It was a fun game, at least for me. My initial strategy was talk my way into 3 centers, build extra fleets early and focus on the western half of the map. I started by telling Indonesia that we could be friends if I could get wci.  I told USA the same thing regarding mau.  I told them both I would go after Marshall Islands, which I eventually did.
     Indonesia was not fooled by my initial builds at all.  Luckily for me I had made a deal with Australia to divide up the Indonesian centers.  Indonesia threatened to defend against only me, throwing his centers to Australia.  I essentially said to go ahead, but he really didn't.  I think he was trying to defend against both of us which was a uphill battle for him.
     The big game changer was when Indonesia was clearly defeated I offered to not eliminate him if he would help against Australia.  I had no idea it would work so well.  Those 2 and later 3 forward Indonesian fleets were critical to Japan's success.
     Meanwhile USA and I kept Marshall Islands in check.  It's a tough group of islands to invade, not many avenues of approach.  I was lucky that France attacked the USA and distracted him.  I was able to get a bead on WAK and pin the Marshall Islands fleet.  Once Marshall Islands moved his fleet from WEM-kwa, the restricted movement worked against him and I didn't need to fear his fleet slipping past me and causing havoc in the rear. 
     It was slow going in the Marshall Islands, but since no one was interferring I could afford to take my time.  Every once in a while I sent an encouraging message to France to keep up the fight and provided the occasional suggestion; but I don't know if it swayed him.  Probably he and New Zealand should have made some type of agreement when they saw that Indonesia was actively helping Japan and that Marshal Islands couldn't break out of confinement on his own; but they never did.  By the time New Zealand was victorious and turned to face me it was too late.
     But I must admit that the single-most important factor in the game was the very active help from Indonesia.  We had words at one point when he captured a center and I took one of his home centers, preventing his build.  I did not aplogize, and reminded him that I only promised he would not be eliminated.  I would try to make him bigger than Marshall Islands, but wouldn't be held to it.  I do feel a little guilty taking 2 more centers from him at the end; but felt that taking a win was worth being a little heavy-handed.  If I hadn't, I would have risked a long, drawn out conflict with New Zealand with no guarnatee of success.  The guilt is compounded, because my  success was so dependent on Indonesia's loyalty.
 
     About the map.  It seems to me that fleets are necessary everywhere, but especially so in the western half.  The fleets are also SLOW, so they need to be built early.  I figured early on that the final showdown would be somewhere to the east of where it actually was.  Armies would be necessary to hop around, but fleets would be required to support them. So I did go heavy on fleets initially, figuring the armies could catch up.
     Another thing I noticed is that threatened armies on island groups need to be mobile.  That is they should be on the attack.  It's very difficult to defend when other armies can hop around so much.  I think that's another reason to build fleets early; so they can get to where they can support the armies.
 
Thanks to Hugh for running the game; and thanks everyone for playing,  I hope all the players will take a little time to send in some commentary.
 
JonnyB
Japan