The Japan Playbook

@Cow:

haha questioneer my standard j1 and j2 dow is similar to yours. I browsed some games real fast.

the allies seem so discombobulated around here though.

What games???  I don’t DOW on J1 or J2, though I’m warming up to J2 along with a G2- that can possibly be lethal.  Interesting… :-)

What do you do as Japan when:

R1 DOW on Japan
NCM 3 Inf Sakha - > Bury
NCM 3 Inf, 2 AA Sakha - > Amur
NCM 1 Ftr/Tac Moscow -> Calcutta
NCM 1 Mech/Arm Stalingrad -> Sikang

9 Inf are in Amur with 2 AA
9 Inf are in Bury
1 Ftr/Tac in Calcutta and 1 Mech/Arm are in Sikang poised for a R2 move to reclaim the Burma Road to allow a C2 purchase of Art.  Those aircraft will be able to return to Calcutta to help defend a J3-J4 India Crush if it indeed occurs.

An alternative move is to land those aircraft on Yunnan and potentially force Japan to lose aircraft trying to take Yunnan on J1.  However, I don’t like risking the Russian aircraft for that purpose, but instead utilize them as in the prior paragraph.

Alternatively, if the Crush fails to happen, those 2 aircraft can still return to Moscow in a 1 turn move prior to Germany arriving on its doorstep.

Is J1 worried enough about 9 Inf in Amur to send aircraft against it?  If so, there will be 12 Russian Inf - 3 from activating Mongolian Political Situation - countering on R2.

Thoughts?

Russia can DOW on R1 on Japan if it chooses to, can it not?  That enables them to move all around Asia.

Cow:

I employed a similar J1 attack yesterday.  I played patiently with Japan, and realistically it took a lot longer than I expected to sack Calcutta (round 5 or 6).  I had a hard time taking and holding Shan or Burma which delayed the use of all my air power.  The one BIG mistake I made was not taking FIC on J1 (I just missed it it in all the action).  This ended up hurting me because a J2 AB on FIC opened up Shan as a landing location instead of Burma (if you are coming out of Kwang) after you attack Calcutta.

I had some fun making the US chase me around the pacific.  I sent two CV with complimentary aircraft, a CR, DD and a TT with 2 Inf to Carolines early.  The US had moved up to Japan early and took Korea - but the potential of nothing on Hawaii and the US 2 moves away from it by staying off Japan forced them to retreat.  I moved that fleet from the Carolines to Line and threatened taking the Panama Canal while the US staged 10 subs off W.USA and its Pacific fleet in Hawaii.  Instead of suiciding in Panama, I took New Zealand instead, leaving a DD at Fiji to block the US fleet.  I shot from NZ to Java after that because the allies didn’t block me in at NZ.  The US cleared the way to Java (I left the CR at SZ54 thinking I could block the Anzac fleet off Sydney) and Allies got their first real battle to trade ships with Japan, leaving the Japanese fleet with just a tipped BB.

I didn’t win the game, and in fact Germany was pretty much made impotent with full US IPC purchases going to the atlantic for the majority of the rounds.  I got lucky with a german attack on the allied flotilla being lightly guarded and sunk something along the lines of 8-10 allied TT sunk (but not after they unloaded them in N.Africa).

All in all, I think if you want to try to win the game with Japan it is possible.  Even after trading ships with Anzac, I was 1 TT away from being able to hit Hawaii (US had just taken the Carolines).  I utilized the 5-6 TT to great success, and even after Russia invaded Manchuria and continued to move south to make China bigger, I was able to swing TT around and reclaim Korea and Manchuria.  I was able to utilize the Japanese aircraft after calcutta (who didn’t play defensively before it was too late) to reclaim the lost VC’s in China.

I wouldn’t suggest a J1 attack unless you really don’t like whoever is playing the German and Italian countries Europe sucked for the Axis.  They are put WAY behind the 8-ball with US purchases going all atlantic while Japan runs rampant in the Pacific for a few turns.

Russia does not have to be at war with Germany/Italy to move into UK territories.
If it is only at war with Japan, it can move into any Pacific-map UK territories, including West India and discluding British Columbia/Yukon.

The situation is the same as China’s-
China is at war with Japan, and may move any units into Kwantung/Burma even if UK is not at war with Japan.
UK is already at war, so it’s not under neutrality restrictions.

The Russians employed a successful counter attack strategy that stymied Germany in E.Poland, Baltics, Bessarabia and W.Ukraine.  Germany just couldn’t punch through and had to be mindful of Allied aggression into Normandy and Holland.

I utilized an AB in Norway and staged aircraft there that kept the Allies at bay in SZ91 until they could defend themselves against the full German Air Force (Bought myself maybe 2 rounds).

