Mid game recording sheet available

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 😜

@Cow:

It is still to your advantage to go to war sooner than later. J1 DOW is the way to go for this unless you trying to take over America, you get pretty good odds for it still.

I disagree with you here Cow. Pacific is a lot different than global. I even think it might even be best to wait till turn 3 to attack allies after they have declared war on you. This will keep America from getting her 30 dollar bonus, and her 40 dollar bonus for two turns. That is a total of 99 less, since you would take phil in a T1 attack. Haven’t played enough games to be 100% sure, but taking India is a lot easier, and your real problem is taking Hawaii. I don’t know how you can ever take Sydney if the allies are competent at all.

@mastermind93:

If I remember correctly, you can’t build a Major IC in a foreign territory. I do agree, though, on the importance of the Caroline Islands.

I think originally it was allowed. If not, i’ve been had ;)

@cressman8064:

Another idea to add to this tread is to play Pacific1940 with every nation having the “Improved Shipyards” technology. This technology will be included in the global game anyways, but by giving it to every nation in the Pacific only game it turns out to really help the allies. If you havn’t heard, this technology makes all subs, transports and destroyers -1 IPC, and all crusiers, Aircraft carriers and Battelships -2 IPCs. Since the allies generally will be building more ships to counter the Japs, it allows America to build up faster but at the same time also gives the same advantage to Japan if they choose to go for heavy naval builds.
I played a game testing this change and I as Japan still performed a massive Jap1 attack. America built destroyers and crusiers like they were going out of style and while Japan was mopping up the DEI and India America was threating the rest of the Pacific and Japan herself with massive fleets. ANZAC was also able to build 2 subs from turn 1 and they can become a real thorn in the DEI.

I really like this idea Cressman. While the OP’s idea could work if Allies weren’t allowed into the USSR, it’s simply too complicated for me, as I already fail to follow a rule or two. :roll:

However, Cressman’s idea could work, as the Allies have strength in what they BUILD, and Japan has strength in what it already HAS. A bid could work too, though.

yay  :-D thanks a bunch

@Texas:

I am certainly not suggesting to buy another game JUST for the chips.  But if someone happens to have both, the chips are interchangeable.  In some long A&A games, more chips might be handy.  You could also use the Warlords black chips as 10s or to mean something else.

Multicolored mini poker chips rock. I use the crap out of them in my own game designs. In Pacific I use orange and yellow chips to indicate damage on installations. I match colors with counters in A&A minis land and naval to use as backings for the micron thin counters, or just by color in very large battles when I run out of counters.

@Texas:

Of course, it might be more trouble than it is worth to sort them or whatever.  I know some gamers combine game parts from different games into a big “pool” of game equipment.  I usually keep games and their parts separated, so it will take a bit of extra effort to dig out two games to play just one game but wanting extra chips.

Back in the day a friend of mine had a bad habit of “pooling” game equipment. He had a huge collection (thousands) of the airfix/revell 1/72 world war 2 soldiers all mixed together in a freaking tackle box. Most unpainted. It took hours to sort through them when we wanted to table top battle or “enhance” the original A&A. Not a fan of pooling.

@Texas:

Anyway, it was just an FYI.

Thank you for adding another board game to my want list…

I would like to thank you guys for the advice, because I won my game against my best buddy.

I immediately pushed my Navy South and took NSW from the Austrailians (he had alot of troops in Queensland).  I also built a factory in Kwangtung which the next turn I made 9 men there (and a transport) followed by 10 tanks the next turn.  I traded NSW for a few turns back and forth eventually killing off all the Australian troops two turns before America could send their then massive navy to Austrailia.

I used two transports and took Sumatra and Malaya with Battleship and Destroyer support, and smashed the remaining Brits and 3 Chinese in Yunnan at the cost of about 8 planes to the 4 British planes and several infantry.

With Australia clear of troops I moved transports and bombers into a poor India and took it over and blocked the United States from reaching Austrailia, Japan, or the Phillipenes.

Thank you all for the advice, but next time Ill attack sooner with Japan, the Brits got rich fast which caused me a big headache.

You are off topic, guys