My review copy of Axis & Allies Europe 1940 has arrived

My recommendation is to hit him hard in Normandy and see about landing only a couple infantry in Norway.  Taking Norway loses him those IPCs plus the Scandinavian trade bonus, which will hurt his economy by at least a Panzer purchase per turn, and he can’t afford to split his attention so many ways.  Just like he is trying with Russia, give him a death by a thousand little cuts.  If you can convoy raid him (if you are playing with raids, that is), then you can knock him down even more.  Of course, I may just be a bit overaggressive– I can’t see what all you can, but anything to stop the Scandinavian bonus is a good thing for beleaguered Russia.

Thanks for the confirmation!!!

I agree with Karl’s assessment.  For the OOB set-up, Sea Lion seems like the only viable option.

Even then, the Allies might still have the advantage.  But taking London early on (by G3) should give Germany a decent shot at the W.

If there is a winning strategy for OOB that doesn’t involve taking London early, then it would need a strong naval component, or the Allies will set up in France and USA will build a major in Norway.

@LHoffman:

Interesting, yes… but I don’t think the similarity between the A&A game and Axis pact you reference is intentional. By that I mean it was a total coincidence. Taking into account all of the other errors in Pacific and previous versions, there is no way that the designers paid that much attention to detail. I bet it just looked like a logical place to split the board for them.

Yeah. I think they just split it where China ended, and that happened to be there.

Besides, 10 degrees is a large error.

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.

I know, but now it is impossible for the axis to win without taking Cairo (unless they invade UK, US). Also, the middle easts income is now a factor and UK would be limping without Middle East/Africa income. Italy would also be earning 40+.

Duh!!