Pearl Harbour

This attack is an ok move, but it will limit some of the other things you could accomplish during your J1. You have pushed the US to max income and made his immediate objective clear (pushing you back off Hawaii).

Considering that you have limited income in this scenario, his 70 should trump your 40, and he will eventually push you out of SZ 26.

Because of this focus on the USA, other objectives (building factories, capturing VCs, money and india) may be missed, and so you would probably be less-well prepared to win the game or defeat america by trying to confront your biggest opponent first. What’s at risk is only 1CA 1 DD 1 SUB and 1 TT, so that reward has to be measured against the other things you could have done and like oystello says, its only a 6$ income swing.

A easier way to approach this as japan is to spend your first 5 turns getting 5 VCs the old fashioned way, and then, while America is focused elsewhere or splitting his forces, take Hawaii (or Sydney) as the last VC with your plodding megafleet built over the course of the whole game and not diminished by the attrition you’ll suffer if you try to get into an early naval pawn for pawn type trade

G1: 2 subs, 1 bomber
G2: 8 tanks, 2 mech, bombers
G3: 10 mech, bombers
G4 onwards: some infantry, artillery and bombers (Western Front defence)

Goal: Dark Skies, swarm the Med with Luftwaffe to help Italy, bring 20 fast movers to Russian front before G4 so they can be overpowered. Bomb Russian factories back to stone age.

Most targeted unit: UK ships.

J1: 2 transports, 1 mic in shantung
J2: 3 mech, 1 mic in kiangsu (FIC could be take by UK), 1 carrier
J3: 1 naval base FIC, 2 carriers, 4 fighters
J4 onwards: tanks/mechs 2 chinese MIC + carriers and air

Goal: Conquer China completely and keep it with 2 early factories and steady flow of reinforcements, then invade Russia to reinforce German push. Take the initiative by all out J1 incl. Pearl Harbour, splitting fleet in two groups, then go for either Sydney or India based on Allied play. Get money islands asap to get to same economic level as USA. Start pumping carriers from J2 onwards. Keep India and ANZAC as small as possible to isolate USA.

Most targeted unit: Chinese Infantry.

I1: tank and mech
I2: tanks
I3: transport, troops for Africa
I4: mic in Egypt, troops for Africa

Provide German with mechanized can opening army (first 2 buys), reinforcing the starting 2 mainland tanks. Survive in Africa while German airforce flies in to destroy the British, so they can start their offensive I2 or I3 when UK is weakened and can be defeated. After Germans gave them a kickstart in NO, focus on keeping Egypt and in best case scenario start pushing Middle East/Africa.

Most targeted: weak spots in Russian defence.

Overal Axis focus: Egypt and Yunnan, all other are less important.

That is exactly what “spirit” or “substance” would argue;  that if they refuse to debate/vote on the nomination, it passes because otherwise we don’t have a supreme court.

However, that is not what the “letter” or “form” of the law says which is that consent of Congress is necessary, period, no exceptions.  The supreme court must exist under the constitution, but the number of judges is not set.  This means that SCOTUS could have as little as 1 judge sitting and it would still be operating “correctly” in theory.  Just like a filibuster, this means that no debate or floor discussion is necessary;  Congress gets to choose its rules and its agenda and can refuse to do its implied duty (such as pass a functioning budget;  eg the sequester).

The supposed fix to this is that in theory, no one would vote to re-elect politicians that intentionally break the government to serve their own ends.  Again, in practice, people are so loyal to their agendas, they do not care (or want!) that their elected officials are intentionally disabling the president and damaging the government.

That’s how the system is supposed to “work”!

All good reasons not to try and use external information or the argument of pragmatism to argue for/against a rule.

@ChocolatePancake:

You don’t even have to declare war turn 2, just park the whole fleet next to Sydney and declare war turn 3.

It is very possible to take Sydney early this way, but the problem is that it majorly slows down getting the money islands. And Sydney is tough to hold against a determined American foe.

That’s true, although ANZAC might DOW just so the blockers slow it down.  Again that would be if they understand what you are up to

So basically, the transport that starts in sz6, is off the coast of Caroline at the end of J1, right?

Assuming a J1 DOW and a Japanese fleet sitting on or around Hawaii, how many turns will it take for the US to neutralize Japan in the Pacific?  3?  4?  Its about the equivalent of waiting a few turns as Japan before the US can DOW.  The tradeoff is Japan gains very little economic advantage and just keeps the US busy in the Atlantic until Japan loses most of its fleet that it cannot replace.

I don’t see a reason to expose your fleet early as Japan.  That said, even playing games with the Americans, albeit fun; is counterproductive.

You don’t gain much as you can still bait the US into buy full Pacific early in the game against a well-versed player, so that school of thought is out.

Carolines don’t come into play until much later in the game (read securing Calcutta) and VC win is Hawaii or Sydney.  However, I’m banking that Hawaii is “easier” to take once removing the fleet than Sydney.  This is primarily due to the Minor IC being able to put out multiple units round after round until you arrive with an Amphib that requires the Carolines.

Its much easier to go after Hawaii as it is a single move from Tokyo anyways (barring any blocks).  Having to fight for the Carolines and then Sydney seems less… efficient?

I’ve had good success as the Axis pushing for Hawaii J3. I generally don’t get too aggressive in China, spending my first two turns buying transports and aligning my forces. With large fleets at both Japan and the Carolines, the allies don’t have enough forces to properly defend all of my potential targets.

If you can get Hawaii on J3, not only do you get the NO for Japan, but you also hold the easiest entry for the US into the Pacific. It’s a little harder to defend with the new scramble rules, but I’ve found that the US has a tough time with the Pacific war if they’ve committed even a small fleet to Europe and Japan holds Hawaii.