How many G40 games have you played?

@bakerbei

I already started a post, messaged you in chat about it. Do you have a dicemail registered already with TripleA?

@Ichabod:

@KGrimB:

In your experience against the J1 DOW, do you move Chinese forces North or do you try to contest the Burma road as long as possible?

What do you do?

Normally retake Burma with existing forces and place new units in the North starting T2

Over a year ago, there was a discussion thread somewhere on this forum (I can’t recall in what section) about GTO’s demise.  As I recall, GTO was supposedly saying that it was shutting down temporarily and that it would return sometime in the following year with a new game that it would be offering in some kind of partnership with Larry Harris rather than WotC.  The details were quite vague, and nothing seems to have come of that initiative…assuming that it was indeed an initiative that had any substance to it, rather than just speculation.

Agree with Ike here: it really depends on what the rest of the board looks like.

Some options from my own experience:
1. If Moscow falls G9 this means Germany has channeled a lot of resources east.
Strong counter for the allies is to land 40+ units in western Europe. Most likely even Western Germany and then push back west (liberating France) and south (taking out Italy). In the meantime Berlin should be maxed out every turn. Of course Japan must also be prevented a win in the Pacific first priority (defensive spending).
If the allies went ‘Japan First’, this option may not be available to you since it requires minimal spending in the Pacific (i.e. a defensive budget rather than an offensive one).

2. If Moscow falls G9 after the allies went ‘Japan First’ (assuming Caïro is still allied controlled), the allies must of course start channeling more untis into Caïro/Middle East than the axis can. And/or into London, depending on what the axis targets are. Hopefully they are able to do so and start pushing the axis back. Alternatively you can try to liberate another VC. If the allies can build up a huge invasion force/shuck from Gibraltar, they have the flexibility to try to liberate Paris or aid the defense of Caïro.
Defeating Germany after Moscow fell with no meaningful allied threat in the west already in place is no small thing to do…

As the Axis I have noticed that hunting down VC’s too aggressively really means putting their heads on the block (like in option 1 above). IMHO for the axis it is best to be patient. Aim to stabilize economic balance and then jump in the gap the allies have left you. A few examples:

3. If the allies go Europe First (while still preventing Japan a 6VC win), Germany best prevent the allied landings at all costs. This takes away a LOT of resources from the eastern front so Moscow should be safe (except when Russia built too much ‘wrong’ units). In Russia, Germany + Italy need to aim for a defensive perimeter as far eastwards as possible in order to be able to contest or defend rich Russian territories.
Japan should secure India if it doesn’t already have it under control and then make a deep strategic calculation (4/5 turns ahead); will it be possible to grab Hawaii/Sydney if the USA defends it with all its resources while Japan goes all-in to take it and hold it? Will Japan also be able to hold all other VC’s? Could Japan ‘trick’ the USA and then suddenly swing east when it is too late or is the USA-player a bit Pacific-ignorant and do you think he/she will continue that?
If Yes, go grab this last VC. Otherwise, just match the allied (USA) forces and offensive spendings in the Pacific and send the rest to contest the Middle East/Africa. From India (Naval Base), Japan can invade Africa in 1 turn. If Japan cannot take it, can Japan convoy it? I once lost too many indian ships too soon and as a result, got convoyed all the way from the Persian Gulf to the Brazilian coast by Japanese submarines…

I could go on and on with options, particularly about allied strategies for late game ‘JF’ course of events and the axis responses but I think other players have more experience with this and I already wrote quite enough for now ;-).

However, my biggest problem is USA being forced to split it’s IPCs between Europe and the Pacific theaters.  What?  Since when did the United States do an even split?  You’re disabling the American ability to flexibly respond to crises as they arise?  I.e., “looks like UK is going down due to Sea Lion and Russia is in deep doo doo.  Too bad we can’t spend more in the European theater, even though the Japanese fleet is destroyed…  Got to build more Carriers in San Francisco”  That’s crazy.

I agree here, I’ve since changed my mind about this.

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.

Thanks!