Strategies

First of all, you didn’t explain all of the first round purchases for Germany, just the CV and DD.  I think if I was playing in this league:

Russia: I would hammer West Russia leaving 1 INF on Karelia to prevent the blitz, 8 INF 1 ARM 1 FTR (might leave 1 more INF) on Caucasus, and the rest of the front on West Russia.  I’d consolidate the 6 INF on the Eastern Front in Buryatia.  I’d pull the 4 from Novosibirsk and Evenki back to Russia.  The 2 on Kazakh would be part of the stack on Caucasus. The Russian FTR would land on Egypt.  For the most part, Russia would thereafter engage in the typical land war with Germany.  If the German player bought that much naval force on G1, that is going to make life a bit easier on Russia for the early game.

UK: Due to the UK+6, I would build the IC on India.  As for the rest of my build, I would probably go for a second BOM, a CV in SZ 2, or a few land units to begin shoring up UK, just in case things go awry.  It would depend on how things went on G1 and the final placement of their air units.  The 2 FTR and 1 BOM on UK attack the Baltic fleet.  With 2 FTR 1 BOM against 2 DD 1 CV, UK has a 76% to win and keep at least the BOM, which I would land in Caucasus (or West Russia if the FTR’s survived).  If the SZ 2 fleet is still afloat, I would drop it down to SZ 12 to attack Algeria and to block in the German BB and TT in the Med.  Now, UK is under no immediate threat of a German landing on UK.  The Egypt ARM would move east to Persia.  The Indian TT would grab the 2 INF from Trans-Jordan and bring them back to India.  The 2 Persian INF would walk into India leaving a total of 7 INF there.  I’d pull the rest of the Indian fleet down to SZ 38 to merge with the Australian fleet.  Normally, I would go to SZ 30 for the merger, but in this case, I would go to SZ 38 to bait the Japanese into attacking the UK fleet.  In order to have the odds to succeed, they would need to commit a 3rd or 4th FTR (FIC and/or SZ 50).  Japan would no longer pose a serious threat of taking India on J1 and may greatly reduce their threat at Pearl Harbor.  If they ignore the fleet and instead attack India to capture the IC, they are going to suffer significant losses, even if they bring in every possible unit (4 INF 4 FTR 1 BOM).  They would not get the bombardment with the BB, as the ships are engaging in combat against the transport.  They are likely to lose 3 INF 2 FTR (29 IPC’s worth of units) compared to UK’s 21 (forgetting the AA), leaving Japan with only 1 (maybe 2) infantry for the capture.  FIC and Kwangtung would likely both be bare, except for possibly any air units landing after the India battle.  Likely the Japanese player would want to defend their fleet, so their 2 FTR’s would land on their Indian Carrier.  Their BOM may well be stranded alone in FIC or perhaps with 1 extra FTR if Japan got lucky in the India fight.  Those air units are tempting targets for a US assault from China as they do not have cannon fodder to chump block for them on defense.  Granted, Japan does have the TT in SZ 60 that they COULD ferry 2 units to Kwangtung or FIC, but the transport would then be a sitting duck for the American FTR on China.  Assuming Japan succeeded in capturing India, Russia can liberate it with their 2 FTR and the ARM from Caucasus.  If the rolls are horrendous for the Russians attempting to liberate India on R2, UK should have little difficulty wiping out the Japanese fleet off of India and recapturing India on UK2.  With 1 CC, 1 CV, 1 SS, 2 FTR (possibly up to 4), and (likely) 1 BOM against the Japanese 1 CV, 1 BB, and 2 (or less) FTR UK has a 63% chance of success and likely keeping 2 units.  If UK has more FTR’s and/or Japan has less, my odds are that much better.  As for the land battle.  If UK needs to recapture India, they can bring in 2 INF from Australia and the ARM from Persia.  If Japan has 2 INF left on India, UK has an 81% chance to recapture using those 3 units alone.  Thereafter, Japan would be in no position to make another attempt on India for some time.  IF Russia succeeded in the liberation, things are even better for UK.  The ARM on Persia can head eastward and hit FIC along with the 2 INF being transported up from Australia.  This would depend on what air units Japan landed there at the end of J1 (and/or any transported units from Japan) as well as any other naval units Japan might have in range that might threaten the TT if left floating alone for a round.  Thereafter, I would pump out 3 units every turn in India and the rest at UK, building a couple naval units and then ground units to drop down to SZ12 and thereafter my transports would return to UK for more land units and drop them back off in Algeria on the same turn.  If Japan appeared to be threatening a strike upon India again, UK could temporarily suspend Atlantic builds and build more costly units to shore up the Indian defense.  However, it will not take long before the US/UK units from Algeria will make their way over to Caucasus or India

