Shortening the game

Hello, I play pacific 1940 a lot.  I have also played global a few times.  Pacific 1940 second edition is a great game but I can almost easily win every time if I’m Japan and I attack on the third turn.  A new rule was passed around late 2014 to allow the USA to receive a 30 IPC bonus if Japan attacks or declares war on them before turn 4.  This seems to balance the game a little but I can still always win with Japan.  The strategy for Japan is pretty much the same.  Take the money islands, build a minor in French Indo China and Kwangtung and knock out China and India.  Post in the Philippines with your huge navy and three fighters that can scramble and those six deadly kamikizes.  Let Anzac and USA come to you so you can use the fighters to defend at 4 when the big navy battle happens.  Eventually you will be making more than the allies with the money islands NO and the India NO.  You should be around the 70-75 mark.  Then when the time is right strike at Sydney or Hawaii and hold it and you should win as it will be six victory cities.  For the allies, man this can be tuff lol.  You better hope Japan attacks you on turn 1 or turn 4 because turn 2 and especially 3 it’s going to be difficult. 
1:  China:  buy men and hit and run and fall back to the north west of China. You will be lucky if the Burma road is open more than two turns.  Pull back and make Japan come to you.
2:  UK:  pull everyone back to India and just buy men!!! Try to bring your navy down to Australia and unite them with Anzac and hopefully later USA. If it looks like India is going to fall then pull your airforce out and send them to Australia to hopefully land on a Anzac or American carrier.  If Japan hasn’t declared war early then take as many islands in the south as possible .
3:  Anzac:  small ships and transports are good.  if it looks like Japan is going to invade then pull your forces to south Australia because from there you can hit any territory.  Use your small ships to convoy raid or unite with the main USA fleet.  Queensland is a great staging area for the allied navy early in the game.  Also since there’s a airbase there fighters don’t hurt also since they can scramble.
4:USA: the big boy lol.  The problem is when USA is neutral she only makes a freaking 17 ipcs a turn.  While Japan is around the 40 mark and Japan has soooooooo many aircraft at its disposal.  USA I say aircraft carrier early then mainly subs, destroyers, and a transport every turn with land units.  A few rounds into the game get a navy base on the Johnson islands and start combining your fleet with the Anzac fleet and hopefully a small UK fleet. try to take the money islands by sacrificing transports because Japan will have a bigger navy early in the game.  When the time is right move to Dutch New Guinea with your fleet and prepare for the big battle.  Sometimes it’s better if Japan attacks you and sometimes it’s better if you attsck them.  Hopefully you will have a lot of subs at your disposal. If you win the navy battle then Japan is pretty much toast even if they have India and China.  Good luck and let me know how the war goes lol. I am playing anniversary edition on Saturday 😜

@Cow:

It is still to your advantage to go to war sooner than later. J1 DOW is the way to go for this unless you trying to take over America, you get pretty good odds for it still.

I disagree with you here Cow. Pacific is a lot different than global. I even think it might even be best to wait till turn 3 to attack allies after they have declared war on you. This will keep America from getting her 30 dollar bonus, and her 40 dollar bonus for two turns. That is a total of 99 less, since you would take phil in a T1 attack. Haven’t played enough games to be 100% sure, but taking India is a lot easier, and your real problem is taking Hawaii. I don’t know how you can ever take Sydney if the allies are competent at all.

@AmpsterMan:

I thought that you just counted the SZ next to where you were taking off from, didn’t know attacking counted as a move. Lol, I think that one rule interpretation might have changed a bit of how the game went….

Thanks for the update  :-D

And in case you were wondering, he attacked me in Alaska on turn 4, I repelled him turn 6, by turn nine I had every territory I originally had back in my hands. I was going to win.

We are going to play a game tonight (hopefully) I’ll have to reread the rulebook to make sure I don’t make anymore errors.

In any case, it seems to me that the only reason I won was because I was able to get all of my NO’s where as he didn’t get any. He also didn’t put enough boots on the ground methinks. Am excited to see how tonights game goes on. Thanks for the replys Calvinhobbesliker!

Even if you did that, that’s still 8 moves. Bomber from airbase only gets 7.

Anyway, you’re welcome

@finnman:

@calvinhobbesliker:

I don’t know if it’ll help. Let’s say they take Sydney and also assume they took every mainland australian tt. Then, they would make 93 ipcs to the US’s 55. No need to continue the game

If they take Hawaii, they make 84 ipcs to the US’s 54 and ANZAC’s 15. No need to continue there either, when they have a 15 ipc lead

The most popular strategy I’ve seen involves a major complex in malaya and then pulling your navy onto Australia. Wouldn’t this give lots of time to attack japan with your navy and fortify Hawaii

Yeah, that’s kaufschick’s strat and why he think it’s broken. I’m not sure how he deals with threats to Z6 when his entire fleet is at Singapore. i guess he thinks they can Delay until Sydney falls

So my group has completed a game where Japan went for America.  We figure that whether or not Japan wins is dependent on a few things.

I don’t remember whether the final assualt on WUS happened on J3 or J4.  I think it was J4, and they waited until J3 to attack Alaska?  Either way, the statistics were about a 45% chance for Japan to take WUS.  They needed some AA misses to throw it in their favor.

There really is little that the UK and ANZAC player can contribute to the defense of WUS.  The best thing for them to do is go crazy in the absence of the Japanese forces.  By the time America fell, the UK had liberated most of China, and had several rounds to build up a navy with the help of the DEI income.  Australia also had a bonus going on, adding 2 loaded carriers to supplement defense of the UK fleet.

Japan thought about going straight for Australia, but the UK fleet with transports(deploying from  Kwangtung and Kiangsu factories) was already threatening Japan.

While America had fallen, they only gained +10 income from America, +Mexico +Alaska, while giving up on their territories in the Chinese mainland.  They were being out produced by the Allies, and out of position to restablish a hold on the mainland.

makes me wonder how much the game was actually “playtested” honestly.  The errata is going to be bigger than the rulebook.

Maher C.

I think that they should re-issue a second edition and provide it to those who bought this shabbily tested game (don’t get me wrong, I like it and it has potential).  The should as least give those that purchased the disaster version with some sort of coupon or rebate.  Yeah right, like that’s ever gonna happen.

@oztea:

they will relese AA50th aniversery after europe in 2011-12

it will be dubbed “Axis and Allies: Advanced” or something like that

with all the new stuff, and basicly a AA50 board with a 2 territory australia and mech and tacs and some other stuff, ports and ABs maybe

$149.99 USD

they arent making another theatre game anytime soon……

Maybe it will be short of set up pieces like AAP1940. And the set up and rule book will be incorrect like AAP1940. And no IPCs or reference cards like AAP1940.

Territory next to india might be packistan (incorrect nomiclature for 1940) or Kashmir, or some other goofy name……

Larry does what he wants basicly…but I hope Iran (persia) is axis neutral.