15L Arthur Bomber Harris (axis) vs nerquen (allies, EUS=29 PU, + UK sub SZ98)

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

Yup, your AA guns took out too many bombers on my attack.

[nerquen]

o yes, after those 5 AA hits the (2 expected) the battle suddenly became only about 59%:41%, so pretty much a coin toss. Still I feel you really outplayed me in this game. Well this was my first game against DS strategy and I hoped that KJF might work… but Germany just became such a monster that I would not attempt such a dedicated KJF agaist DS again… US has to step up against Germany much earlier otherwise Europe is just lost and US cannot do anything against it in end game… what I found pretty annoying without US presence in Europe is that UK at some point had to spend 80+% on defending London as with 25+ bombers and 90 German income you could start Sea Lion at any moment. If US had some reasonable fleet in Atlantic then Sea Lion would be out of your options and UK could spend money offensively or for defense of Moscow… now about 90 UK IPC investments were lying dead in London

[nerquen]

What is your feeling about the US bidding scheme, I find it working nice, but also feel that at +10 range for US, Axis are still favored (and I believe more than 80:20, what were our odds in the final battle). I guess at ~ +10 for US, KJF strategy is still not super powerful and Japan shall be able to resist US until Germany wins in Europe. If US splits income to both theaters +10 is probably not felt much.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

I think that the +9 for US plus the sub is approximately correct.  It allows the US to turn to Europe a full turn earlier than normal.  I like it better compared with the standard bid plan.

[nerquen]

maybe, I definitely am still searching for a proper way to play allies. My usual problem is that I over-focus on Pacific and Europe falls. I wanted to test if US could get somehow rich in Pacific fast with additional income but it does not seem the case. I was actually just about to switch to Europe when Japan bought pure subs. As I felt that (again) I am turning to Europe too late… lets just get a shot on taking Tokyo down… I managed to capture it… but there was not enough time to become that huge US money in European theater in several turns to come… Also this Japanese switch to help Germany with European victory is rather annoying and probably a good reason not to kill Japan before European theater is secured. But as for securing European theater… right now I don’t really have a clue how to do that without losing in Pacific. Anyway… looks like both of our games will be won by Allies so you might be right that sub +9 for US is maybe not that far from balanced.