Japanese Capture of DEI, suggestions?

well if you gonna attack J1, bypass Phillipines and concentrate on the easy islands, also ensure that your naval forces are sufficiently concentrated so as to prevent the British from counter attacking and causing significant damage to your navy. Keep in mind that it is advisable for the British to exchange ships with the Japs, so dont think that because you equal the British forces that they will not attack, In my experience, the British will consider their ships lost, and look for the most efficient way for them to go out.

Whatever you do, protect your transports at ALL COST.  Make sure each one has a good amount of naval escort and don’t leave any sitting there alone or with a weak escort like a single DD or CA.  I made that mistake once.  I got half of the DEI then lost my transports and their weak escorts thanks to British and ANZAC ships and planes.  My other transports were clear back on Japan and it took another two rounds to get down there.  Really set me back a bit as Japan and let the US become even more of a problem for me.

@Hitlers:

@knp7765:

Whatever you do, protect your transports at ALL COST.  Make sure each one has a good amount of naval escort and don’t leave any sitting there alone or with a weak escort like a single DD or CA.  I made that mistake once.  I got half of the DEI then lost my transports and their weak escorts thanks to British and ANZAC ships and planes.  My other transports were clear back on Japan and it took another two rounds to get down there.  Really set me back a bit as Japan and let the US become even more of a problem for me.

Do you think that if he takes all of his navy for escort on round two that it will leave other areas too exposed?

This is the entire Japanese navy near the money islands?  That’s not a bad position, I think, because it’s near India and Australia.  It is a bit far from the US, though.  But they may not even be in the war yet.  I’d be careful to have a fleet or at least some destroyers (as screens for delaying tactics) further back to slow down the US when it enters the war.

I don’t have the entire Japanese navy down by the DEI.  Usually, I end up splitting it into two major fleets;  one protecting the transports and assisting in taking the DEI, and the other guarding home waters, particularly against the US fleet.  Once you decide to take the DEI, unless UK or ANZAC attacked Japan first, it will be considered an unprovoked declaration of war against those two powers, in which case the USA can, and probably will, declare war on Japan.  Therefore you have to leave some of your fleet to ward off the Americans, plus have 3 fighters at your airbase for scrambling to help the home fleet and a fair amount of infantry on the home island just in case the US Navy beats your home fleet.

I made that mistake once too.  I had my Japanese fleet roaming all over the Pacific smashing the pitiful Allied presence and the US “sneaked” up with 2 or 3 transports full of inf/art and TOOK MY CAPITAL.  I think this was a game of just Pacific 40 so the captured Major IC on Japan stayed Major.  By the time I could get my navy back up there, US had built a bunch of defense and I couldn’t take Japan back.  Lesson learned.

How do you guys divide your IJN fleets? Do you keep a majority North by U.S. or South by Anzac/India? Or do you try to keep them as evenly balanced as possible?

Usually, when I play Japan, I will leave 1 carrier, 1 BB, 1 CA and 1 or 2 DDs in home waters for defensive purposes.  The rest is usually down south around the DEI, Philippines or Carolines depending on what I’m working on at the time.  Plus, I try to create a safe coridor to shuttle transports from Japan to the southern areas between the two fleets.

I like to purchace a navel base and place it in the Hinan.  It allows you to put a large amount of navy down there ,shuttle transports,  shift to the Carolines, or make it home in one move to defend against the usa, if India had a brain fart you can hit calcutta.  You have so many options from there and you dont really have to defend the navel base because its on the island.

@Peck:

I like to purchace a navel base and place it in the Hinan.  It allows you to put a large amount of navy down there ,shuttle transports,  shift to the Carolines, or make it home in one move to defend against the usa, if India had a brain fart you can hit calcutta.  You have so many options from there and you dont really have to defend the navel base because its on the island.

Never thought of doing that.  It’s a pretty good idea.

That is also my standard J1 opening, I usually use that base to funnel troops into FIC from Japan or to help defend my island empire.  However next time I am going to use it in conjunction with an India Crush strat and see how that goes.

Do you also place a Factory in FIC ?

Then any ships you build have an instant base.

I do that later as I’m playing alpha 2 and don’t want to loose my bonus,  but it might be worth it if you took it first turn and built a factory on j2 for a j2 attack.  Hopefully Germany is ready at this point.