Japan Overview

When analyzing Japan the obvious strength lays in the sea. Having the strongest navy on the board (2 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 1 submarine, 2 transports, and 1 cruiser) will bode well for Japan to maintain superiority in the Pacific. Japan has the unique ability on its first turn to attack all three of the Allies. The Soviet Union has a small, five infantry, troop buildup along the Japanese-Soviet boarder in Buryatia. The Americans have troops in China and naval units in the Pacific. The British have drawn first blood and moved from India into French Indo-China, and have a cruiser in zone 36 and a submarine in zone 47. All of this adds up to Japan needing solid combat and non-combat strategy on her first turn.
Japan is in a bit of a conundrum on its first turn. The obvious move for Japan is to attack Pearl Harbor. This is a great move to maintain Pacific superiority and can easily cripple the American fleet. However, with a British cruiser, sub and transports lurking around in the South China Sea the Japanese must not over extend itself on an abhorrent attack on America and risk losing New Guinea or allowing the British cruiser to escape Japanese waters. The Japanese can hold off a Pearl Harbor attack one round, if she invests heavily in strong naval units. The Japanese ground war being fought in Eastern Asia is undoubtedly important if Japan has interest in helping her ally fight the Soviets. What makes this land battle interesting is a lack of allied reinforcement troops. America’s foothold in China is weak due to a lack of an industrial complex. Once America’s troops are killed they will essentially be defeated in China. Similarly, Great Britain does not have the resources to shore up her troop defense in Asia and has one to two rounds at best to hold off the Japanese. The one power that can provide reinforcements, the Soviet Union, has to focus most of her attention in the west and thus has little resources to fight off a Japanese force. This all bodes well for the Japanese, Japan is able to add more IPC’s by taking over much of the Asian continent and ultimately squeeze the Soviets into submission. The key for Japan is to produce enough troops to send to the mainland, to accomplish this goal, production of transports and possibly later in the game construction of an industrial complex on the mainland will benefit the Japanese greatly. Furthermore Japan has lost significant IPC’s to British attacks on French Indo-China and New Guinea, Japan must move quickly to regain purchasing power for turn two. Just like Germany, balance is of utmost importance for a Japanese victory.