Japan 1st Round Pacific…

I think this is a perfectly reasonable strategy – but keep in mind that you are forfeiting two victory cities as the Axis. The Chinese can attack and occupy Kwangtung, so you’re losing out on both Shanghai and Hong Kong. This makes it very hard for the Axis to get a majority of the victory cities. Even if you completely crush Russia, that only gets you to 9 VC:

Tokyo, Manila, Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Warsaw, Berlin, Rome, Paris.

So then you also have to pick up India (challenging without any factories in China), or Australia (hard to hold if you’re mostly going after Russia), or Honolulu (ditto).

The Japanese share of Russian income is just not that large – dripping wet, you’ve got Buryatia, SFE, Stanovoj, Yakut, Evenki, Urals, Novosibirsk, Kazakh, and Stalingrad (15 IPCs total).

Meanwhile, the Japanese income for all of China is Manchuria, Kiangsu, Suiyuan, Ningxia, Chinghai, Sikang, Hupeh, Fukien, Yunnan, Kwangtung, and the NO (18 IPCs total).

So, yeah, given that Russia is a more important target than China, you can see where it would be worth a few bucks to go after Russia instead of China, but there are no VCs in Siberia, so that’s the trade-off. If you actually crush Moscow early, then, great, the gambit worked. If not, then you might gain some very minor economic benefits, but you’re likely to stall out and lose on points in the endgame.

Please stay on topic or don’t post in this thread.  Thanks.

In my most recent tournament game against Zhukov I employed a Pacific/Atlantic spread with the Allies that was going pretty well in my estimation until I overlooked a couple Italian tanks that broke a hole through my Russian defenses for the German tanks to get to Moscow.  Had I not made that mistake I think I would have prevailed as the Allies as I never lost the economic advantage and was making headway on most fronts.

I had a bid of 9 and placed 2 infantry in Egypt and 1 in Belorussia.  The extra infantry in Egypt were certainly advantageous for me as it held off the Axis long enough for me to destroy the Italian navy and completely push the Axis out of Africa.  A couple things I did that I’m going to explore more were:
1. Built a South Africa IC - This might not be the best/most essential part, but I thought it was necessary with the US going mostly into the Pacific, so there would be no reinforcements to Africa
2. Built 2 bombers for the UK for use against the Italian fleet - Having the 3rd that most people going for the bomber heavy UK1 turn would have been helpful as the Axis took Gibraltar to keep me from using my fighters for support in taking out the Italian navy, but I got a little lucky and was able to take it out anyway with the 3 UK bombers alone
3. Built 1 American carrier for defensive support of the UK in the Atlantic and sent the US transport toward Norway - my thoughts were that I could get 5 extra IPCs for the US to help them there and have the opportunity to build an IC for the US to place some land units in Europe while their navy was in the Pacific

It may have been a fluke as it may have gone much differently if I hadn’t gotten relatively lucky in destroying the Italian navy with the UK bombers, but I was happy with the progression as I was able to complete Operation Torch to drive out the Germans and Italians in Africa, and began to weaken the Japanese and boost the UK in the Pacific with the US taking strategic islands.  If I had been able to hold on as Russia for another turn or two perhaps (as I thought I would be able to do), I think I could’ve begun to reinforce Russia and start whittling down Europe.  After all of the negative talk about KGF being the only viable strategy with AAAE being broken and needing a large bid for a Global/Pacific campaign to work, I was quite encouraged by this game (even if it looks like I’ll probably lose now in the end with my Russian catastrophe).  Considering it was a tournament game I probably “shoul’ve” :wink: gone with a more “efficient” KGF strategy, but I enjoyed it as it went even if it may not have been the most reliable strategy.

Strat? What strat? Just abbuse from game’s bugs and zero playtesting at China and toast them J1 (1941) and J3/J4 (1942)

Larry should make a fix for whole China stuff instead of nerfing Improved Industry tech. If it works (that tech), don’t touch it. If it’s screaming for a fix (China), fix it

@U-505:

Second, the logical progression after attacking Phil is to go to Australia(J2) and then to India(J3) and then to Africa(J4). It’s hard for me to wrap my head around what happens if you don’t attack Phil on J1, but you still go for India and Phil on J2. Australia is still in UK hands at the end of J2 so in order to take it you’re either going backwards from India or if you push on to Africa from India then you’re looking at buying a lot more TP’s than just the 1 or 2 I usually buy with Japan because most of your initial TP’s will be too far away to come back and start landing units from Japan. And that seems costly considering you earned 7 IPC’s less than you would if you had taken Phil on J1.

If I don’t attack Philipines J1, I buy 2 tpts.  Those Tpts can take on Philipines J2, leaving all the other tpts freedom to do whatever they want.  By stationing in sz37, taking Burma, Japan will have 4 transports, loaded carrier, BB, CA in range of Australia J2 (Unless UK blocks).  Ground unit wise, at least 3 inf + whatever is left in Burma to australia J2.  The threat to hit India with the same units and 3 ftrs in FIC makes the UK units run for the hills, so you pretty much walk into India J2 AND take australia without being blocked from Australia by one silly UK DD (if you go to Philipines).

By being in SZ37, you threaten so many spots, the allies really can’t afford to try and hold anything very strongly and their best/safest course of action is to withdraw safely, most likely to persia.  Even there, JApan can hit with east indies and burma units + 2 ftrs or maybe another 2 ftrs if italy/germany take TRJ.

It’s not a pretty scenario for the allies.  Of course, the allies can get lucky and hurt Japan by doing well in Burma (3 inf, art vs UK inf), but the same can be said of the US inf hurting that same force J1.

Atlantic Sea Zones:

I’d say split SZ 11 and 12 into north and south with the south border being equal to the spit between SZ 19 and SZ 10.

Those two will stop 1 Round invasions of Algeria.

Splitting SZ 9 and 8 in half at the same level as the star for the Victory City at Toronto (so it will be split SOUTH of England) will stop 1 round reinforcements of England from SZ 10.

This will give German Submarines something to do in the Atlantic as well, since America cannot just jump across the ocean and dump their units into England/Africa.

This is one of many strat suggestions which obviously will not work against decent players.

Yup, I def agree that Japan ICs should be located in FIC/Burma/India. Honestly, I don’t see the point of putting a factory in Manch.

I like to make a hard push towards India on J1, taking out Burma and both 4 IPC British islands so that I’ve got plenty of ground units to take and hold India on J2, as long Germany was successful at clearing Egypt and the Soviets didn’t send troops to Persia R1 (which I’m starting to think might be a good idea).

This allows an IC on Burma J2, and an IC on India J3, which means Caucasus starts to hear the Jap tank treads as early as J4. I find this really helps relieve some pressure on Germany.

If Germany did not manage to clear Egypt, or the Brits have Soviet assistance in India/Mid East, then I’ll go the Burma/FIC route for the factories instead.