What is the typical bid, and what are some good basic strategies?

I’ve tried the marianas but then I lose fighter escort as most of my fleet gets wasted in the naval battle prior to the amphib assault. Between the aa and escort I cant make a big dent on the IPC front. I will try to make my asia push earlier.

Thanks for the input SS ;I think AAP is a great game. I will try a few solitaire runs to see how this plays out. Perhaps, when I get my nerve up we can give it a go and I can watch the master at work.

These strategies are very helpful, but still China is such a annoying thorn to the Japanese player.

Never easy is it?

One way I used bombers once was a cannonfodder. First buy was fighters - then bombers - then by the fourth round Japanese forces were very built up in Asia - I got 6 fighters and 5 bombers into china leading to a japanese counter attack with infantry and fighters. The japanese ‘won’ economically decimating about 150 IPCs worth of hardware. However - they lost nearly all of the infantry they had worked so hard to transport and were bearing down on India at the point. India was never in danger again at that point, and having committed to that strategy at the start Japan had not invested enough in building a navy to hold her victory points.

Big Japanese error had been to leave New Britain unoccupied. That was how I got my fighters into China. (after massing Chinese forces on the coast - which led to Japanese reinforcement of Hong Kong - my opponent thought that was my target!).

The Fighter Ace’s strats are top notch. Can’t recommend them highly enough. I suspect that Saburo has forgotten more about A&A Pacific than I know.

I’m a newcomer to this site although I have been playing A&A for maybe twenty years now.  I got A&A Pacific a couple of years ago but unluckily  :-) my gaming group has always had more than three players available, so we tend to end up playing A&A revised and A&A Europe.

However, we do play Pacific now and then and we by the second Pacific session we had learned what Saburo Sakai lays out in this essay– Japan had better buy subs and India had better start stacking land forces up in anticipation of an India assault.  Couple that idea with the realization that territories such as New Britain are vital due to the Naval Base rule and you are well on your way to an enjoyable and hard fought Pacific campaign.  Cheers!!

No. China is played like a completly different nation with the same turn as the US. Since the Chinese have no income there is nothing to take away.