Japan DOW on US

That’s the point though. Sea Lion is an objective for Germany but there is no justification for doing while the USSR is still a credible threat because once you capture London, there is no way in hell you can defend against the US liberation and the Soviet invasion. Hence, just don’t do it. I am only suggesting that if one wanted to do an early Sea Lion, you will need Japan to put so much pressure on USSR that Germany can focus completely on US thus Japan will lose in the Pacific. I agree Sea Lion isn’t a wise move.

Everyone discussing Europe strategies please follow the link instead of hijacking this Japan IC thread… Thank you.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=32940.0

If the US keeps investing heavily into the Pacific, Japan has two choices:

Get all the IPC you can early (per Cow’s strategy) or…

Play turtle in SZ6 and take the long road into Moscow from the East which generally requires an IC on Manchuria/Korea or both.  In particular you let the US spend its IPC to get a fleet to take out yours in SZ6 and utilize Kamikaze to disable CV so the US aircraft cannot land and have to splash.

You have opportunities to get the Japanese Air Force into Europe as early as J4 (J1 Chahar, J2 Suiyuyan, J3 place AB on Suiy, J4 fly as far as Leningrad (Kansu - Novo - Volo - Arch - Novg).

With the AB at Nov, J5 will be a full pummel of Moscow’s MajorIC allowing German Air Force to assist in the advance of its ground units towards Moscow.  You can also open up doors for the Germans to blitz by trading Jap aircraft to open up spaces the Russians thought they had defended.  J6 is a suicide of Aircraft against Moscow to weaken the garrison on Moscow for a G7 attack there.

You can also decide to rush for an India Crush and instead of turning to face the Allied fleet Post India Crush, race instead towards the Med to assist Italy in taking and holding Egypt with your fleet.  Building IC in Kwang and FIC assist in getting more units on the board once you sacrifice SZ6 to the US.  Realize you can stop the US from loading units onto a TT from an IC in Korea every round by just buying a DD in SZ6.

I played a version of Cow’s J1 attack where I had the US fleet chase me around the Pacific - sent a TT with a small fleet of CV, CR, DD and TT (with 2 Inf) from SZ6 to Caroline to Line and was in position to land Jap units at the Panama Canal.  I ended up taking NZ instead of Pamana due to a 10 SS purchase by the US when I was at Line Islands.  The US/Anzac eventually chased down and sunk that fleet, but that occurred by the time I got it all the way back to Java and had crushed India - sometime around round 6 or 7.

Just remember, even if Japan loses Tokyo, the Axis still needs to lose Berlin for the Allies to claim victory.  There are plenty of possibilities for Japan to assist in the European theater for the Axis win in Europe.

As for the Pacific - I have played Japan the last… 6 or so games and I have yet to win in the Pacific.  The closest I came was with Cow’s J1 attack but I was short 1 TT to take Hawaii which was unguarded.

I see what you’re trying to do with these ideas, but you need to be careful or you’ll make the US-China partnership in the game become a penility for the US which wouldnt be fair. Ideas I have heard have been to do things like;

If the burma road is open allow the US to replace the Chinese fighter if it gets destroyed.
If the burma road is open AND the US is at war allow them to purchase 1 unit for the Chinese per turn.

I like both of these and would better represent the US’s support to the Chinese, and also the importance of the Buram road. The second idea would need to be limited to land and air units only (obviously) but to have no more then 1 of each non-infantry/arty unit type (no more then 1 fighter, tatical bobmber, tank, mech infantry, ect…)

Japan would have to declare war at the beginning (before any units are moved) of its combat movement phase. So it would not be allowed to go through sz8, it would have to stop and battle that DD.

Since the U.S. does not start with one of the objectives: (5 of the 7 islands one) They are likely to collect 77….then factor in that when they do take one of the islands to get the 5, they typically have lost the Philippines objective, so they will be at 75-77 (if they have Brazil). I haven’t seen them reach 82 in 4 games of Alpha 2.

@poloplayer15:

is it just me in thinking that the us should have a stronger Atlantic fleet? in pre-WWII, the atlantic fleet had 3-4 AC, 9 BB, and numerous CA, CL, and DDs. it just seems so under powered. but it was probably reduced to its pathetic size due to balance issues

@calvinhobbesliker:

Good Luck with that; too many people are complaining that the US has too much money(52 ipcs) to build a giant fleet.

You got that right Calvin.

@McLovin1985:

With the new rules it seems to me that an airbase in Korea would be the way to go every game, stationing 3 fighters in Korea and at least 3 in Japan if theres any sense that an attack on any vessels or Japan itself is imminent. That would give you an extra 6 fighters to defend SZ6. Correct me if I’m wrong.

I did that in a game last week. Worked great. The U.K. attacked my Japanese fleet first and then a small ANZAC fleet did the same on their turn all in the same round. Wiped them all out with small losses.