thanks!

I generally don’t build up my navy.  Italy starts with so little money that its hard to do.  There’s also little that Italy can do if the Allies decide to focus on your navy and take it out.  There is simply nothing that Italy can buy to prevent it.  I’d rather not risk losing that money on a sinking ship.  I focus on landing as much into Africa as I can before my navy gets whacked.  Hopefully that means I’m cashing in around Africa once that has happened.

@Cmdr:

But yes, I do believe of all the technologies in the game, Paratroopers are the most powerful.  Paratroopers + Long Range Aircraft is more powerful still and Paratroopers + Long Range Aircraft + Heavy Bombers is game over for the side that does not have the three combined, IMHO.

An over-generalization, I think.

I’ve developed long range heavy bombin’ paratroopers (2 hit heavies - before they neutered them) with Japan and still lost.  I didn’t complete the tri-fecta until after Germany had fallen, and it was too little, too late.  We played it out, though, because the long range heavy bombin’ paratroopers made it interesting.  Sure, you can get the infantry to odd places, but you can’t always land the bomber in a safe place.  And you can’t get to all the islands as easily as you might think.

Paratroopers can be awesome, but they can also be not so awesome.  It is not always the best tech for your country to get.  Many times, mech infantry or rockets are better (for chart 1) and long range aircraft is often better.  It depends on what country you have, and what units you own, and what round it is, and what the board situation is.  The fact remains, you can’t do more than one thing with a unit at once.  If you’re dropping infantry (only allowed on the front lines, and only allowed during combat movement) then your bomber is not SBRing, it is not attacking naval units, and it may not end up in the optimal place as a result of the attack.  To be sure, long range heavy bombing paratroopers is still an issue, which I have addressed in another thread.  Some house rules have been proposed by various players, including only allowing one capability per bomber each turn (take your pick - long range, heavy bomber, or paratrooper), and increasing the cost of bombers by 1 IPC for each tech obtained (maximum 15).  While these are reasonable “remedies” I’ve never used them.  Both sides have equal chance to get these techs, and both can benefit roughly the same.  The game is for fun, and one side is going to lose one way or another, so why not have the possibility of getting long range heavy bombing paratroopers?  It makes it more fun and enticing to invest in tech.  And like Jen pointed out - radar is a nice defense for them.  It will shoot down 1/3 of your bombers and paratroopers, whether they’re long range and heavy bombers or not!

Buying a carrier and some other boats (usaually dd + tr) in G1 seems to be the default move in our gaming group. It is an effective way to shuttle men to Kar, protect Fr and Scan, and threaten any UK1 boat builds. This does ease pressure on Rus quite a bit knowing that Ger ground units won’t be marching on them, so Rus needs to be aggressive in capturing and holding tt Ger needs for its NO.

Meanwhile, an effective counter to the G1 fleet build may be to focus on ITA with UK air. By taking out the Med fleet, ITA and GER are denied Africa and NO income. Without its fleet, ITA can not assail Cau, either, which allows Rus to concentrate on GER while the Anglos get ramped up.

These forums offer so many good ideas and strategies. I hope I have time to try them all!

@gamerman01:

@naturesprank:

Yeah, gamerman, I am aware of that most recent update. We don’t use it, since it negates much of the fun of getting HBs in the first place and we have been playing with the published rules for over a year. My playing group doesn’t always like to implement the updated rules errata that we come across. You shouldn’t need to access forums like these to play the game, so we usually use the OOB rules unless there is a conflict or complete misunderstanding.

Yeah, right on.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few ambiguities in the rulebook.  I have had to ask several different rules questions.  If you guys can’t agree on a rule, just post your question in the FAQ and errata thread under AA50, and you’ll have an answer in no time.  Probably not a bad idea to scan through that thread and see the answers to lots of questions…

True on all counts, and we have used that resource numerous times. Especially as pertains to subs, the OOB rules are very vague.

Even using the updated best-of 2 dice rule for HBs, the Americans can send a lot of heat toward the Rome, Berlin and Karelia ICs when not doing huge dmg to ITA or GER fleets. It’s nice to know that you will probably (89% on 2 HB) roll a minimum of 3 per HB during SBRs after risking them to AA. It might not seem like enough, but we seem to agree that the best early pressure US can exert on Ger is via SBR.  And getting HBs definitely helps with that. It, along with LR air, seem to have the biggest impact on our games.

