Ramdas Vaidyanathan has a new move called "Ram's Mahatma Gambit" -

I can’t help but think that you give ‘the siberians in the east’ too much credit.
I admit if Russia moves into Amur in force, Japan should not stack SEAsia with all its air but kill the Russians instead. This gives the Chinese exactly 1 extra turn to survive but the Russians are permanently dead in the east (as well as in Moscow, but that’s another story)… No matter what Russia does in the east, Japan will Always win, at the cost of only 1 turn delay in China. Well, IMHO that’s not worth loosing all Siberians for.

Think about it and prioritize your use of the Siberians:

A: Use and loose the Siberians all to delay Japan for 1 turn (in China) by moving them into Amur. Japan will subsequently take all of eastern Russia, Kill China and Isolate India early. Calcutta will fall J8-J9. With a German Barbarossa, Moscow will fall badly. A G4 economical game will still not take Moscow, but will have a far more comforting position in Russia (not having to fear Russian counterattacks -important purpose of the Siberians). Stalin retreated the Siberians and at least here is a small similarity with history.

B: Retreat all Siberians. Japan is not delayed 1 turn and will do everything mentioned above without delay. Germany will be in much more trouble than just a 1 turn delay however.

C: Gradually retreat the siberians by first positioning them all in Buryatia accompanied by some air aiming to delay Japan without loosing all Siberian units. I have tried this and IMHO the result is so-so. Yes, Japan is delayed and yes, you can keep all Russians alive while gradually retreating. You can however delay Japan only 1 - 2 turns and after that have to go in full retreat (or again, loose all siberians). Apart from helping Russia a little, it does nothing to help China or the rest of the allies. Needless to say Moscow is in no way helped either to survive or to counterattack, depending on German plans.

D: A combination of B + C. Retreat but first consolidate in Buryatia. This still delays Japan 1 turn AND the Siberians arrive in time in Moscow to either defend it or make Germany retreat from its gates.

My priority list: DBCA.
Ploy A only being used during KJF’s and even then only with great consideration for Moscow. After all, what is the purpose of giving Japan hell if this means Germany can win in Europe. Without the USA threatening anything in Europe for ~9 turns, chances are not that small that Germany takes both Egypt and Moscow.

So, gentlemen, now that we’re talking chess: what are your ratings?

Just out of curiosity, really…… and to put some comments into perspective. I apologize for being off-topic, and maybe when the weekend comes and I have some time on my hands, I may have a comment on the actual tactic being discussed here.

Lol, you should stop using all the colors (at least in my quotes)  :roll:, I can’t focus my eyes anymore  :-D.

Too hard to make out the difference between what I wrote and your reply.
Better only use 1 color for your reply and leave in black what you quote. Much better to distingiush ;-).

Well, let’s agree to disagree then!
I am indeed more ‘GIF-minded’ (not in the least place because JF seems to be the only way for the allies nowadays), and you are more into the Asia-offensive and that’s ok, ofc. But that’s not why our opinions differ.
I just can’t agree with your claim to have found an allied move that Japan cannot work around without shooting in its own foot and so I try to explain a few (out of many) work arounds Japan has at its disposal. As much as I am willing to accept (even hope for) allied ploys that can fight the axis just a little bit better, I cannot help but play advocate of the devil with any such claims!

@Herr:

So, gentlemen, now that we’re talking chess: what are your ratings?

Just out of curiosity, really…… and to put some comments into perspective. I apologize for being off-topic, and maybe when the weekend comes and I have some time on my hands, I may have a comment on the actual tactic being discussed here.

Please enlighten us HerrKaleun!
Always a pleasure to read your comments. Should be fun to have 2 ‘Herrn’ in 1 thread :P.

I used to play a lot of Chess, but years ago. I was a fine match to a friend who was with a chessclub but I don’t know what his rating was. So, clueless >.<

Oh, I’m old now in chess terms lol….

Back before computers were good at chess (almost 20 years ago), I was a good correspondence player – I stopped playing once computers were too involved.  2240+ USCF before my “retirement” :)

Currently my USCF over-the-board rating is 2023, FIDE is 2026 (peak over the past year was 2070).  It’s fun to go to the large tournaments and see all of the people playing – especially the youngsters, who in this generation will remain off of electronic devices and maintain focus for 6 hour games – unusual in this electronic age!

I used to direct tournaments as well.  At some point I may go back to teaching small groups – anything to help humans maintain the ability to think and reflect, a skill that seems to be disappearing in this world…

@ItIsILeClerc:

Please enlighten us HerrKaleun!
Always a pleasure to read your comments. Should be fun to have 2 ‘Herrn’ in 1 thread :P.

Why, thank you! That’s a nice compliment.

@DizzKneeLand33:

Oh, I’m old now in chess terms lol….

Back before computers were good at chess (almost 20 years ago), I was a good correspondence player – I stopped playing once computers were too involved.  2240+ USCF before my “retirement” :)

Currently my USCF over-the-board rating is 2023, FIDE is 2026 (peak over the past year was 2070).  It’s fun to go to the large tournaments and see all of the people playing – especially the youngsters, who in this generation will remain off of electronic devices and maintain focus for 6 hour games – unusual in this electronic age!

