The Japan Playbook

Today I decided to try a VERY aggressive J1 attack (and aggressively play the Axis in general, for instance, Germany used its bombers on London instead of SZ 110/111 and everything succeeded anyway) so, along with most of the moves you’re used to, I attacked the Hawaiian fleet, too, and went for ANZAC’s destroyer/transport (50/50 shot!).  It went OK, maybe well, only more time will tell (we’re starting J2 on Monday)

Result was all the usual Japan attacks succeeding, making 40 ipc at the end of its turn (no national objectives), UK-Pacific is making 10 ipc after losing Hong Kong and Borneo, and, after its counter attack, the U.S. has zero planes and its only ships are the ones it bought on US1 and its transport in the Atlantic.

I’m not so sure about taking the 50/50 shot at ANZAC’s destroyer/transport instead of sending it to Hawaii.  I missed and was sank, but more importantly think the extra hit to take on the U.S.’ counter attack on Hawaii would be more worthwhile.  The U.S. lost everything on its counter (including his bomber and fighter from Central and East) but that was bad luck and should have been more successful.  Japan has a wounded battleship left.  Interestingly, I couldn’t take hits on my carrier’s lightly because if I did, my opponent would have retreated and I would lose my planes anyway.

Purchase: 2 transports, 1 minor industrial complex for Kiangsu
J2 plan is to take Malaya, hit China, send new transports south, buy tanks and a bomber(s), and J3 gets me the money islands and a factory on Malaya, buy more tanks and some fleet(?), J4 is Calcutta and buy fleet cause the U.S. is showing up.

Sea attacks:
SZ 37 (UK battleship) cruiser and two bombers
SZ 35 (Phillipines) carrier from Caroline Islands, and SZ19’s battleship, sub, and destroyer
SZ 62 (ANZAC) 1 destroyer from Caroline Islands
SZ 26 (Hawaii) all of SZ 6’s non-transport fleet

Land:
Borneo (1 inf)
Phillipines (2 inf, 2 art, 1 fighter)
Hong Kong (2 inf, 1 art, planes)
French Indo-China (2 inf)
Yunnan (2 inf, 1 art, planes)
Hunan (2 inf, planes)
Anhwe
Chahar

What did Russia do with Amur?

@KGrimB:

What did Russia do with Amur?

No idea how I missed this question… Russia had already moved 6 west towards Moscow and the other 12 holding one back.  I seem to recall trying to bait him into attacking Manchuria or Korea but he didn’t go for it.

As for Hawaii, I’ve tried it a few times and have cooled on it.  Its viable but I simply prefer not to.

My first choice is most all the same choices I usually make with a J1 (Hong Kong, Borneo, Philippines) with an eye to turtling Calcutta (bomb J2/J3, convoy with subs J3/J4+), and worrying about taking it J6 or later so I can focus on keeping the money islands, closing the Burma road and gobbling up China so I have the option to help take Moscow, and making sure ANZAC doesn’t grow.

This means Japan’s fleet can mostly hang out on the Philippines for J4-J6 once the U.S./ANZAC fleet becomes a threat.

These days, Japan’s buy is fast movers for the mainland factories and carriers for the fleet, since Japan already has plenty of planes to land on them.

Doing this, the past few games, Japan ends up making over 60 a turn by end of J3 and the U.S. has a hard time threatening since I make up the difference in income via using the huge advantage in existing planes to build up my fleet or to threaten his.

Example: last game Japan’s fleet was at Philippines, with some more planes on Japan.  U.S./ANZAC parked at Caroline.  Both huge fleets (all of Japan’s original ships, and a total of 6 or 7 carriers).  But the advantage in planes/carriers meant Japan sank everything they had with carrier planes landing on Paulau and Japan Island planes landing on carriers.  He lost around 200 ipcs of ships.

I am sure it has been done by others, but no way am I reading 20 pages worth of stuff.  I actually have just started experimenting with a J1 that includes Hawaii like you weddingslinger, the way I did mine was to send all SZ6 planes plus the 2 dd and sub from 6 along with other usual J1 attacks.  I would noncom carriers off of wake and land planes there, the key for me is that I would leave a dd alive in Hawaii even at the cost of my planes so as to stop the San Fran fleet from coming for my carriers.  It seems to work fine but your fleet is just so poorly positioned on J2 it seems awkward.  Im not sure if this will be included in my standard J1, but I like the ability to kill an American cruiser while I can and would love to trade planes if he is willing to scramble.

This might be somewhere in the previous 23 pages of discussion….but…can Japan build a 10 IPC factory in Kiangsu?  It has 3 IPC but it is technically a captured Chinese territory and not a Japanese home territory.

TY…

Hi Moffett

No. Only a minor. Korea is the only place Japan can build a major

How does Japan modify its attack on J-2 after it has launched J-1 DOW ….  when there are 2 Anzac Inf + 3 FTR in Java on Anzac1…?

Or is it better to take Java on J1 (rather than Borneo), to prevent Anzac from getting the free landing spot for its 3 planes that eventually go to India and/or Moscow?

@MeinHerr:

Or is it better to take Java on J1 (rather than Borneo), to prevent Anzac from getting the free landing spot for its 3 planes that eventually go to India and/or Moscow?

Japan can’t reach Java J1.

