Posts made by kaufschtick

@Hobbes:

Why doesn’t Japan simply ignore Guam and the US forces there and use all of its fleet to sink the US fleet at Wake on J2?

Hmmm. In games we’ve been playing, the Japanese have been taking Singapore on J2, then building a major IC there on J3. That starts the clock ticking for India.

If the main Japanese fleet is in Wake, or has set up on J1 to be able to reach Wake, then it can’t be at Singapore on J2, kinda a victory for the British already. I guess in that case, I’d keep the US fleet out of range of the main Japanese fleet around Pearl and wait for the Japanese to move south before commencing to move on Guam. The Japanese can’t be in two places at once. The US fleet can just hang back, and either make the Japanese stick around trying to catch them while building up US air strength (the US does have 3 bombers for an attack on a split Japanese fleet if the opportunity presents itself), in which case the Japanese, again, aren’t pounding on the Brits. If the Japanese get tired of this and move south, then the US starts moving on Guam. Again, the Japanese can’t be in two places at once. :-)

Also, the US have the option of flying in it’s air, plus moving ANZAC air up from Queensland on ANZAC 2. The US doesn’t need fleet at Guam, the main thing is to build up air on Guam. Then the air can cover transports, or fleet later.

If the Japanese move such that they can hit Wake on J2, then the US moves all its air to Wake, leaving the Japanese with an empty net, not being able to hit the air ON Wake. Then that air flies to Guam next turn (US 2).

You still have to play the game, this is a general strategy, not a scripted play by play move. :-)

Now, as I’ve already stated, I don’t know what the J1 attack calls for, maybe the whole IJN moves to the PI to take it, then it is sitting on a naval base for a J2 strike to where ever. That I don’t know. :-)

@The:

It’s my opinion, and i think most peoples (although many differ b/c of the many options of the game) that a J1 attack is the best. I don’t know about that whole Guam thing. I’ll look into it, but I usually don’t build air or naval bases, and just use existing ones, which makes the Phillipines and caroline islands very important as the U.S. player. Also, for threatening the mainland, I usually just mass at Hawaii, which can threaten Korea (which Japan should never loose or they are screwed) and the Caroline. If you move to the Caroline from there, then you threaten Korea and Japan again, the Philippines, the mainland and you’ve got a ton of options w/o having to waste ipcs on bases.

By making Wake the main US frontline base, you threaten more of the board than from Pearl. Then they have more of a chance to attack where the Japanese aren’t if they want to go that route. My good friend always says, “Hit em’ where they ain’t!” :-)

Wake gives the US more options on turn 2 than Pearl. It will make Guam an issue where as it won’t be from Pearl.

Wake with a naval base will get the US more into the fight on US2. On US 2, Japan has enough to defend both Japan & Truk. From Wake, Japan will now have to consider Guam as well. Now they start getting stretched a little more thin.  :-)

I am guessing that the J1 attack provides for the taking of the PI, but with only 3 J1 transports…I’m thinking it’s going to take 2 of those to get the PI? I’ll have to look into the whole J1 attack thing, see how it works. :-)

@The:

Japan usually can’t defend home sea zone and the caroline, so it serves the same purpose as Guam with the added bonus of an anti-aircraft gun and not having to spend anything.

Yes, and with a naval base on Wake, and its threat for the US to move against Guam, it can give the US even more leverage against the Japanese at Truk. The Japanese are now looking at Truk, Guam and Japan (SZ6) to defend against, as oppsed to just Truk & Japan. :-)

Wake is to the US and Pearl Harbor as SZ54 is to New Zealand. Sure, New Zealand and Pearl are decent bases and well protected from Japanese attack, but they both threaten less.  :-)

If you are like us, and don’t buy many bases, just put a naval base on Wake, then start looking at it like you do now with Pearl. You’ll see that Wake has more access than Pearl, which = more leverage. :-)

Then look at Guam. We never used to until now. The Japanese never took it, the US never used it, it just sat unused and unloved, game after game! :-D

If nobody has seen Guam as a big focus for the Americans, it may be because there has to be a naval base on Wake first. We didn’t realize this until nearly 100 hours of gameplay! Granted, many of those first hours were marred by faulty set up charts and foggy rules, but it seems oh so clear now! :mrgreen:

A friend of mine and myself have been putting this new game through its paces ever since it came out, we’ve played just under 100 hours now, and here’s our latest thoughts on how the Allies should go.

