@Omega:
Inevitably, Japan must dedicate a lot of her ressources into fighting or holding USA. Question is : Can she do so early in the game? Or does she needs some extra IPC from a defeated China?
Ok, two games played now, neither finished but each about 7-8 rounds, 4-6 hours. In both games, Japan has failed to completely take China. In one game Japan attacked allies on J3, took bonuses away, took burma road for only 1 turn, ended up getting pushed back by china and UK, kept US in check though.
In the other game Japan almost took China, had Burma road on J1 and J2, with lots of land units holding it, but Britian rode in and destroyed all the ground forces Japan had on UK2 (so UK and Anzac declared war before Japan) and it set them back big time, and China came back. UK was getting bombed to death in later rounds, but Japan was also gettingbombed to death by USA (1 minor IC in Hong Kong, 1 minor IC in Shanghai, and then in Tokyo). USA was closing in on Japan in that game.
This game looks hard for Japan to win, imo. But I think its awesome having to plan for who would declare war on who first.