German strategy for first 2 TURNS?

the problem is sending air anywhere but the sea germany turn 1 guarantees you will not have optimal sinking of allied fleet. If you sink all the allied ships, and take some convoys instead you have a much larger gain than attacking russia early on.

if you don’t destroy the fleets turn 1, you will lose your subs

You can take 3-4 convoys and still destroy all but russian american, and east med fleets turn 1
the cost to replace the ships also exceeds the value of the convoys by a great deal (not to mention the immidiate destruction of the subs) Also many convoy zones can be recaptured. If there are no boats, the allied air can’t touch the subs!

You also mention that germany can take russia easily
I would argue that under the circumstances, it takes at least 7 turns to destroy russia if allied fighters are send in. Turn 6 attack on moscow is easily defended with uk/us fighters. If many allied fighters (3 us per turn) are sent in it can take as many as 15 turns to conquer moscow happened in a game i have played look at dicey game 1532

it’s great to think up new strategies, but i cannot see how they are more effective than the ones already in place!

i realize that i have made occasional mistakes with the interface, by doing an illegal move, whatever, but i thought i have corrected the error after my opponent told me. If there are still errors with the games please tell me what they are so i wouldn’t do it again!!
also, we send a map through email to show where our moves go.
What makes you think that “rolling the dice” will change it? The programs used use the exact rules of the board game, the only change is the bid, and i’m not sure, but i think the sub stalling issues in the book are unclear, so the club explains their rules. Many of the games may be bad from forfiets whatever, but a lot are good! look at 1604 or 1598!

I am convinced that the game is not at all balanced! This is largly due to the stack. This is a strategy where all the units are in one territory, and very few or no units are in the other regions. Germany does few attacks on russia the first rounds (attack and retreat), and builds infantry artillary for 2-3 rounds. Then the stack moves to poland, east poland, bellorussia, and moscow. On turn 6 or 7 when it arrives, it is unstopable.

The convoy strategy can be varied a little i guess, i just tend to think the best move isn’t to try to grab them all on the first turn that’s the main thing.

there are other strategies as well but they are mostly just for a change. Some people argue that the game is “broken” but i think it’s fun, as long as some method is used to balance it. The same is true for world and pacific, world has an allied advantage and pacific axis. Why would europe be any different?

Please just sign up at the site and play some games, it’s a lot of fun, and you can easily play a standard games (just bid 12 for allies!)

thanks for (hopefully) reading my long message

I find fault with your purchasing selections, Will, mainly due to the absence of any new air units on your shopping list. Air power is expensive, but it is potent and flexible. Due to high mobility and shielding by infantry, it can be durable – however, you can suffer losses and I think you must keep German air power at its full capacity.

if you only build tanks with germany, you will not be able to take moscow when you get there. You will also will lose your army from counter attacks by the russians. If you like i will play a game with you where i am allies, you are germany, no bid, and you have to build tanks the whole time.

Actully the counter attacks wont kill you. If the russians build the usually infantry and artillary they will have a large force, but it will lack the offencive power it needs to destroy your army. And if the russians beat you their will still be 8 tanks and your whole airforce ready to counter attack the now heavily damaged russian army. You will have a constant flow of tanks from which you can attack with by building them every turn.

Another idea that usually works is keeping one territory betwwen your forces and the enemy. If they choose to move closer you will crush them with your infantry, planes, and huge amonts of armor. And if you move in they will mostly have all infantry and some artilllary which just dosent pack enough punch to beat you.

Your only trouble is if the russians build up a tank force of thier own to counter attack yours.

If you build all tanks, and russia retreats everything to moscow and builds only infantry (and allies fly in a bunch of fighters), moscow will not fall! ever! then it’s only a matter of time before the uk and usa can bring down the reich. another thing, the soviets can convert all those fighters to russian fighters. This is an important offensive force.
I would love to play against you with your tank only buys. I will even give you the benifit of no-bid (usually the allies get 24-30 ipcs instead of the 12 in the book because the game is not balanced) If you sign up at www.aaeuropemc.com we can register a game!

Staying in Moscow will not help your problem. The russians will lose a lot thier icps from the germans taking over the rest of russia. Any way waiting will help the russains by giving the allis extra time but it only makes germany stronger. The germans can produce as many tanks as russia can infantry. And if the russians are all in moscow then the I would just gather my whole army in one territory and attck it.
And if I fail then well here comes 8 or more tanks to finnish the job.

p.s. I accept your challenge……if i can figure out how to play.

ok you seem to think you are right, and I think i’m right. Go to www.aaeuropemc.com and sign up. You can come back here and give me your name there and email, I can answer any questions you have about how to play by email. I will give you germany (no bid) on the condition that you must buy as many tanks as you can the first 2 rounds. after that buy whatever you want. Is this ok? Normally Allies get 12-18 ipc’s in addition to the 12 to balance the game. Good luck, and thanks for accepting the challenge!

as a “neutral moderator type”, would you guys mind playing and posting your game here (under the “games” section). I’d enjoy seeing this. Also if you send the boards to a website a la big blocky then i’d love to see the addy.
If you can, great thanks, if too much work that’s fine too.
have fun!

