How is the balance with the new Alpha 2 changes? Please give your view.

Can America stop Japan from invading?  Yes.  I always said yes.  However, they give up something else to do it and what they give up would most likely make the game much easier for Germany and Italy.

Let us assume Sea Lion was successful, as it is almost impossible to stop and, in point of fact as of Alpha 2, the only way to stop it is to turtle on England and hope for good dice.

Let us further assume Japan has set up the 10 transports it needs by this time (Round 3) because, let’s face it, you need the transports anyway to get Anzac, America and England - I suppose you could just build 3 minor ICs and almost have the same ability to put ground units into Asia Minor, but that reduces your mobility and I don’t like sacrificing mobility if I can help it, and here I can help it.

So America is facing a situation, they can put 3 units a round into W. USA until the war starts for them, thus reducing their naval purchases or they can mobilize in an effort to undo sea lion - which I suspect most players do since one cannot stop sea lion (objectively speaking.)  This results in America trading W. USA which is unreliable at best since they cannot build 10 units in W. USA if they just liberated it.

Conceited or Conceding?

The idea behind a J1 strike is that if they do not do the strike on round 1, when their opponents forces are spread thing and Japan can bring most of their units to bear was to make the Pacific easier.

The idea behind Sea Lion on G3 is two fold: A)  England cannot defend against it - period.  B)  America HAS to spread itself thin or leave Russia on its own. (The third option is a strawman arguement, you cannot leave the Pacific to Japan because Japan will win by Victory Cities.)

The overall strategy is to negate America as a force. America is WAY too powerful in this game to begin with.  I personally believe that is because we do not play her as the game testers expected us too and that is, by splitting her income across the Atlantic and Pacific.  So conquering her outright is virtually impossible.  I am of the opinion it is better odds that England will survive a G3 Sea Lion attempts more often than Washington D.C. will fall.  Perhaps I am wrong, but I doubt it.  So if we cannot take America, how can we stop them from being overpowered?  Well, if we strike early, we can destroy their navy.  If we take England we can force them to pay attention to the Atlantic (otherwise, Russia is pretty much toast, right?).

Perhaps a J1 attack is unwise.  Perhaps leaving the American fleet alone (and that damnable British Battleship) might be the better route.  By round 2 and 3, a Japanese attack seems unbeneficial.  All of your opponents are out of range and/or heavily reinforced requiring you to determine which if any attack gives you better position and your opponent has maximized their utilization of airbases.  All in all, if Japan is going to attack before America declares war on them, I feel it has to be round 1.

I think J2 or J3 is better. if you buy some carriers so you can bring your air force, attack US fleet when they have gathered it on Hawaii. in J1 the fleet is to small. in J2 the American has almost always placed it in Hawaii. then you can crush them harder. i think Japan has an advantage there.

@Gisle111:

I think J2 or J3 is better. if you buy some carriers so you can bring your air force, attack US fleet when they have gathered it on Hawaii. in J1 the fleet is to small. in J2 the American has almost always placed it in Hawaii. then you can crush them harder. i think Japan has an advantage there.

I’ll have to take a look at that.  The fighters on the carriers in SZ 6 have no greater mobility than without the carriers on Japan, the real question is if I can get the carriers close enough to retrieve the fighters and sink the Americans.  I want to say they’ll just cower in LA instead of Pearl though.

While I agree that a lot of pressure can be placed on the American’s early. Let us not forget, that under certain conditions, it is possible for the U.S. to upgrade any of its minor factories. While I think this is wasteful, it can be a tactical decision based on first impressions of the Japanese players first round position and builds.

If you plan to sail your fleet over to the Pacific from the Atlantic, then Upgrading W. US seems wise. This enables a large build on round 2, when the starting Atlantic fleet is in position to reach W. US sea zone 10. This should give you a fleet that rivals Japan when they attack turn 2 or 3. I never move to Hawaii, without placing a blocking destroyer in sz 25 or 16, unless I feel secure. Blocking DD’s are why the US should build 1-2 a turn in a Pacific campaign. In some games, I’ve used as many as 4 blockers to enable a strong board position or to prevent counterattacks on islands I wish to support with air units on a following round. Blockers typically draw out a sea unit as most people are loathe to trade planes for DD’s. Permitting a counterattack of that sea unit later rounds.

If you plan to hit Europe, and suspect an invasion of W. US, you can upgrade Central round 1, and build a large take back force, assuring continental independence. A Major on Central serves two purposes, defense of W.US and it enables the creation of large land force that is able to shift to the E.US if Germany forgoes London for Washington on turn 3’s maneuvers.