@MeinHerr:

How does Japan modify its attack on J-2 after it has launched J-1 DOW ….  when there are 2 Anzac Inf + 3 FTR in Java on Anzac1…?

instead of taking the Money Islands, take Java with 2 transports and destroy ANZAC’s air force and transport.  Your planes on your ships from Philippines/Borneo should be in easy range (don’t use your bombers - you need them to bomb Calcutta).  ANZAC losing all that this early in the game is worth you missing out on 12 ipcs (9 this round and 3 the next from missed opportunity)

Your 3rd transport can take Celebes still or bring the extra guy to Java to give you more insurance to take it.  If ANZAC got lucky and hit 4, as long as I wiped them out round 1, I’d lose a plane and take the island.

Just make sure your J1 purchase transports make their way down the coast safely.

@MeinHerr:

How does Japan modify its attack on J-2 after it has launched J-1 DOW ….  when there are 2 Anzac Inf + 3 FTR in Java on Anzac1…?

Usually the J1 prevents this.  You should have the surviving units at Phi, 1 inf at Bor, and 4-6 fighters (as well as 2bb1cru) in range of Java.  And you might be able to pick up 2 more inf at FIC.  It’s a big risk for Anzac to go up against that with just the 5 units.

This scenario presents a good argument for sending the 3rd carrier south (rather than keeping the 3rd ac in 6).  But I also want as many figs as possible in Kwangsi so they’res a tradeoff.

If Java seems like too big a risk on J2, go for Malaya and 1-2 money islands, then get the NO on J3.

The 3rd Carrier makes a lot of difference.  And killing the 3 ANZAC FTRs is very important if India has to fall Fast on J-3.
  Otherwise, with even 1 extra Bid unit in India and  $3 extra Bid money, (India builds 6 Inf on UKI-1, then 4 Inf on UKI-1) …it becomes very very very expensive for Japan to take it on J-3… potentially losing half or its Airforce or more.

@Cow:

I am not a big fan of the sink hawaii fleet. I know people who like to do it. It does work and it is viable.

The j1 dow is modified to do it. The reason I dislike it so much is because I like to attack any burma stack that the allies may attempt with all my air. Makes for an easy J3 India without the need to purchase an airbase (just naval). Saves Japan 15 ipc to make up for any tuv disadvantage it may cause.

But If I were planning for a more conservative approach. I like it. If USA responds with some sort of full pacific go after Japan strategy you can spam carriers and effectively turtle for such a long time that Germany will take Russia.

It doesn’t work so well in the 1942 version either.  We got paired with a random player at GENCON who played Japan and attacked USA round 1. Needless to say on Turn 7 I took Russia but Japan lost their capital as well.  Taking Hawaii is always and endgame move not a starting move IMO.

@JDOW said in Introduce or Re-Introduce Yourself (Nov. 2018):

Well, I personally think a KJF works worst against a J1 DOW.
But as a risk-averse player, I do not like J1 DOW that much, same as G1 DOW, although I played them both successfully so far. I do not like the shaky Yunnan attack in a J1 and the attack against the battleship in 37.

Some players attack at sz62, too. This is too much power in MARTI’s hands to me so early in the game :-)

Been thinking about JDOW’s comments a lot here. I think he might have something. The attack on the UK BB in SZ37 sacrifices the Cruiser at least. Sometimes as Japan you lose the fighter and let UK attack the Cruiser, which means more losses than the 20IPC for the UK BB although perhaps you shouldn’t. Japan cannot afford to lose fleet early on and I don’t think the UK BB is that valuable really: probably ends up just on escort duty.

What if the 2 bombers attack Yunnan instead of the BB? Then one inf from Kwangsi can attack Hunan, which will most likely mean no planes lost J1 while the Yunnan attack is still an 80% chance of taking the territory without any plane losses. If you are prepared to lose one plane, the odds rise to about 95%.

The SZ20 Cruiser would be needed in SZ43 in this scenario or the UK might attack the CV there.

I’m going a bit off topic for that thread so posted here.

Every time i play with axis… i realize i am too slow … even if i won the last game after the 15 round and against a very good player … but i realize i am too slow reading this discussion … I will try this strategy combined with an attack on the second round of the Germans …

I am way new to this; so beware my naive observations and feel free to school me.

It seems with Japan, that the Allies losing India is fairly inevitable. The questions seem to be 1) Can one hold ANZAC and Hawaii? 2) Will the loss of India be catastrophic? On question #1, holding ANZAC and Hawaii seems relatively simple if one buys planes and shuttles them from US-Hawaii-Queensland and just enough infantry to hold Hawaii/ANZAC. A fg every turn and transport with 2 inf; doubling up on turn 4. This allows the US to put 50+ towards Germany every turn. Is that enough to stop Germany?. If an emergency arises; buy 7 fgs. For #2, the answer seems to to delay as long as possible. Those 16 Russians can be put to good use, plus Russia’s mobile units in mainland China. That would seem to slow Japan down. China’s main role is getting as many troops as possible on Burma and dyeing in place. Role number two is blocking/slowing Japan to Russia’s back door and role number 3 is harassing Japan. Flying the fgs from ANZAC would be nice help, but the main block will come from UK’s ability to win North Africa/Italy quickly enough to back stop any advance from India.

@Stough, Id say the main counter to japan is a large navy. In my opinion 1:1:1:2 (carrier: sub: destroyer: plane) works well to keep the Japanese off of your victory cities, and also to threaten the money islands and Korea and whatnot.

I personally think the best counter to japan is figuring out how to kill/counter Germany as economically as possible allowing you to spend as much as possible in the pacific. The US’s advantage is money, and it’s much more effectively spent in the pacific, instead of in the Atlantic in my opinion.