Germany dows on russia, cruiser on transport, does it stop it loading up?

@wittmann:

Thanks for finding time for the write up. 1940 is a game you can play 100s of times and still not master it, so don’t worry if you feel you could improve on Germany. Will just have to play again!
It does sound,  however,  like next time you will have to hire the room until 6am and take turns sleeping under the table.

Lol are you on the level?

I worded it a bit funny, in the 2nd example the UK was attacking.  Thank you for the clarifications!

I too like to press hard on Europe as US vs a J1 DOW, but I’m not yet convinced you can do so for more than 1 1/2 buys. 1dd/2ss/2AC (stealing Pacific planes to fill) into Europe on US1 is usually enough to complete the allied Med domination, depending on G1 and Taranto success. Add another carrier/dd if necessary, otherwise, 100% Pacific navy for the next 6-8 turns. I call this the “Kill Italy First, but also Kill Japan First!” strategy. Patent pending :)

My theory is that US cannot afford to build transports until the late game against a J1 Dow. Your job is to be Death, the Destroyer of Navies: AC/dd/ss/fig only for the first 8-10 turns, and swap in some bombers if Germany really wants a Sealion. Have your allies do the dirty work with land units: submarines for days, baby.

@Zhukov44:

There are several good reasons to get an ac instead of a battleship.  The first is that Germany already has fighters to land on the AC.  So with the AC (plus fighters) you get a defense punch of 10, with a count of 4, compared to the bb’s punch of 4 and count of 2.  The second is that you won’t get many bombards out of that battleship unless you are using it in the Baltic.  You might get the one bombard when you attack England, but ultimately that one bombard shot is pretty useless compared to 2 fighters (also 20 ipc) that would participate in every round of the battle.

Another reason is acs extend the range of your fighters.  Unlike ships, fighters can’t be blocked.

Whether you intend to go for London or go for Moscow, there are better ways to spend that 20 ipcs.

Agreed, all good points.

“russia always falls unless germany takes london first then russia can hang on for a long time”

Yeah I don’t think you can toss out a blanket statement like that. There is a lot that the allies can do to stall the German onslaught, then turn things around. The allies (UK) need to hold places like Persia to allow air traffic into Moscow, maybe even carrier planes fly into Russia. UK filtering ground units up from India/Egypt to hold the back door, pressure/landings in Europe to force Germany to spend income in defense instead of only on the eastern front etc…

It’s not easy, and takes a concentrated effort. Sometimes it comes down to the final battle for Moscow, but the allies can make it a last desperate move for Germany. Even if successful what did it cost the axis, and do they have good position. Are the allies closing in ready to liberate the Russians right away, who has Italy, hell maybe the French are even being liberated (the later would be strange from what we’ve seen, but it could happen).

Agree with techroll

Note that for #3, if the UK does not declare war on Japan the battleship could stay in the zone (would not be hostile), but if Japan has declared war on the US, there is almost no reason for the UK not to declare war on Japan…  So in 99% of cases I suppose the UK BB would need to move (if UK declared war on Japan since Japan DOW on USA)…

Sounds like a good weekend war game for ya Gargantua

I was thinking (if players agree) to have Russia & Japan put 1-2 ipc’s in a NAP fund. Let it grow, and the player that breaks the agreement (with an actual attack) forfeits the NAP fund to the other player. Allow Russia to declare war in name only (no attack) so it can invade neutrals (which is a silly loop hole anyway, Russia should just be allowed to invade neutrals from the get go).

Make a list of things that would be a deal breaker, like Russia in China or UK Pac tt’s, or allied attacks on Jap from Russian land ect…