I don’t know if maybe we’re slow learners, and everyone else has already gotten on to this, but in our last game session, we discovered Guam as the key to the Allies, along with a naval base on Wake Island (US 1).

We’ve played through zillions of the J2 & J3 opening attacks, but I will say this up front, that we haven’t yet tried any of the J1 attacks. So maybe this isn’t a good counter to a J1 attack?

First off, we started many games with the Japanese buying 3 transports J1, then we moved to the Japanese buying 2 transports and a minor IC on J1. We found ways for the Allies to block Japanese transports in SZ6 on J2 to some extent by moving the British BB up to Guam and the American DD from the PI up to, I think it’s SZ19, to screen off the PI from transports originating in Japan.

Then we got on to Japanese putting the minor complex down on J1, and the Allies just couldn’t afford to lose the ships early on like that in blocking moves. The Japanese could always opt to go for a J3 attack and sail through the blocks on J2 anyways, leaving those units sitting in the breeze on J3.

Last game session, we tried something I haven’t read yet on any of the forums, although I haven’t really been going through them in the first place. So like I said earlier, it may be what I’m posting here is already widely known by all.

But last game session, we started out with an American naval base going into Wake Island on US1, along with both the US infantry units and the fighter going from the PI to Guam on US1. The entire US fleet, and all of its at start air units go to Wake Island.

The idea is kinda to make Guam like the Japanese use Truk. You get lots of air units on an island with an airbase and it’s pretty tough to root them out. The airbase acts like a force multiplier, so an attacker may have to commit twice the forces to root out a base like that.

Anyway, the whole goal is for the US to get, or to be going after Guam. If they can do that, then they threaten not only Japan, but the whole Asian coastline from Korea all the way down to Vietnam.

If on US1, they have their at start fleet at Wake, a naval base, and the 2 fighters and two dive bombers on Wake plus the 3 bombers, then they have the most options as to what to do on US2. They are in position to possibly counter attack Guam if the Japanese took it (two transports with three infantry and one armor: 1CV w/ 1ftr & 1Tac, 1BB, 1CA, 1SS along with 3 bombers if you want to risk a landing on New Guinea available to clear the SZ), they can move to Australia and SZ54, and they have two routes to attack  Japan if there is an opening there. The fighters from Wake can reach Guam if still held by the US on US2, and the ANZAC fighters can fly up from Queensland on ANZAC 2 as well. This is especially important if the US had to counter attack Guam and were able to retake it on US2. The 4 ANZAC ftrs can fly up from Queensland to bolster the defence after the assault.

The prospect of having a large force of Allied fighters and dive bombers on Guam by turn two is enough to make Japan react to it, one way or the other.

I don’t know if taking Guam on J1 is part of the whole J1 attack thing or not, but if Japan leaves Guam in US hands by the start of US 2, then they are in serious trouble. In that case, if the US can send in the two transports to Guam from Wake on their own, they do, along with every air unit they have, even carrier air. Like I said, the 4 ANZAC ftrs come up too at the end of the Allied turn, and now Japan is looking at Guam with at least 4 land units, 3 US ftrs & 3 tac air, along with 4 ANZAC ftrs. If the US fleet moves to Guam as well, then the Japanese are going to have to mount one super serious naval effort to get at Guam.

From Wake, the US can keep putting in more air to Guam, and ships can reach Guam as well with the naval base being on Wake.

Is taking Wake part of the J1 attack deal? Is taking Guam? The PI, on J1 I mean?

If the Japanese take the PI on J1, and skip Guam, then the ANZAC ftr from Queensland is free to move to Guam…anything to make the Japanese fight for Guam. I would think a J1 attack on the PI would include 2 transports as the US fighter can stay in the land battle. Maybe not, I’ve read that the J1 attack includes a lot of risky fights.

Anyway, from Wake with a naval base, the US are in position to go after Guam and/or keep the pressure on there too; and at the very least force the Japanese to defend it if they take it early on. That’ll tie up Japanese transports and fleet that would otherwise be running amok in the DEI.

The US buys for this game were transports and troops along with air and subs.

We’ve had so many Japanese wins so far it isn’t funny. We played 3 games this past weekend, and didn’t fully realize the value of the naval base buy for Wake on US1 at first. We’ve been playtesting strats into about 6-8 turns to see if we could get on to any type of Allied strat that would keep them in the game. Then we quit and retry another strat.

