Revisiting the Kill Japan First (KJF) Strategy

Yes you’re right about japan shuttling units from Japan into mainland Asia.  Yes this will work, but only if Japan is left alone to focus completely on invading Asia.  If the United States and Britian keep the japanese fleet busy in the pacific and apply pressure on them by taking islands, Japan has to respond to that.

Tell you what……pull your Japanese fleet to Japan and focus on shuttling units to Asia.  Leave your islands like borneo, east indies, and new guinea alone to be taken by britian and the US.  You’ll lose 9 ipc’s and you’ll lose momentum with your offensive.  If the allies aren’t working together your plan may work.  I have played against this tactic and it doesn’t always work. Japan usually stalls out.  However, when I play with Japan, My first round purchase is 1 IC to be placed in kwantung, 1 transport, 1inf, 1 art.  my turn 2 purchases are 1 IC to be placed in Manchuria, and 3 tanks to be placed in kwantung.  Turn 3 I purchase 6 tanks.  Now I have plenty of aromor to use and my range has increased.  with a constant flow of tank each round I will be able to outproduce india, and break out all over Russia.  My japanese fleet would just be protecting my interests in the Pacific.  Transports are great, but it is expensive to maintain them.  getting a beach head and building there is best, and you can still shuttle units with your transports.

India IC can work if:

Soviets didn’t attack Ukranie and stack in wru to threaten Karelia UK builds saf IC to defend Africa without need of a fleet UK must kill z59 trannie USA builds Sinkiang IC and Pacific fleet Soviets send siberian forces to Sinkiang Soviets support suffling tanks back and forth from Caucasus

In this strat, I would not sacrifice valuable UK fleets against Japan 1st round. Indian and Australian navies can join with USA’s Pacific fleet mid game

Tonight’s looking good.  You around?

I like to build transports first because they can get free units off the islands and also help capture Hawaii, Aus / NZ, India and Madagascar.

The only difficulty would be deciding if the Pacific strategy is the right one.

This would be based on how strong Germany is:

Does she threaten Cau/Moscow?  If so, you might want to ensure some good Western Allied pressure (western, southern, even SZ14 pressure all over the med as Darth indicated)

If Japan plays it close to home fleet wise (to keep US honest), then again, a US pacific fleet may be sub optimal.

I think if Germanys a huge inf ball in their big 4/5 territories, then it might be best to be happy having them contained and go after Japan with the Pacific fleet… you have the time to do so (and the axis have proven it might be their soft spot)

If you want to call me an arrogant bastard, that’s fine, even accurate a fair amount of the time.  But call me an arrogant bastard because I’m an arrogant bastard, don’t misquote me!

i have no desire to call you that, nor was i offended by your post :mrgreen:

i apologise for poor emoticon use  :oops:

Posted by: ShadowHAwk

I still think that 8VC with the current board and setup is doable for the allies if the rules are slightly bend.

8 VC but you have to keep all 8 for 1 full turn ( lose 1 during the turn even if you take it back resets the score )

i said this at the beginning of the thread, maybe you will get more love  :cry:

we play this way , especially if the allies have an experience advantage.  we also don’t use a bid in this format

Hi Hannibal (ante portas),

In fact, I agree with pretty much you said. Surely I couldn’t keep up with your tactical understanding when A&A was new to me. So congratulations at first.
Nevertheless there’s some more input. Just my humble opinion:

Except of the Baltic AC in your first round, ships usually don’t buy for Germany. If you really want to build 1-2 Subs/Trans in the Baltic each turn you’ll have to stay there with your own navy or they’ll be sunk immediately with british airforce. UK and US can together close you up in the Baltic and wait for your attack, of course it will be costly for them, but usually more expensive for you.

You are quite right about going through the north is a superior strategy. Karelia is a very strong position for both sides. As the axis you should take and hold it in the first round. UK has different options to support Russia. His support in NWY can be strafed to death by your forces in Karelia. Better to cut of your supply lines in EEU after your Baltic fleet is removed. Or, most likely, he can support Archangel, so you’ll meet the main UK/Rus forces in ARC.
If you wanna go south through UKR, Russia will concentrate it’s forces in CAU and the UK can take a lot of your income away from you. You won’t be able to trade more than one territory with Russia (WRU), but it’s harder for Russia to trade a lot of countries (due to the max. of 3 Ftrs)
In fact, I most likely wait in KAR until the japanese player puts preassure on Russia which forces the allies to retreat on my front, then I take a step into WRU.

Don’t underestimate a US counterattack on Pearl Harbour. Especially if the go KJF it’s very hard to replace your lost navy again. An aggressive british opening in the Pacific and a Pearl counter, 2 ICs in IND and SIN and Japan is in big trouble.

You are quite lucky that your Russian player is rather predictable. Maybe he should be more aggressive, attack UKR, build some tanks or even a Ftr, etc.

These are just my opinions and can, of course, vary in different games and against different ways to play. I hope this gives you some input.