Look at it this way and do a little math, then when you’re done consider my strategy.
Take the US and Japan’s pacific fleet and add up their total number of defensive and offensive rolls. (Ex: AC=1Attack, 3Defense)
US Attack- 10
US Defense- 14
Japan Attack- 17 (using the 2 pacific fighters)
Japan Defense- 23 (using the 2 pacific fighters)
Now, keeping in mind these numbers, know that I play no Russian restricted and yes on Bidding. For my bid, I spend 22 and give Japan 2 transports and 2 I in Burma. This allows me to considerably hasten my rush to Russia, and I use my two pacific fighters to first take out the India transport then support in the Asian invasion. Usually I have all of East Asia and by turn 5 I have an army that can present a very good chance of taking Moscow.
The way I see it is simple: don’t attack pearl harbor, if anything not doing this will just tempt the US player into pulling their resources away from Europe and they’ll get suckered into the defensive upper hand of the Japes. Use your extra fighters in your Asian conquest and don’t worry if the US island hops, they’re wasting valuable time and resources in the Pacific, when they should be helping in Europe. There is no way the US can fight both battles at once.
As Germany, use a little more of the strafing attacks and less bold assaults on the Eastern Front while you wait for Japan to help you corner Russia. The big benefit of Japan’s rushing strategy is that the typical Shuck-Shuck (if you’re familiar with the term) strategy of the US and the UK for supplying Europe with reinforcements is not nearly as effective. By the time they have a fleet of transports with enough BB or AC support and units to shuck across the water Japan will be dominant in East Asia, and the Shuck Shuck strategy only allows for reinforcing West Europe and Asia, not east.
Keep in mind that the reason I place 2inf in Burma is in case of an India IC by the British, in which case they’ve just given you a nice little factory to use for the rest of the game. Russia hates having to deal with a major attack on their weak eastern front, and a large part of launching your assault on Asia means not attacking that pacific fleet.
Remember, the differential between the US and Japanese naval battles in die roles are this:
Japan attacking- Japan in favor by 3
US attacking- Japan in favor by 13
:D :D :D