Honestly, I think you underestimate a PA (not prince albert), and NC has the right idea, but might not be expressing the right points.
No an Asian bid is largely unworkable perhaps with 30ipcs(maybe more) but for that price I could just bid into Africa and get Africa along with Asia. Further, I’ve seen games lost as the Axis where the bid was 25+ mostly in Africa and no one here seems to be saying that Asia is better than Africa so it seems very possible to lose a game with an Asian bid of 30+
One thing that would probably happen if I got a bid of even 8 IPCs for Japan is that you’d see a mainland IC almost immediately - it depends on the battle outcomes.
Big deal! If you aren’t building extra fodder ships for your fleet then you should count on losing your fleet should you get too lucky/unlucky in Pearl and if you lose this battle fleet count on the US or Britain taking away your island IPCs even if you have ICs and a large Asia bid Japan losing 8ipcs in SE Asia will be a huge loss over time.
Maybe you factored that into your round listing, Baker, but it’s something to think about.
Yeah right b/c you do something that Baker doesn’t with an Asian bid. In fact there is very little you can do with this bid but push towards Novo so in my mind its nothing but a bluff and a poorly executed one at that.
When you play an experienced Japan player, you can see they are a powerful force.
Yes yes Japan is very powerful, but not as much as Germany and in terms of the most powerful in the game only somewhat ahead of Russia in third but a lot more so than Britain in 4th and a lot more so than the US in 5th. I know how to play Japan and its not to overbid them in order to make a bunch of yahtzee attacks on J1 which will either make or break you. The only reason I’ve ever understood for a large Asia bid is so that Japan can make a bunch of unnecessary and irrelevent battles that won’t in the long run matter much. Russia pulls 3inf arm from the East to Novo and 2inf to Yakut so japan can attack 2inf in Yakut and Sink but in doing so they likely lose 2inf themselves and don’t take any territory that will absolutely be held that is I can counterattack. China regardless of the bid is lost and the Brits in India can be more effective if moved somewhere else including Sink, Persia, or Africa. But considering your bid Sink is eliminated as is likely Persia but this only means that the Japs aren’t really killing any troops with their bid only taking ground which they would have anyway.
Even a meager bid to them can bring large results. Also, I’d think that with the addition of 3 arm, 2 inf, you are going to see the Japanese not only cut a line to Moscow, but clearing southern Asia to connect with Germany.
No friggin way! Yes Japan will get a very strong push in Asia but largely b/c the Allies will fall back to a more defensible position there largely conceeding it when confronted with such a large force there. At the same time with little to nothing bid to Germany in either Europe or Africa the Allies will not have to spend much if any effort to recapture Africa from Germany and karelia will be safe for a very long time. The only likelyhood for Germany japan to link up is if Germany can take Karelia b/c the rearguard pressure of Japan gets to be too great. However in such a scenario the Russians probably just fall back to their capital(b/c that should always be defended as first priority) at which point the Japanese will not be strong enough for probably 4-5 turns or so to hold and have to fall out as a response. If Germany tries to move into Karelia it is a dead zone and will get attacked losing troops it cannot afford to replace w/o holding Africa. What I think you underestimate is the responsiveness of a good opponent to not just force you into a game you don’t want to play and their ability to avoid getting attacked in unfavorable situations. That is sometimes retreating can be more effective than defending a meaningless deadzone. Even if I’ve been outplayed and there is a likelyhood that even upon falling back to my capital I will lose a turn or two later I will still do it b/c it forces my opponent to overextend himself and enter my deadzones. The mistake most noobie players make is they assume Russia is a punching bag when in fact they aren’t.
UK may have to write off it’s holdings in Asia/Australia immediately, but that makes it so much easier for the Allies.
First of all the UK only has one assest in Asia and that’s India both Persia and Syria are geographically close enough to a center of power that they can be defended from Europe and Africa respectively. As for Aust I love it when Japanese players do this, and IMO this is really the only reason to make an excessively large Asian bid. The drawback is that you probably have to ignore Pearl and in doing so risk your fleet in the short and longterm. japan w/o a battlefleet to protect its transports is a paper tiger even with ICs b/c they cannot threaten Africa, and they cannot protect their southern island colonies which while only 8ipcs are worth taking back if unopposed by a Jap naval pressence in the Pacific. Most of the time it can be done with the most minimal of commitments as well.
If UK is being whittled, as is Russia, and spends most of its money defending Russia, US defending Russia & UK, then you are going to find a problem.
How is the UK being wittled? All I see is India, Austrailia, NZ and perhaps Persia under threat. However the UK should gain Libya, Alg and possibly FinNor to offset this. Even modest projections show Britain should be at ~26-7ipcs or 8-9inf a turn. Or to steal from myself in another thread the UK can build some inf for a few turns then switch to 1inf 5arm. At which point I can roll Japan back in Asia by threatening its flanks and cyphoning off its strength to India/FIC.
You won’t be able to put enough pressure on Germany to back off, and simply put, Japan can apply pressure to the US as early as J3 to distract them (even with no bid). If left alone, Japan is a tiger; if left alone with a bid, Japan is a tiger with wings.
Now I know that you don’t know what you’re talkin’ about! Japan can never “pressure” the US. Simply put the US can produce to much and Japan is too far away. Even if Japan rolls up Asia as you propose they are going to top off at about 48ipcs a turn or 16inf a turn which only leaves about 8inf a turn to go to NAmerica. The US on the otherhand can easily produce between 10-11 units a turn. What’s more even with a great Asian push to start the game in the long term japan will need more than 8inf a turn to Asia to cause Russia any real problems. Remember you don’t win the game just by gaining a lot of ground but by consolidating that and defeating one of the Allies namely Russia. Anything which detracts from this is irrelevent.
One thing that everyone is guilty of, though, is trying to estimate the way the game would play. If you are playing experienced players, which I’d assume all of you are, then you’d know that while you formulate an overall strategy, the best one is adaptable.
Not me. I’ve seen just about everything there is to see in A+A. What a lot of newbies overlook is that while the game does have an almost infinate amount of variations only a few of these will lead to victory b/c victory in the game is narrowly defined as defeating a rival alliance. If the game was merely to compete and everyone one worked for themselves then some of what you said might be true but then again I doubt anybody would be giving Japan and Germany bids.
In another thread, I proposed giving straight cash rather than actual units placed, as has been mentioned here. It may help to sustain certain strategies by going this route and help balance things. But as pointed out, that’s a major G1 buy. Perhaps you could do a combination of those two, or allow the placement of new units under certain regulations (no more than 1 new unit per territory). Or, allow IPCs that can be used only to upgrade existing units, i.e. spend 2 IPCs to upgrade an inf to an arm. That could get interesting, and adds somewhat of a gamble to the upgrade.
Why? My suggestion was simple, flexible and allows for more variety of game playouts. Your’s ties the game to R1 dice rolls which is always going to be problematic but for LL. In which case b/c no bid is made they will become the dreaded standard, and so ultimately so will the bid amount and the playouts that are dictated from this.