Thanks for the welcoming!!

That’s exactly what I’ve undestood and the way we played after discussion.

Then I’ve to go back to my board and keep on crushing my axis friend!!

If anybody is in CT and would like to get on a Double Blind games, contact me.  We’re going to try and get one going on Good Friday.

Where:  East Hartford, CT
When: Friday April 2
Time:  10am
Contact:  Brian  brian@thediceturret.com

Thanks,

@pmelmike:

Does anybody know a good place to buy alternate plastic infantry pieces that are unpainted and the same size as the original AA ones?  I would just like to have some with different poses, etc.  I haven’t looked that hard I admit, but all the ones that I’ve found so far are too big.

Not as good as:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx

But I must mention:

http://www.xenogames.com/extraparts.php

Do whatever you want to spice up the game, by all means.  If you want to change what victory cities there are, change them.  Change the victory conditions.  Play until you have a certain number of territories, a certain level of combined income, or even until one power can build 10 battleships.  If you want to spice it up, that would be a good way to do it.

But most people, in my experience, don’t pay any attention to victory cities.  Just play until one side gives up.  Usually this happens before 15 victory cities are obtained.

It does not matter that Washington, Ottawa, and San Francisco are hard to take.  If you’re playing the standard 15 victory cities, you don’t need any of them.  If you’ve taken over Moscow and London, it is only a matter of time until all 18 cities are yours, so it really doesn’t matter.

Since there was no sea battle in sea zone 12 and the destroyer did not participate in the amphibious assault, it did not participate in combat and is therefore free to move in noncombat movement.

You have the choice of sinking the transport or bombarding.  You can’t do both.

Pretending you get that hit, and way to ensure that only 1 fighter dies would dramatically increase the odds of bombers and tactical bombers dieing.

I disagree, you forget to take into account the chances of an extra hit are minimal. Let’s redo the example, but with assuring maximum one type of aircraft survives, for instance, simply remove the fighters/bmrs from the pool after you assign the first hit.

So redoing the example with 999 fighters + 3 bmrs. First assume no extra hit: you allocate the sure hit by rolling a 1002 sided die, if it’s <1000, a fighter dies, if it’s >=1000, a bmr dies. With extra hit: a fighter and bomber dies (this follows from rolling a 1002 sided die for the sure hit first, remove the type of casualty, and roll another die for the other type, which by then is the only type left, so will for sure be hit). Now let’s analyze chances:

The chance you hit a fighter is: the chance the sure hit is a fighter + the chance the sure hit isn’t a fighter (which removes the bmrs from the group) and the extra hit hits. Mathematically: 999/1002 + 3/10022/1000 = 99,7%. The chance you hit a bmr is the chance the first hit is a bmr + the chance the first hit is not a bmr and the extra hit hits. Mathematically: 3/1002 + 999/10022/1000 = 0,5%. (Note these chances do not amount to 1 since on average more than one unit is hit. Moreover, on average, 1,002 units are hit, which is exactly the sum of the chances ;) ) So in almost all battles, a fighter will be killed, but never more than one, and almost never a bomber, and never more than one. So no dramatical increases of bombers dieing with this approach, a very slight increase at best. Very much within the margins of LL imho  8-)

This reminds me of a method of handling AA I invented before, struggling with the same problem in AAR LL. I forgot it in my previous post  :roll: It’s fairly elegant, but has (in little cases) a chance of “both bmrs dieing”. Here’s how it goes:

So, 9 fighters, 5 bombers, 7 tacs, 8 lancasters, 1 zeppelin and 3 ufo’s are being attacked by an AA. First remove groups of 6’s and remove these sure hits, just like you said. Then line them up on one long row. So 3 ftr, 5 bmr, 1 tac, 2 lnc, 1 zep, 3 ufo. Now divide them in ordered groups of 6: 3 ftr + 3 bmr, 2 bmr + 1 tac + 2 lnc + 1 zep, 3 ufo (= rest), and roll a die for each group, with the number of the die appointing the aircraft hit. For instance, you roll 4, 3, 4. So in the first group a bmr (the 4th aircraft) is hit, in the second a tac (3rd), and in the third nothing (you needed a 3- to hit, the 4th aircraft is “empty”). This is my preferred way of solving LL AA: no more hits than needed, no deep calculations, easy way of handling the extra hits. Actually, it’s a generalization of the “groups of 6 are sure hits”-rule: a group of 6 is nothing more than 6 aircraft for which a die is thrown, but since all the aircraft are of the same type, and since the group is exactly 6 large, the number on the die will always point to an aircraft of the type of which the group consists.

