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. :-)
USSR Strategies
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Regarding what you say about ‘dictating the pace’, you can have it examplified in my match in the revised tourney right now vs. Mojo. I opened with an aggressive R1, buying 2 inf, 2 art, 2 arm and going all in into ukraine and w.russia. Sure, with good dice you have a very strong position. But in my case I lost 6 inf in w.russia which in turn led to Germany piling up in Karelia after all. Suddenly Germany is dictating the pace instead.
Germany bought mainly a big stack of inf and is posing a big threat to the weakened Russia. On the other hand Germany is down to 3 figs and 1 bomber luftwaffe and practically no baltic fleet. That opens up a possibility for UK to set the pace in europe. We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
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The advantage of attacking, is choosing the time and the place of the engagment.
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the advantage of defending is stronger units.
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Sankt…
Your game is a bad example… Your opponent over-extended by trying West Russia on G1. Most players would have left that combat out, and had superior force positions for subsequent rounds.
Also… I tend to disagree (at times) with a Ukraine strike on R1. Against SOME players this is a good move, against others, a Belorussia strike (and West Russia of course) is the superior move.
A Belo strike allows the Allies to take control in the North far more quickly (Turn 3). The trade off is that Russia must be set to defend Caucuses against a stronger force (which is possible, especially if Germany over-extends on G1, and if UK abandones India to re-take Africa on UK1)
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Attacking = Suprise The defender is reactionary
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I am almost never suprised by the attacks my oponets make.
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Switch… it’s still a good example. Even if he overextended he has the upper hand in Karelia. (which was my point) He could have had 3 more inf alive, but that’s hardly a game breaker.
I think the Ukraine move is pretty good(but risky!) since you take out 1 German fig. Germany will have 5 figs and 1 bomber left to trade karelia and/or ukraine, kill a british BB, kill a british DST and take Egypt(?). If he wants to press on all those fronts the odds of losing an additonal fighter and an inf here and there increases dramatically. Further it reduces the need for UK/US to buy defensive naval units with a weakened luftwaffe = quicker troop insertion into Europe.
I’m not saying striking Ukraine is superior to Belo, but IMO it lets the German player have more flexibility. (which generally is bad)
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Im a strong advocate of Russia sending 2 Arm to Yakut and 6 inf To Buryatia on R1, to go mess Machuria up a bit…
Ties up Japan atleast 1 round, ussually more. (usually followed by Allied partial offence vs Japan.)
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That sounds like a good idea, but I haven’t seen anyone use it in the games on the board. Maybe you should try it out. Will it leave the German front a bit weak though? Would you be able to attack Ukraine? Would you lose those tanks quick against Japan?
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Actually, I have had a similar strat used against me… and crushed the Russian offensive in China after they moved through Manch.
Was annoying, and slowed Japan, but was far from debilitating.
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it is hard to slow JPN in the intial rounds. they are the axis “ace in the hole”. I would not sack 2 RUS tanks.
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