Newb Mistakes

@superbattleshipyamato was curious about how the first game of Pacific 1940 went for me. Pretty terrible as it turned out, though it was a learning experience. For the benefit of the curious, I’m posting about it…perhaps the P40 veterans can offer some candid notes that will help other (new) players trying to learn from disaster.

Some background:

• This was our first game of Pacific. Mistakes were made (China capturing French Indochina; the USA receiving its 30 IPC bonus even though its DOW was “unprovoked”). I do not think they contributed much to the Axis defeat, other than to hurry the result.
• While I know a bit about WW2 history, I know very little about the Pacific theater (little more than the average movie-goer might). While I realize A&A is “ahistorical” I’ve found that there is enough emulation baked into the game that some strategies (or abstaining from some bad strategies) work well when applied in-game. All that being said, my knowledge of the IJN is pretty weak.
• I purposefully avoided reading any Japan strategies or “playbooks” prior to play, wanting to see how the game went “out of the box.”

Long story short: Japan was crushed and the US was marching in Tokyo by turn 10.

In retrospect, a lot of the difficulty (on my part) came from not having a clear plan/approach to winning the war. My original thought was to honor the political situation, work on taking China, while maneuvering my fleet to be in a position to attack the USA by J3. Unfortunately (for me) my opponent decided to take the initiative and DOW UK1, taking me completely by surprise.

When I say “by surprise” I mean it: I had completely failed to consider the possibility. I hadn’t even invaded French Indochina, figuring that the 10 IPCs per turn from peace with the USA would be more efficient while shoring up Asia. While I still had forces in range to bring a retaliatory counterattack, sinking ships and whatnot, I was far, far out of position for bringing the full might of Japan down on the UK and ANZAC forces. And as I had to backpedal on my first turn maneuverings (in order to deal with the threat/opportunity provided by their unprovoked DOW), I ended up wasting precious time that could have been used securing my position in the Pacific.

Finally: China. What a pain in the ass. Every turn I’d spend precious resources taking one or three lowly 1 IPC territories, only to have four infantry pop up in the worst possible location the next turn. I had no strategy for pacifying a power able to spawn any number of dug-in partisans at will…no target objective to eliminate besides the Burma road. And no ability to keep that supply line broken what with the UK involved from the get-go. If I killed Chinese, the UK would liberate Yunan from southeast Asia; if I killedthe UK, the Chinese would march in from Szechwan, ensuring those bonus IPCs (and artillery pieces) kept coming. It was only late inthe game (circa J6) that I thought to build ICs in Kwangtung and Kiangsu, in order to pump out my own stacks of infantry and artillery.

By that time, however, it was far too late. I had found a way to tame China, but the US had been able to destroy the bulk of my fleet, ANZAC was no longer confined to their little island (was building ships of their own) and the two together were looting my IPCs from the south Pacific. I went from getting more than 60 to less than 40. I could not hold India. My transports were destroyed. My land forces were too slow (or too tied up) to conquer the many territories of southeast Asia. My air force was destroyed trying to slow down the march of battleships. I exhausted my entire cadre of kamikazes in a single turn and they still failed to stymie the invasion force.

Rough. A really ugly defeat.

Strange as it may sound, Pacific is a very different game from Europe. The ocean expanses make the game very different…especially for a player (me) used to making good use of an air force. The range of ALL air craft is so limited that you spend turns flying in non-combat just to get in position to use them as support for an assault, and they seem more useful for attacking seazones, rather than islands. Carriers extend the range, but limit the number that can be used. Strategic bombers (with their inability to land on carriers) prove far less practical than they do in a war fought mostly on land.

It’s a tough game…very different from Europe 1940, very different from a game like 1942 or Zombies. The limitation of the theater requires one to develop completely different tactics. My esteemed opponent had the benefit of being the Allies, a side that grows stronger the longer the game progresses. Mistakes were made by both sides in the earlier rounds of the game, but while these were mitigated by the reinforcing might of the Americans, they proved exceptionally costly for Japan (me).

I think I’d like to play Pacific a couple more times…both as the Axis and the Allies…just to get a better feel for the game. However, we’ve since jumped right into a three-way game of global (combining Europe and Pacific) which, with a new player, looks like it’s going to take a while to resolve. Fortunately, we don’t need the dining room table any time soon.
; )

@superbattleshipyamato

The Allies attack began with taking Siam on UK1. Having only one transport in position to attack amphibiously made it an issue of getting through a wall of Chinese to root British tanks and mech infantry out of the jungles. I took Calcutta around J5(?) but it was quickly liberated. My air support had been moved out to the ocean for other battles or were lost in retaking Chinese territories. It was just a mess.

The idea to build ICs in Asia didn’t even occur to me till late in the game…having played nothing but E40 the last 3-4 weeks, I’ve found so few places where an IC was actually helpful (based on both A) location and B) territorial IC value). Having a major IC in southern Germany, for example…not very useful considering France is dead after G1; and building one in Norway is begging for the Allies to use it against you. So I wasn’t even considering it until the Chinese infantry started snowballing (and my forces were tied up in a hopeless quagmire). That’s one of those “newb mistakes” I’ll rectify in the future.

I was pretty disappointed about the loss myself as Japan is, hands down, my favorite power to play in the smaller game and I usually handle it well. But the expansive Pacific, the additional powers, the unusual (new) rules, and the political negotiation aspect all combined to put me off my game. I don’t doubt Japan is just as effective in Pacific 1940 (and Global)…just need to learn the system and polish up the tactics.
; )