USA: My purchases and overall direction would depend greatly upon what Japan brought in to Pearl Harbor on J1.  If Japan kept back the SZ 50 CV to aid in the takedown of the UK fleet, the attack on Pearl Harbor would be weak.  If the Japanese attack both the UK fleet and India, they would need the BOM to attack India AND the SZ 50 CV pulled back to provide a landing space for the 3rd FTR engaging the UK fleet.  Therefore the J1 Pearl Harbor attack would be extremely weak, though it should still certainly succeed.   US would easily counter on US1.  With one half of the Japanese fleet sunk at Pearl Harbor during US1 and the other half about to be sunk (or already sunk) in the Indian Ocean, Japan would be in a world of hurt and I would go KJF and have several options in how to pursue that course.  Assuming the Japanese player goes for a strong Pearl Harbor on J1, Japan would be forgoing the assault on the UK Indian Fleet or India - both are good scenarios for UK.  However, if the Japanese pursue the strong Pearl Harbor assault, that portion of the Japanese navy poses no threat to India until J4 at the earliest.  Therefore, as the US, I am drawn between the Pacific and the Atlantic options.  If Japan didn’t bring in everything possible and/or they had less than stellar results, I may go full-bore KJF.  If the Japanese brought in maximum possible force into Pearl Harbor, I would probably turn tail with my TT and BB and head for the Atlantic.  If the UK SZ 2 fleet was destroyed, I would drop the US SZ 10 CC down to SZ 12 to block in the German Med fleet and hold back my transports in SZ 10.  The DD would pull up to SZ10, merging with my 2 TT and my builds.  If the UK SZ 2 fleet survived and made the move down to SZ 12, I would bring over the CC and 2 TT along with 4 ground units from EUS.  I would buy 1 CV, 2 TT, 3 INF, 1 ARM.  Thereafter, I would primarily focus on doing the quick ferry ride from Algeria back to Eastern Canada, picking up as many land units as I can carry, and returning back to Algeria each turn.  UK could do the same by returning to SZ7 to pick up fresh troops and heading back to Algeria all in the same turn.  This would protect the joint US/UK fleet from splitting up and being vulnerable to attack by German and/or Japanese air power in Europe.  This would keep the African IPC’s pouring into the Allied coffers, as well as maintain significant threat to Western Europe and Southern Europe (once the German Med fleet is eliminated).  Germany would need to hold back more units from the front line, further easing the burden on Russia.  US and UK can keep this up and march their tanks and men across northern Africa into the middle east and up to Caucasus or Asia.  With the German naval build on G1, that is one more turn for US and UK to get boots on the ground and over to the front.  At the drop of a hat, the UK, followed by the US, could switch up the plan and invade Western or Southern Europe when they are ready.

Edit: I guess I didn’t address part of the Japanese strategy that you mentioned.  If Japan totally ignores both navies and simply builds the two IC’s and makes the tank rush for Moscow, UK would certainly deter the progress with the IC on India.  As the USA, I would probably shore up the defense of Buryatia’s 6 Russian INF with a couple US FTR’s (China & Hawaii) and build bombers ASAP to land in Buryatia and strategic bomb the Japanese IC’s.  Granted, the most I could do would be 12 IPC’s of damage between the 2 mainland IC’s.  However, that coupled with the UK builds in India should quickly slow the Japanese tank rush to a crawl at best.  I will need to crunch the numbers later for specific battle stats to run out the likely progress.

Anyhow, it’s getting late and I think I have written enough for you to get the gist of most of my plan to counter that scenario.  If I miswrote something, I’ll correct my post later.  In my play group, we play straight OOB rules without a bid.  If I had a UK+6, this is what I think I would pursue.  Please tell me what you guys think of this allied strategy.

Well not having played the Spring 42’ version I’ll base my theory on the original version as the US you go last, which is a good thing, in the respect that you get to react, which is much better then deciding on an action, you can judge where and when your needed and act accordingly, if Britain and Russia have Germany on the ropes concentrate mostly on the Pacific, if the they need help concentrate mostly on the atlantic.

now when Japan takes out my carrier in pearl I’ll build another and stock it with the fighters from the mainland with the california BB and transport as tag alongs, with those 3 and a transport or two more you have some island hoppers to invade the Japanese held islands with.

and if you can get Britain and Russia to kick Japan off the Asian land mass Japan will be done with.

The UK Indian Ocean fleet.

@Herr:

@jiman79:

Well basically a UK bomber can hit its target in 1 round a US bomber is active one round later. Whereas US navy at least can do something usefull on their first round (unload in Africa). So I am not sure I follow your long range vs short range perspective for the air units.

