How many turns on average does a game take?

I agree the problem is a very weak middle for the Allies. Have to play with the Bosporus Strait closed. Generally I like a bid of around 12-17, although I have sometimes beat my friends at 9.

A Russian fighter for the bid helps a lot, you can attack Baltic States and West Russia, and then land them in Egypt, Transjordan (with a tank) and Evenki. You get a pretty big opening, hold the Suez canal, put yourself in position to counter Japan for a single crucial turn, and lay a trap in the Caucasus while stacking W. Russia to receive British fighters. This is nice because it lets you help the British in the beginning but you end up with a Russian fighter, which is the unit which gets the most action in any game, making or breaking a lot of trades and adding a lot of defensive power. Also if you convince Germany to buy navy round 1 then you at least spare Russia through round 5.

Once you get over 15 with the bid you can start doing stupid stuff that totally changes the game… which can be very fun.

That Black_Elk guy always seems to have some of the most level-headed reasonable responses!  Well put.

I think the KJF strategy ranks right up there for the Allies as much as the KBF strategy for the Axis.  Its just not really the preferred strategy, but usually gets done more out of trying to “mix things up” or “target of opportunity” more than the best sound strategy.

Oh my gawwwwwd.  I’ll have to get some.  It’s too bad HBG is sold out!

Anytime man, it’s a fun board. For a casual dice game, if you’re not trying to bid it out, Allies can still come out with the edge, but takes more energy and greater risks. I’ve probably seen a good half dozen openers I like with the Russians.

From a purchasing strategy standpoint I think you’re better off producing some combination of 7 or 6 units/hitpoints, and taking the advantage on more counter attack options from your units, as opposed to the Classic 8 inf units/hitpoints for your starting 24ipcs. The Russian endgame is always about stacking infantry. But unlike in earlier boards, the Russian position is not as strong. Germany has teeth and Karelia is pretty much hopeless for an opener. I find if you don’t give Russians something to work with on offense you just get squeezed out of the center too quickly.

Two schools, one says destroy max german units in the first round for the minimum investment, buy max inf for the duration and count on UK/US to handle the entire offensive threat to G.

Other says conserve infantry in the opener,  risk the bare minimum in battle round 1, and imstead try to bait G, by pulling their ground forward into favorable counter attack trades during the second round.

Some things I’ve seen include full W. Russia stack 4 tanks and all the goods, bait G into Caucasus at the cost of giving them the cash, at the cost of 1 inf destroyed. With UK retaking or else, Russia in round 2 with aims to hold thereafter.

Ukraine attack. Some feel it is critical to take the territory to destroy the 6th German fighter right away and avoid the land attack on Caucasus. Others prefer to strafe off the German ground and retreat their armor if possible. Most just go 3 tanks to ice it. But I’ve seen arguments for just taking 2 and putting 2 tanks into W. Russia instead of 1. It’s a tough call. Problem with W. Russia attack is no control over how many hits G will put up.

Still others like a Belo Blast in combination with W. Russia, rather than Ukraine.

Or the Baltic gambit with 1 inf 1 art 1 fighter vs the german inf and tank. Hoping for a lucky sweep.

Some options that are interesting for purchase at seven units/hitpoints are…
4 inf 3 art
6 inf 1 tank

At six units/hitpoints…
2 inf 3 art 1 tank
4 inf 2 tanks
6 artillery

At 5 units/hitpoints (dangerously low for controlling the center against full Axis press, but still)…
2 inf 3 tanks
3 artillery 2 tanks

For me the 7 unit buys are optimal, but if you go any lower it should be to try something high risk with a strong payoff. And then after you gamble big, you walk out of the casino and max produce infantry and artillery from then on out ;)

Whatever you buy, it’s helpful to have the heavy hitters coming out of Moscow, since you may have to trade in Caucasus. I think if you’re not going to max buy 8 infantry in round 1, then it’s important to conserve your starting infantry in opening attacks. The hits you sustain in W. Russia can determine so much of what Allies can do. If the Russians get in clean you just have a lot more options with UK. If you get hammered by Germany in W. Russia, it’s immediately rescue Russia mode for UK/US.

Germany doesn’t need to hold Ukraine. The key for Germany is Lenningrad. Try to get that and hold it as fast as possible. Hope it works out for you :)

It’s not always needed but if that is the outcome of your group games I would set up a allied bid system it could help

Yes, provided the fighters have a place to land when the attack is made, you can choose the carrier as a casualty before the fighters. Though in either case, whether you win or lose, if the surviving fighters don’t have a place to land after combat, they will crash into the sea. The important point is that when combat begins all combatant fighters must have a viable place to land. The ability to move fighters off territories to land on carriers, or off carriers to land on territories, may allow you to bring more fighters into the battle than the carriers alone would seem to allow, this is called maxing movement, but you can’t suicide or kamikaze fighters outright. In other words, you have to have a place for them to go at the start of the attack, but not necessarily once the attack is underway and you are actually taking fire. There is some flexibility in choosing casualties, once combat begins… so if you know it is an all or nothing flight, it may make sense to choose the carrier before the fighters.

There is one situation where choosing the carrier first can be crushing though, if you are defending, and the attacker retreats after a strafe, if your fighters have no carrier or territory to land on they will crash into the sea at no cost to the attacker.

On the older boards there were mechanisms like counters to track the exact  movement left for individual aircraft. But I think on these latest boards, the attacker is just assumed to always take casualties on the fighters with the least movements first. For the defending carrier based fighter it doesn’t matter, if the deck is destoyed they have to land in a territory adjacent to the sz where the combat took place. Otherwise they crash