My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived

Ok, sounds like a lot of guys think it is not necessary to take London to win?
For sure you already have your “sealion” invading force on the board by turn 2 (as demonstrate by Siredblood) but i have to admit that 63 IPC for those 9 missing transports is a lot of money!

The main (and maybe only) reason why i thought about taking London (besides extra IPC) was to prevent US/ UK from using it as a launching platform to bomb/ invade mainland Europe by turn 5 and up!!

My current plan is this (almost cut/ paste from Siredblood’s Cobra-Kaï):
G1:
Eliminate Royal Navy in SZ106, 110, 111
Take France (leave normandy/ south France to Italy)
Ping-Pong Yugoslavia back in Romania (Leave it to Italy)
Barbarossa (Bessarabia + Eastern Poland)
Of course annex both Finland and Bulgaria
Build a Minor Complex in Romania (to pump tanks all along)
put a destroyer in SZ113 and regroup navy.
Italy 1
Buy 1 tank & 1 mech (to speed up with both tank from Albania/ North Italy and meet German forces near Bessarabia)

G2
Retake Bessarabia (unless Russian player is too dumb to give it a thought)
Take West. Ukraine
Strategic bombing of London
Move all my “Sealion” forces into West. Germany/ Germany (to "bluff away" Sealion)
Pump 3 tanks in Romania and keep all the rest of my IPC (42) to keep my opponent in the dark as much as possible!

G3
Take Ukraine
Drop 9 transports in SZ113 + 3 tanks in Romania
Italy 3
“can open” Rostov with tanks and all air force!

G4
Tank rush into Stalingrad with all tanks and air power (2 Tac, 2 Strategic)
“Sealion”! Bouum!
Pump 3 tanks in Romania and in Ukraine
Move back 6 of the 7 guys from Finland to Norway (will bridge to uk/ Scotland in T5)

G5
Rebuild forces in Stalingrad/ Ukraine, bring some planes
Strat bombing Moscow
Bridge some infantry from Norway to London and 1 to take Scotland
Buy a max of aircraft (strat. and Fighters)
Italy 5
“Regroup and can open” Tambov or Briansk with tanks and all air force!

G6
Moscow boum!

By then the Axis should have 8 victory cities (Italy’s role is to take Cairo and reinforce by turn 4 max)
I don’t even give a rat ass about Leningrad as it is already way too strong right off the bat!
Also on turn 6 i would start to take back infantry Eastern Poland/ Baltic states/ Romania that might be scattered to turtle them up on Warsaw!
At this point the goal is to hang on tight for 1 turn!

Of course all along Italy is putting 3 infantry per turn on South France and move them to Paris on turn5
Italy is also to put 1 destroyer in SZ92 on T4 simply to delay US and buy Axis 1 turn.

This strategy is stretched to the max and of course bad/good rolls might turn it into either a brilliant victory or a shameful beating!

Any piece of advise or parts that i am missing?

@EnoughSaid:

@Field:

Now with an Industrial zone of 10 the USA would put 5 fighters and 5 tanks in each buy thus obliterating Germany.

Whenever you capture a Major Industrial Complex, it turns into a Minor Complex. Additionally, only the original power can restore it back to a Major Industrial Complex.

Just so you know, that shouldn’t have been possible - unless you were playing with house rules that say otherwise.

Our house rules state if you lose a Major Industrial Complex you pay the consequences.

Hi. You could use Larry’s 42 set up. I have played that quite a bit on AAA with others here. You would probably have to play 3 times to see how much of an at War NO the US needs to compete against the Axis, without tilting too much in the allies’ favour.
Please report back how it goes  playing Europe stand  alone.

I don’t know if you play AAA or whether you would want to download it, but I attach a 43 version I set up and have played twice.
The axis cannot win and that was my intention. It was solely done, as I love playing  Germany with its back to the wall, with the nasty Russians growing stronger and invading Germany proper.

Global43.tsvg

I usually figure half and hour to an hour per round as long as players have a concrete idea of what they want to accomplish and plan during other people’s turns.  So, the fastest game of Europe I have had so far was this last weekend, at 4.5 hours and 5 rounds.

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).

I agree. It’s funny because the game is not that hard to comprehend. I started playing A&A at 12, and while my first few games I was playing wrong, that was mainly because I never really read the rule book. Once you sit down and read it once, the only time you have to use it again is if you are doing something like an amphibious assault or shore bombardment, something that maybe only comes up once or twice in a game. Other than that the basic premise is really easy to understand.

@maverick_76:

That is why I was kidding, kinda like the pot calling the kettle black……

lol. You’ll never admit it, I know it  :wink: