As far as actually dividing up the southern Pacific Islands between ANZAC and the UK goes, I tend just to try and take them all with ANZAC; Take Java turn 1, then Dutch New Guinea on round 2 (I usually consider a DOW against Japan with ANZAC in round 2 a very good idea financially, since, assuming Malaya hasn’t fallen, it gets you an extra 5 IPCs during you collect income phase that you wouldn’t otherwise have if you let Japan declare war on you in round 3 (which they’ll do anyway), and if New Britain, the Solomon Islands, and New Guinea are still under Allied control (which is probably likely, seeing as Japan has to go real far out of its way to take any of them), that makes Dutch New Guinea worth, in essence, 5 IPCs, as opposed to the 4 IPCs you get from Sumatra), and Sumatra on round 3.

If you play this right, ANZAC should (typically) have collected 14 + 24 + 28 = 66 IPCs by the end of round, which gives you a total of 76 IPCs available to spend by the Purchase Units Phase of round 4, which can get Anzac 1 fighter, 2 aircraft carriers, a Battleship, and a destroyer (Navy consists of 1 cruiser, 2 destroyer, 1 battleship, 2 aircraft carriers, and 4 fighters). That’s a pretty strong fleet for such a small power, and if Japan doesn’t turn its attention toward Sydney immediately, you can take the 30 IPCs you’ve got in round 5 and make that 1 crusier, 2 destroyers, 2 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 4 fighters, and a submarine.

I guess the Pacific UK could take them, but honestly, here’s how I see it: UK is supposed to take Japan on land, and ANZAC is supposed to back the US up in the sea. The problem with the UK taking all the money, is that unless the UK player is fighting on land and in the sea simultaneously (which, in essence, wastes ANZAC’s entire income for the Allies, since you’re basically exhausting another power’s income to fill a spot ANZAC was practically made for), if the UK takes the southern Pacific isles, Japan will just turn around and take them all back; at least with ANZAC, if you play your cards right, you’ll have an impressive navy to use as a deterrent by the time Japan shows up.

That, and I also just really, really like ANZAC, haha - it’s probably my favorite power in the game, so I usually do my best to make sure it turns into a powerhouse anyway (which, as you can see, does have its strategic advantages).

Exactly, which is why the UK needs to turn up the pressure in the Med early to compensate for the lack of US units in the Atlantic.

Honestly, if you want my opinion, I’d say attempting to secure Gibraltar early with the US is a lost cause. Italy is going to take it, and at that point you’re just conducting amphibious assaults back and forth for like 3 turns, with each side taking Gibraltar, then losing it, then taking it, then losing it again, and all the while, Italy still gets the extra 5 IPCs every turn, and now the US navy is vulnerable to the German air force for several turns in a row, which doesn’t usually work out so well economically for the Allies. My recommendation would be to hammer Italy with the UK as hard as possible, while holding Germany off from Russia, so that the US can unload everything it has on Japan and free up the Pacific board. If you succeed and Germany hasn’t successfully taken Moscow yet (which, if the Soviets play their cards right, is unlikely, especially if the Luftwaffe has turned its attention to the UK’s forces in the Med/North Africa), then you can turn the US on Italy and invade Europe from the south late-game.

So yah; I really don’t see how the US can go for a “Europe First” approach and still prevent Japan from wrapping up a win in the Pacific, but if you hammer the Japs hard and are able to take Tokyo mid/late game before Europe falls apart, the US can take on Italy pretty easily later on.

As far as the situation in Egypt goes, I’d say you definitely need the sea units from the Pacific to hold out.

Actually, I would highly recommend building an aircraft carrier in India on UK1 and landing the fighter and the tactical bomber on it immediately. You can move the battleship in from SZ37 as well, and at that point you’ve got an extra aircraft carrier and a battleship in the Red Sea by UK2. Obviously you want to take the infantry from West India and take Persia as quickly as possible; at that point, with the planes and bombardment you have, you can ferry the infantry over and harass the Italians in Central Africa (I would recommend an amphibious assault on Ethiopia from Persia on UK2 if you don’t need the planes/battleship immediately).

Honestly, My recommendation as far as dealing with Italy goes is to alleviate the pressure from the United States and go all-out with the UK. In my experience (which is very brief, by the way, so don’t quote me on any of this, haha), the United States needs almost everything it has economically to neutralize Japan before it can get a firm foothold in the Pacific. I would revert around 80% of the US’ income to the Pacific, and then make up for the missing units by pulling everything the UK has into Europe and hammering Italy from the Red Sea (eventually invading Europe from Italy or the territory surrounding it).

That’s my recommendation; although, I’m relatively inexperienced with this particular game, so it may not be particularly reliable.  :wink: