@03321:
@squirecam:
I dont think the allies can just “ignore” Japan. That was the whole point of the pacific VC and the bonus system. You will be forced to spend $ in the pacific, or you will lose.
That seems to be much more the effect of National Objectives and the new Chinese rules/territories than any need for Pacific VCs.
If Japan is able to take and hold W. US, I still don’t think VCs really matter. Assuming Japan has every Eastern VC including India and all Pacific VCs…In that situation, the Axis would win by VCs (13-win) if Germany/Italy can take and hold either Leningrad or Stalingrad, or if Japan can take Ottawa or Washington. If Germany/Italy are still in a position to take Len/Stalingrad with Japan established in W US, the Allies are done. US would soon fall to Japan anyway in this situation because of the huge disparity in income, and the fact that UK can’t help US that much because they already seem to be having trouble containing Germany/Italy. If Japan takes Washington for the win, you’ve once again won with a capital. If Japan is able to take and hold Ottawa to win, then once again it seems they have a large enough force to soon overwhelm the US in Washington. This whole scenario was brought about in the first place by National Objectives, though, not VCs.
Well, the “China rules” were there to prevent the “JTDTM” scenario. Make it more like the real war.
But taking that away from Japan means there MUST be some way to force the allies into the pacific theatre. Or we would be going backwards from AAR, not forwards.
VC are means to end games prior to a total war scenario. If Germany/Italy are strong enough to withstand a 3v2, (at least long enough to take lenningrad/stalingrad before the might of the allies crushes them), then we dont “need” the bonuses to fix anything because leaving Japan alone would cause a loss.
Here, we dont know whether G/I can do this, but we do know Japan gets alot of bonus help if left alone. This bonus + the axis military starting advantage may be enough.
We will have to wait and see. But clearly, the system was designed to force some pacific participation. The consequences for failing to do so should be a 13 VC loss.
In a 15 VC or higher (which requires Moscow/London) I would suspect you can still KGF w/o much risk. You are not easily going to get London in that scenario.