Once we realized also the 1-2 punch from Wake and ANZAC air moving up from Queensland, and the lightbulb started get real bright (for the Allies). Then we got early US buys away from fleet units and more toward transports, troops, air & subs, and the lightbulb got even brighter yet still.

The whole picture came into view, and we started to see that the US doesn’t necessarily need any more carriers early, as it can us the isl;ands of Wake & hopefully Guam as unsinkable carries. If they have enough air, they can shield ships and transports.

One game, the main portion of the Japanese was off tearing into the DEI as usual. Japan sent most of what was left of the rest of it’s fleet to Guam including 3 transports. I think this game we were into like turn 4 or 5 on. Anyway, Japan took (retook?) Guam, suffering some csualties in the process. I think there were some air units on Guam, and they stayed in the land battle. The Japanese had little, if any air units that could reach the land part of the fight, so they wound up taking Guam, but only had 1 or 2 land units left after the battle.

Anyway, the US attacked from Wake with everything it had, which was mostly it’s at start fleet, but also the bombers came in to help with the clearing of the SZ (land on New Guinea). The fleets wiped each other out, but the SZ was cleared by and large with the aid from the bombers, which the Japanese did not anticipate. The troops landed and took the island with two surviving land units, then the ANZAC fighters flew up from Queensland. The Japanese player realized that he had no other units or transports in range to counter attack his next turn, and the US had two more transports loaded at Wake, with a couple more air units.

The ANZAC fighters kept the US transports alive at Guam, then the two US  transports and air arrived the next turn from Wake. Japan had a large part of each of it’s turns buys tied up with buying units for it’s major complex in Singapore, and couldn’t touch the Americans at Guam the next turn either.

So the US then moved and took Manchuria. Korea was wide open, and we played this game a few more turns before we realized that had the US bought a major IC for Korea, which it took, that Japan would have been in deep trouble. By that point in the game, Japan’s forces had swept through China knocking it out of the game (well, with 4 IPCs sitting on the track), and were no where near Manchuria and Korea. Japan was only held lightly too, with the Japanese having not wanted to pull back air units from Truk yet.

Anyway, we were just happy to have had a game in which Japan didn’t stomp the dog snot out of the Allies!!! :-D

@Autarch:

IC’s are supposed to be gateways for new units. I always envisioned them not as factories but as major transportation terminus’ such as rail heads or ports where combat units were transported, offloaded then assembled for battle. There is far too much involved in building armaments and recruiting, training and supporting major combat formations for factories and other infrastructure to be built from scratch on war torn front line territory.

Yeah, I agree with the above view, well put.

@dante:

Mailed the (belgian WOtc) February 10 - found a new battlestrip and 6 Japanese Tac Bombers today in the mail.

:-D :-D :-D :-D

Wow, pretty quick here too. I emailed them on 2-10-10 and mine were in the mailbox this past Thursday 2-18-10, about 1 week!

The battle strip was a little “bendy”, but the planes were in perfect condition. Great job to the AAP40 support staff.

My letter said that there was supposed to be 9 Japanese TAC bombers included in the game originally, and they sent me 6 more for having to have had to wait.

I emailed them yesterday, and got the reply that they’d added me to a list to receive the corrected battle strip plus additional Japanese TAC bomber pieces. They said they hoped to be mailing these out sometime near the end of February. Obviously, I sent them my mailing addresss in the original email.

Nice and easy, if you ask me. :-) We’ll see what happens.

@dinosaur:

I would love to get Tac Bombers, Carriers, Battleships and Cruisers in return.  Let’s see, 10 infantry @ 3 IPC each should be worth a carrier and a battleship, right?

In the old world AAP & AAE, I bought two copies each, along with 1 AAR, BoB & D-Day, and I was rolling in pieces. Traded all those in long ago however.

Now I have AA50, AA42 and now AAP40. I have all the games combined into the AA50 box (scanned copies of the AAP40 set up charts & laminated them - was kinda pissed when I found out that they were wrong too! :lol: ). Anyway, the Japanese pieces from just those three games very nearly don’t fit into the AA50 storage box for the Japanese. I counted the ships once, and there are something like 18 CVs! I think there are 18 BBSs as well, 20 CAs and somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 DDs!

