@Cmdr:
I never see an Egypt that is statistically possible to liberate with England anymore. People generally hit them with the entire German Army and stack it like it’s the end of the world (mainly because I never get more then one hit, but bids have gotten up to 9 IPC for 3 infantry in Libya so that’s a 5 infantry, 2 armor, fighter, bomber attack on Egypt now. No way England’s killing 4 infantry, 2 armor with 3 infantry, fighter, bomber.)
I typically play TripleA ladder, where you there are bid restrictions on placement. Anglo-Egypt is sometimes too stacked for a UK1 counter, but a fair amount of time it is not. Note this IS for TripleA ladder.
Given that, I’m more inclined to move the fleet to SZ 30 That’s west-southwest of Australia. and dare Japan to attack it if I am going KJF. Followed by an IC in S. Africa and 5 Infantry in England to protect against Sea Lion, I can move the British northern fleet out to the Pacific if I want too.
As for Japan in SZ 45 Solomon Islands, yea, that could be annoying. But no more so then Japan’s Battleship in SZ 52 Hawaii; this presupposes Pearl Harbor heavy, which is quite possible given THOSE UK moves…
Question is, what does Japan do on Japan 2 when you have:
SZ 35 (Bottom of the board, halfway between Australia and S. Africa): 2 Transports, 2 Infantry, Aircraft Carrier, Destroyer, Submarine, 2 Fighters (UK) Well, we’ll get to that in a moment.
SZ 55 (Los Angeles): Battleship, 2 Carriers, 4 Fighters, Destroyer, Transport
You’ve got a BB, AC in SZ 45 Solomons, BB, AC in SZ 60 East of Japan and 5 Transports scattered around. (Assuming you lost the submarine and destroyer on J1.)
Mm . . . not rly. First, the beginning of J2 you describe would hardly be my Japan move in any event, given that the US can attack the Solomon battleship and loaded carrier with 1 battleship 1 bomber 1 fighter 1 transport. True, these are not great odds for the US, but considering that US has little to lose and much to gain with a little swing of the dice, it is a fairly nasty risk for Japan to take, considering that movement of the second Japanese carrier to Solomons should cost the Japanese little. Note that I do see this beginning of J2 sometimes, but that’s only when the UK has used some of its UK fleet to assure that position.
Second, here’s the situation - if the UK has bought 5 inf 1 IC at South Africa, this is a strong signal for KJF. However, without an IC at India, and with UK splitting IPCs between UK and South Africa, Germany and Japan should both be able to expand into Europe/Asia with relatively little problem - although late Africa will be a problem for the Axis, the lack of UK and presumably US support to Russia will be a countering problem for the Allies.
Third, Japan is not locked into Pearl Harbor, and the Kwangtung transport is alive. Although it is costly because of the UK AA gun, Japan can attack India with up to 1 battleship bombardment, 4 infantry, 1 bomber, 4 fighter. That’s quite a bit. I assume that UK will not want to attack Japanese forces of 1 battleship 1 carrier 2 fighter 1 transport with 2 transport 1 carrier 1 destroyer 2 fighter (they are perfectly welcome to, but will at the least suffer a horrible drain on their resources, and India will probably - almost certainly - be lost forever) And if you want to say that Russia sent fighters to India after a W. Russia only attack, why, that too is perfectly acceptable, as this opens the line for KGF Kitchen Sink attack with surviving Belorussian AND surviving Ukraine infantry available to power an early tradeoff with Russia, either German aircraft can attack West Russia with no problem (if the Russian AA gun is at Russia), or the Germans can strategic bomb Russia (if the Russian AA gun is at West Russia, the Germans can fly and bomb, and fly back over the W. Russia AA gun during noncombat at which point the Russian AA gun will not fire, so no risk).
Fourth, EVEN attacking India, Japan can likely still afford to hit Pearl Harbor with the Pearl Heavy version, as the Japanese sub has survived. It’s 1 carrier 1 sub 1 destr 1 battleship 2 fighter at the very least, and Japan has a discretionary transport.
Of course, Japan can’t do everything. Japan only has a limited number of air available to crack India, attack Pearl, and crack China on J1. Still, it is clear that Japan has a good number of choices that can be bad for the Allies, particularly a J2 industrial complex in India.
Even then, I haven’t mentioned the possibility that Japan simply does a normal Pearl light / China. Britain’s got a lot of interesting possibilities stemming from the fact that the UK carrier allows the UK fighters to harass unescorted Japanese transports (note the UK bomber is probably in the area too), but there are Japanese lines that I think work out quite decently, probably starting with J2 Solomon fleet splitting 1 carrier to east of Japan and rest to New Guinea, Borneo, or East Indies, still threatening and probably preventing an early US attack on Solomons, but also threatening the UK fleet at India.