So if new changes are Final.. when will Larry update his site?

@scotth409

I also play this with my gaming group. I agree with squire - Allies have the advantage.

Japan can grab Indian rnd 3 (naval base in French Indo rnd 2) and if you’re playing to win, that’s the way I would go.

If you want to create more play in Africa/Med you can try a German airbase in Greece rnd 1. Britain can attack with fig, tac, bmr, cruiser for an even fight with the destroyer and 3 figs.

If you want to try something a little crazy with Japan, have a look at the following;

1 bomber, 1 fighter and 1 tactical_bomber moved from Japan to 26 Sea Zone
1 fighter moved from 6 Sea Zone to 26 Sea Zone
1 tactical_bomber moved from 6 Sea Zone to 26 Sea Zone
1 battleship moved from 6 Sea Zone to 26 Sea Zone
1 destroyer moved from 6 Sea Zone to 26 Sea Zone
1 submarine moved from 49 Sea Zone to 62 Sea Zone
1 fighter moved from 42 Sea Zone to 62 Sea Zone
1 fighter moved from 42 Sea Zone to 49 Sea Zone
1 cruiser, 1 destroyer and 1 submarine moved from 47 Sea Zone to 49 Sea Zone
1 fighter moved from 33 Sea Zone to 49 Sea Zone
1 cruiser moved from 33 Sea Zone to 49 Sea Zone

If all goes right you won’t be in bad shape. However, there is a massive whole in this opening that can be exploited by US/Anzac. If they choose not to scramble in Pearl Harbor they can attack the BB and loaded Carrier in sz 54 with 3 fig, tac and bmr then have Anzac clean up, if anything is left. You can prevent this by bringing in an extra carrier and landing the 2nd fig from the attack on sz 49. BUT, you can only do this if you’re not forced to provide landing for the surviving fighters in Pearl. All in all pretty messy and not a very good opening. Let me know if you take the plunge and how it works out.

Best move for Britain IMHO is an airbase in Gibraltar. I don’t use the US fig to attack the 2 German des, just 2bmr and a des, this gives you an extra fig in Gibraltar. The idea is to park your cruiser in sz 92 to prevent Italy from getting thier NO. They can attack, but have to cover the scramble and will have their fleet wide open for a counter attack.

If they J1, then I would suggest buying an extra carrier and having these guys hang out with the USA, making the main fleet much less vulnerable to a pre-emptive attack. With a sub or two, and a tac, the ANZAC forces can usually mop up the Japanese fleet if it survives an initial attack by the US.

If they dont, then your planes can land on java, usually, they find a good way to cross, and at least as far as the Japanese TTs are concerned, you can screen those out (even if they have an NB)

The idea of sending the 6 planes to moscow, however, denies you alot of other milestones in the game; without the grey and tan planes in theatre, Bombay is easy to take, and if not, Sydney will be. Players who are not cautious about building reserves with ANZAC can easily find both capitals under threat, esp. once Japan can use Malaya’s base. Whichever one you defend, they attack the other (now that you can’t cross back). If you dont defend either, they can take both.

Another fine plan is to marry the UK air force from India with the one from the Med, assuming that one survives. That roving force can do alot to wreck the Axis, or it can defend the factories in the core area (persia, Iraq–the axis mundi of the board. pun intended).

No matter what you do, its still more than one turn from India to Moscow, and this is very intentional on the part of the game designers. At that juncture in the game, the areas around Moscow are under threat, so you can’t land planes alone anywhere but moscow.

Sending all your auxiliary planes from the minor allies to rescue Moscow will probably save it, but you’ll lose the game when the Japanese dominate that board, or the Italians/Germans take Africa and the 2$ Russian zones. For all these reasons, I prefer to leave most of those planes nearer to where they start, using them to tear Japan apart, rather than sending them on a long range adventure that prevents them from attacking and expressing threat. If Japan is threatened by the USA, there are plenty of times that they have to weaken their westward push, and at that point, UK planes can join whatever Russian stacks are still fighting, once you see the outcome (save Bombay, we hope).

I like the logic of making it hard for Germany to attack both 97 and Greece on G2.

But I don’t think it’s worth sacrificing the transport compared to using the transport to take Persia.

This idea might be more viable in a 2nd edition game with a carrier bid to 98 making it risky for Germany to attack 97 on G2.  But even in that case I’d rather take Persia in order to help the Soviets blitz south faster.

The UK saving its money sounds kinda fun, but you may need to produce more than 10 units that second turn, and you’ll lose from your 61IPC’s the cost of repairing it both UK1 and UK2 if Germany bombs you.

If you buy nothing, Germany can conquer you with just one transport and all the air.

Germany doesn’t have to buy any transports the first turn, it can wait and keep that $$ and buy them later to keep you guessing.

@Redjac:

Commander Jennifer,

How do we check on your games? Where are they?

Redjac

On these forums in the play games section.

Round 4 with Corriganbp, I have England and India and a large show of force down in the DEI for Japan.  He’s got infantry in China, but that does not bother me.  They are not getting reinfroced, they cannot take a VC and I am already close to a VC win for Japan.  Figure another 3 rounds and it’s lights out for the Allies.  (He evacuated the Pacific in hopes of being able to liberate London.)

I’m not so sure about the new convoy raiding rules.  It was kind of nice to have a set amount, something you could count on each round as long as your submarines or warships survived to attack the convoys.  However, the new system does present the possibility of getting much more damage per ship (6 per sub and 3 per warship) plus it lets carrier planes get involved too.  I will be interested to try them out in my next game and see how they work.

Makes sense for Japan to take it, of course, but it’s strategically and logistically implausible that they will get the DEI for more than one turn and never again thereafter.

@lnmajor:

But then you would never send unescorted transports to amphibous assault a TT containing a airbase with fighters present. Is that correct?

yup, gotta protect those transports.