I took Yugo, which was bad.  I wanted to strafe Yugo and retreat to Romania to stage for a G2 attack on Russia.  I got stuck taking Yugo and it set my German advance back a full two turns by the time I got them into position it was too late to advance - which played right into the Russian Counter Attack Strategy as Italy was not present to can-open.

Italy was screwed from the get-go as UK flew its aircraft to Jordan and I used the Italian tanks via TT to kill them off and close the Suez all at the same time.  Italy actually took Egypt with ease, but it couldn’t hold it and the Allies were staged off Gib to make Italy go into a Defend Rome Strategy.  Italy had one strong move to clear out an entire Allied Flotilla in SZ91 that was lightly protected by using its Bomber.  That bought Germany some time.

Overall the counter to your J1 attack is the US to go strait after N.Africa to turn Italy from an aggressive posture.  After that, Germany runs out of time with Allied landings getting bigger and bigger on Normandy and then being reinforced by the UK.  Was the first game I played where the Allies liberated France and Germany made VERY little progress without can-opening from Italy in Russia.

Japan dominated the Pacific Map, it just took too long to get Calcutta because I forgot to nab FIC to give a J3 landing on Calcutta an opportunity to materialize.  I ended up sacking Calcutta on J4 or J5, but it was too late to get Hawaii before J7 with France Liberated and a full US purchase materializing off of SF to block a suicide run after Hawaii for the VC win.

Here was the G1/I1 Plan:

G1:  1 CV, 2 TT
Take Paris, Normandy, Strafe Yugo - Retreat to Romania.  
Hit SZ111 and SZ110 with Aircraft and SS (BB hits SZ111).  Hit SZ106 with 1 SS.  
Fly 1 Ftr from Eastern Europe to S.Italy to scramble against UK hitting Italian ships in SZ97.  
Take Finland via TT from Poland

I1: Buy Nothing
Finish off and take Yugo with Arm from Albania and N.Italy, plus TT across 4 Inf from Rome.  
Take S.France, Tunisia, Sudan, Kenya.
Hit UK ships in the Med, else clear French ships if they retreated.

Here’s what happened:  (Realize US1 was able to DOW due to the J1 attack)
G1/I1 Purchases were the same.
G1 got lucky rolls from Inf and ended up having to take Yugo - 3 Arm, lots of German Inf stuck in Yugo.
G1 cleared the North Atlantic of ships, losing 2 Ftr and 1 Tac.
Paris fell, Arm and Art survived.
Normandy fell, no losses.

US1 was a full atlantic purchase that was primarily TT with units to fill them as able.  Flew its Bomber to London, Ftr to Iceland.  Used its starting TT to open up Brazil.

UK1 moved a Ftr/Tac from Calcutta to Jordan
UK staged its Med fleet in SZ96 taking out the Italian DD and TT there.
UK took Greece with 1 Inf, 1 Arm from Alexandria, left its TT exposed.
With US in the war, UK bought Ftr for London - probably should have Sea Lioned.

I1 took everything it planned to, sunk the UK fleet with tough losses.  Except instead of TTing 4 Inf across to Yugo, it sent 2 Arm/Inf down to Jordan to remove the UK aircraft and shut off the Suez (which ended up saving the TT).  Egypt fell on I3, but was lost to the Allies on I4.

G2 included 10 Inf purchase, 1 AB (Norway - because I wanted to test its effectiveness and UK went aggressive), and the rest went to two Tac (to support Arm moving to strike Russia on G3).  Staged units in Romania from Yugo, but left behind 2 Inf, 1 Art to assist Italy in removing the 6 Inf, 1 Arm that was likely going to take Albania on UK2.  Moved 2 Inf, 2 Art from Poland to Finland to bring Finland up to 10 Inf, 3 Art and 3 Tac staged on an AB in Norway.

US2 sent its first TT landing to Morocco, with only 1 CR for defense.  It was able to also bring units in from Brazil that it opened on US1.  The US Ftr landed in London.

UK2 took out the Italian Arm from Egypt and left only the Anzac Inf there.  It had the Canadian units on Morocco from UK1 move to support Algeria and the Italian advance was stopped dead in its tracks.  UK2 included a CV amongst other things, and the UK has the beginnings of TT units staged in SZ91 supporting a threat against N.Italy if N.Italy didn’t buy Inf on I2. UK also moved its units from Greece to Albania.  UK2 also took an empty Holland with a TT supported by a CV plus 5 total possible scrambling Ftr (1 US).

