4 Ftr’s  and 3 Bmbrs.

Where are USA planes hitting SZ19 coming from/landing?

In games with big bids for the Allies (35+ PUs), it is possible to hold Yunnan by adding in an additional Chinese art plus flying in an additional two or three Russian planes that were bought before the game started.  If Japan pushes all of their units to Kwangsi on J1, the Allies will have to vacate Yunnan before J2 or face annihilation.  However the Chinese can counterattack or strafe Yunnan on Ch2 since the Japanese air force can’t land in that territory, seriously harming Japan’s ground strength in Mainland Asia.

Russia will have to methodically retreat back towards Moscow for the first three rounds with this plan.  The upside in Europe is that the US can execute a KGF plan since there is less urgency in the Pacific theater.

@Elsass-Lorraine:

@NotEvenJail:

Its starting to feel like this guy is just trolling us with these “essays.” I mean come on, man. Many of these statements are way too out of touch. Can’t be serious.

I would hesitate to jump so far so quickly. He/she probably is just discovering this forum and/or other sources of strategies, and their game group has probably been disconnected, if you will, from the most effective strategies that the wider A&A community takes for granted.

I will note that in his first essay (the Barbarossa one) he mentioned how G40 had recieved “little attention on this blog”, which I take to mean the main axisandallies.org website (which most definitely does have a lack of G40-related articles, last I checked) as opposed to the forums. I knew about axisandallies.org the site long before I knew about the forums, so maybe that is what happened here.

I didn’t mean to be harsh just speculating. I get it. This game is special because it has a lot more nuance than one would readily perceive.  I have no problem with the thread just made me scratch my head.

If you can’t find anyone to play with, then go to triplea and start playing online with other folks. Some of the commenters here are on there, but others are only playing triplea through the forum (not live). Not live triplea is more of analysis type play where they have the time to really study their purchase and moves.

Regardless, (not disparaging you), but I think that you’ll find that the purchase order you suggest in your thread won’t get you Moscow. Really, the only to get better is to just play the game. It’s fun for me to play completely new players too as they actually do come up with different ideas that add to my “kit bag.”

I view the essays as para-historical entertainment from someone who contemplates the board waiting to find an opponent.

Welcome to the forum and try the game online. It’s much more interesting than writing and speculating about the game. :wink:

@WILD:

@weddingsinger:

I usually play as Axis, but in the past the worst problem for me is if the U.S. can gather its starting assets together, maybe a US1 buy, too, all of Japan’s starting isn’t enough to fend it off, so you either have to abandon SZ6, or overspend to keep up, which leaves the money islands vulnerable.

Its why, as Japan, I now prefer J1 and taking out Hawaii and Philippines.  At most you lose a sub, putting the U.S. behind for a change while your other assets shield your transports from the weak Anzac fleet.

I agree, but as discussed I generally do a hit and run on the Hawaiian fleet, and end up at Wake with about 1/2 the IJN. I typically lose a sub and dd in the sz26 battle, and also my dd blocker left in sz26 in the US counter attack for a total of 3 ships (1ss, and 2 dds). I still think it is well worth doing though. Hitting both sz26, and sz35 will kill off 47 IPCs worth of US navy, plus the Phil ftr making it 57 IPCs in navy/air. That is more then the spending allowance of the US in the first turn (52 IPCs). These are units that would get away in a J2 or later attack in most cases. Then add the Brit BB and territorial gains and yea it is a pretty damn strong opening move.

Sucker punching the US in the face causes some issues for them, and they will be torn on what side to build on. If they go Pac they are way behind so can’t challenge the Japanese for several turns. They would need to spend most of their income in the Pac for 2-3 turns just to get to even par w/Japan (and the Germans will love it). Yea they can probably send the home fleet up to Hawaii on the first turn as long as the Anz backs them up, but they really can’t do anything once they get there. Maybe move to the safety of Queensland and wait for their supply chain to catch up. The Japanese can just hop scotch to Caroline’s then probably to Philippines where they set up a defensive posture (maybe merging some more of the Imperial navy/air force).

I don’t see the US sending the home fleet over to Europe (something they do on occasion), because then there is no chance in the Pac. So if they want to go Europe they pretty much have to start from scratch because they only have a cruiser and transport. So going Europe means the Japanese don’t have to worry for a long time.

Oh BTW if you really want to F with the US have the Germans hit the US 101 mini fleet G1 with a sub (when you know there will be a J1 attack). If you get lucky the cruiser may not even get to fire, and the transport sinks too.

Very nice idea, will try it out as Axis this year

We use the houserule, that Axis has to win or is to strong on turn 10, then they win and otherwise they lose.

@Navymule:

But they put money into one or the other’s economy exclusively, right?

Correct, the NOs are awarded to the respective economy.

I think the #1 lesson I learned on the forums and actually playing the game is this.

UK1 YOU ALWAYS BUILD: 6 INF + 1FTR or 9 INF on London.

If Germany is going to go ahead with sea lion make it a honest attempt. Defend London to the best of your ability on UK1 and UK2 and see what happens.

UK gets in trouble when they do not defend London to the max on their first 2 turns and goes off script. UK cannot afford to miscalculate the situation and be under manned on the first 2 turns on London and let Germany waltz in and take it.

