Who ever is the defender when the pact is broken gets +1 defense to all their units on the first round of combat, in combats launched by that opposing power.

So that encourages players to keep some units on the border….because they will defend as if they were tanks on the first round.
Or an AAA would defend at ‘2’ on the first round.

Think trench warfare…both those powers were expecting an attack on that front (defensive posture) but didn’t have the initiative, or reason, to launch an attack.

I take S France on G1, risking taking higher losses in the battle for France, then never make any German Navy in the Med as Uk is always just too strong and I fear losing the new units.
Without an Air Base any German builds seem doomed, but I cannot afford to blow 15IPCs making one when the ultimate objective is Russia.
UK well played is the death knell for Italy.

@MadPup77:

You don’t have to wait a turn to hit Japan. You place them, next turn they’re in SZ 6. You place them in SZ 10, next turn Hawaii, next turn SZ 6.

-MadPup77

If you put a NB in Alaska, they can move in 1 turn into SZ 6, via SZ 8 and SZ 7.

well japan goes for his win while germany goes all out russia. you can only at most ever ship 10 a round to europe with usa or uk, uk will be busy with the italian problem unless he allows it to make an income then it defends europe while germany gets russia.

1941 looks good, can’t wait to play it. I was skeptical about getting global… I was right on the money it turned out not so good and when alpha 3 came out, sure ok if I have time for it, it is good.

Holland airbase may sometimes be built on round 3 to deter an American airstrike on the German transport fleet after sealion.  If you are seriously committed to sealion on the very first turn no matter what, then building the airbase G1 it is a better deal than a carrier because you will go into G3 with a battleship instead of a carrier.  Normandy naval base will repair it for you so 2 hits to the battleship saves 2 planes just like the carrier, but the BB also attacks @4 and the base costs $1 less.  The best part is they might take the bait and attack it and lose planes, which is good for Germany in any sealion scenario.  More likely your extreme level of commitment to sealion should lead the allies to play conservatively with their air forces, so there will be no attack on your battleship, no Taranto attack, and USA may build in preparation for sealion rather than focus on Pacific defense.  The big downside to it is you are basically locked into sealion because if you don’t go through with it, you will have to tie up an awful lot of resources defending it for minimal benefit.

alaska is a non issue. can block hawaii with a dd.

us cannot take DEI if it is dutch, but anzac and uk pac already did, you did not DOW yet, of course they took all the dutch islands round 2.

Keeping japan in sz 6 doesn’t keep us honest. it is away from your objectives. It is the exact opposite. America is not afraid of losing alaska. 16 units is not going to take and hold hollywood. usa can spam ground forces after the fact, the hell.

block hawaii with a dd and done. don’t worry about pacific. No J1 or J2 dow = you are not trying to win in the pacific.

take fleet to queensland and screw making pacific ships. If japan doesn’t want to be near the cash islands, he won’t make enough to win in the pacific. america won’t need to be there.

Would I abandon calcutta, I’d have enough to defend it considering the 20+ income it makes, but I’d move stuff out for sure.

If you are away from your money and not declaring war, that is a big green light for usa to go full atlantic.
~
plus there are enough dds laying around in the pacific to block your naval from hitting calcutta, in which case calcutta moves.

if you telegraph what you are doing like this, of course america is going to try and drop on italy. Egypt can be well defended too you know.

lots of people drop egypt minor and build off south africa and egypt with uk, instead of making a silly london fleet.
~

Don’t get me wrong, the strategy works the first time around usually, but after that people figure it out easy.

but staying in sz6 is absolutely silly, you aren’t fooling anyone. At least if you are near the money, usa might think you are trying with japan.

Anyway,  most people don’t buy much in the pacific when there is no J2 DOW, regardless of where your naval is. you might see 3 units of sub/dd mix, but that is about it.

sometimes on USA 2 if no J2 dow happened and Japan doesn’t look like he will dow… I pull the USA 1 buy off west usa into the atlantic. get hawaii to queensland and taunt.

@Cow:

I believe if japan takes the last VC, once france ends / germany is about to begin… that counts as a full round… you don’t have to go again so to speak.

It has to be a full round from the time the last VC is taken. So in this example, it would have to come back around to Japan in order for the Axis to achieve victory.

you are right, not too many close games.

@Commando:

You can land Anzac or UK air on Dutch territories w/out putting land units there first I believe. As well as Fic…

Correct.  Cow- Dutch territories are not neutral.  Holland is not a neutral no player power.  It is an Allied non player power.  A non neutral Ally is ALWAYS free to land planes there while the territory is still dutch

Lesson: bring a DD along when there are Subs around and you are serious about landing!
Brilliant scenario though.

