African invasion by the Japanese

So for the Airblitz part, are we talking a hit on Szech J1, even with the Russian inf and British fighter? Or like Kazakh on J2? Or you mean just like quickly moving them to the eastern front for defensive position? No bid?

Usually I’m landing the fighters in Kwang regardless, since they don’t need to be on the carriers, and it’s optimal after all the mainland battles as a landing spot. Kwang gives decent coverage at sea while allowing you to throw them westward if Germany gets an opening. But going forward into Caucasus on the second round seems like an option that would only present itself occasionally.

I guess as a counter you could try stacking the British in Persia with an India tank buy (if the transport in 61 is handled you can move a small force into position.) Might be enough to threaten a suicide sting, before Japan lands, to shave off enough German hit points to make a Russian counter more viable.

G certainly has a lot on the ground that could get in behind the lines, especially if no bid to knock Ukraine down.  Couple solid inf purchases by G to open the game, and Moscow is on the ropes. That’s a lot of Japanese fighters in Caucasus, but isn’t that what the Axis want anyway hehe. Japanese air cover to G. :-D

I think it’s pretty hard for the Allies on this map, if Russia doesn’t have enough to strafe or take Ukraine. All in on W. Russia you’d probably get forced back anyway if facing down such a heavy Ukraine stack. Even 6 artillery in the first round isn’t enough.

If Germany is committed and Russia only attacks W. Russia, then G can have a total of 11 inf, 7 armor, 1 art, 6 fighters and a bomber in Ukraine at the end of G1. With 5 infantry 1 artillery and 4 armor in Poland and Bulgaria (plus any mobile units you bought in Berlin) to back up the play.
Gives up the canal, but you can still take out the British battleship at odds with the cruiser and subs alone.

Against this Russia has a likely 10 inf, 3 artillery, 4 tanks in West Russia. No chance to counter Ukraine, even if they bought armor at moscow. For dead zone on Caucasus you could add to that like what 6 art, and muster 2 inf and 2 fighters at Moscow? Still not nearly enough if Japan sends fighters. So definitely a bind for the Russians to leave Ukraine alone against an aggressive Axis player out for blood. Center crush for sure.

Ps. Couple thoughts on the Polar Express concept as an endgame play rather than an opener…

A version of this strat can be made to work in the final rounds, provided that Japan is no longer needed at the center, and has sufficiently outpaced the Americans on income. It’s also helpful if the Allied player is a good sport, or just wants to play out a few more rounds before calling it a night.  :-D

An example might be, if Germany is poised to take Moscow alone, such that Japan has a free hand to redirect early against North America, instead of Africa. Or if it seems like the Allies might be able to trade Moscow for Berlin in the same round, and Japan wants to keep going.

It requires that you have a large number ground units at the ready preferably in Yakut and Munchuria. The basic idea is to spam transports at the last minute before the planned invasion. So say you have 5 or 6 transports with 12 or more units ready to transport out of sz 60 to Alaska, and several more ground units in Yakut or Manchuria, that can move to Bury at the same time so that they can be shucked the following round. Then you spam 5 more transports to set up the double shuck, from Japan and Manchuria to Buryatia with one transport group, and from Buryatia  to Alaska with the other transport group.

To pull this off, you have to be able to match US production a full round ahead of their ability to equal your forces from their production centers, and this with already existing Japanese units, which is why you need the Yakut stack at the ready. If you can rapidly amass a large stack of ground in Alaska by using existing Japanese units, it may be possible to walk them to Western Canada without fear of a crushing counter attack from the US, and then you can use your transports to threaten W. US on amphibious, while you attempt to can open Central or Eastern Canada with German bombers for a blitz on DC. Although not a particularly likely deep endgame, it can sometimes be a more direct route to the ultimate Axis smackdown, than taking London.

Again, I don’t think its something that you can really plan for from the outset, but more of a redirect at the last possible second, where you make as if to threaten Moscow from Yakut, but then rapidly double back for the Alaskan crossing. It’s also pretty simple for the US to cover against this play, if they see it coming, so you really have to catch them with their guard down.

I think there are only two times I’ve seen it work. Once was in a KGF game, where the Russian player made a strategic withdrawal from Moscow in an attempt to triple team G. And another game where Germany got lucky on their tank drive and smoked Moscow earlier than anyone expected. In both instances the Allies were playing a masochist’s game, fighting on rather than conceding haha

Excellent read with bullet points made! Thumbs up

I don’t think I have ever seen Japanese planes over Britain in an A&A game. Pretty interesting strategy.

Here’s one affordable way to beat back a casual Japanese invasion:

USA starts with a sub off the coast of Hawaii, which you can submerge if you want during Pearl Harbor, since Japan has no destroyers in range on Japan’s first turn. Build one more submarine for 6 IPCs, and park your 2 subs off the coast of San Francisco. Japan can’t sink your subs with carrier aircraft unless they bring a destroyer with them. Meanwhile, you can build a bomber each turn in the Eastern US as part of your Kill Germany First strategy. If Japan ignores you, the bomber can go east to harass Berlin. If Japan brings a small transport fleet toward San Francisco, you can hit it and kill it with 2 subs and a bomber.

Of course, if Japan brings its entire fleet toward San Francisco, you’ll need bigger defenses – but you’ll see that coming and have time to stop it, and if Japan swings its whole fleet east, then that’s so many more turns that Siberia and India are safe.

@CWO:

@Koningstiger:

Hmm. So apparently after 70+ views, no one else seems to have a problem with it.

I recall that the subject was discussed at length in that other thread you mentioned, but I don’t remember what the outcome of the discussion was.  My opinion at the time was that such a scenario was completely implausible from a historical point of view, but that the game map and the game’s overall area-based movement system created a situation in which it did look plausible.

Yeah. As i said, some other games require possession of the North German ports in order to be allowed to pass freely into and out of the Baltic; which seems more historically accurate. Guess I may try this as a houserule for AA Europe and Global '40. It of course does take away from the Allies’options…

Yes it is feasible…in fact I just lost a match to a friend who controls Japan taking half of Africa and becoming an unstoppable monster!

@ossel:

The conclusion the other thread reached was that the best solution was to permanently award whatever Victory City was bombed to the attacker, and maybe damage production. This reflects what the use of these weapons in WWII was trying to accomplish.

I read and that does make sense. I will just have to experiment some time when I have the chance.

Thanks again for showing me that thread.