I just beat the computer in three turns…

I play nothing but 2nd Edition on the Triple A Lobby.

IMO the German Med fleet is one of the most overrated pieces on the board b/c in reality Germany cannot afford to send any troops from Europe anyway.  The game is won or lost in Europe and Africa is merely a sidebar so to that end no great lengths should be taken to protect the German BB.  A few exceptions are to send it to the WMed to threaten the Uk1 naval build so as to make them not build or waste a ftr to destroy a bb.  However this assumes you have enough air to be able to attack all other units of the Royal Navy which is iffy at best.  Another reason to spare the bb is by going to Syria on G1 along with a take of AES f/Libya this helps protect Africa and gives Germany a huge ipc boom going on into the game.  However, its very difficult to say if Germany will be able to afford this in Europe without risking EEuro so in general I’d say that the best move is to simply kack the bb against the Med bb and concentrate air in the UkSz while using the transport to landgrab Cauc or whatever.

I find that often when all of the players are experienced, one of two things happen:

it is very close for a very long time, and the game may go longer than 10 rounds by round 4 (or so) it is realized by both players that the game will likely go one way (or another) and one might as well save “playing it out to its most likely conclusion”.

We’re playing with restricted first turn (USSR can’t attack first turn) and higher IPC allottment to every nation except (you guessed it) Russia.

This is the root of your problem. If your group feels that the Axis is underpowered, then your group should use bidding to determine the Axis player, and how many extra IPCs they get. Search the internet, and this board for more information about bidding.

Generally, RR is enough to balance the game for middle-experience players. Bidding is needed only when experience grows to the point where the axis can not win anymore than 10-20% of the time.

Guest, methinkest thou wasteth thine index fingers.
This thread has been inactive for over 6 months.
I think the original guest has learned his lesson and then some.

Look elsewhere on these fora for a good discussion.
In fact, try “General Discussion!”

I would think this would be the other way around. First, the Japanese high command was not averse to continuing their war with America. In order to understand this, you have to know high factor national honor is to the Japanese and their Code of the Bushido. Even after the first atomic bomb was dropped, the military leaders still believed with the right combination of AA guns that such bombers and bombs could be hit while still in the sky. The Japanese even experimented with sound vibrations in which to knock down enemy craft! However, with the Russians, the Japanese were caught in a totally different situation. The Japanese knew that if they capitulated, the time would come where the Americans would eventually leave. If the Russians had occupied Japan, the Japanese knew that they might never leave. This largely mirrors real life as Russian and Japan are still disputing over some of the Northern Islands of Japan since the end of WWII.

But what are the Allies to do in the Atlantic? USA lacks the distance to make it particularly damaging to Germany’s Western Front.

You need to destroy the Hawaii fleet to keep your back free. Its too much for japan to fight both fronts, thus i feel its better to take out Hawaii instantly.
I play with RR, and Japan has no trouble taking the Pacific.

But i guess its all relative.