s only a bloody 5 IPC, you don’t even get a tank for that price.  :wink:

I’ll take a look on what you posted about the US troops from the Phillippines whether they can be put safe or not. The UK BB and transports are really going to hunt you. They can join the India ships and Anzac fleet south of Java to make a nice 1-2-3 punch with the US later on in the game…… That’s why that BB must die no matter what.