Axis and Allies on Diplomacy Board…. while you are waiting for Europe

@Ruanek:

@Gargantua:

Don’t ever capture paris - you’ll see why.

Advertise to your opponent, if you want to stress him out, all your “Possible angles” of attack…  all the territories you can take… he’ll likely try to underdefend everything, and forget what actually matters.

Why wouldn’t you take Paris?  It’s not really that difficult, and every turn you don’t take it you’re denying yourself France’s IPCs and letting them build up more (probably not a huge amount, but it’s so easy to stop early).

Depending on who you capture Paris with, when you do it, and when the Axis takes it back, it could be bad. For example, if Great Britain liberates France (their capital, not the other territories), Italy can ignore it. If the US doesn’t have a lot of units to reinforce it, France will collect their income of X IPCs. Then, on Germany’s turn, they can take France back, not only gaining back the income of the actual territory, but also getting all the IPCs that France is holding at that time.

If France isn’t taken by turn 1 Germany is in trouble and the UK will thank you for leaving France intact.  Also the USA would collect all of South America if you hit a Netural nation like Turkey.  There are a lot of other holes in the plan…you assuming above average dice rolling which can’t be assumed. Your also assuming the Russian player is stupid and doesn’t figure out your plan and move to counter it. Because all Russia really has to do is hold on and wait for the USA to arrive to help. This tactic wouldn’t work on me as a USA player because I would be sitting in Rome turn 5 especially with Italy having no fleet in the med I would just park my fleet in the med and let you take pot shots at it with fighters(that would be fighters you wouldn’t be able to use to help take the other VC).

UK/ANZAC has a special agreement with the Dutch government in exile that allows them to take control (“guardianship”) of Dutch territories that are still under original (Dutch) control.  This rule does not apply to any other territories.

If this seems counter-intuitive, bear in mind that Holland is not a power in the game.  Other non-neutral territories all belong to powers.  The Dutch territories are treated in a unique way because of this.

Has anybody played JUST a Europe game yet? I think I got a group of people to play this weekend, but they are new and seem to be concerned with the length of time it takes to play the game. I was thinking about playing just the European game instead since it should be quicker.

Has anybody played it? Was the game play as good as Global (smaller scale of course)?

How does E1940 compare with P1940?

It’s rather funny because I’ve been thinking the same exact thing as you. Before I knew the official setup, I though Germany would have close to 20 aircrafts… I managed to work on the setup too and, based on the strength of the airforces in Europe (remember that Germany has only 8 aircrafts), I removed even more aircrafts from the Pacific map than you did. Now Japan “only” has 12 aircrafts (this is enough IMO), US 4, India 1, China 1 and ANZAC 1.  In order to balance things IPC-wise, I had to remove 8 infantries in Russia along with a few other ones on the allied side. (Look on wikipedia: 5 infantries in Malaya is way too much when compared to the armies in Europe.) I’m gonna try this as soon as possible and see if it’s balanced (and fun…).

I thought it was funny that one of the first things it brought up was a review for AA50.

@molinar13:

the same goes for a rail system. in the future if i can i will incorporate a rail, and block house system for my A&A games. they would really add a new prospective.

Flashman had some good ideas on a rail system.

Meh, really, it simply depends on the Axis’ focus on any particular game.  It looks like Russia only gets a crappy +5 NO once it is at war with the Axis, so compared to pissing off the Americans, war with Russia (only) would be a much more palatable option for Japan.  18 land units, while it is quite a lot, would not be expected to be massed together right at the border with Japan, so they could be picked off a bunch at a time, and definitely doable if Japan gets a major industrial complex in Asia (which it probably will in most games).  Plus, Moscow it so far away that sending reinforcements east is probably not Stalin’s top priority, so Japan could hold onto the Russian IPCs for a long time, gaining back whatever the cost was in killing the units over 3-4 rounds.

Also, it is subterfuge to some extent; forcing the Soviets to respond to threats on their eastern front would pull some attention (and troops) away from the western front, which would help Germany and Italy pull off a successful Sea Lion AND Barbarossa in turn.  Kinda of like not letting your left hand knowing what the right hand is doing.  However, with a Sealion going into action on Round 3 or 4, Japan may be forced to focus entirely on eliminating India so that the UK is incapable of sending reinforcements anywhere else.

I’m wondering what Italy will be required to take in the Med to stop UK air from reaching England.  Definitely Gibraltar and Malta, and all of the African coast, excepting Egypt maybe.  Italy has its hands full.  Maybe it would be best for Germany to ditch Sealion and just go after the Med early and take what it can get?