Global Team game when it comes out!

@colonel_sanders You also might enjoy looking over the past 2 “tutor” games, where players discuss rationale behind each move.

But by far the best way to learn is just play. Just post a message on the forums, and you’ll quickly find opponents.

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/35254/tutor-game-andrewaagamer-x-vs-trulpen-and-everyone-else-a-50-oob

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/37451/abh-and-crockett36-a-69-tutor-game

I agree with a post that Mashmallow posted earlier, there is no guarantee that you are going to get that NO for a clear med, you should not even rely on that one. The Italians have so many uses, on the ground, with actual IPC earning territory’s that those planes can be used for, you need to weigh out their impact in the med versus potentially taking Egypt, steam rolling Greece, building an actually strong can-opener force in Russia, and even Protecting Rome.

The last few games that I have played, when I am the Axis, I get my Italian partner to seriously evaluate the Taranto raid force. If it is the max force possible, and the UK is totally on point, I say scrap the scramble, focus on more attainable objectives. As a German player, I sure as hell don’t want to burn the Luftwaffe on an air vs naval clean up battle G2, where I can lose guaranteed safe hits against Russian ground troops once Barbarossa commences. On the other hand, If the UK doesn’t bring the max force down, or they don’t make a move to middle east with SA and India navies / units, and Italy looks like they might have some time to maneuver for a few rounds, then scramble all the way. I have seen games were Italy won the Taranto raid, and from then on became unstoppable in the Med, which in turn leads to Germany being able to achieve their full potential, and results in an Axis victory.

Italy unfortunately has to play the game, or at least start the game, being completely on board to support the Germans in whichever direction they plan to strike. A strong Afrika campaign with Italian air power can lead to Italy generating sufficient IPCs to gain a bit more control over their destiny. A successful Italian campaign in the middle East, or as a can-opener can have the same impact. Italy with zero navy, and zero air force, means they might as well stockpile Rome and prepare to defend Europe, there will be no expeditionary force.

Here’s a funny quote from a site that talks about dice towers:

“Historically, the Ancient Romans used dice towers to control their dice, this being a natural outgrowth of the Roman penchant for building siege towers to control the Greeks, etc. Somewhere along the line – probably around the invention of gunpowder – sappers came into favor and dice towers fell out of fashion.  […]  Dice towers have the added advantage of forcing a minimum level of randomization to the throw of each die, which is a very good thing if you’ve ever gamed with one of those guys who likes to let the die slide off the edge of his palm and cry out, “Another six!” (This is a technique that the ancient Romans called “signor cheatypants”.)”

Any reason why UK starts with control of Celebes?

Germany: Help Italy get to Egypt. Punch USSR in the face hard and grab factory territories. Use planes to keep UK from landing. Keep USSR on its toes until Italy and Japan open up extra fronts against the USSR.

Italy: Keep allies out of Mediterranean. Punch through into the middle east. Build factories in the middle east. Start a front from the south of USSR. Help Japan take India, sometimes.

Japan: Grab the DEI. Keep steady progress against China. Build factories on the mainland to funnel tanks into India. Use planes to stall US and ANZAC naval advances. Use your fleet on the offense very sparingly, it’s often more useful to keep your fleet in strongly defended positions and to threaten your opponent with it rather than commit to using it.

USSR: Build a catapult to throw men at the problem. Rifles optional. But seriously, stall the German advance with infantry. Gobs of infantry. You don’t necessarily want to win, you want to live long enough for the US and UK to save you. When the Germans start having to spread themselves thin, break through into Europe.

UK: Try to loose as slowly as you can in the pacific. Hold on to Egypt but don’t break the bank doing so. Get control of the Atlantic and the channel. Keep enough of a navy to defend against air raids. Then, use your navy in the channel as a bridge from England to Normandy (or elsewhere in Europe, Holland and Norway being good targets). Keep dropping men. Make the Germans fight a two front war. Hope ANZAC and US save you in the pacific.

USA: In Europe build lots of transports to funnel men to North Africa and Europe. Make sure you can survive German sub and air attacks on your transports by defending them. Using the UK fleet and UK airbases as cover for your navy can be helpful. In the Pacific, your basic goal is to pee aircraft carriers. Spray the Pacific with carriers like a dog marking it’s territory. Obviously not only carries, but they are much more cost effective than battleships as capital ships. You want to force the Japanese to commit to a naval battle then leave their navy on the bottom of the ocean. You can afford losses to your navy in a way they can’t. If you can get the Japanese fleet in range of an island with a lot of planes, that’s even better, planes are more cost effective in combat than ships. The Philippines and DEI are important targets. Take everything of value in the south pacific. Then, start landings in southeast Asia along with islands close to Japan like Iwo Jima. Strat bomb the living daylights out of them. Make sure the Japanese are too poor to even consider rebuilding a navy.

China: Die very slowly. Keep the burma road open when practical. Avoid big battles when practical. Keep the Japanese out of the USSR by being a thorn in their side. Make sure if you group your troops together there are enough to survive a big attack. The last thing you want is to huddle too closely together if the Japanese can win an attack against that stack, since you’ve lost everything at that point.

France: Use your troops in Africa to help Egypt live. Use your scattered fleet to try to harass Italy and Japan. Sailing the ship on the east coast of Africa to India is sometimes a good idea. If ever liberated, help push into Rome and Berlin.

ANZAC: Build a factory in Queensland.  Ensure you have your objective for the islands. Then, build a navy and try to land troops in the Philippines and DEI. You can move a transport from Queensland to Malay in a single move. Take advantage of that.

@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

Is Global domination rules just playing until one side controls all the territories? Any clarification would be appreciated.

In practice, a global domination variant is one where the sides ignore the official victory conditions, which are based on controlling a certain number of victory cities for a turn, and instead play until one side concedes.  You could play until all territories are controlled, but that outcome is usually determined well before the last enemy territory is captured.  Typically, experienced players can decide if a game is worth continuing after one of the major capitals falls.

As some have pointed out, this type of game can be less interesting because the Allies’ economic might encourages them to grind out a longer game until they can pour all their resources into crushing Germany or Japan.

Conversely, it presents a greater challenge for the Axis while also making the Allies less defensive as Cow mentioned.  The problem as I see it is that any game that lasts longer than 10 turns becomes a de facto Allied victory because of the economic imbalance.  Consequently, we’ve been trying to formulate a bid to help even things out, but not break the game in the first 3 turns.  It’s a bit of a round peg/square hole problem, but it’s good to get people talking about it for those of us who cling to the old “global domination” victory rule.

germany did sea lion. russia bought mostly mech / tank and bunkered romania when germany/italy finally got enough for force ruskies out (ruskies did a detour for iraq and the african spots). ruskies turned around with mech and tanks and blitzed to calcutta then made it back in time for germany vs russia.

this game coupled with 30 infantry china and all 18 ruskies still alive in asia… japan was shut down.  germany took russia, uk just finally got transports and men. uk pac was worthless but still a funny liberation.
~
yeah sea lion sucks sometimes lol. ruskies owning italy africa is no good lol. +3 each one and iraq too. go go mech + bombers.

the pacific showdown was hilarious too. I am not sure why japan attacked phillipines. it was a mutual destruction battle… but after that anzac’s naval looked pretty nice on an empty board. I had java the whole game because he round 3 india and lost so much stuff.

If japan did not get shut down, I would have totally lost. all he needed was hawaii after round 3. that was a funny game

@FieldMarshalGames:

I second that.  1942 is the best way to train new players.

I know you want to break out Global but you might scare them away!

If you use that funky little 1942 board then you had better anchor it down or one little bump and what a mess.