You’re right about that, but I don’t think that buying bombers for the explicit purpose of doing strategic bombing raids is a good plan at all. It’s just that if I would do that, I’d do it with the US rather than with the UK. And I’d do the sneaky thing by building them in the Western US (from where they can still land in Britain) to make Japan feel uneasy - at the very least they need to be careful if they plan to unload troops in Buryatia.

As for the UK naval strategy, I generally agree that it’s a better choice than bombers, but I don’t see a specific reason to wait for the US navy to arrive first. The UK can afford to build, say, an aircraft carrier and a destroyer, and put a few planes on the carrier - or land US planes on it. Put it all in SZ2 and it’s basically out of reach for Germany. Or put it in SZ8 and add the US cruiser to it.

I totally agree in all you said.
The standard opening for UK is to buy AC+2dstr and place them in a safe position according to the G air and navy positioning. Retake Egypt and kill the baltic dstr+trnsp.
Besides fom this I think the best location for an allied bomber (UK or US) is in caucasus.

Thats what is was looking for, TY !

I take back what I said about forgetting Africa.  With the new transport rules, it is much easier to fend off Allied convoy’s, especially for the first few turns.  I did some testing (having the new TripleA now) and this is what seemed to work best:

-Take out see zone 2 with sub and whatever air needed.  Leave Canada transport for Baltic fleet as it won’t have much of an escort with sea zone 2 dead
-take out battleship in sea zone 13 with remainder of air that can reach.
-grab 1 inf and 1 tank from Southern Europe, land in Egypt with all land forces that can reach and fighter that can reach from eastern front.
-take Karelia with Norway troops and reserves.
-consolidate on Karelia, Belorussia and Ukraine

Hold Eastern line (trading if need be) until Japs storm in back side.
trade Baltic fleet for any UK1 fleet build
Keep majority of air in Western Europe and buy a bomber a turn (for 3 turns).  Sink everything

Eventually Japan storms in as usual, and it takes 3+ turns for a large enough fleet to hold off Germany’s air.

Another thing I tried was taking the Japan fleet in the East Indies and spare fighters and take out India fleet, then move through Mediterranian see to hold Gibralter with the German Battleship.  This bought an extra turn or two of holding off allied fleet.  You don’t need it in the Pacific anyway assuming you destroy the Pearl Harbor fleet.

It caused me to lose all but Kwangtung on Asia initially, but I ferried so many troops in after the first turn it didn’t matter.  The allies have no supply line in eastern Asia to stop you, and with half the Japan fleet in the Atlantic with the German boats left, it made African and Western Europe landings impossible.  They only thing the Allies can do is Norway landings, which take twice as long from the US.

I’m not sure of a good Allied counter to this.  I did have the PC move the Russian sub to sea zone 2, which helped take out more units in that battle (still only lost a fighter and sub).

Sorry friend, I am here only occationally (vacations etc) and I am really not a frequent player. I do not have time to play-test in any other way then in TripleA. You can find me there from time to time as Granada but I cannot host now.

Regarding the Russian sub, you are correct. I have not inculded it because it survives only if you decide to submerge it during the R1 attack of German sub, fig and bomb on SZ2 before the fight. But it further diminishes the likelihood of the success in this particular battle. You cannot take the potential hit by the sub on it, which is good because it gives your battleship good chance to get at least one plane. If you keep the Russian sub in the fight the likelihood it would survive is about 60 %.

If you include the sub to the R2 battle calculations in the SZ8, you are correct that it changes the odds for the defender in case of 2subs plus four planes on the German side. In case attacker has built a bomber R1 and still has three figs to hit you, the odds for him to win remain 66% with 1,7 units left.

The fact is that the Germans must build a bomber R1 if they want keep the likelihood of Allies merging in SZ 8 with stronger fleet under 50%. R2 you really can prevent them to merge there and R3 you cannot perhaps prevent them to land some troops somewhere. You are perhaps right in that respect.

Still the question whether the Germans will not get their planes to the point when they will sink some of your fleets especially if you decide to split it will be omnipresent and the dynamics of the sea battles in the Atlantic have definitely changed in their favour.

@KarlParsons:

Hi,

I am a semi-noob at A&A, I bought A&A:E in the early 2000s and have now just purchased A&A:1942.   I’ve played about 5 games and each game the axis has won, the strategy being Germany invades West Russia, Japan attacks East Russia, and as long as Germany has some naval units taking out transports trying to come into France or Italy as well as guarding the east coast with just enough defending units, the allies can’t get on land.  Then once Russia is gone, with the IPCs gained it’s only a matter of time before it’s all over.

My question is, as the allies I don’t see how to win with enough time before Germany and Japan take out Russia completely and also being able to successfully doing a land invasion in time, in either eastern europe or the island of Japan.  I guess I’m just missing something, are there any basic ideas/tips you can give me to help and avoid this same scenario over and over again?

