We need an allied playbook.

@Panther Thanks for clarifying. It may be best not to even include a carrier with a guest fighter when attacking.

I’d only just discovered these rules like a day before this thread popped up.  My buddy and I started a game on AAA a while ago to prep for our FtF this weekend:

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41587.0

This would seem to be a counterpoint to the UK/ANZAC 2 DoW.  I was doing some goofy stuff in Europe but basically a G4 Sealion is coming.  I’ve got a US Atlantic Navy ready for London Calling which would have moved to sz102 but now there’s an interesting conundrum.

If my buddy does a J3 DoW that lets my US forces retake Gibraltar and to stage my UK fighters and STB there.  If he doesn’t J3 that’s another whole turn where he isn’t taking Money Islands or India (he’s been content to take SFE and China but I suspect an ANZAC crush coming on – he likes to do them).

So not doing the DoW I think I’m in a slightly better position (although still horrible position overall).

when UK needs USA to stave off Europe disaster or 2) once China and Aussie and UK-India are able to contain what’s left of Japan

zhukov sums up the KJF strat scenarios.

how is that good for germany to see bombers take out his naval? you get like 1 or 2 drops in before usa slams it… that sets you back from the VC win… with the naval and air lost there and the cost of the airbase is enough mech to just have shoved down there anyway.

Not to mention bombers take 1 round to get in position then it hits… it is the fastest way for USA to have an impact. bombers hitting stuff is fast and furious in an otherwise slow process.

there is no infrastructure required for bombers either. you just buy one beer and GO, epic winning, it is bi winning. who needs to drop men to trade ipcs with germany/italy? when you can just blast their stuff in the ocean?

Romania minor is ok for ground units. the naval and airbase is not going to pay for itself.

how many rounds can you get swinging at russia with just carrier 2 transports? and say you pull your air back before the bombers hit? I’ll give you round 1 place romania round 2 drop the 3 naval pieces (30 ipc and + airbase cost which is not really lost and has somewhat a tactical advantage from there… but it can be bombed later).  Anyway caucasus is worth 7 so you would need a good 4 rounds of drops to pay for itself in theory.

trying to defend it is a dumb idea, you’ll typically lose even more out of it and it stalls you from taking russia and reduces threat levels from axis on sz 97.

not to mention bombers are up there in optimal buys for USA anyway. they do lots of things and can switch fronts pretty fast. plus if you shove 7 bombers at 2 tanks, you break even in terms of IPC (1 bomber for 2 tank).

Giving usa a reason to give russia the ability to call in an airstrike on whatever he could not get to… iz not like a good outcome for axis.

It is like call of duty man, spetnaz will air strike the flag and cap it. Allies get gangsta like that when you throw naval down in the black sea.

Trust me, someone did this to me and bombers own. In all fairness I like having some bombers around… mmm munch that naval.

usually bombers are a part of my opener because usually people like to sea lion feint… if they do go through with sea lion I can at least rest assure that japan won’t declare war or 4 bombers fly into uk. Before 3.9 bombers just increased the casualties of germany in taking uk, now it just too much fodder for germany so it actually delays japan if germany wants to go through with it.

if I see a romania IC early on and no naval buy in the baltic… I’ll only have a couple bombers. if naval is bought in the baltic I’ll still get 3 bombers and a couple dds and a carrier.  It’s the typical reaction from usa. bombers can hit naval up top and land in belarus. 3 bombers layin around is never bad either it can hit an italian fleet that moves out. or industrial bomb an airbase before uk attacks italy fleet so no scramble. or bombers can just strafe italian guys between algeria and egypt… so all russia has to do is blitz a tank through tobruk and that other spot for +7 russia.

bombers are good units to have for usa. I don’t see how they are bad.

Russia’s NO has changed so that bombers are more optimal to have so you can just blast all that stuff and clear it out for russia if there is nothing better for them to do.

@Guru03:

My brother always beats me in the 1st round in A&A and i dread playing because of that. Can you give me some good allies and some good axis strategies to help me win?

One thing you might have failed to realise is that the Allies are supposed to suffer heavy casualties in the early war, and then progress into winning in the long run.

Think of the axies as the school bully who pushes the young allies around. Then in the long run the Allies go to college and become CEO of Goldman Sachs and proceed to dick on the over-cocky axies. If the Allies give up in the early stages, well they will never win, whilst if they stick to their guns and make the good investments and minimize their loss, they win in the long run.

I did a quick skim and I don’t think anyone mentioned it so I’m gonna chime in. If you ever are in a game and want to figure out odds in a battle you don’t need a fancy odds calculating website or iphone app.

All you have to do is figure out the low luck odds in your head or with an old  fashioned pocket calculator. Just add up the total attack value on one side and divide that number by 6. That’s the number of hits you’ll have in round 1 and then just anticipate what the opponent will remove as casualties (likely lower def/atk values first) and then repeat.

For example, you attack Russia as Germany with 6 infantry, and 3 armor vs their 8 infantry. Your infantry attack at a 1, and the tanks at a 3. That means your attack value is 6 for the infantry (61) and 9 for the tanks (33) for a total of 15. You divide that number by 6 and you have the number of hits you’ll do on average in the first round. 15/6 is 2.5 hits. So you should kill 2 or maybe 3 units. To play it safe I always round down. So lets assume you kill 2.

Then you’ll figure his odds of hitting you in round 1 the same way. He has 8 inf defending at 2 each for a total of 16 defense. He will get 2.67 hits. Again, I always round in my opponents favor so we can assume he hit you 3 times.

So that’s round 1. You can then repeat that process to figure out round 2 and so on until you win or lose. So in round 2 you will have 3 inf and 3 tanks vs 6 inf. Your attack value (AV) will be 12, his will be 12. The odds are dead even in R2. If you divide both by 6 you get 2 hits each.

Round 3 will be your AV of 11 vs his AV of 8, now you’re winning! The more rounds you fight the more the odds are in  your favor since you have higher attack values on your tanks.

Hope that’s helpful, I just hate it when I’m in a game and people want to figure odds and the next thing you know 5 grown men pull out their smart phones and try to race to see who’s $6 odds calculator app will figure out the answer first when you can do it in your head faster… :roll:

It is an interesting idea, but your explanation points to why your solution may not work.

Here is the jist of your suggestion, I think.

The USA has lots of CVs and BBs because they can afford it.  They are using them to soak hits because they have so many, so lets add a modest repair cost to stop that.

Here are my thoughts:

The problem is that the USA is the only power in the game (most of the time) that will shrug off the repair costs.  So you may actually make things worse for Japan in particular who would be much more affected by paying those costs.

Also your suggestion that a 1 IPC will deter a player from willingly taking hits from their capital ships right away is a bit confusing.  The next cheapest option is to lose a 6 IPC sub.  So a 1 IPC cost isn’t really going to change things.  But as was pointed out earlier, Naval bases are quite pricey as is and the need to pull back a damaged fleet is still a bit of a deterrent.  I think I’m OK with the rules as is.

This game is about economics. You need easy and cheap victories, while giving none yourself. Don’t buy transports if your dad will sink them easily, you would be better holding one turn for a following turn larger purchase or buying aircraft. For Germany, hit where you have the best chance to win and take the most cash. Use the NO’s to guide your grand strategy. But other posts above are correct, there is a tipping point where all you can do is slow down the inevitable Allied win. There are some good posts here that can guide your next game.