@kungfujew:
Everything I was saying was in a scenario of america going all for europe, and if the allies are making 20 with anzac, 20 with india and 0 with america and you can’t steamroll the uk/anzac/china then you’re doing something wrong. The game is balanced for 3 allies and one axis power. Take an ally, not to mention the one making a full half of the income for the whole team, out of the picture and it’s nowhere close to a fair fight.
I agree that the UK, Anzac, and China can be defeated easily with the US going 100% in Europe. I just don’t think it can be done fast enough for the Japanese to turn enough power onto America before the US has affected the outcome of the European theater. Calcutta in particular can turtle up pretty hard and it takes until round five, if not usually round six, before they go down.
I know you said that Japan won’t even need any of its starting forces to combat the US at this point, but this is hard for me to believe. For six ipc the US can buy two infantry for defense with 4 pips. To equal that, Japan has to buy a transport, one infantry and one artillery. That costs 14 ipc for the same attack value. Considering Japan only has one major factory vs the three that America has, I just don’t see how this is a winning strategy for the Axis unless it is only meant to pull them away from Europe for 1-3 rounds. After that, America should have it’s shores sufficiently defended/recaptured. Also, even if Japan completely convoy raids the west coast of America for 14 ipc, the US would be making 66 ipc (assuming Japan has the Philippines) to cream the European Axis with.
I could always be wrong, but from my few games so far, what you are telling me just doesn’t seem to make sense.