I emailed Wizards tonight about the battle strip & TAC bomber pieces, I’ll be happy with just those. The correct battle strip is nice to have to teach newbies and kids. the TAc bombers will be nice, although in the above totals I was talking about, I also had 30 Japanese fighter pieces. I have some WWII aircraft models, and noticed that the on the tail of a Japanese Kate I have, it was painted red. So I took 10 of the Japanese fighters and painted the tail section red. I threw on some dull coat for protection, but those are my Japanese TAC bomber pieces now. “Red Tails”, and they fit better on the CVs. The Vals have been regulated to land based detail due to their increased size.  :-D

@Gravy:

Thats the problem though…every turn he buys 2 bombers, 2 destroyers, 1 transport and 1 infantry, 1 artilery.  He hardly buys ships but when he combines them with the Ausies at Queensland, they are hard to get at.  He waits for me in Burma, just when I’m ready to hit India from Burma, his bombers come in and wipe me out.  This saves India.

The game goes on and on and eventually I lose all the DEI and my money.

This sounds like an interesting build for the US. Anything to help keep India in the game is a good idea for our group just now.

We have seen that bombers in Australia have yielded good results for the Allies, maybe we just need to increase the number of bombers…

We haven’t tried the J1 attack yet, but the last couple of games saw Japan buying 2 x transports on the first turn + 1 minor complex.

The first game wound up being a J2 attack, and China got steam rolled in a couple turns, then India went bye-bye.

The second game wound up a J3 attack, at which point China was down to just two infantry. India enjoyed an extra turn of infantry building, then got crushed under a tidal wave of Japanese units.

We’ve been fooling around with using the British CA & DD to screen off Java and Sumatra (we call the “lower block”), and the British BB and the US DD to screen off the Philippines from the 2 transports in Japan on J2 (we’re calling this move the “upper block”. The Brit BB goes to the SZ with Guam, and the US DD blocks the adjacent SZ between Guam & Asia. I don’t have the SZ numbers handy at the moment). The two blocking moves together can present the Japanese with some interesting choices on J2. To be honest, this is the first and only situation we’ve seen that causes the Japanese player to consider a J3 attack.

The minor complex going into Asia on J1, even with it’s 3 unit restriction, has been huge in the games we’ve played. Just when we thought that the Allies were back into the game on an even level, this move tipped the scales right back to Japan’s favor.

I know it sounds crazy, but after our last crushing Japanese win in which India again fell, I was looking at the board and trying to think of some way to threaten Japan more directly. I thought maybe an American minor IC (which could go to a major one later), along with a naval base in Alaska might do the trick?

Especially if the Japanese attack on J1, the US could put both down by US2. The Japanese fleet would be at the other end of the gameboard…ah, just a thought.

@Krieghund:

Yes.

All kidding aside, take a look at that, 21 minutes to get an answer, that’s freakin’ awsome.

Thanks again Krieg, the best game support I’ve ever seen or ever heard of.

We’ll be playing for the next 7-9 hours here on the south side of Dayton, just starting game 2 now.

Hey, we’ve been waiting two whole minutes here, what’s Krieg doing, gold bricking on the job?! :lol: :-D

Let’s get with it slacker! You’re holding up the war! :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

We’re dueling it out now in Dayton, and had a question come up. If the British/ANZAC attack Japan first,can Japan freely attack unoccupied Dutch territories without bring the US into the war?

We’re seeing this as being a “yes”…what say ye’ Krieg?  :mrgreen:

@kaufschtick:

BTW, the rulebook needs a serious overhaul.  :-D

What do you think we’ve been doing for the last few weeks?

I see you have a blue lightsaber. :mrgreen:

Thanks for the answer.

So the flyboys can get in on the ANZAC “photo op” national objective, good for them.

We need an A&AP40 rules hotline set up ASAP.

I figure at least 25-30 operators on duty around the clock.

@kaufschtick:

1.) For the second ANZAC N.O.; just for clarification, do ANZAC forces have to occuppy the originally owned Japanese island or territory", or do they “get paid” if any Allied force fullfils this N.O., as was the case with the British N.O. from AA50?

@Krieghund:

It must be ANZAC forces.  However, ANZAC doesn’t have to capture the territory - it just has to occupy it.  This means that it can either capture the territory itself or move units into a Japanese territory that’s already been captured by either the UK or the US.

