@Gamerman01:
Not 100, but it might take more than 0 or 1.
I might agree, but I do have some recollection of the game. lol. Fighters can’t move 12 spaces, I don’t give a darn how many air bases there are between the start of your flight path and the end! (I actually had that argument with someone in Alpha 2. It was the first game for both of us, and he was claiming each airbase added +1 movement. Which explained why he was building them left and right all over the map!) And cruisers, as much as I may dream about it, will never move 3, or 4 with naval base support.
Therefore, looking at the map, and having Alpha 2, and Alpha 3 memories, I can safely say, there are some things that will work and others that won’t. At least to the point of knowing some things I would like to try that seem feasible and others I wouldn’t mind sounding off other players to look for holes. After all, I am the Queen of Implementing Unusual Battle Strategies! 98% of them don’t work, but when you find that 2% that does, oh my goodness, you have dozens of players to use that against. lol.
That said….
This is a game about taking and holding Victory cities. I don’t really care how good your navy is, if you can’t stop Japan from getting 6 VCs on the Pacific board and holding them for a round, you lose. Yes, you may have them out numbered 5:1 in every class of unit - but you still lost! Likewise, you don’t have to invade Europe with Russia to win the game, you just have to stop Germany from getting 8 VCs and as the defender, you get to pick which VCs you work hard to hold. (Obviously Moscow is one you have to hold! As is London and Washington DC, but seriously, if you lose DC you deserve to go to the vet and get fixed. :P Or is that too mean? Sorry, on my first cup of coffee, I am permitted to be mean until I start my second cup!)
Strategies of some merit in Alpha 2, which yes is a while ago, included ignoring Russia altogether, even if they invaded you, and mostly ignoring China (as long as you kept the Road closed.) Since Russia and China are not exactly going to be defending any VCs anyway, and this is a game for VCs, I don’t know if it really is all that necessary to go kill them off to the detriment of other uses of that money. Not saying global domination is a bad strategy, just offering a thought. (global domination really has not been a winning strategy per the rules since Classic with the M84 bull p00p anyway, it has always helped, but it was never a victory condition is what I am saying.)
What about focusing on Australia? Is there a strategy currently that does so? I would think with India being basically a useless carcass, China being held back and Russia focused on Europe, if you could get Australia before the US officially enters the war at least your DEI acquisitions would be safer.
I know there is/was a crush India strategy at one point. Is that really out, or has it just been negated so no one tries to set it up anymore? What if you don’t see India do it’s required round 1 moves/purchases to stop the Crush India strategy, could you set up Japan in such a way to exploit it? Things cannot be in two places at once, but gosh darn, if those Japanese aircraft don’t have HUGE ranges of motion to cover a large patch of the SE Asian portion of the globe! There has to be something there exploitable that depends on what the allies do r don’t do!
Yes it’s probably suicide, but what kind of hostess would I be if I didn’t at least bring up the thought: What about invading the United States of America? They have that ridiculous NO, which in my opinion has always been a bit over powered (feel free not to share my opinion) and no one thought it was ever possible even in classic until C-Sub came up with American Shield (which yes, was eventually beat down and it’s failures discovered, but how many games were lost by the allies while they figured out how to stop it?) Is there something that can be done on this game for Japan? Between he Philippines and Hawaii that’s both 2 victory cities and 13 IPC lost by the US (territories and NOs.) Yes you have to get some BS territories to take the NOs, but it may be possible to achieve.
Odds are horrible you’d get the Central American or Continental American NOs out of America’s hands, but who’s saying you cannot try?
For the record, I am thinking a round 1 dow on anything with a heart beat might not be the right path. Just my personal thoughts. Anything else might be worth a try, at least once. Hell, try it against the idiot (the AI) if the idiot can win, then it’s a horrible horrible idea and you should go sit in the corner for 5 minutes to think about what a bad person you were. If it goes off REALLY well, maybe try and think of how it can be disabled, if you cannot think of a way to stop it, try it in a game!
And remember, games are to be FUN! Personally, I never cared if I was 0 and 547 as long as I had fun in every game! Used to play a guy called Emperor Mollari here and we’d have 6 or 7 games going at a time and I’d probably lose all but 1 in 14 because I’d do weird stuff just to see what would happen (to include all submarine purchases for 2 rounds with Germany.) It was FUN, ineffective most of the time, but FUN!
