Minor Threat's Alpha+3.9 (Global 1940) COMPLETE! Setup Charts

Over a year ago, there was a discussion thread somewhere on this forum (I can’t recall in what section) about GTO’s demise.  As I recall, GTO was supposedly saying that it was shutting down temporarily and that it would return sometime in the following year with a new game that it would be offering in some kind of partnership with Larry Harris rather than WotC.  The details were quite vague, and nothing seems to have come of that initiative…assuming that it was indeed an initiative that had any substance to it, rather than just speculation.

Ah man… it’s not looking so good. The US fleet off Hawaii looks like it can take you, and in my experience that’s never a good position to be in for Japan. Unfortunately, you have fallen into the trap that is China. For future games, don’t go all in for China until you’ve taken Calcutta. It’s just a huge cesspit that devours Japanese ground units and does nothing to help you win. There are no victory cities there for you to grab, and because there is no capital China is the easiest Allied power to bring back into the game. Also as Japan you want to grab SOME, not necessary all, of the money islands the turn that you go to war. I prefer a J2 DOW and grab Borneo, Kwangtung, and Malaya, as I’m a firm believer of storming Calcutta as soon as you possibly can.

In your current position, I would finish off China since you’re already so deep and there’s very little Chinese units left. I would focus all of my ground efforts in southeast Asia with the ultimate aim of taking Calcutta, and going on the defensive in the Pacific. For me this would mean huddling everything I can into SZ6, with a full scramble waiting to go on Japan itself, and then basically waiting for the opportune moment to strike. You’re definitely in it for the long haul at this point, it may be too late to get the money islands. Good luck!

Germany: Help Italy get to Egypt. Punch USSR in the face hard and grab factory territories. Use planes to keep UK from landing. Keep USSR on its toes until Italy and Japan open up extra fronts against the USSR.

Italy: Keep allies out of Mediterranean. Punch through into the middle east. Build factories in the middle east. Start a front from the south of USSR. Help Japan take India, sometimes.

Japan: Grab the DEI. Keep steady progress against China. Build factories on the mainland to funnel tanks into India. Use planes to stall US and ANZAC naval advances. Use your fleet on the offense very sparingly, it’s often more useful to keep your fleet in strongly defended positions and to threaten your opponent with it rather than commit to using it.

USSR: Build a catapult to throw men at the problem. Rifles optional. But seriously, stall the German advance with infantry. Gobs of infantry. You don’t necessarily want to win, you want to live long enough for the US and UK to save you. When the Germans start having to spread themselves thin, break through into Europe.

UK: Try to loose as slowly as you can in the pacific. Hold on to Egypt but don’t break the bank doing so. Get control of the Atlantic and the channel. Keep enough of a navy to defend against air raids. Then, use your navy in the channel as a bridge from England to Normandy (or elsewhere in Europe, Holland and Norway being good targets). Keep dropping men. Make the Germans fight a two front war. Hope ANZAC and US save you in the pacific.

USA: In Europe build lots of transports to funnel men to North Africa and Europe. Make sure you can survive German sub and air attacks on your transports by defending them. Using the UK fleet and UK airbases as cover for your navy can be helpful. In the Pacific, your basic goal is to pee aircraft carriers. Spray the Pacific with carriers like a dog marking it’s territory. Obviously not only carries, but they are much more cost effective than battleships as capital ships. You want to force the Japanese to commit to a naval battle then leave their navy on the bottom of the ocean. You can afford losses to your navy in a way they can’t. If you can get the Japanese fleet in range of an island with a lot of planes, that’s even better, planes are more cost effective in combat than ships. The Philippines and DEI are important targets. Take everything of value in the south pacific. Then, start landings in southeast Asia along with islands close to Japan like Iwo Jima. Strat bomb the living daylights out of them. Make sure the Japanese are too poor to even consider rebuilding a navy.

China: Die very slowly. Keep the burma road open when practical. Avoid big battles when practical. Keep the Japanese out of the USSR by being a thorn in their side. Make sure if you group your troops together there are enough to survive a big attack. The last thing you want is to huddle too closely together if the Japanese can win an attack against that stack, since you’ve lost everything at that point.

France: Use your troops in Africa to help Egypt live. Use your scattered fleet to try to harass Italy and Japan. Sailing the ship on the east coast of Africa to India is sometimes a good idea. If ever liberated, help push into Rome and Berlin.

ANZAC: Build a factory in Queensland.  Ensure you have your objective for the islands. Then, build a navy and try to land troops in the Philippines and DEI. You can move a transport from Queensland to Malay in a single move. Take advantage of that.

germany did sea lion. russia bought mostly mech / tank and bunkered romania when germany/italy finally got enough for force ruskies out (ruskies did a detour for iraq and the african spots). ruskies turned around with mech and tanks and blitzed to calcutta then made it back in time for germany vs russia.

this game coupled with 30 infantry china and all 18 ruskies still alive in asia… japan was shut down.  germany took russia, uk just finally got transports and men. uk pac was worthless but still a funny liberation.
~
yeah sea lion sucks sometimes lol. ruskies owning italy africa is no good lol. +3 each one and iraq too. go go mech + bombers.

the pacific showdown was hilarious too. I am not sure why japan attacked phillipines. it was a mutual destruction battle… but after that anzac’s naval looked pretty nice on an empty board. I had java the whole game because he round 3 india and lost so much stuff.

If japan did not get shut down, I would have totally lost. all he needed was hawaii after round 3. that was a funny game

Great work again! Just one problem on MediaFire. I was able to download all files but the China and France charts. I can see them, but can’t get the site to let me download. I was able to transfer them to my account files, but still could not download. It just sends me in a loop to start the download over and over again. Anyone else have issues? Can anyone offer any other suggestions here?

@akreider2
roll 1’s not sixes :)

Is there any timeframe to which Alpha+2 will be officially released?
Thanks.

G5 is possible, but not with a G1 attack.

Japan can occupie russian terretories behind china in G4 and take 4 IPCs from the far east, without leaving too much planes in Japan/Mandschuria.

Sea Lion is not an option. Russia grows too big.

You are right! A combined attack on Russia is my favourite solution, too.

G5 or G6 for capturing Moskau is realistic.

We call this tactic “Panzerwalze”. :-D