ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
As a region, the Solomons and New Ireland really aren't that important, especially as you get later in the game. There are regions that are much more important (for resources) or much closer to Japan's heart.
However, the Solomons/New Irelland have become important because that's where the two sides seem to be fighting their Guadalcanal. It really isn't important when and even if you conquer Shortlands, Rabaul, etc, though you may well eventually and can make good use of them. What is important is that you are meeting in a titanic engagement that is bleeding Japan badly. Hear this: The real focus of this campaign is to kill the enemy and destroy his assets. As long as he's coming to you, you are fine and don't have to press your luck. Eventually, as he weakens, you may have to push him a bit to get him to fight hard. But for the moment you are safe to put expansion plans way on the back burner as you concentrate on creating killing fields.
Dead on the mark! The SoPac is only important if it is the theater where you have the Japanese engaed in late 1942/early 1943. It is vitally important to keep the pressure on your opponent at this time to start the attrition of his air, naval, and to a lesser extent his ground forces. Where this occurs will be different in every game but the Allied player has to find an area the Japn plyer has to fight for at this point in the game to keep the pressure up.
For the Allies, the overall air battle is like an old time steam locomotive starting from a dead stop. At first you expend tremendous energy and seem to be going no where. Then you finally see some movement but it doesn't seem like you've accomplished much at all. Here is where you are wrong because once you have broken the moment of inertia you've done over half the work. Before you know it, you will be roaring down the tracks at top speed. The "moment of inertia" in the air battle is the high EXP (not air skill) of the Japanese fighter pilots. You can train pilots up to reasonable air skill in a few months. What you can't do is get high EXP without actually fighting. The problem early in the war is that not only are the Allied pliots inexperienced, but that they are largely flying inferior a/c. SO tehy tend to die before they can accumulate decent EXP. As your best pilots survive, they will eventually move into better a/c. Meanwhile, the Japan player will be seeing his high EXP pilots slowly erode from ops losses alone. However, the shoe is on the other foot for him as his new pilots find themselves in increasingly inferior a/c as compared to the Allies. You don't need to nor will you likely ever reach a point where your pilots will be on the same level as the Japanese early war pilots. Once you reach parity, the superior numbers of equal or better a/c will swing the air battle your way. Eventually most Japan players reach a point where they have the late war a/c with crappy pilots to fly them. There are some exceptions to this if a player is crafty and saves a reserve. Even then, that reserve is a limited resource than will eventually be expended.
. This just keeps getting more interesting. Kudos to both of your playing styles. In a 1943 war of attrition I don't see how the Allied player can lose, although he may get bloodied. And let's hope your Inchon landing succeeds like the real-life one did.
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