What to do when london is invaded

@all-encompassing-goose said in Ways to make the game better?:

@cernel I do have a bad track record for accidentally making posts in the wrong topic but I got Spring 1942 from Ebay. Unless the seller makes a mistake and gives me the 2nd edition, I know I’m receiving Spring 1942. Also, you cannot get 2nd edition anywhere in new condition for less than $60 which I state in the post I ordered SE for $30 (with all the shipping added)

Definitely worth the money (assuming it’s like new), but your decision to pick the 1st edition does not make a whole lot of sense to me. If you wanted a game that could take less than the 1940 games and still have the Axis&Allies experience, I would think the 2nd edition of 1942 is the most obvious choice (unless you are still playing the first edition of the 1940 games).

This said, one thing that Spring 1942 has going for itself is balance: the game is fairly balanced (being only very slightly unbalanced in favour of the Axis) and can be reasonably played with no bid (and no optional rules picking) at any skill levels, which is rare or even unique for any Axis&Allies world games.

My suggestion, however, is to alter the starting set-up by relocating the American destroyer into the sea zone next to the Eastern United States territory: it near-to-perfectly balances the game (by giving a very small advantage to the Allies) and avoid the very dicey attack by the German sub in than zone on round 1 (being either a +26 or a -6 swing value for the Axis).

@panther Thank you very much panther…

@krieghund Thanks krieghund…

@Du-Bist-Toten said in General Questions:

FURTHERMORE, the rules introduce another VERY interesting concept. They actually say that a sub can be held hostage in a zone, unable to go anywhere unless 1) the enemy destroyer above it leaves or 2) the sub fights its way out. In other words, a sub, when under an enemy destroyer, must either fight or “be frozen”. So it’s kinda trapped! Just move your destroyer to the same zone as a sub and then choose not to fight it; then the sub will be frozen until you move! The sub won’t attack you on the sub’s “turn” (even though the option is there) if the firepower of your fleet above it is too powerful! This “freezing of the sub” occurs because the rules say “If a submarine enters a sea zone containing an enemy destroyer, it MUST end its movement there.”

I’m afraid you’ve got this wrong. The rule you quoted means that a sub must stop if it encounters an enemy destroyer after it starts moving. If it begins its movement in such a zone, it may leave, as it did not enter the zone during its movement. Moving into a zone with an enemy destroyer merely stops a sub’s current movement - it does not pin the sub indefinitely.

So my question here is as follows: If a sub decides to fight it’s way out, and after one round of combat an enemy destroyer is still above it, can the sub just “chill out” and “just be frozen under the water” again AFTER the enemy retaliates for that round? OR does the sub have to fight to the death?

In this situation, if a sub were to attack rather than move away, it would have to fight to the death, as it could not submerge and would have no legal way to retreat. However, as I mentioned above, it may leave the zone, so it could move to an adjacent friendly zone and come back in combat movement before attacking, thus establishing a retreat route.

BUT, if NO DESTROYER is present, can the sub attack the fleet above for just one round, and then move two spaces away during non-combat movement IF the counter fire didn’t kill the sub? If a destroyer IS present above and the sub DOES kill it, can the sub move two spaces away during non-combat movement?

Neither of these is legal. Any land or sea unit that either made a combat movement or participated in combat may not move in noncombat movement.

I hope this helps.

If Russia is aggressive in its first move, all things considered, it’s game over for the Axis. It’s why I favor a house rule that forces the USA to spend a certain amount of money in the Pacific Theater-and units purchased can only be used in that theater of operations…

@cernel said in Playing in 2017 still, General Strategy/Discussion:

That submarine is making a battle with an average +10 value swing there (140% the value of the attacking force!), which is more than sending it to kill the lone British transport

Actually, sending the German submarine which is in the North Atlantic to kill the transport next to Eastern Canada (average +7) instead of taking the shot against the 1 cruiser and 2 transports next to Eastern United States (average +10) is some less than a -3 difference since, if using it to kill the British transport, then nothing can kill the submarine on the same round, whereas the 50% chance of the submarine surviving next to Eastern United States implies the ability for the Americans to make a battle with 1 destroyer, 1 fighter and 1 bomber (or even more units) against 1 submarine, which is an about +4.4 value swing, to be reduced to +2.2 on the account that the submarine will be there only 50% of the times. So that covers at least most (2.2/3) of the difference between the two options the submarine has if you actually think that having that submarine alive next to Eastern Canada at the start of the second German turn is actually worth its value or more. Opinions?

In any case, the battle next to Eastern United States is certainly a good option which your opponent may take and, in this case, it will be a 50/50 on either:

Germany having 1 less submarine for nothing. America having 1 less cruiser, 2 less transports and having to invest units to kill 1 German submarine, with slightly more than a 1/6 chance also to lose 1 destroyer in the process.

It’s quite worth it. My favorite version of the game.

@ashoka:

Also about the navy, I think I was being too cautious but let me give you more details. Germany has 3 bombers by G3 and 3 ro 4 fighters stationed in Karelia. At that point, if I take Norway, I need enough navy to defend against that airforce which can attack at 21 to 24. Do you think just defending at around a 21 with about 7 pieces is enough to deter attack by Germany? He would have 60 to 70% odds but would be left with 2 bombers usually. And maybe it’s a good thing if Germany loses most of it’s airforce taking out that fleet since I can replace the navy (UK/US combined) faster than Germany can replace the airforce? Or is it smarter to bring more US navy and make sure the transport chain is secure?

Against that kind of airforce (3 ftrs + 4 bmrs) then you definitely need more ships than the ones I mentioned, since the most important is to protect. Be glad your dad hasn’t discovered yet the wonders of bringing the entire Japanese airforce to Europe, since he seems to like a large Luftwaffe (I do as well ;) )

Lastly, about holding off Japan with Russia. Japan was very well played. They took a slow road to Moscow with 3inf, 3art landing in Buryatia every turn and heading on the northern route to Russia while 3 tanks per turn produced in FIC stationed themselves in India for a few turns along with a few inf, art thrown in. Sinkiang was held with 4 inf and 3 of the tanks from FIC. From there Japan didn’t advance for a couple of turns while the forces slowly built up and soon an IC in india was producing tanks as well. By the time they were in range of Russia, they were too large for the attack to be worthwhile and they were able to storm into Caucusus and then build mix of inf/art/tanks there. Do you think Russia should extend itself early on to help UK hold India or perhaps stack allied forces in Persia?

Thanks again, I think I have a much better grasp of allied strategy now with these discussions.

Yup you should definitely have pressed Germany harder. But you can also prevent Japan from building those single large unit stacks on Yakut/Sinkiang. The problem with Japan is that the 3 routes (northern, chinese and southern) can’t support one another while advancing and they have long communication lines. Thus if you see Japan starting to advance stacks over the 3 routes you can move an infantry stack to Novosibirsk to create dead zones in Sinkiang/Yakut. You shouldn’t usually actually attack if he only leaves 1 inf on those territories (Russians liberating Sinkiang gets no money to the US since Japan will retake it afterwards) but as long as you keep the larger stacks away you’ll gain more time to finish Germany.

Basically for Russia (and the UK/US) against Japan is let it advance and punch and destroys its units piecemeal without allowing it to concentrate. And if G is not advancing then Japan can suffer some severe punishment from the Allies: US retakes Russian territories taken by Japan. Russia retakes more and/or uses a tank stack to crush Japanese reinforcements behind the original frontline. UK reinforces the position taken from Japan with more tanks and fighters. It isn’t easy to pull it off but it can be done.