http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=30167.0 Check out my Germany playbook as well!
This is a three part series. The first part is for the Japan 1 DOW on western allies. The second part to the series is for Japan players who like to setup and start war round 2. The third part of the series is for when russians are gutsy and have stacked up amur round 1 in hopes of delaying you from your quest for glory. Feel free to comment with your suggestions below.
Do keep in mind this is a J1 DOW opener.
Also you can just look at the screenshot at the end to figure out what I did instead of reading each movement. You will notice the major pitfall to kicking off war round 1 right away, a possible Yunnan stack of british and chinese round 1, but on Japan 2 you get have plenty of guys on kwangsi so he holds it for one round only.
Most games won before round 10; are won in the pacific by Japan. You want to progress quickly as each round goes by, but you also need to be smart about things. Surprisingly some of the more conservative players do DOW with Japan as Japan can quickly make 60-70 ipc a turn.
purchase: 3 transports, 1 infantry.
COMBAT MOVES
- 2 inf siam-> french indo china
- 1 fighter 1 tactical sz 33->philippines
- 1 inf 1 tank japan->transport -> philippines
- 1 inf okinawa + 1 art manchuria -> transport -> philippines
- formosa fighter -> 37
- 2 bombers -> 37
- sz20 cruiser-> 37
8 ) 3 inf 1 art -> yunnan
- 1 fighter 1 tactical kiangsu -> yunnan
- kiangsi -> sz 20 transport -> borneo
- kiangsi 1 inf 1 art -> kwangtung
- 1 inf kiangsi -> hunnan
- 2 fighter 2 tactical manchuria -> hunnan
- 1 okinawa fighter -> kwangtung
- 1 korea fighter -> sz 35
- 1 tactical fighter sz 6 -> 35
- 1 tactical fighter 2 fighters sz 6-> kwangtung
- 1 carrier 1 sub 1 cruiser 1 bship 1 destroyer sz 6-> 35
- 2 inf 1 art jehol-> chahar
- 3 inf 1 art shangtung -> anhwe
- 1 mech inf manchuria -> chahar
- japan 1 tactical fighters-> kwangtung
- bship cruiser sub sz 6 -> sz 35
- dd sz 19 -> sz 35
~NONCOMBAT
6 Inf 1 aa gun manchuria -> jehol
4 inf korea-> manchuria
1 carrier 1 destroyer sz 33-> 43
1 fighter sz 37-> 43
2 bombers sz 37-> kwangsi (all china air land there)
1 carrier sz 6-> 36
sz 19 bship -> sz 36
sz 19 sub -> sz 35 (or sz 36 if you didn’t kill the battleship for some reason)
3 inf 1 art kiangsu -> kiangsi
at this point you are just landing your air units on carriers. keep 2 destroyer in sz 6 to guard your transports, along with 3 fighters in japan to scramble against an attack from the americans, use kamikaze rolls if he sends dd and cruiser in (don’t screw around, roll 2 for dd and 3 for cruiser save 1 kamikaze to prevent bombardments later on)
1 fighter 1 tactical philippines-> 35
1 fighter 35-> 43
1 tactical fighter 35-> 36
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hunnan kwangtung and yunnin air units land kwangsi.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A CONSERVATIVE BASELINE.
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PROS:
1)+10 IPC, which is what you make for not being at war so you are neutral on Japan income.
2) you started taking islands and british territories -7 for UK pacific
3) you picked up some nice kills no counter attacks except from china on yunnan.
4) all naval is safe. the allies can only block you from taking sumatra in which case you would take malaya.
5) Good kills. bship (cost you only a cruiser), sub dd (tilts bship repairs J2), the rest can be dicey.
Cons:
USA at war and will collect NOs (but he is -2 from philippines and will not collect that NO
anzac +5 because malaya
yunnan is sometimes stacked up and uk pacific attacked your 2 infantry on FIC. this is okay, I prefer not to throw all my air at these guys, simple because I want them for calcutta, but delaying calcutta so you don’t have to deal with those units is not too bad either.
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If you are playing low luck games, I highly recommend doing J1 war, because all the risk is gone.
