That’s the point though. Sea Lion is an objective for Germany but there is no justification for doing while the USSR is still a credible threat because once you capture London, there is no way in hell you can defend against the US liberation and the Soviet invasion. Hence, just don’t do it. I am only suggesting that if one wanted to do an early Sea Lion, you will need Japan to put so much pressure on USSR that Germany can focus completely on US thus Japan will lose in the Pacific. I agree Sea Lion isn’t a wise move.
The Japan Playbook
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You suggest throwing everything at India, so there is one fewer enemy to worry about? Will try next time, but my Allied opponent always finds a way to demoralise me, then my original plan flies out the window!
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haha, you can reliably take india j4 or j5.
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I have found in a couple of games recently that Japan going hard for India can end up being kind of a trap, especially when USA goes hard in the Pacific.
Most times I have found that Japan just can not get to India before USA gets into the war. Then Japan ends up taking India, which seems good because you not only knock out one enemy in UK, but you also somewhat weaken China’s income since the Burma Road is pretty much permanently closed.
Problem is that in the mean time, USA comes over with a strong navy and sinks what navy Japan has around it’s capital, which is usually somewhat small because most of Japan’s navy is down by India and the DEI and it is kind of spread out down there to protect it’s holdings. So, the US Navy kind of stations itself in SZ 6 and starts convoy raiding Japan, hurting their income and really not allowing any new ships to be built there. What’s more, USA often takes Korea in the process giving them a nice place to stage bombers to SBR Japan.
This can go on for a couple of rounds before Japan can get the bulk of it’s navy up to challenge the US Navy, which will continue to get more ships coming over from W US so they will keep getting bigger.
Also, even if Japan is able to successfully attack the US Navy and clear SZ 6, they have left all their holdings in the DEI open for ANZAC to sneak in and take, which not only costs Japan the money from the expensive islands themselves, but also that important DEI NO. There’s even the possibility that ANZAC could slip over and liberate India.
Along with this, with Japan having to concentrate on the naval battle, China will keep buying more men and exhaust Japan’s already limited land forces. Then China will be retaking territory, costing Japan further.
So, while I agree that Japan taking India is a good plan for them, they need to find a way to do it that doesn’t require so much commitment. So they can better deal with the US Navy and not leave their capital so vulnerable. -
knp airbase off kwangsi can counter attack usa hard if he moves into japan waters, minor off FIC can make naval.
Japan has to do some form of power play otherwise it’ll flop in the long run anyway.
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Also, don’t feel you have to hold all of the DEI against all comers. You collect income at the end of your turn, not the beginning so I just designate a splinter fleet to follow the Allies around re-re-capturing what they re-captured the turn before.
I’d also say that the most important island of the DEI is Java as, if you station a small fleet here, you can use the island and surrounding sea zone as a shield against the ANZACs while still threatening India, Malaya and the Phillipines.
I had a lot of fun with Japan - although (and I’m aware that Cow will want my blood for saying this) I played to maximise Germany’s chances of winning so generally sailed around making a complete pest of myself to distract America and UK from the war that they should have been fighting :-D
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You evil man! Must have been fun and annoying as hell for the other side. Did you win?I agree about Java.
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Yeah, the Axis won - it was a great game!
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sometimes you got to do what you got to do and take egypt lol.
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Never thought of that. If Japan take and hold India, then load Japan with Inf and some Fighters so as not to lose the little revenue they will have after the loss of 11 IPC from SZ6, they then turn West when necessary to help clear Egypt. Axis win with the fall of Moscow. Unfortunately, can only dream of when I will get to play Global again and try out Plan Supersecret! Is hard enough finding time and opportunity to play one half of the map.
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In fairness I should say that Italy had supreme good luck during our game (and a devestating strategy which I managed to shove Italy into (although he did certainly make my abstract theory work in practice so kudos!)
The UK fleet fled out into the Indian Ocean in UK1 (it had been sunk by J3 together with the UK§ and ANZAC fleets) then Italy launched a joint amphibious and land assault on Egypt after blitzing the Middle East and setting up a minor IC in Iraq.
From about I5 onwards the whole north coast was in Italian hands with a heavy Italian garisson (being reinforced each turn) in Morocco and Italy & USA were trading Gibraltar every turn and so stopping the USA and Britain breaking open the Med.
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Nice. I was born in Florence, Italy, so that sounds good. Unfortunately my main opponent might have been Lee in a former life, to my Burnside, so I do not get the luxury of Italian help for long in any game I play. I do believe the Med and a throttled italy is the key to a successful Allied victory.
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Look at this opener from a game I played last year. This was Alhpa +2…
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=23778.30
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I can’t open battlemaps -.-
you can take screenshot or use the snipit program that comes with windows 7.
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mm
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Posting to keep track of this VERY interesting thread :mrgreen:
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I left a strategy out. japan buying bombers j1, dropping airbase mid china J2 and then bombing russia J3 and landing on top the german stack… I kinda figured that is more of a europe strategy. J4 you can attack / suicide all your air units on russia and G5 germany takes russia or you can keep bombing the russians and take russia G6.
The thing about this strategy is you do not DOW at all so the americans can’t fly to russia. you give up lots of ground in the pacific, you don’t take sino russia… you pretty much just horde your units till russia is dead and then try to expand late game when USA / UK is fully dedicated to stopping germany from taking egypt/london.
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someone came up with a new strategy I have to post. it is j1 dow but instead of calcutta oriented it is anzac oriented.
you power slam hawaii j1, usa can’t attack it back, then you take hawaii over on j2, on J3 you go to caroline with your japan purchased transports and from hawaii. you can put your naval off queensland and prevent any sort of blocking you from caroline to new south wales and also park your carriers off queensland so they can hit as well. wam bam anzac is done.
this is a really fun strategy if you are a big risk big reward player, I am still working out the kinks.
it is really good for live games, do it the game after you had a successful calcutta oriented run. The surprise is mostly what gets people.
taking back anzac is really hard for usa… spam 3 inf a round and for usa to kill that he needs 2 transports 4 guys or 3 fighters… really expensive. plus it gives you a buffer zone because while usa goes down you got breathing room as far as dutch islands go and japan. good buffer zone.
~
after you get anzac it should be fairly obvious if you can rush calcutta before usa takes anzac back or if you can rush hawaii. usa has real tricky buys after that point, but it is obvious he has to take japan or liberate anzac before calcutta drops.it makes for a fast game, which is the one thing i love about anzac rushes.
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I’ve been working on that one as well Cow (see the Pearl Harbor thread), the problem I’ve come across is you need to build some fleet J1 in order to keep the Americans off your back, and that means ANZAC can hold if it turtles from turn one. You’re still in position to take the money island and US must pretty much spend pacific only for a few turns so it’s not all bad, but not sure if it’s worth giving up India.
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aye it is tricky. It has to be a surprise. hard to make it a surprise though.
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hey cow u still got enough time to be looking for new things to post?
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post how to defend against your japs strategies, u are making people believe japs got it easy enough so game is imba
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enhance your let s go for europe with japs. tip: u can feint india and go for egy + grab siberia (or keep ussr far east stack occupied) + bomb moscow for an early ger crush, ALL at the same time (tbh, not sure if u needed that tip)
ps: I still think going for an economy game while keeping your vc win options is the best way to go with axis (yep I know it s boring)
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