My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived

@The-Janus indeed hurting the luftwaffe is a plus but not if it costs you way too much. Keeping your fighters with UK and alive in the Med then they can go to moscow fast.

Regarding Italy in general terms: use the fleet to dominate the Mediteranean and put troops in Africa. This will mean you can take oil fields in Persia (national objective) + make the USSR nervous. Specifically: you can build infantry, artillery etc. in Italy each turn, and use the fleet to move them from SZ 97 to 99 the next turn. Taking Cairo and moving those troops south will also take points from the UK + take away their national objective. Your aim is to aid Germany as much as possible in taking over the world.

Regarding Germany in general terms: Take France on the 1st turn at all costs. Build around 10 troops every turn to send against USSR. This doesn’t mean you can just march up to Moscow but it will mean your forces will be balanced. Keep pushing the front every chance you get and take away every point you can. Bomb Moscow to smithereens using strategic bombers. Destroy every stack of infantry with as little troops as you can + as many airforce as you have. This will conserve your precious troops. Don’t spend money on factories. It’s tempting and it’s fun to test out , but I haven’t seen it work.

Generally: try not to land airplanes in territories without an airfield. It’s sometimes necessary, but it’s usually more beneficial to put them on an airfield.

On another topic: I see the major industrial complex on Paris hasn’t been downgraded. It should.

@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.

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).

Stalin also allowed German destroyers to sail around northern Russia to attack Allied shipping in the Pacific.

I personally believe that if the US/UK can drop land units off into Archangel/Karelia the game is essentially broken.  By all means allow them to send IPC aid to Russia, but historically Stalin did not want to share the glory of victory in Russia with foreign troops.

There must be a handicap to doing this; at the very least the turn it takes for Russia to convert this income into units and get them into action.

In a sense, the eastern and western fronts are depicted in different scales, certainly in regard to the numbers of units represented by infantry and Armoured pieces.  If it were accurate, the IPC income and starting units for Russia relative to the other Allies would be significantly bigger, perhaps 50%+.  That’s why introducing US/UK units into Russia can be so imbalancing.

Duh!!

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?