Why would you attack Manchuria? Then Japan can annhilate your eastern front and waltz over to Moscow. OTOH, there are certain situations where I would do it. For example, one unlucky Japanese player left the sea of Japan open to an American attack. With the Japanese transports out of the way, Russia went marching down Manchuria, Kwantung, and Burma, plundering Japanese IPC all the way. So basically, only take it if Japan can’t counterattack.

It depends whether Germany took ASE using the Seu fighter or a bid armor on one hand, or using an amphibious assault. If they were dumb enough to do the amphibious assault, you should hit their fleet with your india fighter and your bomber. The result will likely be total annhilation, leaving Germany with no fleet and Africa easy to liberate. In this case, building the India IC is probably a good thing since it’ll only be threatened from one side, though it will be a bit weak until you can move more fighters in. On the other hand, if Germany didn’t do an amphibious assault, the India IC would be too vulnerable to a 1-2 punch so you should just build a carrier and start trying to retake Africa.

When playing Japan, is it worthwhile to attack America? Not invading the US proper, of course, but simply going for Alaska, Panama, Brazil, and Cuba. The idea would be to mess up the US shuck-shuck route at a critical time just as Germany is moving against Russia. Is it worth it or are you better off marching all your infantry to Moscow?

The IC horse has been badly beaten, but another thing to think about is that Britain might build an India IC, in which case you get it for free when you take over India. As for Hawaii, either take it over on the first turn in a massive assault using everyting you have if Britain has abandoned Asia, or if there’s a threat from Asia send just enough to destroy the US carrier (1-2 BB, 1 Ftr, 1 sub, 1 Bmr) and save your carrier for the mainland. The US will probably just retreat their west coast BB to the atlantic to use it in Europe.

THe bomber’s no problem. Just build all your transports at once. If you have 4-5 transports on the east coast the bomber can’t take out more than one before getting killed.

I still don’t get how attacking India first turn is a good idea. Assuming you get 4 Infantry, 1 fighter, and 1 bomber to attack, vs. 4 Infantyr and 1 fighter (assuming UK transported the Egypt and Syria infantry to India, taking it isn’t guaranteed and you’ll probably have only 1 infantry left. And if the British sub sruvives and moves to India you might very well lose the transport. You will then get swarmed by the US infantry from Sinkiang, the Russian tank from Novosibirsk, and finally if you’ve survived that, the British tank from Persia. Then, you’ll only have 2 infantry in Burma next turn to take it back again. And worst of all, if the US or USSR takes it back, Britain still gets to build 3 tanks on their turn. Plus if they put fighters on Karalia on turn 1, those planes can fly down to defend India. I tried attacking it once and got stomped. Plus, if the allies are very paranoid, Russia can always put a second fighter on India, making it even harder to attack. Now of course, if the Axis get a high enough bid, all bets are off. If you’re going to try this, make sure Germany takes Egypt or Syria on their first turn.

the first turn IC build doesn’t make sense either. As long as your target is India, transports are fine. The IC comes once you need tanks to take Moscow, turn 3 at the earliest.

How you play Japan depends on whether your opponent builds an India IC. If they do, control of Burma is the key to the defense of India, since if the UK controls Burma they can attack Kwantung and China with newly produced tanks and force you to keep contesting territories that don’t even border India. If Japan controls Burma with anough infantry that Japan can’t take it, then Britain is on the defensive and can’t attack out of India for fear of it being taken by the ever-expanding sea of Japanese infantry. That’s why it’s usually a big mistake to send too many ships to Hawaii. If you do, it won’t be until turn 3 that you can finally send transports to Burma. Instead you should be covering the 2 transports as they land 4 infantry in Burma on turn 1. If you then build 2 more transports you can have 2 groups of transports going back and forth between Burma and Manchuria alternately unloading in both territories and adding more transports as you can afford them. Burma gets at least 4 inf per turn to India’s 3 armor. And one more thing, be usre that you don’t let any stray planes get a shot at your transports.

If there’s no India IC, first concentrate on Manchuria for the first turn to prepare to push the Russians back to Moscow. They’ll be your major resistance and you’ll need to keep a lid on them.

ALso, you’ll be fighting lots of small battles. Be sure to use your superior airforce to make sure that the allies take more casualties than you in every engagement, especially Russia. Garmany will appreciate it when Russian troops have to start leaving Karalia for the eastern front.

Then finally, keep an eye on the US. If you’re playing 3rd edition (W. Canada doesn’t border the Atlantic), the W. US will be lightly defended and you can cause a lot of panic and messed-up plans by taking Hawaii with a reasonable number of infantry and ships.