Axis & Allies Pacific 1940 - Tips & Strategies

A typical mistake I see being made in the Axis and Allies 1940 Pacific board game, is the Japanese player ignoring Australia. The problem is, Australia is the key to victory. Of the three main enemy powers (U.S., UK, and Anzac), the Australian New Zealand Compact is the easiest nut to crack. If japan Focuses its considerable naval might on them from the beginning it should have little problems taking over its mainland and island chains. This will force the UK player to divide his resources between helping Anzac and aiding China which is not easily done. By the time the U.S. enters the war, Japan’s production should be more than able to keep up with them. And if they maintain their naval superiority throughout their bid for Australia, they should win the day.

One of the game designers, in an effort to update the game, has released a set of revised rules for both the Europe and Pacific 1940 Axis and Allies games. There are a handful of rules changes, some updated national objectives, and new set up rules for each country. I highly recommend using them as they bring some much needed balance to the game. They are easy to find and available free on line.

Normally, the presence of an enemy Destroyer unit will stop your Submarines from Submerging duing combat (due to their anti-submarine capabilities). However, we have been allowing Submarines to submerge AFTER the first round of combat. So in effect, the Subs would have to endure one round of combat before being allowed to dive and escape. I think this adds a little realism to the game – submarines were crafty little things after all.

If you wanted to take it further, merely set the rule to function at a 1:1 ratio. In other words, each enemy Destroyer may only stop ONE of your Submarines from submerging during the first combat round. I.E. if you had 6 Submarines and your enemy had 2 Destroyers, the result would be that 4 of your Subs could submerge BEFORE the first combat round, and the remaining 2 could submerge after the first combat round (providing they survived the enemy fire). This adds quite a bit more realism and tactical choices to the game and gives a slight advantage to the player who has lots of Submarines!

My gaming group have been using these house rules recently and we like the way they play out.

National Objectives help generate extra income for each player and can be based on either peacetime or wartime economies. By that I mean that some NOs are in effect whether or not a certain power is at War. Some NOs are easy to get whilst others are harder. However, once achieved, they will significantly boost your financial resources (new players to the game will especially benefit more from the extra income).

Of course, your opponent(s) have NOs of their own and it’s your job to try and deny them from achieving theirs (whilst still getting your own) and this can be quite hard to do!

All the powers in this game (Japan, United States, United Kingdom, ANZAC, & China) have between 1 and 4 different National Objectives to attain, and each is worth an extra 5 or 10 cash.

Be ruthless and determined in achieving these bonuses and you will reap the rewards in subsequent turns, giving you a definite edge over your opponents in terms of industrial production!