@simon33 What else was Japan doing during that game? Was Japan also able to take Manila, the Dutch East Indies, southeast Asia, and central China? My experience with Japan in most of these maps is that Japan can pick and choose what area it wants to conquer in the opening and there’s not much the Allies can do about it, but Japan can’t conquer everything unless they get very lucky. Yes, a Japanese fleet based out of Hawaii is annoying and uncomfortable, but if they’re not able to pair that with their usual conquests in the western and southern Pacific, then the Japanese income should be pretty low.
Hawaii, Wake, and Guam all together are worth 11 IPCs for the Japanese, and cost the Americans 10 IPCs of objectives.
But just the 4 money islands (Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Celebes) are worth 16 IPCs for the Japanese, and there’s another 9 IPCs in ANZAC objectives that are likely in play if they can keep or trade Malaya and the Solomons. If the Japanese are a turn late in taking the second half of the Philippines, that’s at least a 6 IPC cost.
Admittedly I only tried 2 games of PtV against humans and abandoned both of them, so I’m definitely not an expert on this map in particular, but across all TripleA maps, I see a pattern where Japan can make some alternate history attacks on Hawaii that look really powerful but that aren’t actually better for the Japanese economy than the standard historical opening.