You're America, you've been J1 DoW'd, what now…

[Argothair]

1: I honestly hadn’t thought of that. With 4 German bombers at Japanese airbases, I agree that a sub-heavy American strategy is garbage. I was relying on Japan not having a local can-opener.

2: What I have in mind is less ANZAC sneaking in to kill transports (I agree that skilled players would not leave any such transports lying around), and more ANZAC sneaking in to take money islands. Even if the Japanese fleet is only 2 sea zones away, that leaves room for the US to substitute an American destroyer for the Japanese blocker in the intermediate zone, potentially screening off the ANZAC transports from the Japanese navy. But again, that doesn’t work if German bombers can just pick off the American destroyer before Japan even moves.

I posit that it is very difficult for two very experienced, equally skilled players playing US and JP against one another to find themselves in the situation where the US can, before A6 or even A7, get the drop on the JP fleet. Even on A7+, if you have been fiddling in the Atlantic, it may not yet be possible to begin a decisive move, which will end up losing you the game unless Germany/Italy has already been fairly well crushed.

So is this a claim about the game being unbalanced? Are you saying that whenever Russia retreats its Siberian infantry, Japan should declare war on J1 and will thereafter enjoy favorable odds for an eventual victory?

[teslas]

I think everyone here agrees that a J1 DoW forces the US into a nearly 100% Kill Japan First strategy, and even then, they won’t see the fruit of their labor for what is a very long time in terms of game rounds.

What I am claiming is that I myself don’t know how best to respond to this as America. I came here to hopefully have people enlighten me, because it seems, to me, that the US is forced into simply waiting, take little to no direct action to slow down Japan until at least A5, if not 6 or 7, and even then the odds are still not that great for you (I think I said ~70% earlier).

The following statements are not new to this board, so feel free to skip reading them:

I am 100% saying that if Russians retreat those inf, then Japan should absolutely do a turn 1 DoW. I think this is clearly superior to any situation where they wait until J3, and very probably superior to any J2 play.

That’s not to say sending the 18 ruskies back west is bad, it definitely is a very viable decision and will probably lock Germany out of Moscow (or allow the russians to actually push back if they built enough artillery and Germany is overextending itself).

[Pherman1215]

The most effective tactic is conceding and then J1ing your next opponent.

[teslas]

Sometimes a thread on a forum reaches a high point, conclusion, where something has been discussed and/or decided, and something productive has finally come from all of the smelly nerds pounding away on their dirty keyboards.

Pherman’s post is the exact point at which this thread has become complete. I salute you.

[Pherman1215]

@teslas:

Sometimes a thread on a forum reaches a high point, conclusion, where something has been discussed and/or decided, and something productive has finally come from all of the smelly nerds pounding away on their dirty keyboards.

Pherman’s post is the exact point at which this thread has become complete. I salute you.

Thank you sir.

[General Veers]

Hey, was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!

As silly as Bluto’s line was that can actually happen in A&A though.

[calvinhobbesliker]

@General:

Hey, was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!

As silly as Bluto’s line was that can actually happen in A&A though.

But J1 usually doesn’t include a Pearl Harbor attack.

[NoMercy]

I try and make Japan pay for everything with all the allies in the Pacific and make them spread out and earn everything; I try and wear them out. I generally just keep enough going to ensure they don’t win the game in the Pacific.

I like to employ a heavy convoy strategy if possible; there is a lot of convoys to place Anzac & US subs into; it gets really expensive/annoying for Japan to continue to replenish their destroyers clearing our subs and losing them to counter-attacks while still losing money in a few other convoy areas, which means less money in general.

[teslas]

NoMercy, do you happen to have any concrete examples of a turn or two’s moves to see exactly what you’re doing?

[variance]

@teslas:

-G1 “standard”. They either built some navy, bombers, or saved 30. At any rate ,no strong indication of their plan.
-UK1 will be full defensive buy for London: 6 inf 1 fighter.

I think its very interesting that the OP considered those three openers as standard for Germany (I would add a big artillery build as option #4).  I recall a time when all navy was standard.  The approaches have changed a lot.

Full defensive for UK would be all infantry.

[teslas]

The point of the Germany build was that it didn’t give you a clear indication of their plan. Full artillery does: that they’re (probably) going east. Full mech/tank does: that they’re (almost definitely) going east.

Yes, the most effective UK full defensive buy is all infantry, but the fighter is useful for the rest of the game, and that buy is still a very, very strong sea lion deterrent. It’s more common than all inf.