UK2 Your purchase is a response to Germany. If they go Sea Lion build you MUST build more defense on the island. If they go with a Russia build and no TRS that is when you can build that minor IC somewhere and start looking at areas to annoy the Axis.

I think the rule changed to give more power to destroyers as sub hunters.

In addition to this, any of your ships in the sea zone when the combat are presumed to have taken place in combat. The only way to avoid this is to move them during combat movement (even if the move does not result in combat).

Marsh

Unfortunately, my forum play is sporadic with all my kids as I prefer f2f -can actually ignore family and concentrate on rollin the bones.

Isn’t the argument that you can force Germany to stack E Poland, which is the least flexible position for him to assume?

I don’t think you can stop him from doing it at all……

at least the stacks that are forming up G2 don’t seem beatable by Russia regardless of buys?  right?  I bring 3 AAA guns then 5 AAA so an early Russia attack is going to cost them most of their better stuff…

@Caesar:

Does the rules actually say what happens to a major that is bombed out so bad that downgrading will automatically destroy it due to having more damage than what a minor can hold or are we just applying logic here? Because if that’s the case, you might want to welcome the enemy to bomb your factory if you’re going to lose it.

Pg 21 Europe 2nd ed rulebook
“Any damage previously inflicted on a facility remains in
place until it is repaired (any damage markers beyond 6
on former major industrial complexes are removed).”

Yeah, the issue is that I would like Ethopia in USSR hands, it is one that is avoidable, like I said, I have seen a USSR marker on it but I wasn’t playing this game so I didn’t see how it came. However, I usually have no problem getting to Somalia, and the northern African territories can be confusing because in my case, UK had Italy on a stalemate front line not pressing so Italy had no reason to assume what I was doing until of course he saw me bring my mech. into Africa.

I think you should re read the rules. They’re clear.

Well, he could blow up Russia, THEN blow up Turkey at his leisure, but its more obvious for Germany just to take his 4 factories north of you and his 4 objectives and pour units into your last bastion.

I’m not a fan of KGF (at all or anymore), it does nothing to slow Germany down, reduce its income, or tie up more than 1-2 turns of troops.    Pouring all your resources into the Atlantic US1-4 is a recipe for getting VCd in the Pacific or, barring that, an overwhelming Japan that backdoors Persia and Russia.  Add to that handing 3-4 neutrals to the Axis that they can use to bulk their troop stacks, and its a more difficult…perhaps tenable KGF plan, not sure.

Even if Germany is totally snoozing in France, he has to be totally asleep to miss the USA buildup, still his mobile units can travel through Normandy or S-France without blitzing and blow up whatever lands…the geometry of Europe is far too favorable to the Axis (all defense areas are 2 spaces from build areas).

@ShadowHAwk:

@simon33:

@thespaceman:

But remember any destroyers built in japans turn are attacked in the US turn. Only 3 scrambles can join battle. Destroyers must be taken as casualties because subs cant hit planes. Once no destroyers left planes cannot attack.� �

Us can also add in planes flying out of Aleutian islands or russia in order to keep the seas clear of destroyers.

Unless you’re talking about bombers, they can’t fly out of the Aleutians. You can fly off CVs though.

Still, if the USA are dominant enough to pull this off, I feel like it’s a missed opportunity to not take Korea. Unless there’s tonne of units on it I suppose.

You build the destroyers slightly out of range, now the subs stay out of the convoy zones or you just kill them.
If you place only 1 sub in SZ6 i can ignore it if you place 2 then ill sink them at maby the cost of 1 destroyer

1. The deal with the subs vs destroyers. Its not going to be 1 or 2. If US commits to building 2-4 per round then by turn 3-5 when the attack goes in its going to be 5,10 or even 15 subs. 1-2 subs is a minor nuisance for Japan and can easily be defeated. 10 subs is another story.

2. If Japan is using its mainland factories to relieve its home Islands then this has already achieved the purpose of the blockade which is to shut off Japanese production of ground units and shift their focus north away from Anzac and UK Pac. It also has stopped transports shuttling troops between Japan and China.

3. The Korea factory as opposed to taking money islands allows US + Russia working together to start to rebuild China. Once China can start to regrow its units safely in the north Japan is now under attack from 5 directions

1. UK-Pac in Burma/Yunnan
2. China
3. Russia from west and north
4. US from North East
5. Anzac from South East.

Japan no longer has a safe area and the mainland factories will soon be under attack.

I like to do J1 so I can build minor ICs on FIC and Kwangtung on J2. I generally buy 3 transports on the first turn to get to the $ islands/transport troops to Asia. Build some inf art J3 in Asia if needed, then build mostly mech+tanks……so I can push into China/India. Sometimes I will build a 3rd minor IC on Malaya, but like Pain pointed out it can be problematic to keep up production on 3 minors in Asia.

Hong Kong and Malaya come with a naval base, and I like to have the option to build ships down there as Japan. If you also build a naval base for sz 36 (FIC) you have multiple places to build subs/dds that can hit say a US held Caroline’s, or invade Australia. Mid game its all cat and mouse, and as Japan those minors on the coast w/naval base help you build a better mouse trap.