The Japan Playbook

Axisplaya

post how to defend against your japs strategies, u are making people believe japs got it easy enough so game is imba

Not really…Saying over and over the same thing (J1 attack = THE way to go) in hundreds of posts don’t make it more true.

@soulfein:

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)

I totally agree with that statement, and so do some better players than me.
It might seem boring if you’re used to gambit and/or fancy plays, but when you want to win a game, that’s the most reliable strategy.
Still, it can also be fun. Instead of going for big gamble battles (ex: India J3-J5), grinding territories, playing a positional game, giving yourself a maximum of flexibility for your turns to come and setting economic traps is as interesting as going all in on a big gamble strategy.
When you play economy game, you can afford to loose some battles, it does not always mean the loss of the game.

Cow

Not everyone wants to play an 18 hour game. -.- I try to design strategies around winning by round 10. It is good manners.

Against boring axis players … as the allies I’ll do a megadrop and take italy or KJF. It puts people on the clock, you got to force people to push the action sometimes.

If one player doesn’t want to race, it just gives the other player a head start.

That is the thing about Japan, if it wins it is usually under 10 rounds with 6 vcs.
~
I doubt people will touch global after 1941 hits. Have you seen that masterpiece? It looks so much fun.

The biggest problem is the players who play global are not aggressive… so the game is not entertaining, unless I make it entertaining.

The next board 1941 forces both sides to be aggressive, yeah I like that.

People say it favors axis, but I don’t know what the allies are doing or the rules yet. Have to wait. It looks rough for the axis if russia can attack round 1. I’ll probably only attack manchuria in my first game.

ghr2

1941 is the complete opposite of g40, i doubt id call it a masterpiece.

questioneer

I’m intrigued more by the new 1942 game- seems like they did a much better job and it doesn’t take all day to play- though I still like Global a lot.

1941 could be real tactical and fast- very different game I would assume.

Cow

It is hard to finish a game of global though. Even online where it is faster to move the pieces and play.

Have a whole bunch of games at round 6-8 saved and not finished.

Global is rough time wise to finish. I do my turns fast but still :(

barney

Yea one needs to pack a lunch to play a game of global

still is fun though and sounds like 41 and 42 will be as well

coolrunner

You attack as japan in round 1… well what can I say… come and play with me… You play axis I play the allies… I don’t care if you take calcutta…I will be able to fight back…

ghr2

@coolrunner:

You attack as japan in round 1… well what can I say… come and play with me… You play axis I play the allies… I don’t care if you take calcutta…I will be able to fight back…

go cow go!

questioneer

@Cow:

It is hard to finish a game of global though. Even online where it is faster to move the pieces and play.

Have a whole bunch of games at round 6-8 saved and not finished.

Global is rough time wise to finish. I do my turns fast but still :(

Bingo same here…with the revisions in the new 42 game- which seem pretty impressive…it sounds like this will be the new “IT” game for AxisandAllies. I’m wondering if G40 will fall by the way side…become more of a novelty game.

Cow

You attack as japan in round 1… well what can I say… come and play with me… You play axis I play the allies… I don’t care if you take calcutta…I will be able to fight back…

The land of sparkling happiness awaits you. Challenge accepted, tell me when you get on the triple a lobby and host a game.

Cow

made some updates. changed the j1 picture up so it has 2 dd and 3 fighter back at japan.

Played enough J1 dow to know it is better than J2 dow. J3 DOW is a huge hell no for me. The reason why J1 DOW is so good, is simply because you started taking islands and you aren’t going to get blocked from taking more. The sub and dd dead in sz 35, makes the new south wales fleet less intimidating early on while you are taking islands so you hold 2-3 spots no problem.

Also that 3 fighter 2 inf on java from anzac thing… yeah you can kill that with 4-6 ground and 6 air units … then you can get west australia after with 7 inf (naval base FIC or kwangsi). if he can’t kill west australia… put a bunch of air there and move the fleet up and blam you can take new south wales instead of calcutta.

RedHunter

Japan DW1 but on Russia not on the UK or the USA…DW 2 or 3 on the USA depending on what is going on. Build a minor in Manchokua(spelling) so you can start pumping tanks into Russia. Oh and roll over China of course. Leave the UK out of it entirely, let them build in India…or let them DW on you.

