Ignoring China

[Captain Crunch]

Has anyone as the Axis player tried ignoring China and Kwangtung and worry about other victory cities instead. Maybe pulling resources out of China and focussing on Anzac/UK and US defense instead? Maybe focus on going North through Russia and Pacific. Seems like a lot of time, energy and resource to go after China. It will take you 3 for 4 full turns of full focus on China to clear it out, by then it is too late really...IMO. Any thoughts on this? Does anyone have feedback from games where this was attempted. I am playing a game at home against myself right now (new to G40 and trying out new strats) and I am on J1 right now. I might just pull out of China and see what happens. That is a lot of IPC's that can be focussed on NO's and larger fleets to counter the US once they are at war. What say you

[turner]

I have also considered this. The problem is if you are trying to get the 6 of 8 VC's in the Pacific then you will need either 1 in China or Western U.S.
Obviously, the beauty of it is that Chinese forces can't follow you out of China.

Another idea is to try the historical approach and just try to keep a buffer around the VC's in China while sending planes etc. elsewhere.

[ashbylaker]

An interesting approach, one I have not seen tried.

Personally, I think that China is always the undoing of Japan. If Japan pushes for Yunnan and lose, China rebuilds, and if it gets arty for even 1 round (if the road is open I usually only buy arty for future use) then it is usually lights out for Japan (unless they are close to victory - I won the game with India, Hawaii as the last two VCs the other day - the first for an axis player in our group - and I let China get a huge foothold, but made sure I held kwantung that final round).

When I play China however, I like nothing more than setting up shop (if the Japan player leaves China alone) in Ahwe (sp?) - this territory has great access to 5/6 territories around it, three of them being worth 2, 3 ipcs each. This is great cash for CHina, and a huge loss for Japan IMO, if China has these every couple turns, AND the road open, I don't see how Japan can win (again unless it's late game).

As Japan, I push to Yunnan, while keeping 1tac and 1fig and a very small force near mid china to counter any attempting push to the coast, while taking the DEI first ($$$ is key for Japan I find) and then immediately pushing over to India.

My mates always tell me my strategy of trying my hardest to ignore the US and stick close to the coastline (where the $ is) is difficult to defend, and thus making India very hard to defend.

However my friend just tried it on me, and I managed to stack all Allied forces, with Airbase, on Java. It worked (although Rich if you are listening, you should have attacked I think you had the odds)

I find when Japan goes for Alaska/W USA, it CAN be a pain, but will get you no where. UK-C and Anz become too powerful, own the DEI, and it's game over (in Europe too, as now UK-C can push into the Med).

[Captain Crunch]

ashbylaker, I don't see how you could possibly hold Kwangtung if you are not going to clear out china. How many units did you have for defense? If I am China and see Japan ignoring all of me I am moving full force to Kwangtung to over-power you and hold territory for UK. You must have had some presence there to keep China from liberating Kwangtung, I would think.

[m7574]

it doesn't take many infantry if he can land 15+ aircraft there

[Captain Crunch]

it doesn't take many infantry if he can land 15+ aircraft there

Yea, true enough but you gonna keep 15 planes sitting close enough to land in Kwangtung 'just in case'. I don't think so. Your planes are needed elsewhere. If you are not focussing on china they are going to have a mountain of infantry and some artillery to boot. Moving that mass into Kwantung is gonna take quite the force to defend. You gonna sacrifice your planes as Japan. Don't think so. So, the question still is, can you ignore China and be successful in other areas of the Pacific? Without a factory on the coast (because you have pulled out) I don't know if you could even build transports and get to India fast enough. Tough job for Japan.

[m7574]

no, its not a good long-term strategy but if the UK/China armies had just arrived with enough power to take it comfortably, It's a good trick to get your aircraft there if you only need to hold for 1 or 2 more rounds. sounds like this may have been the case.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I usually hit China hard in the beginning then when I finally get to war with others back out. My current game has the Russians driving through China to liberate the two victory cities but oops, not in time to get them before I capture Sydney and Hawaii