Japan!!

[77stranger77]

I’ll buy a destroyer on J2, but maybe J1 is better. Even if the US leaves Japan alone, they can choose to submerge their sub at Hawaii. In that case, Japan has to protect their transports from a US sub, a UK sub, and probably some Allied planes. If Japan builds a destroyer, the Allies will have to move their subs out of range or count on losing them. Once the Allied subs are out of the picture, Japan has more flexibility with where the IJN sails. If no destroyer is bought, the subs are a constant threat and Japan will have to dedicate naval units to protect seazones around Japan, around FIC, around the Indian Ocean. The subs can cover quite a range, and then there’s the Allied planes to complicate things further.

[77stranger77]

Here’s a risky idea for J1. Attack the US z55 battleship, transport with a sub and a fighter. Attack z52 with a battleship, carrier, cruiser, and planes at your discretion. The odds on the battleship aren’t brilliant but ~60% you’ll at least get the battleship making it often worthwhile. You’ll have to build factories or something to protect newly built transports and the UK can’t have caused very much trouble for this to work.

[Hobbes]

Just played a game last night where Japan chose not to buy a DD on J1. He kept 2 fleets, each based on a BB to take over Australia/Hawaii/NZ but my subs where pretty active still:

• US2: US sub sinks newly bought Japanese DD on SZ60
• UK5: UK sub, along with 4 fighters and 1 bomber sink Japanese AC, BB and 2 TRNs (1 loaded with 1 inf and 1 art) and 2 FTRs on SZ34
• R6: Russian sub sinks TRN on SZ28

Overall loss for Allies: 3 subs, 4 fighters (58 IPC)
Overall loss for Japan: 1 DD, 2 FTRs, 1 BB, 1 AC, 2 TRNs, 1 INF, 1 ART (83 IPC)

[calvinhobbesliker]

@MrMalachiCrunch:

I hate screen jump on long posts…  By pulling back with Japan, the american builds are ‘behind the lines’ and are a turn away for attack or defense whereas the Japanese builds might be able to defend or attack the next turn.  The difference between a battle on the US coast versus the Japanese coast is the difference between a complete build for the US+Japan around 75 IPC in equipment available for the battle.  Moreover, your jast Japanese build can be dictated by what your intention is this turn.  You think the US is moving into position to be hit from Sz 60 (lots of territory) then you pull back, let him move up and you build a whack of subs.  If he then moves up, you know you are attacking so you do builds appropriate for this task, maybe fighters as you will sacrafice some etc.  Keep a few subs near but just out of reach of his fleet to take care of any blocking DD’s he sends out, you need to pick them off with a sub or two plus some air support.  Japan can and should pull back to home waters so that when they do fight, its at their greatest numerical advantage, this also buys you time to sort out the chaos in asia.  If the americans want borneo, look how far away their supply lines are, your new builds fight right away, their builds are looking for safe harbours to puddle jump to for a round or two in order to just get into the fray.  I think you might find this game interesting in how I played Japan.  It was my first game here and I was faced with what they call the Japanese Crush I think.  It was an allout assult against Japan which I had never faced nor seen before.  No doubt players more experienced in this situation could point out better specific moves, but it highlights what I feel is the overall thinking Japan should have and that I outlined.  http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=18857.135

Yeah, that was a bad strat for me. Japan starts with a much larger navy and her economy quickly catches up: taking China, Sinkiang, Far East, Buryatia puts Japan only 2 behind the US, and India or Australia tips the balance.

[calvinhobbesliker]

@Hobbes:

Just played a game last night where Japan chose not to buy a DD on J1. He kept 2 fleets, each based on a BB to take over Australia/Hawaii/NZ but my subs where pretty active still:

• US2: US sub sinks newly bought Japanese DD on SZ60
• UK5: UK sub, along with 4 fighters and 1 bomber sink Japanese AC, BB and 2 TRNs (1 loaded with 1 inf and 1 art) and 2 FTRs on SZ34
• R6: Russian sub sinks TRN on SZ28

Overall loss for Allies: 3 subs, 4 fighters (58 IPC)
Overall loss for Japan: 1 DD, 2 FTRs, 1 BB, 1 AC, 2 TRNs, 1 INF, 1 ART (83 IPC)

I assume the allies won

[Hobbes]

@calvinhobbesliker:

I assume the allies won

Yeah. He managed to fortify Karelia with Germany on G3 but the Russians were able to counter it by fortifying W. Russia. He then made the mistake of only buying ICs with Japan for the mainland and then trying to pump out as much tanks as possible and sending them one at the time to Kazakh/Novo where the Russians killed them.
On G6 he had to pull back from Karelia to defend Germany and meanwhile Japan was getting greedy and sending a lot of units to take Africa. Problem for him was that US planes blasted Persia clean on US6 and on R7 the Russians sent 14 tanks to take India, since a big part of his army was away on Africa/Sinkiang/Yakut. On UK7 the UK built 3 tanks on India using the IC and on R8 Russia took Indochina and the IC there. Then he conceded :)

[MrMalachiCrunch]

I always worry when my opponent is building lots of infantry, it tells me they have a long term plan.  When I see lots of tanks I know all i have to do is weather the storm for a few rounds.  If you live long enough, the foe will run out of gas and you are taking out all kinds of juicy tanks with overwhelming infantry and a bit of firepower to get the battles over.

[Concealer]

@MrMalachiCrunch:

I always worry when my opponent is building lots of infantry, it tells me they have a long term plan.  When I see lots of tanks I know all i have to do is weather the storm for a few rounds.  If you live long enough, the foe will run out of gas and you are taking out all kinds of juicy tanks with overwhelming infantry and a bit of firepower to get the battles over.

Yeah if someone is stacking infantry its hard to take them out. They almost always outnumber you by the time you want to attack them. It is rather annoying. I just try to bleed them out by taking whatever I can around them. But yeah, it still takes forever.

[MrMalachiCrunch]

Calvin, one thing I think you Pacific strategy needed was a second US carrier.  You had bomber power, but you have to be able to move into harms way in order to push the other fleet around and those bombers rather than naval units prevented you from getting in range to use those bombers effectively.

I was worried about the loss of income with your island hoping, you did have a few slightly poor rolls that helped me.  However, you did this with a sacrafice of some transports, while some sacrifice is required and does pay off, I thought you sacraficed a bit too much.  Also from what I recall I took out some of your navy with only air units.  I think if you had tried to expand a bit slower, concentrated your navy a bit more and did a bit less sacrafice the Japanese would have been strong with navy but poor with income.  Another round or two and you would have been really able to cause the Japs to go all navy and still run.

I still feel it slows down europe too much.  You could flow into Africa but to build up enough to Norway to break out against a super strong germany…  I have a hard enough time doing this against fleetwood dan with all 3 allies concentrating on this goal.

[nutbar]

dump the idea of invading the US. My opinion: focus on Rest and Rebuild OR helping Germany.