Hello, I play pacific 1940 a lot. I have also played global a few times. Pacific 1940 second edition is a great game but I can almost easily win every time if I’m Japan and I attack on the third turn. A new rule was passed around late 2014 to allow the USA to receive a 30 IPC bonus if Japan attacks or declares war on them before turn 4. This seems to balance the game a little but I can still always win with Japan. The strategy for Japan is pretty much the same. Take the money islands, build a minor in French Indo China and Kwangtung and knock out China and India. Post in the Philippines with your huge navy and three fighters that can scramble and those six deadly kamikizes. Let Anzac and USA come to you so you can use the fighters to defend at 4 when the big navy battle happens. Eventually you will be making more than the allies with the money islands NO and the India NO. You should be around the 70-75 mark. Then when the time is right strike at Sydney or Hawaii and hold it and you should win as it will be six victory cities. For the allies, man this can be tuff lol. You better hope Japan attacks you on turn 1 or turn 4 because turn 2 and especially 3 it’s going to be difficult.
1: China: buy men and hit and run and fall back to the north west of China. You will be lucky if the Burma road is open more than two turns. Pull back and make Japan come to you.
2: UK: pull everyone back to India and just buy men!!! Try to bring your navy down to Australia and unite them with Anzac and hopefully later USA. If it looks like India is going to fall then pull your airforce out and send them to Australia to hopefully land on a Anzac or American carrier. If Japan hasn’t declared war early then take as many islands in the south as possible .
3: Anzac: small ships and transports are good. if it looks like Japan is going to invade then pull your forces to south Australia because from there you can hit any territory. Use your small ships to convoy raid or unite with the main USA fleet. Queensland is a great staging area for the allied navy early in the game. Also since there’s a airbase there fighters don’t hurt also since they can scramble.
4:USA: the big boy lol. The problem is when USA is neutral she only makes a freaking 17 ipcs a turn. While Japan is around the 40 mark and Japan has soooooooo many aircraft at its disposal. USA I say aircraft carrier early then mainly subs, destroyers, and a transport every turn with land units. A few rounds into the game get a navy base on the Johnson islands and start combining your fleet with the Anzac fleet and hopefully a small UK fleet. try to take the money islands by sacrificing transports because Japan will have a bigger navy early in the game. When the time is right move to Dutch New Guinea with your fleet and prepare for the big battle. Sometimes it’s better if Japan attacks you and sometimes it’s better if you attsck them. Hopefully you will have a lot of subs at your disposal. If you win the navy battle then Japan is pretty much toast even if they have India and China. Good luck and let me know how the war goes lol. I am playing anniversary edition on Saturday 😜
India - The biggest mistake in the game.
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Yes, it’s inaccurate, but so is Japan having that many planes. They make the allies weaker and the axis stronger so both sides have a chance, unlike in reality.
But the Axis almost did win the war the just… didn’t
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Japan did dominate the allies at the start of the pacific war. After Pearl Harbor they proceeded to invade Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Guam, Burma, Borneo, Hong Kong and capture Wake (just in December).
In Janurary they invaded DEI, Dutch Borneo, advance in Burma, invade Rabaul, Soloman Islands.
Feb Japan invades Java, Sumatra, (Britsh surrender singapore), Japan air raid against Darwin, invade Bali, and they also found time to shell an oil refinery near Santa Barbara.
March- Brits evacuate Rangoon and Japan invade New Guinea, Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
April- Batann death march, and they take central Burma
May- Japan occupies mandalay, and on May 20 they complete capture of Burma and reach India.
Only six months after Pearl Harbor Japan is on India’s doorstep, they controll all of the DEI as far west as Wake and are a stones throw away from Australia. If that is not domination I don’t know what is. The only reason we are able to say we owned the Japanese during WWII was because we broke their code and were able to read their play book for two very important and decisive battles, Coral sea and Midway. In fact the battle of the Coral sea on May 7-8, 1942 was their first defeat in the war, and Coral sea was really more of a draw. The big turning point was Midway and without having broke the code I think we would have lost that battle.
After the battle of Midway it was all downhill for Japan, they were not able to regain the momentum and they ended up getting dominated by the allies. I think the P40 is the same way. If they allies can withstand the initial onslot of Japan the tables will turn and the allies will dominate, just like in the real war.
Reference: http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/timeline.htm
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@Dylan:
Yes, it’s inaccurate, but so is Japan having that many planes. They make the allies weaker and the axis stronger so both sides have a chance, unlike in reality.
But the Axis almost did win the war the just… didn’t
germany could have won the war, japan never had a decent chance.
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germany could have won the war, japan never had a decent chance.
Yes they did if they didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor they would have been able to fight the British and Chinese using the resources from the DEI. It might have taken them a while but assuming US neutrality they would have had a helluva chance.
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depends on what you mean by “won the war”. if you mean land troops in usa and take over government, then no they never had a decent chance.
if you mean capture resources in south east asia, then negotiate peace they did have a decent chance.
like amirable admiral stated, japan could have taken the resources they needed, crushed uk and dutch, and hoped usa would not declare war. this would have accomplished japans objectives and would have been a “win” for japan.
as japan decided to not only take the resources crush uk and dutch they also wanted to keep usa out of the pacific. i believe if japan had been luckier in pearl harbour with the usa carriers location and more effective in damaging pearl by carrying on after the 2nd wave of attack with a 3rd wave destroying pearls infrastructure. more importantly if usa did not crack japans code and midways outcome was as japan planned then japan did have a decent chance, at keeping usa out of the pacific and “win” the war.
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just create a peice with a shovel who kills on zero and defends on zero is just willing to die for his country and take a hit and maybe the shovel can hurt the guy who shoots is and then takes them down a die number….
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You could just up the canadian IPC value to 7 to solve the problem. Very unlikey that would ever fall to Japan, and is just as historically accurate. Comon, all of British Columbia is just worth 1 IPC?
and then a quick left turn down the “how the heck did we involve canada in this conversation” hallway and back we go…
and yes, Brit Col. 1 IPC, sounds good… :-o :roll:
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The problem is not BC. WUSA just one territory? For 3 millions of square kms? Come on!
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If they had taken Anzac and combined it with the UK and made India the separate power that would make it very interesting for an independent power to back up China and be between Africa (Italy) and Asia (Japan), but then there would be the historical questions about India building planes and ships that they didn’t do historically I suppose… alas…
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The problem is not BC. WUSA just one territory? For 3 millions of square kms? Come on!
Of course it’s not, that’s the point of asking why would it even be involved!! And what’s 3 millions of square kms in WUSA? It’s the US, they don’t use the metric system. shoot, most Canadians don’t even use it still…
seriously though, I’m sure it goes back to the thought of if you can take the WUS, then the game is over and you should just reset the board. Sorta like what happens when you take France in most games as the Allies.