Warplayer12

It´s Manchuria.

thermomonkey

Thanks for the work you’ve all done on this. Cow, can you just clarify a few things please (this is probably me being stupid):

*18) 1 carrier 1 sub 1 cruiser 1 bship 1 destroyer sz 6-> 35
*23) bship cruiser sub sz 6 -> sz 35

Have you just repeated some unit moves here?

Secondly:

*PROS:
*1)+10 IPC, which is what you make for not being at war so you are neutral on Japan income.

Isn’t this a con, as you don’t get the +10 for being at war?

Also, your purchases for J2 - I don’t seem to have enough money for??

PURCHASE
*airbase 2x minor factory 1 infantry or 1 airbase, 1 naval base, 1 minor factory (this means you are doing J3 calcutta THIS REQUIRES YOU TO HOLD SHAN STATE THIS TURN WHICH CAN *ONLY BE DONE IF THERE IS NO BURMA STACK AND IF MALAYA IS DEAD AND IF INDIA HAS NO MECH INF, YOU CAN KILL BURMA POSSIBLY TOO IF HE DOESN’T BLOCK YO DROP).

Again, sorry if these are dumb questions!

Cow

you have a couple ipc left from your j1 buy, which was 3 tran 1 inf. you should have enough most of the time.

I am not sure if my sz 35 movements were accurate, I no longer keep a fleet off of FIC. I just put it on sz 35.
~
Neutral on income is kind of a benefit, because you start taking dutch islands already and income away from UK pacific.

I like the j1 dow, because it starts taking islands sooner as opposed to later.

I am starting to lean towards not having 3 fighters back in japan, instead keeping a few ships back. all the air up front is pretty good, I think for low luck games I would do this because you can reliably kill yunnan in 1 shot or 2 if it is stacked.

I just like J1 DOW because it can hammer out India by or on turn 5 for japan. I like this, because on the other side of the board germany is doing sea lion or all out russia. Usually sea lion feign, they buy appropriately to defend london and get usa bomber in it, fighter on iceland to go inside turn after. So I dow russia turn 2 with germany, stack nov turn 3, advance and take russia by turn 7. It turns into a two sided race. USA can reliably stop 1 victory, but he has to do it in time so he can stop the other.
~
J1 DOW takes getting used to and you do have to be aggressive with axis as a whole, as time is the enemy.

thermomonkey

Thanks for the reply Cow. I am definitely going to give J1 DOW a go in my next game as axis. I’ve noticed here that people seem to combine it with a G1 barb. Can you not still use J1 DOW in combination with G2 barb?

Cow

I do it with G2 barb. I do a sea lion feign to force uk to turtle and not really scramble so much. If london looks good I will do it. In fact if you get london on G3… the allies are super screwed, because usa can’t liberate london while putting a stop to japan.

Usually I’ll end up stacking baltic states G2 and holding nov. try not to commit your tanks to yugoslavia, just strafe yugo so you can get guys a step closer toward ukraine. land 2 air units on italy.

I find the games to be much more exciting, which is the main reason I do it. Lots more action especially early on, rather than going through the usual motions.

As far as if it is the ultimate strategy or not… depends on your play style. I just prefer to expand with japan / being aggressive. For some reason, Japan does better going to war early.

Cow

bump

thermomonkey

Evening Cow.

Almost finished my first game using this new opener, and I have to say I love it. Much more interesting game – and I believe massively beneficial for the Axis. I made a big mistake on G1 (don’t ask) but because America had to commit heavily to the Pacific it wasn’t as disastrous as it should have been. I believe I could win now by flying all my air over to Moscow which is heavily stacked at the moment, but I want to try and win in the Pacific (which I am close to doing).

I can’t ever see myself doing anything other than a DOW on J1 from now on. Thanks!

thermomonkey

Oh and you are quite right, there is no rush to take India. I put it off until J5, as I was busy finishing off China. Also, I didn’t keep any planes on Japan, I held back a few destroyers. When USA had set up on Hawaii I just put a blocker in sz16 to give me an extra round of buying for the South Pacific before I had to stack Japan. By this time I was earning about 75 per round anyway.

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