• I agree with Inkdux on Germany needing to wipe out most of the Allied navy. This forces Britain, with national production of 25, to focus on building expensive navy units. This also will put the US in a position where they must also beef up their navy to clear out what remains of the German navy. This takes the focus of the western allies off of amphibious assaults and more on building destroyers ($12 each) to destroy the German subs and to defend transports. This allows Germany to weaken its forces in France and put them against Russia on the other front. Germany will eventually have to contend with an amphibious assault on France but will have ample time to shift units into place for defense. Leaving the Allied navy alone and only going after convoys is a doomed strategy. Britain and the US will be able to knock your subs out of most of these convoys before they receive their money at the end of their respective rounds, which means the affect on their IPCs is minimal to nothing and you just got most if not all of your subs sunk. Once this is done, expect amphibious landings from the US and Britain to follow immediately, which takes Germany from being on offense to being on defense and is normally the beginning of the end.

• As far as the eastern front is concerned, purchase a transport and put it in the Danish Sea and artillery to be placed either in Germany or Poland with the $12 you start with. Attack Leningrad with 2 infantry + 2 artillery transported over from Germany + 1 fighter. Attack Baltic States (only 3 russian infantry), East Poland (only 4 russian infantry) & Bessarabia (only 1 infantry + 1 armor defending) as well. Reinforce Rumania on your non-combat phase to prevent units from Ukraine from taking it in a counter-attack. If Leningrad is stacked with infantry, send the 2 infantry + 2 artillery with the transports to attack Baltic States. The extra transport gives you more flexibility in attacking on the opening round and can also help you beyond the 1st round as long as they stay alive. Britain has to choose on its turn whether to use its 2 fighters and bomber to attack your 2 transports or assist its remaining destroyers in Davis Strait and/or Strait of Gibraltar in attacking your subs (this is assuming you have concentrated all of your sub efforts in the first round to destroying the British fleet in the North Sea, English Channel & Celtic Sea). More often than not, they will choose to go after your subs to stop you from attacking their convoys as well as future naval units that they purchase. Your 1st objective should remain taking out Leningrad. If you don’t, this will allow the Russians to continually stack infantry there for use as cannonfodder in counterattacks or just to reinforce other provinces in the area, which will slow down your offensive tremendously. Even if you take Leningrad and they take it back in the next round, they still can’t build units there and you will most likely be able to take it back on your next turn. With Leningrad gone, Russia is forced to produce infantry in Moscow or Stalingrad. The combination of the US & UK being delayed due to their navies being destroyed coupled with Germany being able to transfer infantry and artillery to the front very quickly with the transports will put you in an excellent position to take Russia out.

• As for the Middle East, in the first round take 1 artillery + 1 infantry on the transport and amphibious assault libya and move your battleship and destroyer in for offshore support while attacking from Tunisia as well. If Britain attacks your battleship, destroyer & transport on their turn with their fighter, destroyer and transport, you have the edge in defense numbers (4, 3, 1 vs. 3, 3 & NA) + the fact that it takes 2 shots to take down a battleship, so in essence its 4 vs. 2 and you should win this battle almost every time. On the 2nd turn, if Britain does not attack, pick up an artillery or infantry from Greece as well as the infantry from Crete for an amphibious assault on Egypt. You will have to use your battleship and destroyer to take out the British destroyer and transport, but again you have the attack numbers advantage (4, 3 vs. 3, 1) as well as the 2-shot battleship, so it is 3 vs. 2. Bring all of your forces from Libya to bear on Egypt along with the aforementioned amphibious assault. In subsequent rounds use your remaining forces to push through the middle east to Russia. This middle-east strategy does not seem very popular on the forum, but moving the German battleship, destroyer and transport to the Atlantic and leaving the British with all of their naval and ground units in tact will allow them to take Germany out of Africa rather quickly and force Germany to leave defensive forces in Greece and Southern Italy that could be used on the Russian front. Taking Britain out of Africa has 3 benefits: it allows Germany to leave places like Greece and Southern Italy completely undefended and gives them the ability to bring those units to bear on Russia, it takes money directly out of the allies pockets and is much more long term than attacking the convoys and it will eventually expose the Russian southern flank and force Russia to shift valuable units to Caucasus for defense. Using these 3 strategies in combination will put you in the drivers seat and will keep the allies on the defensive for a few rounds.