Posts made by Gwlachmai

I do similiar moves with China. I don’t allow any walk ins, I want a chance to kill an infantry unit in every territory Japan walks into. I’ll keep a mass (or as many as I can mass up) of infantry behind the front lines with the fighter as a counter attack force. If Japan can muster a ground force larger then I think I can counter attack and kill I’ll move my mass further back and to the north so ultimately it will cost Japan an extra turn of movement when China does die and they go after India. I’m always looking to counter attack. If you can get the Brits and China working together to keep Yunan from falling to the Japanese that’s great too, but, it really depends on how the game progresses.

It’s really Theory & Allies when you get into point and counter point. You asked for a counter to your strat, and I gave you what I feel a decent US player would do in response. I see it as a horrible tactic, one that will doom Japan, we’ve born this out one night in four seperate games where Japan attempted to take the West Coast early on, luckily they were all fairly fast games, so we still had time to start what I would consider a real game.

Also on turn two when Japan moves to seazone 8 your combat ships cannot reach Hawaii, so it’s really not under threat now. My infantry calculation are based on:

3 Infantry in Western US
2 in Hawaii
2 in Phillipines (moved over with the transport)
5 bought in turn 1
8 bought in turn two
7 bought in turn three
5 bought in turn four (along with a tank and four fighters)
–----
32 Infantry

If you base your entire fleet off the west coast your trasports will be ripped apart by the US bombers, so IPC’s lost for the US will be more then made up for by the Japanese transport costs. This has been played out in a few of our games and the US has more then enough tools at their disposal to defend themselves.

Edit: Why would you assume I’d make that purchase in turn four, especially when I stated what I would buy for the US. You also seem to want to ignore the Anzac fighters in America. There is no reason not to fly them there. The DEI’s or Australia is certainly not under threat.

I really haven’t seen any strats that target the US that I think are solid. First off, in turn one when the entire Japanese navy converges on Japan, you have to figure it’s for a push on Hawaii, otherwise the farthest south you can push is the Phillipines and Hong Kong. When nearly your entire airforce lands on Japan I’m thinking you’re either going to try for Western US or Landing them in the Marshal Islands. Either way I’m the cautious type, I’ll usually err on the side of defending my capital, so the US buys 5 infantry, evacuates the Phillipines (fighter to Guam, bomber to Hawaii, and everything else to seazone 54) and moves a destroyer into midway to block a turn two invasion of Hawaii. Meanwhile Anzac fighters land in Queensland.

Turn 2, it’s now quite obvious what you’re attacking, US buys 8 more infantry. Since you now do not have any combat ships that can hit Hawaii the entire fleet masses there with the exception of a cruiser who stays on the west coast to prevent any shore bombardment in a J3 invasion. All airunits (including carrier forces) now land in the US, with the exception of the fighter in Guam, he flys to Wake. This leaves a total garrison of 16 Infantry, a mechanized infantry, an arty, a tank, 3 fighters, 3 tac bombers and 3 bombers. By round 2 the UK has snatched up the DEI.

Turn 3 lets assume you adequetly guard your transports, which means you’ll need to leave the bulk of your navy in sea zone 2. On the US turn I buy 7 infantry (leaving one IPC) and my only combat moves will be to send my sub to Japan to kill your unguarded transports (air units will not be able to strike my sub, and you have not bought any destroyers to protect your home sea zone) and two destroyers kill your two subs off the West Coast. Also the two transports in Hawaii now move four more infantry into the West Coast, the fighter at Wake lands there too for a total of 27 Infantry, a mechanized infantry, an arty, a tank, 4 fighters, 3 tac bombers and 3 bombers.  Four Anzac fighters fly to Hawaii and South East Asia is probably in shambles by now.

Turn 4, as you mass everything in Alaska the US buys five infantry, a tank and four fighters. Leaving a defense of 32 Infantry, a mechanized infantry, an arty, 2 tanks, 8 fighters (12 when Anzac lands), 3 tac bombers, and 3 bombers, making it unlikely you’ll take America.

Two buddies and I have played about a dozen games, and it seems to get easier and easier to contain Japan. First, you don’t have to control all of the DEI, you just need to prevent Japan from controlling them. With all of Asia under control (except India), the Phillipines, and three out of the four DEI islands Japan is only at an economy of 61. Not much better then the US, except they have to buy alot more ground forces and likely more transports. While the US is devoting themselves almost soley to air and navy, and has two to three minor allies that add to Japans troubles.

We usually find the Japanese fleet operating in the south, and so with no real threat to Hawaii the US fleet will base itself in Australia (frequently the Aussies will build an airfield in the Northern Territories) and move air units down there as well waiting for the Japanese to split up or pick off transports. If Japan doesn’t opt for a J1 attack the Brits can land four infantry, four fighters and a tac bomber on Java, the Anzacs can augment this with four more fighters. This presents a threat to all the other DEI islands, plus the threat of massing US units in the area. If Japan does manage to gather enough units to threaten java the air units can just rebase to India or Australia. We’ve had Japan counter by landing fighters in the Phillipines, but then you no longer have a mass of fighters guarding the homeland, so US builds moving thru Hawaii are routinely a threat. Both sides use blocking destroyers, but, both sides usually go out of their way to kill these too.

All too many times we find the Japanese presented with a choice of assaulting multiple targets, but, if Japan does they’ll have to either sacrifice their transports or split their fleet and face an allied counterattack. Meanwhile India is just digging in and fighters from the US and Anzac are only a turn away from defending Calcutta. Japan got an advantage in our early games, but, the allies have been on a roll as of late, giving them a slight edge on games won. I don’t think Japan has to do anything wrong for the allies to win, I just think that unless Japan can gain control of all the DEI (and thus gain their NO bonus) and hold it, they are pretty much on a timer until they’re whittled down by the allies.