US Island Hopping

If Japan does not strike Pearl in J1, and you are confident as the allies that the UK navy combined with your transports is sufficient for Europe, why not do a little Island Hopping?

Take the combined PAC FLT plus the Western US Fig, and 2 Western INF, and head to the South Pacific.

Initially land in Solomons.  No money, but between the BB and the carrier fighter, your 2 INF are extremely liley to take the island without loss (67% chance INF dies without a counter strike, if it does survive the BB, only a 33% chance it hits your INF anyway).  And that is one less Japan INF to worry about.

US 2, move on New Guinea with the same move (but now with 2 figs, the BB, and 2 INF).

It has been my experience that, unless Japan moves to counter with their fleet, US can march right across the south pacific taking all 4 IPC’s in the sweep to East India.  Not a major loss of income, but look where that US fleet is now… Japan’s continental backdoor, with troops to land.  All the time this fleet has been down there, Japan has to consider where it is… and keep forces in places like FIB instead of sending them to Russia.  It also blocks Japan from taking Australia without a nasty naval battle that will probably cost them their fleet.

Combine this with a small ongoing naval build at Western.  Tranny and INF to “tail” the main fleet, catching up to double the available INF when the fleet is at Borneo…  The next build another loaded tranny and a sub, just in case Japan sends interdiction forces; these forces “catch up” for a strike on East Indies, now 5 INF (US probably lost 1 INF by now). Each round the US dedicates 21 IPCs to the Pacific with a loaded tranny, a sub, and 2 INF.  After East India, the US fleet of a BB, a Carrier, 2 figs, 4 tranny’s and 3 subs hit the Philipines (probably empty, since Japan probably sent forces to FIB) in US 5.  All the while, US is doing auxillary production for Europe and Africa, 1 tranny plus 2 INF, (and later 2 filled tranny’s as ships return from drops, US income increased to keep them full from Japan’s islands) to keep UK’sAfrica iincome up, and later to Norway to be moved in to provide reserve defense for Russia.

In short, US plays the game in a similar manner to the real war:  Island Hopping to get close to Japan and protect UK territories in the Pacific, transporting troops to Africa, and later to Europe.

By US 6, Japan has a serious naval threat on its hands.  The above US fleet facing 2 BB’s, a carrier (probably w/o figs), a sub, and a half dozen tranny’s.  19 defensive points with 10 pieces against a US attack of 17 attack points (6 of them “sneaks”) and 11 pieces.  And each round delayed brings another tranny and another sub into play, and the odds get worse and worse for Japan.  Sure, Japan can do some offensive naval builds, or they can pre-emptive strike against the US fleet in the south pacific.  But with that steady flow of US navy heading against them, Japan is going to be out of ships (including trannys) long before that colum of theirs becomes a threat to Russia… the snake is cut off at the head.

And by keeping UK’s income up in the South Pacific and in Africa, UK becomes more than adequate to, combined with Russia, meet the military needs to fight Germany.

I would disagree.  The Yakut Consolidation, combined with a Sinkiang Consolidation if there is time for the Allies to execute it, will slow Japan to a crawl for 3-4 rounds, allowing Russia to keep building full INF all of those rounds.

By Round 4, US tranny forces ARE in Europe; after having landed some forces in Africa to keep up UK IPC’s in the mid to upper 20’s instead of in the teens.  THAT makes up for a slightly smaller number of US forces:  UK with immediate use forces instead of US with ship-in troops.

Japan’s income is also going to be hindered, slowly but steadilly.

And last but not least… when Japan’s ability to transport troops to Asia is destroyed in US 6… well so much for them taking Russia.

With UK and USSR stacking in Europe, and with an Asian Wall strategy firmly in place, the Axis just can’t get there fast enough.

The Asian Wall is a method of blocking Japan’s rapid IPC/territory gains in Asia.  There are multiple versions of it.

The main component is what I call the Yakut Consolidation and others call the Yakut Stack.  This would be consolidating all Russian forces in the eastern territories (Evenk, Yakut, SFE) into Yakut.  The resulting mass of forces is basically impervious to Japan attack until at least J2, more likely J3.

I have seen people select other “rallying points” for central and southern Asia.  For the US it is usually Sinkiang.  For UK is is India, though sometimes Persia, or even abandoning southern Asia and reinforcing US in Sinkiang.

The idea is that you bottle up Japan on the coast as long as possible, preventing the Japan drive on Russia for a few rounds; long enough to allow Germany to be fully defeated before Japan is ever able to muster enough forces on the continent to pose any threat to Russia.

You set up your “hard points” as all 3 allies and hold them as long as you can.

Then you get to decide if you “hold to the death”, or if, once your forces are weakened and Japan is certain to overwhelm you the next round, you pull back to a secondary position, leaving 1 INF to prevent a blitz, that is then reinforced from Russia.  The secondary point is usually Novo, which when stacked with remnants of US/USSR/UK forces should be too much for Japan to crack, provides opportunity for multiple flank attacks on the Japan advance in either Evenk or Kaz, and can be immediately reinforced from Russia (including UK and US forces sent via Russia from Karelia)

Everyone, did I get this right?