As I struggle with finding game balance in A2, I find more and more axis techniques that really challenge the allies in such a way, that defeat seems inevitable. When I iron out “Operation: Stützpunkt” (Operation: Fulcrum), I’ll post an axis win based on a 3 turn Neutral USA, no sea lion, 9-10 turns, and an 8 city victory.

I believe that EM (Emperor Mollari) showed me a much better solution for America.

1)  To upgrade a minor IC to a major IC it costs 20 IPC (I believe, correct me if I am wrong)
2)  American Industrial Complexes upgrade to Major complexes as soon as America is at war and do so at no charge

Thus, a cheaper solution is to put a Minor complex in Mexico.  It is close to the fleet off W. USA and Hawaii and only costs 12 IPC.  Sure, between the two you can only put out 6 units, but at 6 IPC for the cheapest one, that’s 36 IPC in units (probably more, you want more than just Submarines, right?)

you can attack the uk battleship without going to war with USA. In fact the draw backs to going to war with UK early on are very small. I believe instead of a 10 bonus you make a 5? but you get kwangtung +1 and bship sunk … yeah anyway.

if you want me to spank you all night long in a game, we can play one, loser has to drink a glass of water.

@Cow:

you can attack the uk battleship without going to war with USA.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh….  wut?  :?

japan just loses the +10 bonus for fighting UK / ANZAC, it doesn’t throw usa in war.

War on UK or ANZAC puts you at war with both.

Soviet union and USA are exclusive, you only go to war with that country when you declare war on them. you start at war with china.
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oh yeah strat bombing with tactical bombers + bomber round 2 can get nuts. if uk doesn’t get a bomber kill 5d6+2 in bombs over uk.

I don’t particularly like doing that in dice games, because the amount of rolls involved, but germany should have more than enough air with his starting fighters/tactical bombers/bomber (11 I believe) vs your 4 should you intercept… he does have the numbers to eat your lunch box.  if you get two aa gun hits germany has 9 1s vs your 4 2s (his fighter 1s wipe you immediately so the odds don’t favor you). If you do intercept and luck out and get 1-2 bomber kill. germany still does 2-3d6+2.

What likely is to happen is germany loses 2-3 air units while uk loses 1-2 and takes  around 10 industrial damage.

So in other words… if uk scrambles fighters round 1 and loses them… uk gets bombed hard and sea lion is easy as hell.
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That’s another reason to do sea lion. in dice games as germany he’s going to scrable to try to protect something he thinks he can defend… in which case you retreat after the first round of combat usually, but if you get lucky and somehow kill uk’s fighters… dawg that’s GG. you bomb for 5d6+2 if he can’t intercept… if he buys a fighter to defend that’s no where near as good as 3 infantry on defense so your sea lion is easy.

That’s the thing I been saying… you can’t scramble to protect your naval as uk unless you know you have overwhelming odds to defend what you scramble against.

@Cow:

japan just loses the +10 bonus for fighting UK / ANZAC, it doesn’t throw usa in war.

War on UK or ANZAC puts you at war with both.

Soviet union and USA are exclusive, you only go to war with that country when you declare war on them. you start at war with china.

Page 35 of Europe 1940 Rulebook:
…or Japan makes an unprovoked declaration of war on the UK or ANZAC, the United States may declare war on any or all Axis powers.

hmm I had to think about this a bit. Alpha +1 and Alpha +2 rules are different, also the book isn’t very clear in the japan political situation.
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I noticed when reading pg 34 that they hint towards war with the usa as well if you declare an unprovoked war on UK/ANZAC.

“A declaration of war by Japan against either the UK or ANZAC will immediately result in a state of war between japan and both of those powers. A state of war between Japan and France or between Japan and the soviet union will not affect relations between Japan and United States, and vice versa.”

I notice that in Japan’s political situation they make no mention of war with UK/ANZAC going to war with USA, but they do hint it at by not including UK/ANZAC in the france/soviet union section.

It’s kind of strange that japan’s political situation makes no mention of USA entering the war if UK/ANZAC is attacked, but certainly doesn’t leave out that possibility.

@Cow:

However we use ALPHA +2 rules. which override that.

Err….where did you read that ?

hmmm this is weird. http://www.axisandallies.org/node/439 . In the japan section it says war is mutually exclusive. Then in the USA section it says war.

the link above is rules preview before game was released. The rulebook is different and supercedes. Now Japan rules don’t even mention it.

It is under USA in PG35 like above user said. Also looked at alpha+1 and +2 and it doesn’t mention any political changes.

I guess USA does enter war if Japan kicks off too soon.  HMMMMMMMM I was mistaken my bad. I was allies my first couple games too and japan went nuts on uk round 1. I remember in pacific 1940 usa went to war when japan attacked something other than china.

