What is the best time to DOW the US as Japan?

[Agenor]

It's early 1941, they have twice as many battleships as I have, (although one of mine is super-heavy), same number of CVs. The longer I wait, the stronger they will get, and they will always outbuild me. Also, once I declare war, should I wait till the Pearl Harbor event fires before trying to take it? I reckon the longer I wait, the more they will reinforce it, or is the AI not that smart?

I reckon my only chance to beat them is a land invasion of the US, but for that I have to have Pearl Harbor, right? I would love to invade them from the North East, but how? Panama, Florida etc?

 

[unmerged(105989)]

Never played Japan myself, but considering your IC restrictions, you need to whack the US earlier rather than later. To invade the US, you don't NEED pearl, it just makes it much, much easier. The other option is to attack Alaska, then come from the north.

To attack the US northeast, you first have to take the Panama canal, then ship your forces around. This is time consuming, but it will work.

I wouldn't worry too much about the US BB fleet, as most of it is obsolete and a holdover from the beginning of the game. You should have the US in naval and CAG (fighter) doctrines for a while, so take them now before they catch up.

 

[midget_roxx]

CV's are the all important ships in the game and all the US BB's are lvl 1 and 2s. The Pearl Harbour event only occurs when you DoW yourself there is no set event.

But yes do attack early or the US will start to build it's doctrines and CV's up to a high level. The AI wil cheat and upgrade it's CV's during production which means high level CVs outdoing your CVs.

Best way to defeat the US is to go through Hawaii, and make sure you capture this very fast because the AI will build up a doomstack on any island it can just to keep Hawaii. Use NAV's and TAC's to scout out the enemy fleets then try and hit them with your fleets. The US AI is hopeless at defending their mainland, so just get some fast units like Cav or ARM to blitz through to the East. Just be warey of the mountains as they will hinder your speed at which you can annex Canada and US.

You can trigger the US surrenders event which releases California as a state and you gain some island holdings, which isn't all that good considering you can get the whole of USA with added resources . However if you want to go for this route you will need basically all the islands in the Pacific and all the islands of Alaska, Alaska and most of the West coast to trigger the event.

Oh and for fleet composition try going no higher than 18 ships because of the stacking penalties involved. I know my fleets usually consisted of a 12 ship CAG, with 5 CVs and 7 screens, with air support it makes a deadly combo. Make sure you try and research those doctrines as they especially turn the tides of battle when you have the best ones available. And don't mix BBs with CVs as the BBs will just become very expensive screens for your CVs which is something you don't want happaning. Finally don'y forget to add CVLs to your fleets as damage soakers, and they help with positioning which is invaluable in naval battles

 

[Agenor]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I can't reach Alaska, it's even further than California. I reckon the only way is via Hawaii or maybe Midway.

Best way to defeat the US is to go through Hawaii, and make sure you capture this very fast because the AI will build up a doomstack on any island it can just to keep Hawaii.

They couldn't if they tried. They only have about 20 divisions, spread out garrisoning quite a few islands. I, on the other hand, have over 120, thanks to the war with China. If I can reach the mainland, I reckon they are done for.

 

[unmerged(105989)]

Just remember, as soon as the the US gets its peacetime modifiers removed, they have a metric a-- ton of IC. Wait more than half a year, and you will see a very different story.

 

[unmerged(132371)]

The island chain coming off Alaska runs to transport distance of the home islands , Attu island and another one I can't remember. Take these and island hop to Alaska.

 

[joespaniel]

1936! Bonzai!!!