I2 had something along the lines of 24 IPC to spend, so it bought a CV and DD.  Italy was going to have a hard time stopping the Allies from advancing on Rome by I4 (US1 purchase was full Atlantic TT + units to fill them).  Italy moved to Greece and took Egypt from Alexandria and Egypt.  This activated a NO for Italy.  With Algeria blocked from any Italian advance, it sat tight there.  The 2 TT off Egypt had no units to move, so it went back to Rome.  S.France had 2 Art, so they went to N.Italy.  Italy was able to send its Bomber to SZ91 and take out the DD and CR that defended the UK/US TT’s.  This bought the Axis at least another 1-2 rounds.  Not much else Italy could do, so it placed its units and collected IPC.

G3 was now in position to advance on Russia.  G3 was 10 more Inf, plus the remaining IPC spent on Art in W.Germany.  With Bessarabia sitting with a strong 50-50 split of Inf and Art (something like 5 of each), the German units in Romania struck there and took tough losses, although the Arm survived with 4 or so Inf.  E.Poland was hit with tanks from Berlin and the 11 Inf from Poland.  Russia had 4-5 Inf there and Germany took as many losses as it inflicted.  Aircraft was split between the two battles, with Tac aircraft landing on Romania and Bombers landing in Poland.  The 10 Inf from G2 moved into Poland on NCM to deter Russia from advancing there.  Finland units took Kariela, and a token small contingent of 2-3 Inf supported with aircraft took Vyborg’s 2 Inf.  The Tac from that battle landed back on Norway to provide scrambles.  G3 also removed the UK presence in Holland with the remaining units that had staged in France as well as the units in W.Germany.  Lastly, G3 hit the UK units in Albania with 2 Inf, 1 Art, taking out 3 Inf.  This made it manageable for Italy to remove the UK threat on I3.

R3, now at war, counter attacked all German advances.  The Southern front was cleared out and Bessarabia was reclaimed.  E.Poland Armor from German survived, but not before Russia had removed all the Inf there before withdrawing.

US3 included 9 more TT purchased, UK3 included a second CV and now there were 4 Ftr on CV, 3 to scramble.  US3 removed the Italian bomber that landed in S.France and there was no more threat to TT in SZ91 unless Germany flew its bombers to Paris, so the US reinforced its ground units in Morocco and landed a larger contingent than the first wave.

UkK3 - With a second CV and aircraft to support it, UK added TT and Arm to begin landing every turn on Normandy, Holland, or Norway.  It also took back Egypt.

I3 was in a tough spot.  There were plenty of TT that could shoot straight into S.France or N.Italy.  Italy did have a DD and TT, so it took Gib (to replace Egypt for the NO) to block some movement into the Med.  It staged its CV in SZ95 and bought full Inf so it could get units into Rome to defend it.  The remaining Inf from taking out the UK units in Albania were NCM across to Rome as reinforcements (All 2 of them).

As you can see, by turn 4 the Allies were going to be landing in full force on Normandy.  With the US landing first, the British could land to reinforce it with multiple Ftr and ground units of their own.  There was no kicking the Allies out of Europe at this point.

What I’m trying to illustrate, is that with a J1 attack (and no lucky Italian Bomber run in SZ91 that I had) gets the Allies landing on Normandy by round 3, and even if kicked out, will land a bigger force there on round 4.  There is no way Germany can take Russia in that timeframe, meaning a J1 attack on the Allies creates a situation where even Germany gains minimal advancement in Russia before Paris is setup to fall.  More importantly, Italy is setup to fail.  The only legitimate situation I can think of is for the Axis to play full defensive in Europe while you hope the Japanese player rocks the Pacific hard and goes for a VC victory there.  Of course, you negate two of the three axis powers by doing so.  Of course if Germany Sea Lions, its possible to take the UK out of Europe.

I am supposing the pairing of J1 attack plus G3 Sea Lion is a legitimate option, but I don’t know how effective Germany can be at fighting Russia in the East, pushing it back while fending off US liberation attempts in Paris or shutting down Rome.

I just started a game where I DOW against all allies on G1 and J1. Germany hit USSR on round one and I’m going to keep that pressure up as long as possible. Japan is somewhat spread out to make all the attacks I wanted on J1 and those battles are awaiting scramble orders.

The theory is US is like the fire station and all of a sudden two huge fires just flared up in opposite directions. If they go all out against one fire, they should be able to put it out. The trick that US will have to manage is putting enough help on BOTH fires before one fire or another becomes an unstoppable raging inferno. I don’t know how this will turn out, but at the very least it should be a fun/interesting game.

Cow, a J1 DOW is INSANE. Sure, you’re hurting the Brits, but you haven’t made any progress vs. Russia/China, you’re horribly out of position, and you can’t hit the main US Pac Fleet. Overall, the Allies can keep enough to make it hell for Japan with little investment.