It should still say a provoked war on UK/ANZAC can cause USA to enter the war in Japan’s political situation. The other political situations were redundant, i am surprised it was not consistently redundant. Otherwise you would print a list of scenarios which cause war.
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hoho well that changes many things.

If I put usa at war R1 it would be so I can take india round 3-4… but I wouldn’t expect germany on the europe half to be able to take UK over. Just have to wait patiently and hammer away at china/russia, which is what I did the other day. I took kwangtung though without USA going to war, but that is a minor issue.
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but still you can’t sink USA R1 and expect Sea lion on the Europe half to go well. I imagine you would take philippines over with some guys so that’s 1 transport out of range. how many transports will you have in range of West USA? Maybe 4 land units to try and hold wets usa? stick 2 inf 2 artillery and a tank in central usa with some air on East USA and we’re good to go. save UK right away and fight back against japan later. Simple enough.

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yeah I guess this game is pretty balanced.  assuming italy gets blown out the water by UK ships and UK gets taken over. USA > italy . Germany > Russia. Russia just has to his best till USA shows up for the two front war.  If usa spends what he would in a Pacific only map… he should do OKAY. Considering pacific 1940 alone was pretty balanced.

@Cow:

hoho well that changes many things.

Indeed…
The game is fun for the Japanese in the pacific, but is not that easy…Often, you will find that with proper allied play, it is difficult for japan to buy enough ships AND men to win the game.

in pacific 1940 alone. I usually machine gun my way to india let usa do anything except take japan (and hope he gives me kamikaze by taking some of the isles). Take india, wrap up china. then there are just 2 players.  Then Either I lost too much stuff in the process or I didn’t. Either way USA has to take the initiative by taking cash islands down south or something.

it sucks when you lose more than what you expect along the way and get set back a round or two from finishing off china / taking india.
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but historically why would japan fighting brits cause usa to enter the war?

@Cow:

in pacific 1940 alone. I usually machine gun my way to india let usa do anything except take japan (and hope he gives me kamikaze by taking some of the isles).

Man, you should take some time to read the Alpha +2 rules carefully.

You can find them here :
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=21859.0
or here :
http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=4167

Here is Alpha +2 rule 13:

13. Kamikaze Strike: The capture of certain islands (Iwo Jima, etc.) is no longer required to activate kamikaze - they can be used at any time. If an Allied power attacks Japanese units in or conducts an amphibious assault from a sea zone containing the Kamikaze symbol, the Japanese player can announce at the beginning of the Conduct Combat phase, of that round, that he or she intends to launch a kamikaze strike. (Note: Kamikaze strikes are now triggered by combat, not combat movement.) See page 14 (Pacific 1940) for specific details as to how Kamikaze strikes are conducted.

So you don’t have to hope “US gives you Kamikaze by taking some of the isles”.

As for your strategy of letting USA doing anything except taking japan, well, i don’t think it is optimal  in G40, and it is clearly bad in P40 .
When you come to think of it, Japan starts with an amazing 21 planes airfleet, when USA has only 4(In Pacific 1940 alone). How well you are going to play with your planes will have a huge impact on your game.

Yes, hitting the British Battleship in SZ 37 will bring America into the war.  Granted, America may not declare war against Japan and/or the European powers, but why would they not?  It is in their best interest to enter the battle as soon as possible.

It was with this consideration I decided to attack Philippines, Philippines SZ and Hawaii SZ, as America will be in the war anyway (if I hit the British BB in SZ 37, and it so far seems the only viable option is to hit that thing early and neuter the British navy in the Indian Ocean).  Since hitting these areas will remove an American NO (Philippines-center of power) as well as destroy their navy in the Pacific, it seemed the best route.  Otherwise, they go to war and have their whole fleet.

Dunno.  Granted, there can be an arguement for hitting Russia and China and ignoring England, ANZAC and America early.

USA at war R2 is fairly typical in pacific 1940 games.  Sometimes R3. Have yet to see R1 work out in pacific 1940.

That’s why I say putting USA at war r1 is bad idea… even if you’re killing more shit than you’re losing, it’s a huge opportunity cost when you compare what you’re doing there to what you could do in Asia.

there is always an opportunity cost.

Axisplaya

I know about the Alpha +2 kamikaze rules. They do not apply to pacific 1940, it applies to global.

i think pacific 1940 was balanced, but the europe half sucks balls.
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I am surprised allies are getting hit with nerfs in the pacific half of the map. Make UK so it can hold instead of sinking italy. That way italy can play and UK can play. I don’t see how hard that is.

If you don’t hit them on Round 1, there’s really no reward for doing so on Rounds 2 or 3.  IMHO, it’s Round 1 and get some really nice kills (and kick the Americans out of the Pacific) or Round 4 before America attacks you.