But when you attack the island along with the Sz not only do you threathen the USA. You also have a extra trn to sack in a possible counter when the SZ battle went poorly. The ftrs can land on the Islands now in a counter too so your AC can be sacked.
And on J2 i want to attack Australia and prevent that 2 inf from ever reaching India. (My opponent counterattacked AES on his first move)
But my China attack went poorly so those 2inf could have made a real difference in Asia. (J2 strafe Yakut or attack Mongolia) I will try to put everything in Asia another time and see how it works.
Attacking Alaska i wont do that on J1 but later. with a BB support shot you can kill the resistance and the US wont have ftrs or BB’s to do that and must commit more and lose more. (if they do have them around thats 1 less against germany)
But an invasion of Hawaii does not distract a good US player. Often I will purchase either 5inf arm 2trn or 6inf 2trn, but with only 2 new trannies which is what I want to do with America anyway so that I can keep pumping troops into Africa/Europe without a lag. Anyway with a 5inf arm purchase the US will have 9inf 2arm in their homeland and only need 5-units to defend WUS of which two can be the British canadians. So the US will have 4inf-WUS and 5inf 2arm in the EUS fully capable of landing in Africa on US2.
Exactly right.
I remember when I was first starting out in the game, that losing Hawaii or Alaska as the US seemed like a big deal, and it would definately alter my strategy. Anymore, I basically just build a few extra infantry in the West and that’s it. In order for Japan to pose a threat that’s even worth noticing they have to fully commit themselves, and even then it’s a long shot. They effectively take themselves out of the rest of the war. Meanwhile, the USA is only slightly less able to help out in Europe.
As Japan, if I know the USA player is somewhat new I’ll go after Alaska pretty early, just to draw him off Europe for a while. Sometimes I’ll take Hawaii or Midway just as a place to land bombers. However, the main focus of Japan should always be holding mainland Asia and then taking Moscow.
If I go after anything else with Japan, it’s generally Africa (from India) if the opportunity presents itself. I love having a Japanese IC in Egypt.
Simply put…
If Japan and Germany hold their territories, take Asia(Moscow is not necessary if I remember correctly) and Africa the game is over in an IPC game.
If it is a total victory game(a waste of time in some minds) make sure you can 1)back up your Japanese occupation of Moscow with German reinforcements…or 2)retake Moscow with your Japanese forces after Germany loses it to the Allied forces.
So why spread yourself so thin trying to take all the stuff in the Pacific??
You could save those moves for your last 1 or 2 turns to push yourself over the top if it;'s an IPC victory or a time limit game for some reason.
To get an IPC victory in Africa the Axis has to hold much of it through Americas turn which is actually quite hard, and they must hold most of the perimeter Moscow territories like Novo, Even, Kaz. This means if Russia holds one and the Americans have even a token force in Africa they should be able to prevent a lurch for M84. The best way to achieve M84 is for Germany to lurch through Ukr to Cauc to Karelia in succeeding turns. This can concieveably take as many as 9-11 ipcs away from the Allies, but still enables a Japanese lurch into NAfrica for M84.
In order to have a serious attack on the US, Japan would need 20 transports, 40 infantry, 2 AC’s with 4 fighters and at least 2 BBs to attack Alaska. (not to kill the enemy soldier, but to hold it until you can make a round trip to Japan and back.)
You don’t need Hawaii OR Midway. You’ll be building on Japan anyway and it’s 2 spaces from Alaska.
However, your choices were Alaska or Midway. I vote Alaska for the IPC. Not a good staging point because you are 2 turns from Japan to Hawaii to W. US and only 1 Turn from Japan to Alaska.
If for some reason Japan is going to attack the US, I agree Alaska is the spot to use, not Midway or Hawaii.
