Euro-Axis bomber as can opener for Japan

This attack is an ok move, but it will limit some of the other things you could accomplish during your J1. You have pushed the US to max income and made his immediate objective clear (pushing you back off Hawaii).

Considering that you have limited income in this scenario, his 70 should trump your 40, and he will eventually push you out of SZ 26.

Because of this focus on the USA, other objectives (building factories, capturing VCs, money and india) may be missed, and so you would probably be less-well prepared to win the game or defeat america by trying to confront your biggest opponent first. What’s at risk is only 1CA 1 DD 1 SUB and 1 TT, so that reward has to be measured against the other things you could have done and like oystello says, its only a 6$ income swing.

A easier way to approach this as japan is to spend your first 5 turns getting 5 VCs the old fashioned way, and then, while America is focused elsewhere or splitting his forces, take Hawaii (or Sydney) as the last VC with your plodding megafleet built over the course of the whole game and not diminished by the attrition you’ll suffer if you try to get into an early naval pawn for pawn type trade

I actually think the US BB should start in SZ26 to give an incentive to this attack which was historically accurate too. Perhaps the cruiser too, but both of those take balance in the wrong direction.

@aequitas:

1 or 2 Strat.bmbrs are allways good on Pac.Theatre.
Their present def. kills the gameflow fpr the Allies.
But it is sure an Investment you have to take on Euro Axis side.

This!

I see what you guys are saying and I agree. I’ve been kicking around the idea to replace the $5 NO for Japanese control of Borneo, Celebes, Java and Sumatra with the following:

$5 for Japanese control of Okinawa, Formosa, Iwo Jima, Marianas, Palau, Caroline Islands and Marshall Islands. This occurs when Japan is at war with the Western Allies. So if UK and/or ANZAC declare war on Japan, with USA still neutral, then Japan will collect this NO.
I’ve also modified the $5 NO for Japanese control of Midway, Wake, Guam, Solomon Islands and Gilbert Islands. I changed it to $1 for control of each island.

I also removed the US NO of $10 for US control of Eastern US, Central US and Western US because I think that falls in the same category as the DEI NO. The continental US is worth $42 to the US all together, has all their main manufacturing plants and includes two Victory Cities, one of which is their capital. That’s more than enough incentive to not lose any of those three territories. However, I didn’t want to just take away US NO money, so I replaced it with the following:

$1 each for Allied control of the following: Midway, Wake Island, Guam, Marshall Islands, Caroline Islands, Palau, Marianas, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Formosa. This occurs when US is at war with Japan.

So you see, there is still the possibility for the US to make the full $10 in NO money, plus 3 of the Japanese Islands are worth $1 which will be an extra bonus. Also, since 3 of the islands are already US owned, the US can still collect $3 when at war with Japan but before their offensive gets moving.
I thought that might do something to get a little more action in these valueless islands. I wonder if I ought to change Japan’s because once the US is in the war, Japan’s NO is really easy to disrupt because the Marshall Islands are close to the US and they are unguarded. Do you think that I should remove the Marshalls from Japan’s NO?

When I play Japan I like to play with the long-term in mind.  That is, I don’t really go for early do-or-die strategies like an India crush.  If I’m given the opportunity, I’ll go for it, but normally I’ll just try to improve Japan’s economy and keep it that way.

On the turn I attack, I grab the Phillipines and as many of the DEI as possible.  The rest will be gotten on the next turn.  Hong Kong and Malaya are also high-priority objectives.  Unless something has gone wrong, getting these will make Japan’s income in around the low-mid 60s, which is perfect.

Then I’ll put 1-2 factories in South East Asia, and just trade Burma with India.  With convoying, India can only produce around 1 Infantry a turn, so time is in my favor in that region.  I’ll strat bomb the India IC if I ever get the chance.

What determines my success at this point is how much US invested and is continuing to invest in the Pacific.  If it’s a majority or all of its resources, I know Japan’s not going to win.  I might attack Russia if I see a KJF strat, in order to help Germany win.  My fleet builds will primarily be defensive - carriers and destroyers - in order to make my fleet survive as long as possible against the growing US fleet.

If US is only spending some of its income in the Pacific, I’ll be trying to win in the Pacific if possible.  After I’ve got my income, I’ll try to place the majority of my fleet in the Carolines.  There I can threaten Hawaii and Australia.  With luck I’ll try to convoy Australia.  I’ll have taken 1 of those four Australian NO islands, so hopefully Anzac’s making less than 10 a turn.  With a good Carolines-based threat, Anzac will be building defensively - infantry - for the forseeable future.  Thus the majority of my income can go into my trade war against India and for fleet builds to compete with the US fleet.  Until India falls, I’ll go mostly for targets of opportunity at this point.  Hawaii if possible, but that’s tough.  The Pacific Island NO in A3 is impossible, don’t even bother looking at it.  The 5/7 NO in A2 was a lot better frankly.  :-P

With a long-term strategy like this, Japan’s overall victory threat is maximized.

@BigBadBruce:

@Noll:

#ZehKaiser

what if after you move all your fleet in India’s seas, during J2, the american player moves all his fleet 1 sea zone from sz6?

I don’t see this as a real problem. USA can’t have an amphibious attack strong enough to take Japan. As for navy, I never (ever) saw a USA able to hold in z6 long… with Japan’s planes, I would just load 2 fresh carrier in z6 along with few DD (as ZEH said, kept behind) and additionnal 3 planes in Japan. It should do it to repel USA Navy.

Keeps them off india for a turn however, very helpful

I ahve drawn some of the same conclusions and so what I have been trying is push with Italy and push hard to take the Middleeast. If you can get a factory in Iraq and then a factory in Persia you can push out from their. I put almost nothing into my transport fleet which was hardly added to after Taranto happened (Germany went for a G1 Romanian Major which to be honest has proven extremely useful!) The Brits managed to retake Egypt but Italy is still at roughly 25 IPC and has for more forces between Iraq and Persia. Britain is going to need to back up soon or risk losing their forces in Egypt. The other Italian option is push further into Russia. The almost continually have Caucus and are threatening Volgogrod heavily. Germany has the Russians runnings scared from the massive force they moved in with the factory in Romania and has both an army group north and south which outnumbers the Russians allowing the Italians to get away with a little more. For Italy I chose to build up the air force rather than navy and the navy I do have is subs which are blocking Britain’s money in Egypt and also poised with two bombers to push off a Gibraltar or Morocco landing force. I have four subs and two bombers that can hit the Atlantic side of Gibraltar. Germany also has 2 bombers and 5 subs that can hit that same SZ keeping the Allies from landing in North Africa, they are instead landing in French West Africa and bring in reinforcements that way.

the 1 fighter and bomber a turn was in reference to my builds, adding to whatever i was already sending. as for starting ya it was 3pm, lol. for me it wasnt my bed time. some of the others still wanted to hit the bars though, japan and i were totally willing to keep going. but the allies surrendered. losing the russians, and all their offensive capabilities kinda did that. as for the russians, they never attacked me, but they just pushed everything up to the front. oh after the game ended i realized that the US had also illegally bought an IC in the Philippines like turn 1. being so focused on Europe i didnt quite catch that though