Factories on Islands?

You have to get it to western Australia first……before Japan takes it with units built at Java.

Or I guess you could fly to India on and be bombing it on US 3 with just the bomber you start with.

Oh wait. J3 comes before US 3……and on J2 Japan built a transport, INF and TNK at Java.
And 3 Transports with 3 Inf, 2 Art, and 1 TNK are floating in range of India for the attack on J3

So J3 Japan takes India.
On J4 2 tranports float back to the Java sea zone and you build 2 INF, 2 TNK
On J5 those units land at Egypt, and your other 2 transports wait next to java for the reaload.

Now 2 INF, 2 TNK are pumping into africa each turn.

(Just giving you the rundown of EVERY single game of revised I ever played)

And the only reason it works is because Japan only has to make a deep investment on J1 (factory + transport)
From that point on all it has to do is save about 18 IPCs for the Java factory, and use the rest of its cash to play defensive in the north pacific.
(Naval arms race with USA, that it has a head start in)

By the time the US gets the upper hand, Japan has Egypt, India, and Caucasus.

They are only too potent because the best places for them to build factories are the most illogical and ahistorical (that being Borneo or East Indies)
These territories are worth 4 (which means your factory gets more bang for the buck, better to build on a 4 than on a 2, because factories are the same price on either)
And also they are islands, so they have an extra layer of defense. (the water around them means the enemy needs to buy 7 IPC transports before he can attack it)

Now it wouldn’t be ahistorical for Japan to industrialize somewhere like Manchuria (which was in the process of being industrialized), or wherever Shanghai is in this game because those were already major cities, with railroads and big populations able to work a kiln or press or what not.

The jungles of Java and Borneo aren’t really suited for the overnight importation of heavy industry.
But they are in game terms the BEST places to put a factory.
Because of their high IPC value, added natural defense being an island, and their proximity to the weak underbelly of the UK, the Indian Ocean.
Their colonial breadbasket is up for grabs from the East Indies. The linchpins of India, Egypt, and Australia are all within range of transported units from mini-Japan.
All coming to you thanks to the fact that Japan starts with these territories, and can plop down a factory on their first turn.

I guess the UK going first mitigates this somewhat, but can you really warrant throwing the kitchen sink at East Indies on the first turn?
Im sure the UK can muster enough to take it, but at what cost? The bulk of their starting offensive power in the Indian Ocean Theater, leaving them particularly vulnerable.

Japan starts, as usual, at powerhouse status. No longer concerned with gobbling up the west’s colonies. But more concerned with getting to Moscow or Egypt.
AA 40 really gives us the feel of a 2 theater war. Where Japan’s power comes from it’s sapping power from the western allies in their moment of weakness (confronted with a strong Germany)

AA 1942 is going to return us to the days of Japan being the “rock” and Germany being the “hard place” that the USSR finds itself between.
I don’t expect to see people shy away from attacking the USSR as Japan….which is a shame.
We aren’t going to see a two theater war.
We are going to see a mad dash for Moscow. US and UK fighters cramming into it, as Orange and Black pieces surround from both sides.

Will it be fun?
I suppose.
But could just a handful of rules have been cherry picked from AA50, and AA1940 and put on the last page of the rulebook as “optional rules”, and the game have allowed to fill in the cracks between it and it’s 1940 counterparts…while still having a bare bones ruleset that is a good 2nd step up from the 1941 beginners game.

I guess it will fall to us, the community, to hammer out our “house rules”
Debate after debate, argument after argument. Forum personas trying to each craft their own “Historical Edition”
And we will end up with a half dozen of them.
Each playable, each “good”, but none universal, none “tournament approved”

And we will be stuck with the OOB rules when playing strangers, over forums, or online, that leave room for the cheesy strategies of yore. Like the island factories, and other such glitches in the game that some see as “alternate reality coming to life” and others see as “unrealistic and implausible strategic advantages”

Such is AA I guess…

No, Japan attacking Russia isn’t implausible, and I don’t really have a problem with it.

But the problem I see in it, is that as japan….you already have almost all your stated goals accomplished.

• A weakened US fleet
• Most of the colonies of the West captured
• Still no war with the Russians
• China on the defensive

So, idle units are the devils plaything…and you just HAVE to do something on your turn.
So you lash out at Russia.
I would never want this to be “not allowed” in the rules.

I just want it to be a bad idea for Japan…
Like no territories of value up there, or a big stack of 6 INF and 2 AA guns across the border that is a tar pit you don’t want to condemn your men to.
Instead…we will get a token russian force…that turns tail for Moscow…and Japan is obliged to follow them…because it has nothing else to do.

Rewind back to revised.

If UK builds an IC in india, for starters Japan TOUCHES it, and can take it, and will take it.
Japan on the other hand goes after England, so they can’t snipe their factory if they build one on Java.

Also, India is connected to a lot of other areas japan can muster men in to.
Java needs to be amphibiously invaded.
So Japan has a lot of time to react and cram it full of infantry and fighters if it sees some transports moving towards it.