Yeah, I considered that.  The Allies took their KGF strategy to an almost ridiculous extreme, practically abandoning mainland Asia altogether, so my main goal was to try and take some heat off Germany.  So far, the US hasn’t dropped a ton of troops on WUS and I’m planning to launch my first of what will probably be several attacks this round.  If I can disrupt his production and force him to send troops west and not to Europe, I’ll be happy enough with that.

Thanks for the response.

So far, I’ve thrown the Americans out of China and the British out of India.  Russia is just doing a holding action in the east at this point, and is about to retreat to Yakut and leave Buryatia, so no real threat from the Asian mainland.  I was toying with the idea of an Alaskan factory, but I don’t think that’s practical since I can transport from Japan to there and base fighters/bombers in Hawaii.

Hey all, long-time lurker, first-time poster.

Classic Axis doctrine seems to be to take out Russia first, then turn on the Anglo-Americans.  But has anyone had success with an early attack on the Americans?  Once Japan takes out the fleets at Pearl Harbor and the Indian Ocean, there’s practically no naval resistance in the Pacific other than perhaps occasional sub harassment.  In the game I’m playing, I’ve taken Alaska and Hawaii (as well as China and India), have Japan at 38 IPC, and knocked the US down to 38.  Best case scenario, I can take the Western US in a couple turns.  Worst case, it forces the US to concentrate on self-defense, leaving Germany to deal with a 2 front war instead of 3.

I think this strategy has a lot to recommend it.  Playing as Japan, my first turn objectives are as follows (roughly in this order):
1. Destroy the fleet at Pearl Harbor.
2. Take India.
3. Destroy the Indian Ocean fleet.
4. Take China.
5. Take Alaska.

If the main British fleet links up with the small Australian fleet and adds a fighter, it’s going to take a huge force commitment to destroy.  Tough to pull off both #1 and #3 in this scenario.