Aggressive UK Pacific Strategies

I like to buy some fast movers for India for aggressive acts of opportunity. My typical first buy for UK Pac (17 IPCs) is 2 mech, 1 tank, and 1 inf. You are still buying to def India, but this allows me the chance to hit Yunnan UK2 if it feels right (or head to Russia). As discussed grinding up Japanese ground units in Asia is #1 priority. Japan will normally have some ground units on Kwangsi with tpts available, but they want use those units to load tpts to take the money islands on the next turn, not worry about Yunnan.

I might use my Pac tpt to take Java with a couple inf forcing Japan to use more resources to invade (as discussed). This will most likely result in losing that tpt in a J2 attack though, so in order to keep my tpt safe it very well may just activate Persia, or hit the Italians in Africa. I tend to pull my UK Pac ships toward Africa to spare/consolidate my UK resources. They may end up as part of a Med or Middle East navy, and possibly return later with some friends. I just don’t think the UK Pac navy can afford to go toe to toe w/Japan in the first few turns. Even if you set up a good defensive fleet and entice the Japanese to hit you, unless you have a counter attack to finish off his capital ships it would be fruitless IMO. Possibly later if the Japanese split their resources it could be effective.

Buying mobile units for UK Pac and salvaging whatever naval assets I can also fits well with a UK Persian IC too. The more mobile the the UK is in that region the better IMO, they may end up covering Russia’s southern flank.

Especially if there is no aggressive Sea Lion build, I like the idea of using the Indian transport to attack Italian East Africa, building land units in Calcutta, and building naval units in South Africa. If you win a UK1 battle in Ethiopia and also kill off two Italian transports, then Italy has very limited ability to push you out of Egypt…your starting sub Saharan African units can probably march up to Cairo quickly enough to keep it safe even without additional land units built in South Africa.

The South African factory is limited in number of units per turn, but it’s fueled by the large UK-E economy. Thus, a few expensive naval units. The Calcutta factory can build 10 units a turn, but it’s limited by the tiny UK-P economy. Thus, several cheap land units.

From the South African naval base, you can show up in west India or the Persian gulf in one move. Stacking the southern British navy further west allies you to dead zone the east Indian ocean against all but a major Japanese naval invasion, and as discussed earlier in the thread, Japan can’t really afford to send, e.g., two full carrier groups all the way west to Bombay / Basrah, because either they will run out of land units in mainland Asia, or their remaining boats will be at a disadvantage vs. the USA.

Losing London is a great thing if Germany has to pay three times what it’s worth to make it happen.

Screwing up in the Pacific at the same time does indeed suck though!

Okay so after gazing at the board i kind of have an idea, might not be a good idea but hey

If there is no J1 attack, what if you spend 15 IPCs on an airfield and place it in Malaya, move the destroyer and cruiser to join the battleship in SZ 37, and move the entire UKPac air-force to Malaya. If Anzac is in the mood they could on their turn move their fighter from Queensland to Malaya too. You then have a 3 fighter scramble to defend your fleet.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that the Japanese fleet (if its in the right position such as floating around Hainan) could eviscerate that fleet and air-force combined easily.

However, I wonder what having to address that threat would do to the balance of a J2/3 attack. If the Allies don’t scramble their planes and the Japanese go into the fight with not enough to defend their transports, the allied air-forces could pick off isolated parts of the Japanese fleet or just be used elsewhere in South-East Asia. At the very least it doesn’t make Malaya initially very conquerable given Japan’s starting number of transports and reach, and threatens Japan’s security around the money islands.

Much of this would also, I guess, depend on what America did too. If it left its submarine, destroyer and fighter in the Philippines then that’s another sea-fight the Japanese navy needs to fight. If you have an Anzac transport and destroyer off of Java too after them seizing that island, that’s another naval target for Japan. If you entice the Japanese fleet to spread out, you have a shot at dealing some damage to them that could put them on the back foot if the US decides to focus on the Pacific.

let me know your thoughts

Standing up to Japan isn’t an awful idea, but doing it that early in the game could spell disaster.  A ton of his guys are parked right next to you at the start of J2 no matter what his plan is overall, and you only have 7 hits.    Normally he has to chase you down over many turns and pick you off, but with your plan, you’re gathering everything up for him.  With 2 SB and 1 Air Pair on land, plus a minimum of a Japanese Grand Fleet and the possibility of bringing up to 2 more air pairs, you won’t stand a chance.  The stuff on Philippines can be attacked with newly built reserve stuff from SZ 6 or Japan, its not a distraction…

Like attacking Russia, this may distract Japan from whatever his original goal was, but only for a turn.  And, since he’s wiped out a big portion of your air and navy in one blow if he comes big, you won’t have 1) the India turtle, you spent the $ on the base 2) the UK eastern navy, which argothair suggests as a potential way of warding off the Japanese, since you can combine everything that doesn’t die during Taranto with the BB, if it survives (now you have 1 CA 1 CV 1 DD 1BB!)

You’ll also want to block SZ 37 with a DD at the crucial moment, or put the UK DD with the Japanese fleet at peace, thus stopping their ability to load transports.  both of these tricks wont work when you stand off.

Lots of good UK strategies look to the later game (and saving a bunch of assets long term) where you can use African forces and planes to make India difficult to take, or even get a whole grand fleet together that can prevent Japan from having their way in the Indian Ocean.

I agree with Taamvan but in one game I did build an airbase in Shan State later in the game which helped to crush Japan. As it happened, Axis won in Europe in that game, rather narrowly. I think SZ37 had the USN parked in it, just with assistance from the UK.