My favorite turn 1 builds

[barnee]

@Galendae

You know, it’s OK to disagree with someone. You don’t need to insult them in the process.

[SeaYa]

Thanks - this was the critical context:

G2: 10 tanks in Romania
G3: 6 tanks in Romania pay off $20 in damage
G4: start building tanks in Berlin to avoid paying $20 to repair factory

Traded border areas a couple times and then full on retreat to Moscow began leaving single inf to slow Germany down

On G5 Germany has massive stack of tanks and mechs and some infantry with a lot of bombers a couple spaces back with smaller army from Bryansk.

The value of infantry in lieu of bombers, wins out. Changing a battle calc from 30inf, 2 art, 2 tank, 2 fight, 1 tac, 8 bombers to 60 inf, 0 bomber, all else equal, boosts the %win from mid 65 to 97 when going against 5 inf, 15 mech, 20 tanks, no AAA (1st scenario drops to 37% with 2 AAA defending. I think this is why all the pushback. I agree, against a stalled out German attack (the trading border territories you mentioned) the bombers would indeed help manage dead zones for max German inf loss, preserving Soviet territory. However, advanced German players will rarely, if ever, have a stalled out attack, and will not be trading territories on the border for multiple rounds.

[dazedwit]

@SeaYa

On a G1 Germany doesn’t have enough units on border to hold until round 2 or 3 so trading them is pretty much a guarantee every time I believe.

I reset the battle and removed say half the tanks and replaced each with two inf each. This was also a very tight battle but went in Germany favor this time with maybe two tanks left give or take.

That reset taught me the value of German infantry as I always want to buy tanks and bombers when going for Moscow.

Game I’m playing now, Germany did Sea Lion so Russia burst forward and has been collecting $21 in NO’s for a few turns. Germany takes border territories of Berlin but Russia takes them right back and since each battle has a couple SB’s Russia is retaking them with at least 3 infantry.

The taking of territories with extra units left behind like that really alters the war of attrition in Russia’s favor quite a bit.

Germany just did a surprise strike on Leningrad and also took out 3 SB’s. Italy finally in the Balkans so Russia will get kicked out probably by R8.

I’m about to film R6 for my latest strategy series

[Polishpowerhouse]

@dazedwit every group of players has their own tendencies. Sometimes a different unique strategy breaks the box. I’d start by saying 99 percent of the time a Romanian major factory is a poor decision. It doesn’t tangibly accelerate the time line into russia. You can use the russian factories and have 30 dollars of additional troops to capture these. It sounds like your group doesnt do a g1 attack on russia? I found my new favorite barbarossa plan is to strip 3 tanks from paris and hit eastern Poland with 6 tanks and some infantry. I can attack moscow on 5 with fair chances for success I can hold for g6 with overwhelming odds. If the allies sellout and rally 10 plus fighters to moscow it may take a little longer but axis should be doing well elsewhere. If your buddy is building a major factory. Do what works. Bomb him until he figures out his mistake. I like your thinking, just be ready to evolve when your buddy fixes his strategy.

[dazedwit]

@Polishpowerhouse

I know no one believes me but investing in bombers as Russia completely changes the typical game flow. G1 is only way Germany will even sniff Moscow and even then Germany will most likely fail. They will get wiped out in Bryansk or be left with only a couple land units so lots of planes being lost to take Moscow. Far East troops and a wave of bombers will immediately take back Moscow.

My Operation Felix game Russia used all their bombers on offense and collected $66 for 3 straight turns.

That taught me I have to attack Russia same turn as Sea Lion to create a buffer because otherwise Russia is getting Eastern Europe and all of the Balkans and its going take 3-5 turns to kick them out