Opening w/japan…

Under item #2 allied fighters cannot be allocated as a hit allocation because they are not rolling on the attack so they are ignored.

Also,  Under item #1 if your carrier is defending and has fighters from allied players they can be allocated as hits on defence and roll out as well.

of course some of this is totally bogus and is totally unrealistic.but oh well.

But you have a good three rounds before you need to really keep up with America, maybe 4 if you play your cards right.

And the raiding would help out.  5 Submarines = 10 IPC a round if you can ever knock out the American fleet, which, honestly, is doable, but difficult.

1 bid sub for germany means UK navy is bye bye on G1  (and subsequently on J1.)

Germany can then without “risk” force russia into a bloodbat and Japan mopps up the left overs…

Normally I would go for transports.
That would be buy two on J1 (fleet total is 3 or 4 now) and on J2 buy one or two more.  Coordinate this with ground unit builds in Japan to fill all the transports and do the infantry push to Moscow.

In the current game, the Allied/UK player (RJ), placed his bomber within reach of Japanese home waters (Novo) and moved his Australian submarine up within reach also (Coral Sea).  This put any unprotected transport build in home waters at risk.  The added cost of either diverting fleet assets to cover them or building cover and still over building to deal with losses actually made me move toward factories on the mainland. Add in that he moved most of his India forces to Egypt and skipped on the UK1 DD vs Trans option.

I built two, one in FIC and one in Manchuria.  Sure, they will never out build the home islands but now my infantry push into Russia is independent of any transport issues.  For 30 IPC I have the equivalent of three transports that won’t sink.  I would have spent 24 for those same three transports plus a DD to protect them (12 more) then probably another transport to replace loses (8 more).  So it was two factories at 30 IPC or 4 Transports and a DD at 36 IPC.  The factories are at least one turn closer to the front so discount a turn of Infantry in the pipeline (6X3=18IPC) and now I have 30 IPC for factories vs 54 IPC for transports, DD, and infantry to fill the pipeline.  I will have to build AA guns for the factories to keep the SBR from becoming annoying but they will also be able to move up with the front lines making my kill stacks harder to hit.

As an additional bonus, I can still add transports to the fleet in later turns and if they are not moving gear to the mainland they are now available to support fleet operations / threaten Alaska/Austrialia/Africa.  This decision meant I could send the homeland transport to Hawaii with the fleet for a low odds invasion of Hawaii and the Kwangtung transport is busy supplementing the mainland, ferrying Inf from the islands, and joining the fleet facing India.

I won’t claim these are perfect moves but faced with an opponent who was looking to disrupt the J1 transport build, it was not a bad counter.  At least, so far…

I guess the reason I have always taken the back door approach to attacking Germany via Russia is b/c from my experience US and/or UK can take WE but Germany just reallocates forces to WE instead of sending them to the Russian front. In the end I see it as Germany is going to buy those troops any way whats it matter where they are fought? So I pick the Russian front another reason being lets just say Russia and Germany are going one for one (not likely but for sake of debate lets just say its so) any UK or US forces are just icing on the cake to repel Germany. Then I tend to be bi-est to my Allied 1, 2, 3 punch. It also works when the Axis are taking down Moscow, lead with Germany and mop up with Japan before Russia gets their turn. I don’t think I would rather Japan have the capital I think Germany should take it in order to deal with Great Britain on their door step, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  :evil:

As America, unless I’m in a KJF strat, I’ll let Japan take Hawaii.  It’s not worth diverting 14 IPC minimum to reclaim it. (Transport, 2 Infantry.  Wiser would be to divert more since odds are Japan landed with 2 infantry.)

Your just not good enough to take America from me Doug…  I keep luring you in and step on your greedy hand…

First off, the production limits will go a long way to making those IC’s less than valuable.

Second, build a LOT of trannies as Japan in J1 and start offloading into Asia.  If you took out the US Fleet at Pearl on J1, then on J2 send your 3-4 trannies to FIC to offload full cargoes of INF, plus your ART and ARM.  Build more trannies and refills for your existing units in J2.  Then in J2 sen the new trannies to FIC and bring the old ones back to SZ60 to offload remaining land forces from your J2 buy into Bury to start your Russia strike, or for movement to Manch, then China, then Sinkiang.

Use your AF (3 FIG and 1 BOM) to provide offensive punch to your forces in Asia.  Consolidate your Capital Ships to SZ60 (this position is superior to SZ61 for purposes of protecting Japan and its territories from US fleet) in J2.

In J3, you should be able to take the India factory (if UK is sending lots of AF in, or pulling forces out of Africa to protect it, so much the better… Russia is not getting ground support in Karelia/Archangel from UK, and Africa has been handed to Germany).  If UK has reinforced it, wait for your J3 transports to FIC then take it in J4.

Odds are you can take India in J3 though, and then with your J3 landing to FIC, in J4 you move those forces to China, plus some forces coming from Bury to China, and on J5 or so the US IC is also taken.

By now, Japan has a nice fleet of trannies as buffer for the US fleet and to tranny forces to Asia, 2 new IC’s to send ARM/ART/INF against Russia, and you are ready to continue your Asia strike w/o build limits (you can now build 13 units a round in your 3 IC’s), and you can add the occasional capital ship if the US gets too threatening with their AF (remember, the US can’t spend too much on Pacific Navy… they have an IC in Sinkiang to support, and they BETTER be sending forces to Europe, or by now Russia is all but dead from lack of support from both UK and USA)

Enough ideas to get you going?