@midnight_reaper This is a old thread but TBH they should of kept the design for some of these charts. They are beautiful and the cherry red for Japan looks gorgeous (but it makes sense they wouldn’t do it for Pacific 2nd Ed. because of obvious reasons.
I hear ya. The best way to play is have the host play Japan, set the board up, line up his turn then show up after he has all the battles laid out. That first round is a killer!
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