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Overall analysis. USA at war, picks up his NOs for +20. Down sub and dd and philippines for -16, the fighter we’ll put at -3 assuming he gets two hits with it, for -19 usa.
You tend to break even compared to doing nothing. except UK is -7 and you are already taking islands.
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Sometimes if the Allies are silly. On J2 you can setup to take India J3.
airbase 2x minor factory 1 infantry or 1 airbase, 1 naval base, 1 minor factory (this means you are doing J3 calcutta. SHAN STATE or Yunnan hold is a must (this is where your air lands so you would have to kill everything around it). If USA is at Midway -1 MINOR FACTORY + 4 inf. Kamikaze to prevent bombardments. Also you need all naval units cleared that could block your attack (position a fleet at Java or malaya and/or burma to prevent blockers if necessary). Put all available units in range of India in range. placement. airbase needs to go to french indo china or kwangsi.
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Your ultimate objective is for the capital of India, usually J4-7 you get it. Avoid losing transports whenever possible. On round 2 you should grab 3 of any combination of malaya, sumatra, java, celebes.
_Also remember that J1 war only works if amur is empty or has under 5 inf. Also if Russia is sending his mech at you and buying lots of mech… it is not a great idea to J1 dow.
How to deal with the Russians. deal with it either after calcutta (as per FIC minor FIC facto), or when it gets to manchuria, or hold manchuria and drop a minor on it to wall it off (you can invade siberia later if you need to.
The J3 buy is the hardest._
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Last suggestion. You don’t have to rush calcutta at all, you can do it j4-6 anytime you feel like depending on what the allies throw at you. Sometimes I go back to Japan and reload all my transports if the allies are being really stubborn about it.
Some people try to convoy japan, but from sz 36, with a naval base, you can hit him hard.
Also it is hard to say what you should buy / do J2 and onward, because it depends on what the allies are doing. Sometimes you get to choose between many attacks, none as the allies are full retreat, or one or two attacks, so it all depends.
**Also some anzac players like to put 3 fighters and 2 inf on java, go kill that, naval base FIC. with 6 inf 1 armor you can usually hold western australia and then blam fly your air on it the round after and move the naval up so you can take new south wales without being blocked from attack it. If you get an easy opportunity, just take it. when you have australia, usa has to really go out of his way to liberate it.
Otherwise just ignore it for the first round, you have other battles to do.**
Edits done 2013, 2014, and 2016
Last edit I will ever do 7/21/2017 for below
Okay, years have passed and I have only been doing J1 (because every time i think about doing a J2 I say F it and J1 dow and no one ever has a stack in amur for me to attack to give me a reason to j3 DOW). I have made some adjustments over this time. J1 is my preference and I do the same thing every game. Best counter I seen to the Sino Russia thing is USA with the bomber spam during usa 1 and 2 then flys 9 bombers to scotland and then into Russia (the 7 movement is real), super effective counter and 9 bombers on Russia is actually really solid cannon fodder, can really shut down a G5-G7 takedown of Moscow. This is what I do against Japan ignoring the pacific and going after Russia, it is the only way USA can get units into Russia in time to defend it and have a meaningful impact quickly.
You can defend Japan with 1 sub (can be another dd instead) 1 dd 1 cruiser 2 fighters. Use all 3 kamis on dd and 3 kamis on cruiser (usa has 2% to win if you hit both, 9-10% with 1 hit and 36% all miss). I prefer to defend with 3 fighters except when I lost a cruiser and fighter in sz 37 (so i fly the 3rd fighter down to defend my carrier).
I usually attack sz 62 with 1 destroyer (chance to hit the lotto and sink the transport and dd, sometimes you just end up tossing a destroyer away or trading destroyers).
So what changed? I move only 1 inf to kiangsi (sometimes 1 inf 1 arty if phil lost 3 units, usually lose 2 guys so you need the extra inf to pick up for malaya or whatever). No fleet in 36 (it all goes sz 35). Picture in next post.
![j1dow.PNG](/uploads/_imported_attachments/migrated/172410_j1dow.PNG)
J1DOW.tsvg