I used to direct tournaments as well.  At some point I may go back to teaching small groups – anything to help humans maintain the ability to think and reflect, a skill that seems to be disappearing in this world…

That’s a very respectable level indeed. And a story that I know all too well myself…. I was quite active and pretty strong once, but that’s more than 20 years ago. Kudos for your organizational efforts - the chess world depends on the hard work of many volunteers.

@MeinHerr:

I play chess well, yes.  True. And have won College level and City level championships.

Also a member of MENSA   :roll:

Whatever.  Can you roll dice?

@MeinHerr:

As regards perfect strategy:
With the rules as they are , I will say YES!

There is a perfect strategy for the Allies.

Will not mention it though, because if i do, they will change the rules of this game.

In fact, I shall not even give a hint … because I truly love this game as it is.

All Iam willing to say is that… If I were to play Allies… i do not want ANY money… in fact Iam willing to GIVE the AXIS 10 IPC .

You may think iam arrogent, but i assure iam not.  If i tell it, then , everyone is going to slap their foreheads and say …  “Of course”…  and then will come a Rule Change.

With TMG, already there are people asking for rule changes… not giving me credit for the name etc…  that is as far as i would like to stretch it.

Started playing ( in fact “discovered” ) GLOBAL in Oct 2013…  and believe iam very proficient in it.

There is ONE guaranteed way , with current rules ALLIES will always win.

I leave it you all to come up with it.

MeinHerr

PS: It always amuses me , when i see 25 IPC bid for Allies from Axis… and i shake my head… oh… if you only knew…  :)

Wow with a whole year under your belt, you have devise a perfect strat that exploits the rules and guarantees an allied victory (even w/10 IPC bid for axis). Arrogant (you spelled it wrong BTW) isn’t exactly the word that comes to mind.

There has been several holes pointed out by the others.

1. Call it what you want, but having the UK move into position to block in some way, then having the Anz DOW has been exploited for quite a long time. It has to be a perfect storm, and the Japanese would have to help by missing the obvious (moving that British BB into harms way would be a huge red flag).

2. If you use the above and manage to get a UK war ship to a sz for the purpose of blocking out the Japanese fleet, or stopping the Japanese from loading transports that is awesome. I could see something like that happening in sz 36 if the Japanese (not yet at war) gather there to launch an assault on the next turn. I can’t see it being more then a one trick pony though?

3. If UK/Anz DOW Japan first, then the Japanese can ignore any US blockers because this would be an unprovoked DOW by UK/ANZ. The US is held out of the war until the end of US3, when it can DOW on its own unless the axis are foolish enough to directly attack them (would have to be a pretty big carrot dangling). So in retrospect the US wouldn’t really be a threat until US4 when they can perform attacks. So in light of this Java could become a target w/J2 attack, and the US would stand by and watch. Also keep in mind that on the Euro side the US basically can’t even leave port until at war. That means that US4 is the earliest they could be at say Gibraltar, then US 5 before they are a real threat (if they go Europe).

4. If you place that British BB off Kwangtung, and give me a second look at it, along with a dd, and a couple allied transports at various locations (all with-in striking range) there is no way that I don’t do a J2 attack (it’s my personal favorite anyway). So that BB will never make it to the Sea of Japan, but you would get the US into the war early.

As for the Siberians, I agree that they can help to overload the Japanese. Give them to much to do, and they end up spreading themselves thin and start losing valuable units. The Germans would probably be ok w/J2 attack, if the Siberians are out of their picture though. The Germans would most likely follow up a J2 attack w/G2 Barbarossa. The question is what has the US done to prepare themselves for an early entry into the war if axis go full tilt turn 2.

MeinHerr, I probably came over pretty abrasive (sorry for that).

I will say that there are some exploits in the rules, and they are fun to find, but rarely do you get to use them more then 1-2 times (the gig is up).

It’s just like the first time the US takes Denmark (opens the straight), then the Royal Navy rushes in kills off the Luftwaffe scramblers (from a heavily defended W Germany) to sack on undefended Berlin with a single loaded transport. It only happens once!

What you would like to see is already happening  8-).
I have been (still) spending lots of my spare time into finding solutions. I have done so for 5 years now and I must admit I changed opinion of the gamebalance a few times. I think all this works the same for almost every1 in these forums.

First, I thought the allies were unbeatable so I worked on that problem and quickly fixed it. Lol, to a point where I started to think it was actually the other way around! The axis were unbeatable!
So I worked on that, gave the allies more (mathematical) thought and I found solutions. Allies were back in the biz again! Even thought they were unbeatable (again ;-))! I think you have landed at this point a bit quicker than I/most of us did, but still; there IS a next phase:

Currently I am (somewhat) back at square 1 because I gained a bit more experience. And for the first time in 5 years I am unable to find a satisfactory solution. ‘JF’ seems to be the best way to go for the allies by far and I find that too limiting for a grand strategy WW2 game.
I admit that this is largely because I usually lack the time but (above all) the will to complete a game after it is dragging on to turn 14 without a clear winner, but purely mathematically ‘JF’ is definately much better than ‘GIF’ which just doesn’t feel right (a rather demoralizing effect).

I do believe that there is a last and final phase in understanding the gamebalance, but also that it has to do everything with playing 20+ turns of different kinds of strategy to know for certain what will happen. By now I’m too ‘streetwise’ to know it’s got nothing to do with 1 or 2 moves the allies (or axis) can do during the game openers. No offense, of course!

You are making a fool of yourself meinherr.  Play a league game.