Japan Naval Strategy

[Faramir]

I have not tested this so it it is all just conjuncture. What if Japan abandoned mainland Asia, used the infantry to take all the Pacific Islands including Australia (Thus only building navy for the first part of the game), convoyed India with subs, and then focused on taking the US?

[ChocolatePancake]

The problem with this strategy is that it’s hard to win the game this way. There’s three victory cities you need on the mainland, and if China controls all of it for a few rounds then it will later be very difficult for Japan to get back onto the mainland, as China will have a lot of troops with nothing better to do than guard those victory cities.

There is also a surprising amount of money to be lost this way. All those little territories add up. There is also no real reason to abandon China since it’s entirely possible to grab all the money islands while at the same time killing China.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

After abandoning the mainland it is easy to control the Money Islands for Japan.  However, taking on the United States is difficult due to the long supply lines and inability to rapidly shift force projection between the parts of the Pacific.  The US can shift to just containing Japanese expansion and spend the majority of the income against Germany.

I have seen the strategy work against bad Allied players, but doubt that it would be successful against better people.

[Faramir]

There is a lot of NOs that deal with the islands. I will have to add up how much IPCs it gains vs loosing the mainland.

The main benefit of this strategy is that Japan doesn’t have to buy any ground forces for a while because they will be using their starting mainland forces.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

Some of these debates are more easily tested out with a game than arguing on the Forum.  Let me know if you want to try it out in a non-League friendly match.

[simon33]

You can also look at Brian Wassom’s youtube channel which shows games of A&A where abandon China has been tried.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

It is hard to follow the youtube games with the little snippets of the game summary.  Also, they just are beginning to learn the G40 game, making the same newbie mistakes that we all had to progress through.

[oysteilo]

@Faramir:

There is a lot of NOs that deal with the islands. I will have to add up how much IPCs it gains vs loosing the mainland.

The main benefit of this strategy is that Japan doesn’t have to buy any ground forces for a while because they will be using their starting mainland forces.

OK it sounds like a cool thing to try, but most likely it will go something like this

UK and Anzac will gain controll of the DEI, this is an IPC swing of 35 (20 down for japan and 15 up for UK/Anzac). China will liberate Hong Kong, here it is an 11 IPC swing (japan down 3 and UK up 8 ). The allies will control Malaya, again an IPC swing of 11 (down 3 for japan, up 3 for UK, up 5 for Anzac)

Only at this you look at a 57 IPC swing.

Sure, Japan can cause signifcant trouble for USA, land in alaska/aleution to take away their NO, you can battle hawaii for a japan NO and it forces USA to go heavy pacific and maybe you can force a european win this way

I suggest you for all rounds by mostly navy but for the first rounds focus on taking the DEI, malaya honkong, Phil and china. If you do this for 2-3 rounds you get more income and it takeas awhile for China/UK/Anzac to take all this away.

But you will loose in the end when your money is going away, but it will be a fun game, take ABH on a test drive (or me) and we can check it out.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

I would guess that such a strategy would allow Japan to easily hold the Money Island and capture Australia by Round 4.  The question will be if Japan can then can then capture India and Hawaii.  India will have a big stack of infantry since it doesn’t need to help out in China.  Hawaii is easy to defend with a big stack of American fighters but could succumb to a prolonged attack.

Lots of hypothesizing…  it is hard to figure out the late rounds.  Japan can have a massive navy since it starts with such a large air force, making it cheap to just build a couple aircraft carriers a round.

[taamvan]

There is no practical way to capture Australia once turtled and then go on to take other objectives.  You have to send the entire Japanese navy down there on a massive excursion, that puts it 3 turns out of position.  You can threaten queensland from carolines with just a few pieces, which keeps ANZAC down by its capital, but if they build men slowly but surely and the planes don’t leave, you’ll be faced with a mini-sea lion scenario;  you will lose all your Japanese ground forces, many of your planes, to take over 2 territories worth 2.

That might be worth it just to knock Anzac out of the game, but it means that you didn’t take India, and you are in an even worse position to follow through (after India you can take the ME or Africa, but after Anzac, you’re stuck in a corner and facing an enraged US.  Taking Anzac in small bites doesn’t work very well either, as they can counterattack every square from S aus.

[Faramir]

I’d love to play a game with one of you guys and test this out but unfortunately my internet connection at home is not very good and often I can only get things done at the local library. I don’t want to keep you guys waiting forever between turns.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

People generally expect you to do a turn a day, with gaps for weekends or vacations.  More frequently is nice, but most of us start a few games simultaneously and do our turns as time permits.  Few will sit for multiple hours and do turn after turn after turn.  Many of us are willing to take on a new player as he gets acquainted with TripleA/strategy/etc.

[Faramir]

I tried PBEM Triple A once before but it was a while ago so I might need a refresher. You can PM me if you want to play.

[simon33]

@Faramir:

I’d love to play a game with one of you guys and test this out but unfortunately my internet connection at home is not very good and often I can only get things done at the local library. I don’t want to keep you guys waiting forever between turns.

Even a 33.6k Modem would be adequate. You’re talking about save files <1MB generally. The trouble with that might be downloading Triple-A in first place.

I guess if you’ve got a 1GB/month limit, 1000 back and forth’s could blow that.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

Game started… let’s see how the first few rounds proceed.  I will post updates periodically.