I think the idea of smaller forces being effective against an attack is probably most valid when thinking about the USA navy in both the Atlantic and pacific. Having say three small navies in a “V” formation gives then the advantage of options should one be attacked, while having one large navy would be a stalemate for the most part in the Pacific and usually a loss there. In the atlantic it gives the Axis something to worry about, where a UK fleet parked in one zone can be dealt with quickly and decicivly an multi-zone fleet makes you wonder what he’s up to. Just look at all the resources needed by Germany R1 vs UK, and this is a relatively small fleet compared to what USA can produce.

Good points Gargantua.

If you try it out, you’ll see that the U.K. can’t sufficiently reinforce France, even with the additional 6 French troops, from having Germany crush it on round 2.  Even if every available plane is landed there, and the strafe leaves 2 tanks plus the fighter, it’s impossible to hold.  So all that landing planes accomplishes is wiping out the British airforce (and keeping France from falling to Italy).  The payoff isn’t worth it.

The biggest downsides I can imagine are that (1) it is much more difficult to hold off serious landings at Normandy by the US and/or UK.  Italy then has to protect Western Europe and the Med–although with Germany taking S France, they can dump ships in the Med as well if it comes to that (subs backed up by planes would be cheap).  And (2) delaying the war on the Pacific side until round 3 (which would make this work much better at times, depending on the US builds) means that UK Pacific can shuttle some troops over.

The really nice thing about this strategy is that it’s more efficient to have Italy be the 1 force in the Med, and not have to worry about building enough ships off the S France factory right away to protect them from UK planes.

I think it’s going to be the standard opening in our play group for the foreseeable future.

The counter someone mentioned above about making sure to buy troops in S Africa–either mechs, or infantry/artillery to go with transports, in combination with some shuttling from India, is probably the safe response.

Grover and I just started another game, with me being the Axis, and I’ve got to say I’m enjoying the big Italian boost.

Assuming a J1 DOW and a Japanese fleet sitting on or around Hawaii, how many turns will it take for the US to neutralize Japan in the Pacific?  3?  4?  Its about the equivalent of waiting a few turns as Japan before the US can DOW.  The tradeoff is Japan gains very little economic advantage and just keeps the US busy in the Atlantic until Japan loses most of its fleet that it cannot replace.

@Yavid:

Let me say this first. I HATE turtling. Your number one job as the Russian player is to kill Germans. The more expensive the unit the better. Be prepared for hit and run attacks. keep your offensive units together but off the front lines if possible.

I completely agree, Russia can not sit there and take every German swing. they have to swing back if they want to last long enough for the allies to rescue them. the Russians have to counter attack when ever possible.

OK thanks!

@PeterPaaPan:

Hey looking for a map with the units on as they start! Found 1-2 of them, but impossible to see what was on it cuz of poor ress!

Hope u can help me! PPP

I would like that too.

You can pretty much tell how the game is going to go after G3 when they should have attacked Russia by then.  If they won those fights easy then Moscow is likely to fall in a couple of turns. The USA can’t get there fast enough to stop it.

I’ve done a couple games ftf with the latest A 3.9 where I spent $5 a turn every turn on tech. It’s not a huge waste all at once and yeah that could mean a couple less fighters in the game long term, but the potential payoff is nice. In one game my partner and I got LR air with US on turn 3-4 and were able to immediately sink a combined German/Italy fleet in sz91 because of all extra air we could fly in.

I wouldn’t consider tech on a consistent basis like that with any other country except maybe Japan/Germany later in the game once they’re around 60+ and they’re in a position where they can spare 5 bucks a turn. Maybe USSR if Germany went Sea lion and USSR has a huge stack in EPL that won’t go anywhere for several turns.

Another Axis Victory….this time in 6 rounds(took 9 last time), Germany attacked Russia turn 3, Japan attacked turn Russia 1. Victory in Europe. 6 victory cities for Germany, 2 for Italy. Allies couldn’t respond fast enough or well enough to make any difference. It came down to Germany and Japan pounding the crap out of Russia. Japan didn’t declare war on the UK or the USA. USA entered war end of turn 3 and the UK declared war on Japan the next turn. Two major navel battles were fought in Hawaii and both were won by the USA. Japan wiped out the rest of the allied fleets with their super sub tech. Japan took all of China but lost part of it by the end of Round 6. The land battle was turning against Japan in China.  The USA had a fleet sitting two spaces from Japan.  USA had a round 6 invasion of Norway.  I believe that is about it in terms of things of note.