However, there is a problem with this approach: suppose the second die in the example was a 1, then two bmrs would have been hit, which you want to avoid. My advice: order the groups as good as possible (with as little types in two groups as possible). In the example: 5 bmr + 1 zep, 3 ftr + 3 ufo, 1 tac + 2 lnc. As you can see, no aircraft type is in danger of getting two hits. This however is not always possible, but even in those rare cases, the type to split will contain at least 4 members (always split the largest type), so it is acceptable that 2 of those group can die instead of one. I deem this also very much within the approximative margin of LL to ADS.

For instance, applying this method to your example (999 ftr + 3 bmr): divide in 2 groups, with the ftrs split (they are the largest type). So 3 bmr + 997 ftr, 2 ftr. Now the chances of a bmr being hit are 3/1000 = 0,3% , the chances of (minimum) one ftr being hit are 997/1000 + 2/1000 = 99,9% These are actually the exact average chances of ADS! And compared to your method (which has the advantage of no double bmrs hit), it’s pretty close I think.

To summarize, use my method, with the “split only if needed, split to never more than two, and split the largest types first”-rule, and you won’t need to worry about chances or double bombers. Happy rule crunching :mrgreen:

@Bjergmose:

Is the defender able to scramble ftr to counter the recon?

Do you use ftr and/or bmb to recon?

If you recon can your airplanes still perform combat moves?

Would like to play…but not exactly in the neighbourhood :-)

No ftr scramble.  If you have AA in the area, you can use it.

Yes.  They can be used in Combat moves.

@General:

Recon?

So you dont set the game up at the start?

I still dont get it.

Yes.  You setup up the game in the beginning per the rules.  Obviously recon is not needed on Germany 1st move or Russia first move if you are playing 1942 scenario.

You actually setup 2 game boards with ALL the pieces.  One side is the Axis and one is the Allies.

@SilverAngelSurfer:

So you can recon any adjacent territories whenever you want, or is there a limited number of recons per turn?  And to recon more distant territories you need to do an aerial recon which has a chance of failure…  Quite interesting.  I take it you need one map for the axis and one map for the allies?  Sounds like a cross between A&A and Battleship, if I’m getting this right.  :mrgreen:

I guess you would call it a cross.  Never thought of it that way…

Each country is allowed to recon before it combat move.  Ground recon 1st and then Air.

@Tarling:

I think this link should help. I assume it uses something similar, although I have not had the opportunity to play this variant. Seems quite fun though!!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/17670/axis-allies-double-blind-doc?

I like this.  We have never used the last rule but that sounds pretty interesting.  Propaganda.

what are you guys talking about in mine they’re pink.

(jk they’re Black)

Attack Finland. Then you can take Norway 2nd round with 1 inf and the rest (if any) can try to retake Karelia. Or hold Finland. When in doubt…attack. 8-)

Sound good IL, I hope you can work out the detailss of the map, you always do good work.

why did you sell them??

no no the you unzip the file you download and then run the .jar file

On page 5

Shouldn’t “fighter” be replaced with “cruiser” in the first line of the answer. The defender has a sub and cruiser, the attacker has the fighter.

Q. Assume there’s a sea zone that contains an enemy sub and cruiser, and that I attack it with a destroyer and a fighter. If the defender scores two hits in the first combat round, can I take the hit from the cruiser on my destroyer, saving my fighter, since the sub can’t hit it?
A. No. Because you have a destroyer, the defender’s sub rolls in Step 4 along with his or her fighter cruiser. Since both defending units roll in the same combat step and all dice are rolled in a step before applying casualties, the two hits are applied together. Therefore, you must apply both hits if possible. The only way to apply both hits is to take the cruiser hit on the fighter and the sub hit on the destroyer.

This has been sold. Thanks jrchase.