J1 attack. When does the US get their extra 40 IPC's?

Well, Kat, here is the dilemma:

If you allow Japan to take Hawaii, the following turn Japan swings down to Australia.
Add up the victory cities: 2 starting cities, Phillipines, Hong Kong + Hawaii = 5 total.
Sydney is 6. No need to slog through to India.

If you surrender Hawaii on J2, Japan could conceivably win the game outright on J4.
J3 fresh troops from Japan land on Hawaii. New Zealand falls. Don’t forget Australia does not get to scramble fighters because they are considered a continent, not an island.
Third CV returns to Phillipines to help with ANZAC attack.
J4 fresh troops arrive in Hawaii; existing troops shuttled to Queensland or New Zealand, depending where ANZAC defends.
At best Sydney holds out until J5.
As Japan I could send out DD screens to delay US counterattack.
Also, if Hawaii falls on J2, virtually every fighter in Asia I have will be in Hawaii by J4.
The scrambling rules allow ALL fighters to defend sea zone around Hawaii.

@Texas:

I am certainly not suggesting to buy another game JUST for the chips.  But if someone happens to have both, the chips are interchangeable.  In some long A&A games, more chips might be handy.  You could also use the Warlords black chips as 10s or to mean something else.

Multicolored mini poker chips rock. I use the crap out of them in my own game designs. In Pacific I use orange and yellow chips to indicate damage on installations. I match colors with counters in A&A minis land and naval to use as backings for the micron thin counters, or just by color in very large battles when I run out of counters.

@Texas:

Of course, it might be more trouble than it is worth to sort them or whatever.  I know some gamers combine game parts from different games into a big “pool” of game equipment.  I usually keep games and their parts separated, so it will take a bit of extra effort to dig out two games to play just one game but wanting extra chips.

Back in the day a friend of mine had a bad habit of “pooling” game equipment. He had a huge collection (thousands) of the airfix/revell 1/72 world war 2 soldiers all mixed together in a freaking tackle box. Most unpainted. It took hours to sort through them when we wanted to table top battle or “enhance” the original A&A. Not a fan of pooling.

@Texas:

Anyway, it was just an FYI.

Thank you for adding another board game to my want list…

@dinosaur:

Krieg,

Even an unoccupied Dutch Territory?

This could be better clarified in the FAQ with another sentence.

But anyways

What brings each power into the war is described in their section. There is nothing in the US section that says the US is allowed to declare war on Japan, just because Japan attacks a Dutch territory, so they can’t. However, in order to attack a Dutch territory Japan must be at war with the UK/ANZAC. If Japan was the one who declared first, the US can declare war anyway, attacking the Dutch doesn’t matter. If the UK/ANZAC declare first, the state of war that allows Japan to attack the Dutch exists, but none of the things which allow the US to declare war have occurred, so they aren’t brought into the war.

@Hobbes:

The counter there by the Allies would be to move the US/UK/ANZAC DDs and CA to SZs 37/43/35/45. It limits J transports in SZ36 (South China Sea) or SZ33 (Carolines) to attacking Malaya, Borneo and Phillipines on J3. You can take the remaining DEI on J4 but the transports will require protection because the US can fly the 3 bombers to Australia on US3 and the UK planes can also attack.

Simpliest solution to that is to park your fleet in SZ 42 on J2.  Just make sure the UK/ANZAC cannot sink it, US isn’t allowed to attack until turn 4 and cannot land planes on Australia until they are at war so they do not matter in this case.

Whackamatt, I would like to know when you predict the Japanese will be done with China and India if you attack on J1 as you outline, and the UK buys almost exclusively infantry with just a couple artillery thrown in.  Lets say you think you can be celebrating We Love the Emperor Day in Calcutta on turn 6 (I don’t have a number, I’m just throwing it out there).  Can the US lock down San Fran, Honolulu and Sydney before then and destroy the IJN at Carolines?  Making the Japanese investments in Asia (two ICs + several armor and infantry per turn) may give you a solid hold on Asia but the expense may still put you woefully behind the US and ANZACs.  Then there is the final problem.  The Japanese player can OWN Asia and it won’t matter if the US and ANZACs can take the home island.  I’m not trying to shoot your plan down, I am just trying to see if you have thought this out a bit further.  It is easy to look at an early Japanese move and think, “this is over.”  But that is the same way it was on December 7th when they hit everything.  I think the Allies will still have quite a bit of fight left in them.

When Japan attacks on the first turn, who cares about the UK?  they are going to be earning nothing a turn, you can put a Major Factory down in Hong Kong if you were so inclined, dump loads of infantry down for use as soakers along with the insane airforce you have at your disposal and still have enough cash to start buying DDs to soak against America.

Hawaii on round 1 is a pretty dicey proposition.

With no shore shot hits, the odds are about 20% of taking the Island.
If one shore shot hits, you are at 41%. 
If two shore shots hit, you are at 76%. 
Yes, you can get a third shot, but I would count on three hits. 
This assumes that you attach the Islands with all three transports including 3 infantry, 1 artillery and 1 tank (max 5 units since you only have 1 at Caroline)
Bottom line is that you need to be fairly lucky to take Hawaii round 1. 
I think the payoff is huge, but I can’t reccomend building your strategy around something that has such a high chance of failure.

If you fail badly (brick) then the counter attack could be pretty ugly.  The US has 8 planes that can reach along with 5 ships.  That is 13 total units.  You have (If I recall correctly) 15 total units that can reach, including 6 carrier aircraft.  You will likely win.  However, since they will be getting a check for $62, they can afford the losses, but you probably cannot.  You gained nothing on round 1 except a few territories in China.

Too much of a crap shoot for my tastes.