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…