@kaufschtick:

2.) This also says (one time), so 5IPCs, one turn, and that’s it, right?

@Krieghund:

Right.

OK, part two of this question. Can the ANZAC unit that occupies an original Japanese territory be an air unit?

Or does it have to be a land unit?

BTW, the rulebook needs a serious overhaul.  :-D

@MaherC:

pretty sure by “occupy” to get the 5 IPC one time deal you have to have boots on the ground, not planes in the sky.

That was my thought. Time to post a question… :evil:

@Uncle_Joe:

Yep, harassing the DEI us the Anzac’s primary mission IMO. Your secondary goal would be to provide ‘kill zones’ around Australia where it would be costly for the Japanese to place their fleet. Subs and land-based air work well for that. This gives the US some safe havens near critical areas from which to attack.

Remember that you dont have to do everything alone with each country. If the Japanese move down towards Australia it might be time for the US to pounce. And often they’ll lose their whole fleet. But if they weaken the Japanese to the point where the Anzac’s can mop-up, it’s worth it. And the sooner the better. Japan has a lot of areas to protect and to do that, she needs a fleet. If you can trade out your own fleets and air for the Japanese ships at even a slightly disadvantageous rate it’s well worth it.

I think it was the biggest leap for us when we came to grips with the fact that in order for the Allies as a whole to win, each individual nation had to make what appeared to be bad moves. The thing here is that Japan can kill anything she wants, but she cant kill everything she wants. So if you put enough out there to pee in Japan’s pool, some of it will go unanswered (or else Japan will stretch quite a bit and risk heavier losses).

I agree with Uncle_Joe’s post above.

We had one game where the Japanese had split up their fleet in the DEI. The US kamikazied their at start fleet into one of them, and then the British did same to the other (4 ftrs, 1 TAC, 1 BB, 1 CA & 1DD - loosing the ships, but not all the planes).

Next game, the Japanese did the same kind of move, but kept their fleet all together. This time the US kamikazied it’s at start fleet + bombers in on it’s turn, loosing everything, but chopping the Japanese down. Then the British attacked with the same force above, and cleaned up the left overs. Potentially, the ANZAC player could have continued attacking on it’s turn had there been the need.

I’m used to the double whammy, but in this game, you can actually get a tripple whammy if you’re smart about it.

@Uncle_Joe:

Here’s what I mean.  If you are willing to lose planes (4th commandment of A&A has always been do not use planes as soakers, I know!) then you can run over the mainland of Asia.

We have a game going right now. I think we’re in turn 6, it might be 7 and Japan is earning 75 a turn.  Japan has a fleet sitting at the Phils consisting of 6 CVs with 6 of each plane, 3 BBs, 2 CAs, and 14DDs.  There is NOTHING that can be done against that by the US/ANZAC who are earning 65.  I could care less that the US has a Fleet of 3 CVs, 3 BBs, 1CA and 18DDs sitting in Queensland.  I’m making 10 more per turn.  I can dump 7 zeros and an infantry down in the homeland if he thinks about heading north, and my fleet can cut his off.  Again, Japan is making 75, US 55, ANZAC 10.  This is not “atypical” for a game around these parts.

Interesting. We NEVER see those kind of build ups in our games! Good lord, no wonder the Japanese are winning easily - it sounds like the US is just sitting around trying to outproduce the starting Japanese fleet + reinforcements. Well that is never gonna work…

In any case, that game is already over - the Allies have lost. They lost it turns and turns ago and THAT is where the vulnerability is in a J1 attack. And the Allies in that game have totally missed that opportunity. You can pack that one up and start again. ;)

That’s exactly what I thought after reading that post. The Allies lost that game eons ago…18DDs, I had to do a double take on that one. :-o

The Allies have to be like that tank factory in the battle for Stalingrad, where the tanks rolled right off the assembly line and into the battle. There is no time to waste posturing; “action this day”.

Holy Crap! We never saw this one either! I’m gonna have to run off and grab the rules… :-o

@Mino1124:

Air units can occupy territories they just can’t CAPTURE them. They can still land on any territory that was friendly to start the turn whether their own, or a power with whom they’re allied (assuming they can reach it with the correct number of movement).

Ok, so the flyboys get to get in on the “photo op” as well.  8-)

Hey, I just noticed. What happened to the “karma” stuff? That was this forum, right?