The United States

I summed this up in case anyone was interested… this includes AAA so it may be a bit skewed.

Japan: 556        +26 income
USA: 203          +17 income
UK: 106            +16 income
ANZAC: 84        +10 income
China: 61          +12 income

1. That one always bugged me too.
2.yea that also seemed silly to me because you would think (common sense) that the main transport fleet of a power would right next to the capitol.
3. Yea that seemed silly to me as well by my guess
would be that maybe the placement is historical in nature?
4.  Those has always bugged me even in the first game I played. They were completely out if place to attack were they would be needed.

Hm interesting because both my wife and I read the rule book, and both interpreted that part the same way.  Guess we need to read it again.

tnx so much

Thanks guys…my friend and I believe this rule is huge for Japan since it allows Japan to build fully loaded carriers quite easily at crucial times in the game, so many extra planes that can land on new carriers.

Makes it tough on the Allies whenever they get in close.

Yes, it’s allowed.

I thought some folks would throw more specific comments in about the benefit in relation to cost for the units.  For example, in a slug-fest between two opposing factories, I think Artillery combined with about two Infantry each will make a good tough core force.  I would expect to see a group of armor mingled with the core fighting groups, and a group of TAC bombers to match.  At 7 IPCs, a pair of Infantry/Artillery deliver a good punch.  It would be nice to have a couple extra infantry to absorb defense blows to protect those artillery, so I figure 2 Inf per Arty is a good starting point.

In the earliest stages of the game, mech infantry and armor buys may be key to get some support onto the front lines when there is a piece of key terrain you want to get early.  After that, unless your supply lines get too long, I suspect to see few mech infantry buys and only a few armor buys to match TAC bombers.

Surprisingly, I expect to see Japan build a factory in Manchuria, followed buy many mech infantry and armor buys to chase Russia and pick up some IPCs from their wide open spaces.  I also expect this to change the way the war is fought in China, but that is another subject.

I hope to have the time to publish a numeric analysis of the units here.  I would hope folks would respect that the analysis is strictly an academic what-if and not a defenitive “buy strategy.”  It should guide some folks to keep them from getting too far off the reservation though.

I will offer up a rationale for the tac/tank combo. Think about Panzers and Stukas for a moment. The Panzers are used to pin down the enemy in known locations. Then Stukas are sent in to finish off enemy defensive positions before the Panzers blitz the line. If it weren’t for the Panzers pinning the enemy units, they would be harder for the Stukas to hit.

I may be talking out my a$$ though…