Japan's best strategy

40 IPC’s. I do it every time I play Japan. I take the PI and all the DEI, Malaya, Borneo & Hong Kong. These = 21 IPC which puts Japan @ 40 IPC’s. If all goes well I do not lose too much units due to Japans 1st round attack advantage. (All Allied units, except the Chinese, defend at 1 on the dice) Tonight I won by VP’s, holding over 40 (I topped out @ 45) for 6 rounds. USA had sunk Japans navy on T5 after I slammed into AUS capital after building up INF & ART for a couple rounds and lost that battle. I pretty much had expanded all my forward units and had started reinforcing the India campaign. By the time the USA started to xport land units it was too late. It was great game w/ a few navel battles that cost both sides alot of hardware! Great fun! My boys are grumbling by being beat by the “ol Man” again.  :-D

I’ve been playing pacific for about 3 years,a my first stratagies were too take India for the Japs to win and and to take Hawaii for a good offensive base for my attacks on the Dutch East Indies and Austrailia.It was a great stratagy till my friends and I figured out SBR’s and after that you Bombed pearl then ran away from there as soon as possible.

@gevron:

I am wondering, it seems that I lose battles very often to fighters even I have 1 carrier, 2 fighters, 1 battleship and 3 destroyers at sea……
Should I modify the fleet combination?

If you are going with just one carrier, you need another battleship escort, and at least one more destroyer.  If you operate two carriers together, you would still want at least the destroyer, but another battleship would really be useful as well.

@Gamer:

SS, you write very well and obviously have a great command of the game.  I’m no expert, having played my last game probably 3-4 years ago, but it just seemed like there were severe limitations on the Allies’ strategy in A&AP.  For example, if Japan goes KIF, then the U.S. MUST buy bombers on US 1, and so on.  The thing I liked about A&A Classic and even more so about A&A Revised is that there is no one single way you “must” play to win.  Each player can adopt a strategy that suits him or her best.  I just get the feeling if I play A&AP against an experienced player, I would be at a severe disadvantage because it would only take one wrong move on my part and the game would be over by Turn 2.  Am I overstating that?

Yes, it is turn 3!  :evil:
(or 4)

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!!

I have posted these essays to three message boards (Wargamer’s Club, A&A.org and Flames of Europe) and they can be used in whatever manner the owners of those boards choose provided that they are properly accredited and any alterations are properly noted.  I look at them as “scholarly” essays that are now in the public domain.  So, by all means, whatever is of use in the essays can be used as a resource in whatever manner is thought appropriate.

Thanks for the feedback on the essay.  I intend to write several more before I’m finished.

SS

Yup, they get the purple income

I personally played this game several times, alone and with friens
My consideration is that 6 or 7/10 Japan can win.
Take most advantage of the J1 special rule.
Take most of the money island and sink all the ship you can; british too; focus on allies transport too.
Move all in to India; while pushing China west.
Japan can win if they get India within J4 / J5.
The longer the game, the more the pain, because US pressure will become too hard to hold