China wall strategy:

[a44bigdog]

:?
where are the Russians going to park the bomber so it can hit Borneo? They would have to buy one in '41 and japan goes first in '42 so Buryatia may already be Japanese turf.

[allies_fly]

@a44bigdog:

:?
where are the Russians going to park the bomber so it can hit Borneo? They would have to buy one in '41 and japan goes first in '42 so Buryatia may already be Japanese turf.

Yes, you buy one in 1941, put it in Caucasus.  It can reach manchuria or borneo SZ, landing in australia.  Note you also need the Russian 7 inf in buryatia too

[Funcioneta]

@cond1024:

Also
if Japan wants to attack that stack they will need to bring a sizeable force to destroy it, thereby diverting units from other more importatn J1 attacks.  By leaving Soviet Far East open for invasion I am enticing Japan to go that way and waste time taking only 1 IPC per turn and drawing forces away from China.

That worked for me. Japan attacked only 1 chinese territory and the fighter survived. But I guess a more experienced japanese players would semi-ignore the soviet stack

[a44bigdog]

@allies_fly:

Yes, you buy one in 1941, put it in Caucasus.  It can reach manchuria or borneo SZ, landing in australia.  Note you also need the Russian 7 inf in buryatia too

Ok I got ya. It can reach the East Indies not Borneo. Not a big deal for Japan. I would still take Borneo and probably New guinea as well. The New Guinea transport can be sunk by the W. US bomber (land Australia) or the fighter off the SZ44 fleet, which will have to move up to recover the fighter. This means either the fleet is position where I can strike it on rd 2 or there is another bomber that can go down with the rest of the Allied junk on Australia rd 2.

Honestly the more I think about, I would probably just hit E. Indies anyway. If the Russians want to trade a 12 IPC bomber for a 7 IPC transport, I will make that trade all day long. And the way I position myself on turn one means barring some outrageously bad dice, Australia is going down on turn 2 even if the US flies in the 2 fighters that can land in Australia.

[kendric]

Doesn’t putting so many infantry adjacent to the ocean leave you vulnerable for a mass transport attack with fighters wiping out the entire eastern Russian force in one go?

[cond1024]

@kendric:

Doesn’t putting so many infantry adjacent to the ocean leave you vulnerable for a mass transport attack with fighters wiping out the entire eastern Russian force in one go?

Yes it does, but for Japan to do that on J1 they would have to use the three inf in manchuria plus the two trans in sea zone 61 and the one tranny in sz 62 along with fighters from manchuria, japan to consistantly take down that stack. By doing this Japan would miss out on other very important invasions to do on J1.

If Japan does what it should on J1 and attack Burma and take over Borneo and East Indies those three tranny aren’t in position to attack Buryatia on J2.  Depending on J1 buys Japan could attack the stack on J2, but it will require a lot of forces which will be diverted from other battles.

[bbrett3]

Moving so many infantry from Russia into China may help the Chinese out a bit, but you can’t forget that the Russians have to deal with the Germans Knocking on Moscow’s door b turn 2-3. Plus, In most games I play the Brits build an IC in India and flood troops through there in order to take mainland Asia

[Jennifer]

Ignore the Russian stack in Buryatia.  Who cares what they do.

Do your Japan normally (which for me is Kwangtung, Yunnan, Suiyuan, Borneo, Sumatra, Hupeh, Philippines) and then let the Russians walk into Manchuria

On round 2, obliterate the Russians in Manchuria with troops from Japan and left overs from Philippines. (Maybe one or two from Suiyuan if you need them.)

[Count_Zeppelin]

Ok, here is my opionion

Just don’t do it!

IMHO the russian western front is hard pressed as it is - There just are no points to spend on backjard fights. Leave your normal token force which the japanese will kill anyway in the east and the rest has to go west. Japan has more than enough firepower to overwhelm 2 aditional infantry - no point in guarding the japanese back door while germany pounds down front door.

[a44bigdog]

Without the 2 infantry from Kazakh and the 2 infantry from Novosibirsk, Japan WILL be on Russia’s back porch round 4. Count on it. The 4 Infantry prop up China for a few rounds  and are used to exploit any Japanese weakness in China. The addition of 1 offensive unit greatly improves the ability to exploit weakness in China and buy some additional relief from this area.

It does little good to stop the Germans on the Steppes if the Japanese are sipping Vodka in Moscow.

The uses of the Forces in the north is another subject and really worthy of its own thread. Stacking a bunch of offensiveless infantry next to Japan’s territory is notgoing to impress the Japanese much.

[Imperious Leader]

in 1941 the Soviets can spare 2 infantry, but thats about it.

You do need to seed China with something or you fact bigger problems than Japanese hitting the far east.

If China can get to a strong position, Japan is forced to buy infantry because the Chinese can and will take manchuria and other places if they get too large. This forces the japanese back to defend the supply lines.

China is the promise to help stop the japanese from backdoor Moscow.

In 1942 i think they can send 3-4, but the Chinese don’t need more than a few

[Jennifer]

I have no problem sending up to 5 infantry, 1 armor to China to stop Japan. (20 IPC) it only helps, however, if China can eek out at least one infantry a round themselves!

I do still find humorous the idea of sending 14 Russian Armor into China!  That would be a lark of epic proportions and I may actually do it one game just to see my opponent die of apoplectic shock at seeing the doors to Moscow open up to Germany by end round 3!