@all-encompassing-goose
Good analysis!
I should also remind you that all powers are at war with each other at the beginning. Here’s how things went down in my first game (I played against myself).
One thing I noticed was an insane number of upsets. Maybe I just noticed them more, but at least 20 times there was an 85+ percent chance for the attacker to win and lost.
Round 1:
Germany didn’t invade Paris turn 1, invading Normandy Bordeaux, destroying the Royal Navy in sea zone 111, sea zone 109, and sea zone 106, and invading the Soviet Union.
Germany did not attack Paris and sea zone 110 as both areas had British and French units together, which would eliminate each other. They also failed to capture Northern Italy.
The Soviets did well initially, pushing into eastern China and taking advantage of Germany needing to capture Paris and defend against Italy to push hard.
Japan launched a lightning strike against China, the US fleet off Hawaii, and Philippines. Japan didn’t invade the Soviet Union turn 1.
The US started focusing on the Pacific at first, engaging in numerous naval battles of attrition with Japan off the coast of Hawaii (US destroy Japanese fleet there, then Japan destroys that US fleet, then the US counterattacks), and invading Canada, doing very well.
The Brits focused on East Africa, capturing it and annihilating most of the Italian navy. Germany also attacked the sea zone 95 fleet, even destroying the Italian aircraft that scrambled to defend, so Italy’s entire navy was destroyed turn 1. Britain also eliminated the French cruiser in sea zone 110, and the French units in United Kingdom. The British units in France were also destroyed.
The Italians were in a very bad position, having lost their navy and air force, so they merely invaded Southern France and Tunisia. They also occupied empty Alexandria. They failed to capture Tunisia. Due to a bad convoy day Italy would only have 5 IPCs.
France failed to destroy a British destroyer and cruiser in sea zone 96 (they attacked with their fleet in the Mediterranean and the fighter from Paris), losing all their naval and air assets in the process (the British also destroyed the destroyer near Madagascar in their first turn).
Rest of the game:
Long story short, Germany eventually started pushing deeper into the Soviet Union. The Soviet put up fierce resistance but they couldn’t hold out against both Japan and Germany, and couldn’t defend against Germany when they kept losing IPCs to Japan.
Japan knocked both India and ANZAC out of the game, and captured Hawaii. While American income remained static, Japanese income ballooned, gaining superiority in the Pacific.
The US invaded the Soviet Far East, and hanged in there for several turns before being expelled.
The Soviet Far Eastern armies were very successful, forcing Japan to withdraw from Korea and occupying it for several turns before Japan expelled them in a determined attack from Manchuria, over the sea, and in the air (just aircraft, not paratroopers). The Soviets were stalled though in the east by me forgetting to address them in a timely matter.
Eventually Italy conquered Paris, but at heavy cost, allowing Germany to push into Northern Italy. The Italians in Paris tied up several German units for a while until Germany gathered enough men to capture Paris.
Eventually the Italians in North Africa couldn’t hold. While Italy scraped up enough men to transport the isolated units in Albania (remember that they couldn’t go through the rest of the Balkans) to North Africa, Britain was just too strong.
Eventually the US stopped competing for the Pacific with Japan and started building up a massive army to capture Britain. While Britain repulsed the US once, they fell the second time.
Midgame Britain was doing well landing in German occupied Europe until the US conquered London.
After the US conquered London they took up the role of landing in German occupied Europe, capturing Rome (Germany retook it though).
By this point Japan captured Moscow, but Germany got no rest with Japan constantly sending tanks at Germany, pushing hard. It took many turns, but Germany was slowly pushed back until at a certain turn the front collapsed with American pressure in the west making things harder. Japan kept building minor industrial complexes near the frontline and produced only tanks to maximise the limited space in those complexes. Japan at this point was making upward of 100 IPCs and produced more tanks then Germany made infantry. Needless to say, Japan conquered Berlin.
Concurrently Japan launched an attack against Alaska. The US had shifted back to producing ships in the Pacific at this time, and temporarily gained naval superiority. Japan had more income and was only hindered in naval production by the war against Germany. After the loss of all 3 aircraft carriers (the same ones since the start of the game) and the fall of Berlin, Japan instantly switched to producing naval ships then a landing force to capture the American mainland, needing to build a major industrial complex in Korea to give enough space to make the landing force needed. Japan eventually captured the continental US, with most of the units built up never seeing action.
As Germany was dying they declared war on the true neutrals. While Japan snatched up Mongolia, the Middle East, and African neutrals (did I forget to mention Japan captured all of Africa, although they needed to eject the US racing to capture all of Africa as well, only making as far as Alexandria before annihilation by Japan), and the US gained South American allies. After the fall of Washington DC Japan spent multiple turns pushing southward to capture South America while taking all the remaining islands (mainly in the Mediterranean, the Pacific ones were taken earlier).
After 30 rounds Japan is the ultimate champion of the Earth.
