AAP40 Live Game

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 😜

I too am new to the site, but have been playing this game for nearly 15 years. welcome to the family.

In regards to a pacific strategy I believe that China is a place for mis-placed agression. I dont think you need to advance more then 4 provinces in to China, taking Yunan, Hunan, Anhui, and Charhar. This reduces China economy by 1/3 and denies them their NO, it also keeps your units close enough to the coast to pull them back if they become needed else where.
The key to winning comes from taking and holding the southern resource area which include Maylay, Kwangtung, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, French Indo-China, and the Philipines. By taking this area you will double Japans economy and reach a parity with the US. Also, this area will put 2 more VC under your control, which are the objectives you need to win, and gain you some of your NOs.
From here its key to make swift work of India, throwing everything you can aginst them. The quicker this is done the beter (turn 4 or 5 ideally). Then you will be free to finnish of China at your leisure.

After that its really up to you. I like to go after the Anzac’s as taking their VC is harder for the US to take back. Best of luck, hope this helps

Its this kind of developer support to the fans that will keep me with A&A year after year. If only other game companies would take the time to do something as simple as a statement like this then table top gaming would be in such a better place. Thank you for taking the time to be so candid and considerate to your fans Larry.

well….ive come up against a connudrum…im just winning too many games myself, switching axis to allies and back again

ive played 8 games
im 2/2 as the allies
but im 4/0 with japan

i need to play some different players I think to get a better sample

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.

@bigopfer:

You are totally right Plum, the game is not worth the money they charged. The map IS amazing, the gameplay IS really fun. But you nailed it with the boxes, paper money, IPC chart, cardboard pieces, lack of tac bombers. I mean, I paid basically the same money for this game as I paid for my copy of AA50 and this AA40 Pacific is missing lots of the quality that AA50 had.

Exactly!  I was totally content with how they presented AA50.  Everything was high quality and all aspects of the game and its components were top notch.  Totally worth the money I spent on it.

While this game certainly has some high quality aspects about it, (especially the game play, which is all that really counts in the end) there are so many small blunders it’s really frustrating.  The income chart is what gets me the most.  It seems like the day before they shipped the game out somebody realized “Oh crap!  We forgot income charts!” and then threw together the first thing they thought of and tossed it in the box.  I’m surprised they weren’t scribbled on a piece of notebook paper.

That is awesome, I just did not realize that they had already gotten past the preliminary stages with AAE40.