I agree with the shield and sword statement. It is my experience that Germany on its first turn should buy a transport for Italy and all men. Regroup your tanks and all your infantry into Eastern Europe and plan to take Karelia on turn 3 if possible. Turn 2 can work but can be costly. Germany should buy mostly all men on turn two and three as well and move them into Eastern Europr so as to overwhelm Russia and get ahead of their infantry total. Once Germany has more infantry than Russia attack Karelia with men and tanks only, save your planes. From Italy send two full transports every turn into Egypt and Trans Jordan until you secure the Suez and subsiquently Africa. Meanwhile Japan hits China, and India and then all out Russia, while still maintaining suppremacy in the Pacific by staying one step ahead of the US and as someone else mentioned take out as many US and UK ships as possible while not over commiting your fleet and only losing the cheap expendable replaceable pieces. An IC is a good idea if you are sure you can hold it: Manchuria is good to go after Russia, but can be reinforced by Japan transports anyway, FIC is safer but India is the best of both if you can capture and hold it, because it is two squares “a tank blitz” away from Caucauscus and Trans-Jordan and you can move fleet through the Suez if needed and assist Germany in conquering Africa as required. Not to mention taking precious money away from the UK. Japan would then purchase three tanks every round for India (or FIC) and keep that up until Russia falls. From India or FIC you can also launch a strike on Australia and New Zealand to further hurt UK. If UK buys an IC on India, Japan MUST capture it at all costs or UK will get the upper hand and its game over. If Germany and Japan hit fast and hard as a unit first at UK to bankrupt and “stall” them and get the valuable money they need and at US to “stall” them, then maintain that stall on both of them and go all out Russia so as to hit Moscow on the 5th or 6th turn from both sides, the Axis will have an IPC victory easily or if using victory cities (AA50 and new) or complete victory rules they will be on their way to world domination. :-)
Strategy Help
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I’ve been involved in a local play group for some months now, and our game has evolved a bit. I’m looking for new ideas, both Axis and Allies. Let me describe our past and current approaches:
Originally, Axis always won. R1 Ger used their air power to neutralize the British fleet presence in the Atlantic, and tank rushed Rus. Japan attacked mainland, slowly overrunning Asia.
Allies adapted. Rus started making all tanks from R1. Brit plopped down IC in India to counter Japan, and sometimes USA put an IC in China.
Axis adapted. Japan learned how to take India first turn, almost without fail. Then uses the Brit-build IC against allies. Rus tanks not sufficient to stopping Ger.
Allies adapted. USA hits Africa in R1, and Brit begins landing troops in Rus and any exposed location in Europe. Extra troops help, but what kills Ger the most are defensive fighters that USA and Brit lands in Rus territories. Each game, Ger slowly gets starved, and about the time Japan is hitting Rus hard, Ger falls to combined Rus/Brit/USA forces. In this type, Rus builds combined tank/inf forces, not pure tanks as before. Brits sometimes put an IC in Egypt to harass Japan’s forces.
Axis adapted. Ger no longer wastes its airpower against naval forces; those planes can’t be replaced. Instead, Ger builds a few inf and such to defend its shores, and takes Egypt or Transjordan first-turn (deny troop movement without transports and deny Brit fleet at India from coming over), then lets Africa fall. Allies have to build larger invasion forces to do anything, while Ger uses airforce against Rus and typically doesn’t lose more than one or two planes until end-game. By the time Allies can hit Ger hard enough to hurt, Japan is knocking on Rus door and Rus has been forced to turtle in the capital. Axis win.
Assuming a Kill Ger First strategy, what is the next move for Allies? And how would Axis counter it?
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counterattack on egypt with uk, (trannie from india) ussr hits ukraine on R1 to kill ger ftr.
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counterattack on egypt with uk, (trannie from india) ussr hits ukraine on R1 to kill ger ftr.
Russia typically takes the ftr in Ukraine on R1. Haven’t thought of using the UK transport at India like that… where would it pick up units from? India itself seems like it would practically give Japan an open door. Then again, strategically speaking… hmm… I’ll consider that one.
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yes, if you take back egypt, then you keep germany from blitzing africa and gaining 5-7 ipc for the next 3 rounds, that is way more important than keeping india for an extra round, at least in a KGF
what I usually do is to hit egypt with 1 inf from TJ 2 inf from india, ftr from india and bomber from UK.
If I can combine this with landing in algeria, then I own africa and can start landing US troops there. (this depends on if germany is strong enough to counterattack algeria) I usually never lose if I can pull this of, even with a bid of 10.
after this, it is back to the slow starve of germany, except uk will be at 24 ish IPC and closer to 30 when they take norway.
what I usually do with USSR ais round1; 3 inf 3 tanks, round 2 1 ftr, 1 art 5 inf, and from then 1-2 tanks and the rest inf The third ftr keeps schirmishing with germany cheap.
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what I usually do is to hit egypt with 1 inf from TJ 2 inf from india, ftr from india and bomber from UK.
Isn’t that cheating? You can’t move the inf from Trans across the canal, since you don’t control both sides. That means you only have 2 inf (from the transport) instead of 3.
I’ll be playing another game in a few hours (finally). I might post back here with some questions/thoughts afterwards.
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Hi Xan. Check your Rulebook(I do not own this one),but you will probably find you can attack over the Canal. (In all the A&A games I have, you can do.)
It is Naval movement that is stopped if you do not own both sides. -
@wittmann:
Hi Xan. Check your Rulebook(I do not own this one),but you will probably find you can attack over the Canal. (In all the A&A games I have, you can do.)
It is Naval movement that is stopped if you do not own both sides.Oh my. THAT changes things. I just checked the PDF version of the manual, and you are right.
That drastically changes several (previously) working strategies. Oh man, my buddies are going to hate my guts when I pull this out on them. I’m tempted to give them a heads up, just so the game isn’t won by that rule change alone… but the looks on their faces will be so priceless, I just can’t warn them. :evil:
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