2 beginner questions

Regarding the Chinese territories controlled by Japan at the start of the game, I place Japan control markers on those territories when I set the board up. It’s a big help for me when one of those is liberated and the Japan marker removed as, later on, I quickly know who controls it at a glance. If Japan re-captures it, I place the marker back.

Thanks Krieghund, you explain it much better :)

another example of this in action is attacking an enemy sub.  He might (and probably will) submerge, but its up to the defender so the attacker needs to send enough hardware to the sz to win if the enemy defends.

No.  Transports may not be loaded (or unloaded) in a hostile sea zone.

Thanks for the post, Frank.  Yep, you pretty much summed up a few of the many reasons why OOB is fatally flawed, and you have the 30-35 games to back it up.

I get the feeling from my few games of Alpha2 so far (not going too crazy playing it - just a couple games at a time because it will probably be changed anyway) that the Allies still have a significant advantage in Alpha2.  But I have to admit none of the games have lasted even more than a few rounds (with the Axis getting obliterated each time) so maybe those oil field NO’s could really come into play sometimes I suppose.

To me, Russia and USA have suffocating power (Russia is very deep, and as Larry himself acknowledged - he wondered if it was 1 territory too deep), and the UK can be very powerful as well.

I’d have to agree that Kamikazee just makes no sense on offense, in terms of game play.  I believe the idea is to add extra defense to Japan, since they are out numbered 4 to 1 (China, England, ANZAC and America vs Japan).

@rockrobinoff:

@nutbar:

I want to see a list of the countries grouped into the following categories:

Playing strategy and typeWhich coutntries should play Offensive?..…

simply put: A&A success, and the type of generalization you are looking for, do not go hand in hand. like any complex game, the better the player the less likely you are to look at any given situation through a ‘rule of thumb’ type of lens. “Russia should play defensive?” What does that even mean? Russia should play well, end of story, and what that means depends on so many different factors it is impossible to meaningfully generalize.

Well of course, but the idea is that most of the time, the Soviets are focusing less on capturing German territories, and more on preventing the capture of their own, thus being defensive play. Granted, it’s not to say “Russia should never attack someone” but generally, they’re fighting more for protecting themselves than harming Germany.

USSR/France/UK.
US/ANZAC/China