Hello, I play pacific 1940 a lot. I have also played global a few times. Pacific 1940 second edition is a great game but I can almost easily win every time if I’m Japan and I attack on the third turn. A new rule was passed around late 2014 to allow the USA to receive a 30 IPC bonus if Japan attacks or declares war on them before turn 4. This seems to balance the game a little but I can still always win with Japan. The strategy for Japan is pretty much the same. Take the money islands, build a minor in French Indo China and Kwangtung and knock out China and India. Post in the Philippines with your huge navy and three fighters that can scramble and those six deadly kamikizes. Let Anzac and USA come to you so you can use the fighters to defend at 4 when the big navy battle happens. Eventually you will be making more than the allies with the money islands NO and the India NO. You should be around the 70-75 mark. Then when the time is right strike at Sydney or Hawaii and hold it and you should win as it will be six victory cities. For the allies, man this can be tuff lol. You better hope Japan attacks you on turn 1 or turn 4 because turn 2 and especially 3 it’s going to be difficult.
1: China: buy men and hit and run and fall back to the north west of China. You will be lucky if the Burma road is open more than two turns. Pull back and make Japan come to you.
2: UK: pull everyone back to India and just buy men!!! Try to bring your navy down to Australia and unite them with Anzac and hopefully later USA. If it looks like India is going to fall then pull your airforce out and send them to Australia to hopefully land on a Anzac or American carrier. If Japan hasn’t declared war early then take as many islands in the south as possible .
3: Anzac: small ships and transports are good. if it looks like Japan is going to invade then pull your forces to south Australia because from there you can hit any territory. Use your small ships to convoy raid or unite with the main USA fleet. Queensland is a great staging area for the allied navy early in the game. Also since there’s a airbase there fighters don’t hurt also since they can scramble.
4:USA: the big boy lol. The problem is when USA is neutral she only makes a freaking 17 ipcs a turn. While Japan is around the 40 mark and Japan has soooooooo many aircraft at its disposal. USA I say aircraft carrier early then mainly subs, destroyers, and a transport every turn with land units. A few rounds into the game get a navy base on the Johnson islands and start combining your fleet with the Anzac fleet and hopefully a small UK fleet. try to take the money islands by sacrificing transports because Japan will have a bigger navy early in the game. When the time is right move to Dutch New Guinea with your fleet and prepare for the big battle. Sometimes it’s better if Japan attacks you and sometimes it’s better if you attsck them. Hopefully you will have a lot of subs at your disposal. If you win the navy battle then Japan is pretty much toast even if they have India and China. Good luck and let me know how the war goes lol. I am playing anniversary edition on Saturday 😜
US Strategy
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Japan would only have 78 since Borneo is both a DEI and a British territory
Yeah, that’s right, I sometimes forget that in mulling things over and adding them up. That’s a four point difference.
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Our little gaming group (all three of us) played A&A P40 tonight. After the last few defeats the Japanese countered my strategy of attrition in the Sea of Japan pretty well.
The Japanese bought a lot of fighters and a only a few destroyers a turn. He kept the fighters in Japan. I never attacked the Sea of Japan because I was never able to get sufficient forces to attack to begin with. With the remaining money he overran the mainland of Asia.
While the submarine attrition strategy is a tool in the toolbox, to be used when appropriate, it may be simply too slow in the build up to work as a main strategy.
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Our little gaming group (all three of us) played A&A P40 tonight. After the last few defeats the Japanese countered my strategy of attrition in the Sea of Japan pretty well.
The Japanese bought a lot of fighters and a only a few destroyers a turn. He kept the fighters in Japan. I never attacked the Sea of Japan because I was never able to get sufficient forces to attack to begin with. With the remaining money he overran the mainland of Asia.
While the submarine attrition strategy is a tool in the toolbox, to be used when appropriate, it may be simply too slow in the build up to work as a main strategy.
I think Uncle_Joe summed it up pretty well in another thread. There are some things the Allies can do from time to time, but once the Japanese player sees them, they are able to counter quite readily, and then you’re back back to square one.
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Our little three man gaming group has played P40 about 30 times. Most of the time the Japanese have won. Lately, we have been experimenting with different Allied strategies to defend Yunnan and Singapore. Out last game was wild, the Allies lost Australia (a first for us) and still won the game.
Our crew leans toward the view that the game is Japan’s to lose. But a few bad moves by Japan and Allies can and do win.
I have a few more ideas about defending the mainland for the Allies. I have not seen the forum games, so I don’t know what has been tried, and what has not been tried for the Allies. When we play them a bit more, I will post my ideas on the forums.
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I think the US has two primary options, assuming the Japanese go for a heavy Calcutta push:
1. Blockade the Japanese mainland while simultaneously taking Korea and building an IC there. This way the US can start liberating Chinese provinces (allowing Chinese infantry to be placed also) and pushing down towards Shanghai. The continuous convoy disruptions coupled with strategic bombing raids of the major IC on Japan would limit Japan to it’s mainland minor ICs that it likely built on turns 1-2. I’d imagine that the Japanese player would see the writing on the wall and surrender, saving everyone a few hours.
2. US captures Caroline Islands. The Caroline Islands’ air/naval base lets you threaten Japan and the DEI and Hong Kong, if you decide to go that route. Depending on the Japanese player’s moves, I’d aim for taking back the DEI. This would obviously allow the UK/ANZACs to maintain the IPC bonuses and would force Japanese air assets away from the mainland fight and buy the UK some more time. If the Japanese build naval forces to counter the US fleet, all the better; more ships = less ground troops going after Calcutta. Additionally, Japan focusing on the US navy would allow the UK to possibly launch an offensive into southern China and help liberate some Chinese territories, which can be a nuisance for the Japanese land army as well.
Any suggestions/comments from people are definitely welcome!
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I suggest playing the Global game :-)
Major Problems with Pacific only game in my opinion:
No Russia
Indian fleet is pinned in because it can’t go west of Z39. Also, Indian ground forces are unable to escape to West India.
USA doesn’t have to juggle priorities with Europe, and California is treated as a capital, with capital rules (can lose all money and production) -
An interesting strategic wrinkle I threw into a game last night was a UK/ANZAC attack on Japan at the beginning of turn 3. This caught the Japanese player greatly off guard, as he was still consolidating and prepositioning his forces for the big attack on the DEI and the UK territories on the mainland for the beginning of turn 4. It really messed up the Japanese land war and gave the allies the momentum and initiative that is often ceded to the Japanese.
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A Japanese player should NEVER be surprised by a turn 3 unprovoked attack. There is little deterrent for the Allies by then. You guys are probably in your first few games - fun times!
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