It is not unusual for me to have 8 trans or more for Japan, so the best bet is first to transport your inf to SFE, then on the second turn go to Ala. Don’t go to Alaska directly from Japan. Go to SFE, because that is only one turn away from Ala. It takes you one turn longer to set up but the benefits are far greater. This way you can shuck-shuck 12 inf every turn to Ala from SFE. This forces the US to defend West Can and West US and almost forces them to fight in the Pacific. You can pick up HI and Mid once you have your pipeline set up.
The best bet would be proceed as normal with Japan for the first 3 or 4 rds and attack in Asia and gain IPC’s. Then once the US commits to the Atlantic, you transport your inf to SFE and then proceed to Ala and from then on you transport your 12 inf a turn to Ala. I don’t know if this would work, but if for some odd reason if I go after the US, this is how I’d do it.
It’s almost detremental to attack asia with Japan. If you can arrange to have an IC on Manchuria, India and Indo-China you have a nice 9-tank a round supply. Of course, those 3 complexes will probably take you 4-5 turns to get up and running, but it’s enough to destroy Russia, assuming Germany can hold out.
And yes, I’d say getting Hawaii, after you have a base in Alaska, would be a wise investment.
For Japan, I usually buy 2-3 trans in rd 1 and take China. In rd 2 I buy 1-2 trans and inf and attack SFE, and Ind. In rd 3 I buy 1 tran and inf and attack Sin and Yak. So by rd 4 I have 35 IPC or so. From here I reinforce with inf from Japan via trns and consider taking HI, NZ, Aus depending on whatever else is going. I find IC’s aren’t necessarily needed. Transports can get the job done, and after doing Pearl in rd 1, I usually send all ftrs to Asia while my fleet hangs around Japan or FIC or perhaps heads to the Med. The fighters and bomber should be all the offensive power you need in Asia, at least until you get to Novo.
Back to the original question, how best to attack the US from Japan? Well I would not try to attack the US with Japan initially as it is very unlikely to work. However, IF I were to do so, I would do the following:
J1) Take out the US Fleet at Hawaii, buy inf and transports.
J2) Go after the remaining US fleet with BBs and subs remaining after Pearl and take Alaska with transports and AC. Buy inf and transports.
J3) Take Hawaii with AC, one transport from Japan, and remainder of Japanese fleet (destroying any builds by US on West Coast with aircraft from AC. Start a “shuck-shuck” to Alaska with the transports.
Basically, I would start moving troops enmass to Alaska every turn. The reason to take Hawaii is 1) to provide a base for bombers from Japan. They can assist when you are ready to attack W. Canada, W. USA, strategic bombing runs on the W. US coast, or if the US builds a fleet off the W. US. 2) To move later to take Panama, or Mexico, (and how about Brazil?) to harass the US. and 3) To increase your ipcs while reducing the US ipcs. Also later turns can be used for side trips to Australia and N.Z. to increase the Japanese ipcs.
But my main focus of the attack would be through Alaska. I would hope the US would not be able to take back Alaska (perhaps they wouldn’t have the forces within reach so soon) and that Japan could reinforce Alaska faster than the US could put forces in W. Canada (unlikely). I would perform strafing runs from Alaska to W. Canada using bombers from Hawaii and the fighters from the AC (and perhaps from Alaska) to assist, until I reached the point where I could take and hold W. Canada. Then do the same to W. USA (watch out for AA) and/or E. Canada as the situation permits.
It might be possible to have some sucess in the early game here, but I think its best to attack the US with Japan once/if Russia falls because at that point Japan probably has a larger economy that the US and doesn’t need to defend its Russian front.
I think a big problem you’d have with a Jap invasion of Alaska is that you’d have to dump a fair amount of troops just to keep up. Say the US is building 10units a turn, you’d have to do close to the same. Even if Japan has 45-48ipcs this means they are only going to send 6 guys to Asia, and eventually when the Brits have retaken Africa, and pinned Germany back in Europe the Russians would come roaring through Asia. The end result is Japan would hold very little of Asia and only Alaska. In otherwords they could be starved out.
