Best way to divide a three player game.

@themightyyamato45 SZ35 (phillipines worth 2ipcs)Once its been convoyed for 2 ,there’s no need to roll more dice.
Sometimes you have to convoy when you don’t want to.I’ve had to convoy London just before a sealion invasion,thus reducing the amount of ipcs I get from sacking UKs capitol.

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 😜

My opinions in summary:

–You need a factory on the mainland. It’s debatable where, but against a competent Allied player you’ll need the boots on the ground.

–You’ll need a lot more TRs. Time is your enemy and having more TRs means delivering more combat power where you need it faster

–I favor a J3 attack. Spend 2 turns pounding on the Chinese with all of your air and getting troops and TRs in position to take everything you need within 2 turns of the DoW on the Allies.

–Try and keep your fleet massed. None of the Allies has the slightest chance against the full weight of metal that Japan can throw around. Granted you’ll likely have to spread out a little to accomplish everything you need, but try and mass up agains ASAP.

–Keep Truk and Japan garrisoned with fighters/tac. As long as you do this and have minimal infantry on the ground they will be EXTREMELY hard to take due to the Scramble rules.

–The primary goal if this strategy is the complete destruction of China with minimal losses and then a heavy focus on India. You only need to fend off the US and Anzac - you dont not need to decisively engage them. PI must fall on J3 to remove the US presence and to get the naval base, but beyond that you dont need to fight them unless they expose themselves to a favorable trade.

Yet on the game board they are represented by nothing at all, 85,000 troops should be at least 1or 2 inf units. a plane and a destroyer at least. And would these units fight a british invasion or join the britts when they came?

I think it was obvious that it was a misprint on the map. There is only a little snippet, the second I saw it I knew that was not right.

What about using DDs in conjunctiion with SSs?  The subs can soak hits in the early rounds right, for only 6 IPCs instead of 8 IPCs.  I understand the extra #3 attack over a #2 gives the DDs a slight plus for the IPC cost, but i think adding a couple subs could give a small bonus to the final numbers.

I will be buying online after Christmas. As for supporting my local game store…They want 90 bucks for the game. Amazon wants 60. I would happily pay 90 or more for a reprint of anniversary (which I missed out on) but based on what I have read online this game, while it looks like a lot fun, isn’t up to snuff with no IPCs, a lack of pieces, and rule book that is filled with errata and misspellings.  The main reason I am considering this game is to combine with upcoming europe (I don’t think a reprint of AA 50 is really coming based on posts here and at WOTC).

I have good collection of navy minatures which might help with the lack of tac bombers…not really sure yet.

That’s the reason why I try not to pre-order but wait until the shops get it.  By the time you add in shipping to the discounted pre-order prices, it usually costs more than MSRP.  Damn shipping.  To make it worth my while, I would need to pre-order like 10 to go below MSRP.

Also coolstuffinc.com doesn’t offer free shipping to Hawaii or Alaska!

Ebay sometimes is cheaper even with shipping costs, but you need to hunt for the bargains.