Alpha 3 due next week

Russia would have to put a lot in India to be able to hold it, or are you saying that the allies could hold Yunnan with Russian support?

Great, thanks again. Great forum with awesome reaction time to simple questions!

Keep it up guys!

The Japanese advance through Russia is annoying, but it very much opens the door to shut Japan down and stall the Japanese advance.

You’ve got two options.  The first of which is to sink the Japanese fleet and take control of SZ6 to prevent Japan from ferrying over units to the mainland while convoying Japan’s eventual income to zero and stopping the flood into Russia.  You can trade your ships for Japanese ships early, sacrificing carriers by absorbing two hits to allow your aircraft to continue to sink ships in SZ6 (which of course means their demise too). Once the fleet is crippled, Japan is going to be stuck putting out a DD or CR at best each round in SZ6 - easily sunk by US DD/SS.  By Japan ignoring income and making a bee line to Moscow, its most likely going to lose the fight in China as I’d expect India to DOW and stack up the Burma Road to get Chinese artillery out, nullifying the Japanese advantage over China.  Losing Chinese income, the DEI income and getting convoyed, Japan’s going to be making less than 10 IPC/round once the US DOW occurs.

The other option is to ignore Japan and just build the US to land on Gib on Round 4 and then onto Norway/Italy/the French Minors on Round 5.  A reinforcement of British units- a combination of infantry and aircraft can help prevent a German counter for the US landing.  The only hope is that you put enough of a threat on Germany that it has to reverse its economic spending getting units into the fight for Moscow so that Berlin has to be defended instead of a factory of Mech supporting what I’d expect to be Armor purchases that were made earlier.  India can also then ignore China and start churning out Armor/Mech and start marching toward Egypt/Afghan/Southern Russia.  Japan will not be able to hold territories near Moscow for long with India spending from India1 forward on a march in that direction.  Particularly as India claims all the DEI to pump its income into the 30’s.  I’d let Anzac just build SS every round and continue to convoy/harass Japanese territories to further compound Japan’s problem of spending to get units towards Moscow whilst being harassed via convoy everywhere.

Basically the Japanese making the Moscow Rush equates to a boring Pacific Theater and UK, India, US all converging on Europe.  Italy can easily be convoyed out of the game with a combination of SS purchases out of S.Africa, India and UK.  Japan has an 8 roundish march to Moscow (unless theres a suicide aircraft punch).  Germany is 7ish rounds out itself.  If rounds 5, 6 and 7 equate to Allied landings in Europe, Germany has a tough decision to face with a convoy’ed Italy, an over-extended Japan and a split economy defending Europe and advancing on Moscow.

Realize you still may lose Moscow, but with the Allies entrenched in Europe with a full economic investment, India may be able to reclaim Moscow for the Russians as Germany has to reverse course instead of swinging south towards Egypt for the win.

An extra submarine, if my opponent is foolish enough to give it to me, is always welcome!

The tournament bids are averaging out to 6-9 IPCs for Alpha 2.  That’s relatively miniscule given the size and scope of the game.

@DutchmanD:

Oh, this is no more ahistoric than Italy being able to take Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and the rest of the Mediteranean when they could even beat the Greek army with their entire military. Not to mention one of the most significant ahistorical flaws of G40, which is that the French troops in Aremain loyal to the Allies for some reason, not Axis Vichy…  and, if they are not at war, why are they killing Brits mercilessly on Italy 1? Don’t get me started on the whole “orginally owned” territory nonesense either, the Germans can buld a major IC in Norway and the UK can build one in Malaya, but the Japanses cannot build one in Shanghai; the Japanese were the first to build factories in Shanghai around 1900 after the First Sino-Japanese War, and by 1937, when they fully officially occupied the city, it had more manufacturing power than the rest of Southeast Asia combined!  Dice Gods forbid the Japs actually being able to make a major IC in an actual manufacturing center that they originally created        :wink:

Ahistoric… hmpf!  Nothing like an instant 10 tnps build by the Germans and the dissappearance of essentially the entire Royal Navy in the Spring of 1940 to make you give up on all the historical aspects of the game we love…
 
All good points, but directed more at game mechanics than historical accuracy.  I agree that the production cycle is not accurate to real life, it should take 3-4 turns for a BB to be built, but the game is not made for that scale.  All units you can build are placed almost immediately.  Both the US and UK fleets are severely nerfed, most likely in order to give the axis a chance that they didn’t have in RL.

As for the other issues, I understand why Vichy is not in the game, you have to draw the line somewhere and Larry choose to add France but have them be inert, while China is also hamstrung.  Otherwise you get a community of people clamoring on the BBS from Bulgaria wanting special Bulgarian rules or some other nonsense.

I have played a game where Japan could build a major in China and it did seem overpowered.  It was maxed on production and China was quickly swallowed up.  It took massive US naval builds and tenuous fighting from India to stall the Japs.  Japan was also able to not build many trns in that game and still concentrate on the Pacific islands.

Thanks for going over the Abandon London moves again James.  One would assume they became even more potent in A3, have you had the opportunity to try it yet?  It’s playing the allies like the Axis, creating the initiative and then keeping it long enough to sack Italy…hopefully.

@Cmdr:

But you wont get Washington.

For one, there’s already units in the US, all of which can be in DC if need be.  There’s the British in Canada.  British ships to block the way, American ships to prevent the landing from ever happening too. (6 Aircraft already on hand, what’s it cost to put 3 carriers in the water to add all those fighters too?  48 IPC?  Leaving what, 22 IPC?  Another 2 fighters for scrambing!)

You will have the effect of pulling all the Americans out of the Pacific for a round, however.  If that is your goal.

True, it could be prevented, bringing your turn 4 fleet to sz 89 (G.O.Mexico) which puts it 2 turns from Hawaii, or the W. Coast, with those carriers in the East coast, I just prevented a build in the west coast. Those carriers will be 2 turns from Hawaii if they go that way. Seems like it would be a major disruption for a planned USA Pacific first approach, buy Japan 2 additional worry free turns, and even permit the sacking of Either India or Australia before the US could thwart them.

All this by simply sliding a few boats already in the water to another spot in the water. True, It would buy Russia 2 turns as well as my transports would be out of position…but given that Pacific first is your favored approach, taking your attention from the Pacific seems warranted.

I build A CV and 2 Ftrs each turn. 3 tech rolls first turn (using AA50 tech tokens) netted me Jet Fighters  :-D.  By US4 I had 3 (soon to be 4) CVs outside SF with 5 Ftrs and a Tac.  2 CVs with 4 Ftrs in the Atlantic.  When I ramped up to 82 IPCs then comes the simultaneous transport build on both sides (more on Atlantic, KGF, imo) along with inf for a USA 5 or USA D-Day.  This way you ensure fleet support for your transports.  Learned my lesson a long time ago in AA50 when my opponent sacked his air force but completely decimated my D-Day fleet setting me back 3 turns.

I’ve also considered doing an Strat Bomber/Ftr build, but the new Alpha+1 rules kind of change that.  The idea would be to knock out Germany’s ability to produce frankly anything, along with killing the Luftwaffe exactly how the US actually did it: using the 8th Air Force to ‘escort’ (in quotes because they were really hunting the Luftwaffe) the bombers and take out the German fighters.  Haven’t tested this though cause it has 2 downfalls: longer time until USA gets D-Day going, and also practically leaves the USA in the dust fleet wise against Japan, which you CAN NOT do now with the new VC rules.

playtesting really worked well.