Bob_A_Mickelson's AAG40 National Production/Objectives and Setup Charts

“Never” is a strong word, and you even went so far as to hold down shift as you typed it and then went back to underline it afterwards.

If the airbase lets you hold Gibraltar for one extra turn, maybe even two, then is that 15 IPCs worth it for you?
Very possibly, sure. Delaying a US entry into the Med for one turn probably saves Italy at least 5 IPCs right off the bat, not to mention delaying its eventual economic implosion by an entire turn more of income.

Is it still worth it if the Americans can fly straight to Egypt or Norway from Gibraltar now?
Maybe they can’t do that yet, and won’t for another turn or two. Very possibly, yes, it’s still worth it. Maybe because you had that airbase, however, your Axis units were able to abandon Gibraltar and get into a better position on their way out. Lot’s of “if”'s. A lot of combinations of them add up to it being worth it.

Is it still worth it if the Americans can scramble planes off of it to defend their navy?
If you weren’t planning on attacking their navy (maybe because you simply don’t have the resources to do so), yes, absolutely, then there’s no difference at all.

So, yeah, sometimes it’s alright to give your opponent a facility if you got your money’s worth out of it first, even if it is only for a turn or two. Plenty of US and JP plays depend on building a naval base that’s only ever really used once in the game. There are some cases where the same is true for air bases all over the place.

When will you bring us with more in-depth article, stratigiCOW? Look forward to it. :roll:

Screw doing a bid.

Do a lottery,  shake up all the roundels in your hand, and hand them out randomly.

If people want to trade, let them.  If not, forget it, and play.

Adding up to 120 in IPC’s to the game board, is NOT how to play Axis and Allies.

I am in the middle of game, round 4 America’s turn.  I took several pictures of the board that I could email you if you would like.  I could then give you the exact chip stacks around Russia since it is kind of hard to tell.  The situation is Germany has taken and hold Ukraine with about 15 inf, 2 art, 8 mech, 7 tanks. Russia has 17 inf in Bryansk with more in Russia.  The Luftwaf is all but gone, Italy is almost totally out of Africa and only has 1 trans and 1 DD on the board.  Japan has wiped out China and is poised to enter Russia, Russia inf are in Manchuria and there are 22 Brit inf in India with 2 art.  America has a small naval off Gibraltor and a large navy off the coast of Caroline islands (controlled by Japan) opposite the IJN in the Phillipeans SZ.

If you are interested shoot me an email, but I couldn’t get them to you until Sunday, since I am leaving town for the rest of the week.

Thank you for the answers. I just needed to be sure

That was precisely my thought, McLovin.  I feel, at this point in time, Germany needs a method to produce warships in the Med.  If one allows Italy to take S. France, this - essentially - means that Germany has to build a complex in Yugoslavia.  This may be a good idea in the long run anyway, making it a little easier to reinforce the south against Russia. (OOB this could be a major complex, Alpha 2 I do not think it can.)

I feel an Airbase would be nice to accompany the complex in Yugoslavia, if you go this route, since then you can put 6 fighters in the air for cover air patrol.  But again, if you have S. France, I think you would not need this. (Little harder since you have to build Italy in one zone and Germany in another instead of combined, but much cheaper.)

You are correct–friendly ships belonging to other powers that are in the same SZ as an amphib assault do not fire during the attack.

Well, the German invasion Barbarossa was halted again before Moscow, with a powerful red army counterattack destroying the main German stack. Italy never really got going and its attempt to defeat Egypt failed spectacularly, and for Japan the dice just got worse and worse. Japan suffered disproportionate land unit casualties in China and south east Asia, and when the Americans got going the Japanese fleet couldn’t hold. Allies win the war.

I think key to this game is that Japan has to break through against UK and China before the USA gets going. They need to be up to 60-65 IPC minimum. Also, a G2 against Russia didn’t work in my game, the offensive peters out, and you need a massive stack of infantry to shield a stack of tanks. A factory in Romania and the capture of Leningrad are advised to make it a two pronged attack. Plus a few Italian tanks and mech inf can really make a difference there, I feel. Italy needs to defeat Egypt quickly, and I feel that even without its western Italian fleet it could be done, in my game it was attempted but failed because of atrocious dice.

The axis were not friends of the dice in my game, pretty much every key battle the dice were lopsided against the axis.

And the axis need to expand quickly, the game starts with 66 IPC for axis (base territories, without bonuses) and 175 for the allies. Build up too slow and the allies will pile up the plastic.