Japanese Declaration of War

Here’s how I’d expect it might go. I’m going to assume a J2 DOW because I just can’t get my head around your idea of J1 without taking down the Allied navies.

J1: Buy IC on Shantung, 2TT
Attack:

• Chahar (1inf 1mec 1art),
• Anwhe (7inf 2art),
• Yunnan (2inf 1art 1tb 1ftr 2sb),
• Hunnan (4inf 1art 2tb 2ftr)

2inf 1art 1arm to Kwangsi
Land planes Kwangsi

China1:
Attack Yunnan, land ftr Suiyan
Mobilise in Yunnan, probably leaving 11inf

UK1 Peace:
Buy 1arm 1ftr
NCM 4inf 1art 3AAA to Burma
NCM ftr to India
Land two inf on Sumatra

USSR2: Move Mec Inf to Yunnan
Fly fighter to Amur, Fighter+TB to Yunnan

J2: DOW
Attack Kwangtung from Kiangsi
Attack Philippines
Attack Java
Attack Borneo
Attack Kweichow
Blitz FIC
Attack Yunnan w/6inf 2art 1arm 10ftr 7tb 2sb. Win with 2art 1arm remaining.

The problem is too much has been expended unsuccessfully defending Yunnan.

Alternate - minimal attack on Yunnan China1
4inf 1ftr vs 1inf 1art takes the territory 97%
Leaves 9inf 1ftr in Szechwan

J2: Attack:
Kweichow 7inf 2art 1arm
Yunnan w/5inf 2art planes
FIC 1inf
etc

China2:
9inf 1ftr vs 6units - wins 90%, leaving 4inf
Mobilise 5 inf in Yunnan

UK2 bring in reinforcements

J3: attacking Yunnan:
7inf 2art 1arm 11ftr 8tb 2sb
vs
UK: 6inf 1tb 1ftr 1art 1arm 3AAA
China: 9inf
USSR: 5Mec 1arm 1ftr 1tb

Japan keeps 12 planes if they take the territory, dropping to 8.34 if USSR1 buy includes 3Mec for Stalingrad running straight to Yunnan. Alternatively, let’s say that UK abandons Calcutta to SBR for this turn and the ANZAC plane from Qld also flies in to Yunnan but Japan buys two more SBRs J2. In this alternate scenario, Japan wins 97%, keeping 11.38 planes:

Hmm, assuming this rather maximal Japanese attack on Yunnan, neither strategy quite gets there. Absolute maximum defence on J3 involves buying 3ftr USSR2 in Moscow and flying them to Yunnan USSR3. But that’s more than what is needed. Let’s say you just buy one and also send the other fighter there, with 3mec bought USSR1 in Stalingrad. You could also run the Malaya units up to Yunnan for J3. So max defence is:
UK: 9inf 1tb 3ftr 1art 1arm 3aaa
China: 9inf
USSR: 5mec 1arm 3ftr 1tb
ANZAC: 1inf 1ftr

I’m only suggesting the last one as a thought experiment. It’s clearly not needed.

EDIT: image attachment didn’t work correctly.

I played the strategy you guys suggested here this Sunday for Game 99.  It worked great.

J1DOW
Take Borneo;  guard TT with DD from carolines.
Take phillipines with 2 trans.  Use Carolines Carrier to provide air team.
Attack Yunnan, one survived
Kill UKBB with cruiser, fighter, SB.  Everything survived.
Attack Hong Kong.
Take FIC
MiC on Kiangsu
One TT buy.  Save 7

New UK income, 9.  Only 2 ships.

The only attack I usually make that I didn’t is that I left hunan alone and used the troops on HK.

J2
Build MiC on Manchuria and FIC.
Buy 3 mechs (need to keep some extra money at this point you spent 36)
Attack conservatively in China, cutting the road from Burma instead and being able to attack Burma again from both sea and land (so he didn’t attempt a retake of it)
Invade Malaya with all necessary transports to take it, brining support shots and cover ships.
Invade D New Guinea and bring defending escorts

He lost his destroyer killing my CA, his CA left
His new income is 5 (9 minus 3 from Malaya and 1 from Burma)

J3 take all $$ islands
move part of my fleet back to 6
take Alaska for annoyance value.

At this point, they made a couple of foolish moves–attacking Korea with the Russians and stacking Yunan with 12 guys or so.  I was able to annihilated both stacks, losing a plane or two.

But the takeaways were amazing;

J1 is superior to J2 by far.  You kill a bunch of American stuff, a UK BB, and most importantly, you paralyze UK pac income without strat bombing him and very early.

Strat bombing would have been a poor use of my SBs.  They can get shot, and I’m wrecking my own factory as YG says.

Instead of going over land with a few tanks and getting into a stalemate, or sending my whole fleet that way and leaving japan vulnerable, having 3 MiC’s and one in FiC means most of my army is coming over land.  Even if I can’t kill UKPac on J4 or J5, it was so pressurized he had to abandon it and walk back.  Admittedly, they made some poor moves and didn’t dedicate much to stopping me, but I feel like the mix of land-produced units and not SBing Bombay leads to a dramatically more flexible japan game J1.

I’m guessing you also went into Shan State to get the UKPac income down to 9 after J1?

I don’t know what you mean about SBR on Calcutta wrecking the Japanese factories?

I’ve never noticed that the fighter on Formosa can get in to the UK BB. Good move.

FWIW, my counter to that as allies would have been something like:

• Stack Yunnan with up to 14 inf China1
• Attack Shan State UK1
• Move India starting troops to Burma UK1
• UK1 buy 1ftr 1arm (my standard)
• China2, 5 more inf on Yunnan, perhaps less 1-2 from attacking somewhere or buying art instead + the fighter.
• Possible Malaya evac turn 1
• Still land on Sumatra with 2inf UK1

UK2 you can move 3-6inf 1art 3aaa 1TB 1ftr to Yunnan and likely retake Malaya
ANZAC2 1ftr to India, 2ftr to Shan State/Malaya

How would that have gone? Perhaps I’m missing something but I can’t see a J2 attack on Yunnan. J3 I don’t reckon you could win with acceptable losses.