@crockett36
Definitely a more interesting and bare bones way of going about fighting the Japanese…
So many years back when I was still playing mini 1941 edition with a buddy of mine, we always had the Battleship race to see who as America or Japan could get the lead in battleships since that was the way to win the Pacific. Having gone from 1941 edition to Anniversary, America was capable of building 2 battleships a turn making me stumped as to how this was fair until I found the catch as to which carriers were the way to go.
I’ve done the math, and a whopping 2 battleships matches up to a carrier with 2 fighters on it, which as you know is not cost effective.
As for not buying capital ships… I’m trying to see a scenario of how this works out for the US. America not buying ANY capital ships? 0 battleships and 0 carriers?
So to be completely exact, America begins with 5 planes on the Pacific side of the board. Each of these planes is capable of reaching Wake Island as expected, you can even bring a bomber if you’re really tryna jazz up the airforce. All to which can reach Midway or Wake Island on Americas first turn. Now, seeing as there are 4 frickin’ fighters just chilling in one spot with like, no ground forces acting as backup, I as Japan won’t have attacked on J1, have built like 2 transports the firs tturn or a transport and a carrier to hold more fighters.
Now assuming you move your navy to Wake to protect from an amphibious assault, you’re effectively throwing you’re navy out the gate since Japan starts with a far stronger navy then the Americans, and as for subs well… destroyer. That’s all it takes to make any surprise strikes completely incapable as well as the mass amount of Japanese planes that can then strikea the submarines with access to destroyers. So I really do not know why the IJN would run from this fight… the potential to bring in 4 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers, 2 submarines, and like 4 to 5 transports of units all crashing down on Wake Island, only for the entirety of your navy to be destroyed, not only that but the only airforce you had in the Pacific.
Also, there really isn’t anything stopping me from taking Wake Island and Guam even on a J1 attack and setting up a Japanese sphere of influence with the large naval presence to go along with IJN blockers to prevent you from making amphibious landings…
I mean, I’m not saying anything’s impossible, but if America doesn’t build capital ships then they’re gonna die… they’re sailors are gonna die, and they allies are gonna’ die. There just isn’t any other way of countering the large IJN naval presence then to fight guns with even bigger guns.