Russia needs support from U.K. in India & Karelia/Archangel and from the U.S. in Sinkiang (<– This can be tough).
The Eastern Front is Yakut, Sinkiang and India.
The Western Front is Karelia, West Russia, Caucasus.
^ Keep those Fortified.
If you don’t want a Turn Break Down Stop Reading Now.  :|

Russia

Buy 8 Infantry Attack West Russia with Arch, and Karelia + 2 Planes. Move everything in Russia into Caucasus, put 1 in Archangel. Group 8 troops in Yakut. 2 into Sinkiang, 2 into Persia Land Planes in INDIA <-- This is key. Build 4 Inf at each I.C.

U.K.

Buy 2 Industrial Complexes. If Germany didn’t beef up the Baltic fleet, use your Planes to sink the Transport/ Destroyer. You Must sink the Japanese transport in 59 (To avoid a Naval Bombardment in India).
  * I usually sacrifice my Cruiser in 35 to do this. Its a bad trade off, but it usually means securing India which is worth it. Instead you can use your plane in 35 and land it in China. Not a terrible move but I prefer to move the plane into India for added security. Place Industrial complex in South Africa and India. By the time U.K. goes on turn 2 Germany could have capped most of Africa (If they have 2 tanks). Don’t give up on Africa. Contesting Africa is critical.
 * Always build 2 units if possible, until the German Med fleet is destroyed. If your tight on IPC’s keep pumping out Infantry to thwart a capture. If a large force is approaching buy fighters. Keep the Carrier and transport nearby. ^ Same goes for India. Always build what you need to keep it safe from a building threat. At the end of the previous Russia turn always check if Caucasus can spare a tank(s) for an India defense. It can be tricky allocating IPC’s between Keeping U.K., South Africa, and India secure early on, but its doable. Depending on what Germany is doing always look for opportunities to either take Norway, Liberate/Support Karelia/Archangel (Liberating/Supporting Karelia takes a lot of pressure off Russia, if u can spare the 2 planes from U.K. land them their (if u have fodder their)). Move infantry from Persia to India.

U.S.

Move your Bomber to the U.K. and begin bombing Southern Europe next turn. Always try to have at least 2 Bombers in U.K.

You have 2 turns to amass your navy and load up your transports. Taking longer then 2 turns to have an impact on the war is too long ime.

It depends what the Axis has done to decide which way to go.

Buying an Air Craft Carrier, Industrial Complex, and Transport is usually a good choice.

Get everything to S.Z. 10 load it up and go to 12 on your third turn. Sea Zone 12 is a tactically important Sea Zone imo.

When you get to 12 with your navy (Battleship, Cruiser, Destroyer, 2 Aircraft Carriers, 4 Planes, possibly the Sub and 4 fully loaded transports) look for weakness’s in the German defense. If you have the advantage always destroy the Mediterranean fleet (This relieves the U.K. in Africa).

Place the Industrial Complex in Sinkiang (Before you place this complex make sure you will not loose it when Japan goes!)
 * This probably involves Russia landing its 2 planes from India in Sinkiang (Russia may need the planes to attack, but being conservative to lock down Sinkiang on turn 2 is Huge), and 2 Infantry from Novosibirsknyyyyy.
 * Possibly the U.K. fighter.
 * Talk to your Allies make absolutely sure they are willing and capable of doing this.
 * Basically figure out what you will need to defend both Sinkiang and India if Japan decides to throw everything it has against either territory and divide the planes accordingly. <— Do this DURING Russia’s Non-Combat Movement Phase (take into account what U.K. will be purchasing for India). If Germany’s main force isn’t in Ukraine chances are Russia can spare tanks until U.S. builds up Sinkiang.

Place your Industrial Complex in Sinkiang, and always build 2 of whatever you need to keep it safe. Most likely Tanks or Fighters.
 * If you don’t feel comfortable placing your I.C. in Sinkiang place it in Brazil. This will support your Navy and help U.K. with Africa. I would recommend building an I.C. in Brazil on your next turn or whenever you get the chance. Keeping an Air Craft Carrier parked their, allows you to build planes and get them to your navy to replenish the ones you lost.

When u pull everything East, Japan will probably go for Alaska, or Midway, just make sure you build enough fodder in Western to prevent an invasion.

Placing I.C.s on the Eastern front can be game breaking for both sides. If Allies hold, and keep them fortified Japan can fall into a stalemate. If Japan overthrows and takes control, its onto Russia’s weak underbelly.
 * Don’t forget to watch what Yakut needs for reinforcements. Try to keep a pipeline of 2 Russian infantry (as a minimum) building in Russia, staging in Novosibirsk, and then reinforcing either Yakut or Sinkiang depending on what Japan is doing. Yakut S.S.R. will be the weakest target for Japan to break through.

Hope that Helps.  :-D