@theskeindhu For the Pacific, what I like to do it bait out elements of the IJN by sending loaded transports at Borneo/DEI/Philippines on suicide missions. The TTs are going to die in all likelihood, but if the opponent overextends you can punish them for it, and if they lack TTs they won’t get the islands back right away, which gives you some healthy income/slows Japan down for a few turns. Even if they have TTs, you can usually sink them with your Carrier FTRs + 1-2 SUBs. This forces them to buy a few more TTs/spend effort cleaning up your SUBs, which distracts them from India/Moscow. Every small distraction helps. 1-2 INF can swing a battle’s odds dramatically in the favor of one side over the other.
UK bomber bid to India
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Long time lurker, first time poster. Was wondering if anyone else has had success with this, which I did in a recent game. Frustrated at the options for the UK navy, I thought I would fake a KJF opener. I used the carrier and cruiser to clear sz 61 and the loaded transport (with fighter & bomber) to take Kwangtung. I then used the Aussie fleet to take New Guinea. This presented Japan with enough of a headache to clear that the US was able to move its entire Pacific fleet (with loaded transport) to Solomons. On US 2 this fleet took Borneo knowing it would be destroyed (but once again occupy much of Japan’s resources to do so). I then went standard KGF for the rest of the game. Although Allies conceded in round 12 after their Atlantic fleet got a bit diced (11 fighters & 1 bomber against 3 loaded AC, cruiser, 3 destroyers), it was closely contested the whole way due to Japan being delayed so heavily at the outset by all pre-existing units.
If you were Japan, how would you counter this pesky move? -
Is this for OOB or LHTR?
Speaking at a high level, I would just respond to this the way you typically play Japan when faced with a KJF-style strategy, unit as much of the surviving Japanese fleet as possible and focus on defending the money islands + lightly pushing on the mainland to pressure India + make gains where possible in China/Russia. Japan doesn’t have to win, they just have to hold the line until Germany beats USSR.
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@DoManMacgee Hi DMM & thanks for the response… Really appreciate that these forums have experienced players who weigh in on things. It was OOB with a 12 bid.
That’s pretty much what Japan did - eliminate the threats and take back the 2 islands as advantageously as possible while still consolidating the fleet. I was just surprised how long it then took for Japan to have any pressure westward. India, in spite of losing 2 men on the initial Kwangtung foray, stayed around for quite a while (minimal investment for a KGF).
What helped, no doubt, was that Russia traded unfavourably in the initial Caucasus strafe (dice game, lost 3 inf to Germany’s 2, and took W Russia at odds) and the Germans (rather than push hard back immediately), decided to save the Med fleet with a carrier. This made the Egypt / Africa game interesting, but maybe a different buy on G1 and the Germans win sooner. Always tough to say.
But, as many have pointed out here, the Axis have such a strong start in this game it was nice to have a hotly contested battle!
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