If newbies are playing their first game…

Allies won in round 9. Russia took all of Europe, Manchuria and Kwangtung. England took the Pacific , from India to Tokyo.

Well, I would recommend taking some time to browse through some of the posts in this section of the forum, because it is no longer very active but most of the advice is still prudent.  There are also a few articles about A&A revised strategy for each nation.

In general, though, I would recommend that you immediately try to pressure Germany with all three allied players, while not forgetting about important pieces that are already on the board (such as British Fighters and Navy scattered in the Indian Ocean / Pacific area, or the American transports in the Atlantic).  Try to minimize the amount of money that you spend on expensive naval units, focusing on ground units and transports as much as possible.

Also, depending on exactly what rule set you are using (box rules, Larry Harris Tournament Rules, house rules, etc.), you should strongly consider some strategic bombing raids on Germany with your existing bombers.

As Russia, I usually struggle to contain Germany on the Eastern Front, so be careful and try not to expose too much armor to German counter-attacks.  If you can keep Germany from pressuring Caucasus that is good.

As Britain, I tend to purchase some big boats on the first turn, play a little bit defensively until I am certain that a German invasion is impossible (I often try to sink their Baltic Transport ASAP to accomplish this), and then I work on pressuring Germany.  Make sure that you purchase the right amount of transports and keep your navy alive, otherwise you can end up out of time and feel like you are wasting your turns.  A turn that you are not landing troops in Africa / Europe / Russia or trying to invade Western Europe, is in my opinion, a bad turn for the UK.

As the US, I used to hold the orthodox position that the only correct move was to transport units into Africa or Europe every turn, although I have lost to US players who are aggressive in the Pacific.  Try to look for opportunities, and don’t be afraid to be a little bit “cost- ineffective” in your battles if it means forcing Germany to engage several players at once.  I maintain that Africa is best left to the US, and if the US idles with its Atlantic transports it can mean losing the game for the Allies or at least a hard game for the UK.  Even if you are doing a “Pressure Japan First” strategy, I highly recommend landing your Washington Forces in Algeria right away, and trying to add targets in the atlantic for the strong (but finite) german air force.  Reinforcing UK’s moves is generally a good idea, too, if you can.  Remember that the UK and US get to move (in that order) between Germany’s turns, so look to strengthen the UK position every turn with this pattern.

@Fleetwood:

Okay, thanks for the reply. Stacking Karelia is a bit of a habit since I’m used to being able to do it against a lot of opponents. Against a considerably lesser player, victory comes quickly that way. The only issue I have with making drops in Archangel is how difficult that makes trading WE since I’m assuming the German player at some point abandons and deadzones it. I would hate to let Germany have it for free or to have the Brits cash out 6 short. The UK might not be able to do both, depending on the German plane placement and how many capital ships are available.

Agreed that Western must be traded, but if USA is in the Med they can take up the challenge (12 can be defended minimally assuming the Kraut figs aren’t on Western).

In my last two PBEM games, one as Axis, one as Allies(in progress) the Axis has won(1 inf to Ukr, 2 inf to Lib). In both, the Japanese controlled Africa, entered the Med, held Novo and were/are able to take Moscow. I think I just need to adjust improve my Allied play to beat better Axis play.

That kind of bid would throw my Axis game off…I wouldn’t allow a bid of 9 unless it was a tech game.

I think I’d just look at the data afterwards and get rid of any funny data.

Well, the fighter CAN attack with ground troops might be a better way to put it.  It is up to the player what they want to assign to a battle.

For example, if you have to fight through enemy ships to do an amphibous landing, you can choose whether to have the fighters attack the enemy ships OR participate in the ground battle afterwards.

@newpaintbrush:

@DarthMaximus:

@newpaintbrush:

@DarthMaximus:

I think a well rounded strat will allow you to do both relatively seemlessly while if you venture too much into a “reactive” strat it may not allow you to take adv of mistakes as quickly.

Don’t you mean “OVERreactive” strat?

If you make unsound purchases based on what you think your opponent’s going to do, that is overreacting.

If your opponent sees your mistake, and acts in the best possible manner to exploit your weakness, that is reacting.

Yes.

But also:
Did that persons previous moves put you in a position to make a mistake, or did you just flat out miss something and make a mistake on your own?
Maybe I’m nitpicking. :-)

You can think proactively (2-3 turns down the road) and force your opponent into difficult decisions or mistakes.

I’m of the school that assumes that their opponents will be worthy, hence that mistakes will not be made; hence that losses will be from bad luck or the aggregate result of suboptimal plays, rather than from a blatantly wrong move.

To clarify, you can NEVER “maneuver” your opponent into making a mistake.  Either your opponent blunders, and makes a mistake on his/her own, or you force your opponent to make a difficult decision.

–

In other words, say I know you like alcohol, and that you don’t really care too much about money.  So I bring free drinks to our poker game, you get drunk, and I win lots of money.  Did you make a MISTAKE, or a CHOICE?  I think you made a CHOICE.

Now, if you were holding a straight, in five card draw no wilds, and you folded, you probably made a MISTAKE.  But that was your choice.

If you were drunk when you folded, I would say that you made a CHOICE to enter into a situation in which you would more readily make MISTAKES.  But still, folding on that straight would be YOUR MISTAKE.  Nobody forced you into folding.

I think we’re agreeing with each other.

(your mistake or not) Your betting pattern, poker face, demear at the table all provide the other player with information into the decision about their hand.
You come out betting strong, with a stone cold dead face, I read that as hell I can’t beat him I fold.  I made the choice, but you willfully provided informaton that helped me make a decision.  All be it a wrong decision but at the time I assed all available info and came to a conclusion, which in this case was wrong and a mistake.

The whole theory behind deadzoning is manuevering to get your opponent to (help them if you will) make a mistake (or bad choice).  Yes your opponent makes the choice to move in his whole army, but you set up the board.

I also play assuming your opponent is “worthy” and makes no mistakes, but that doesn’t mean I won’t set “traps” to test them.  B/c as we both know, no one is flawless and I’ve seen plenty of good players overlook the smallest things from time to time (including myself).

I think we are agreeing with each other here.
I think these statement are equivalent:

ME:

Did that persons previous moves put you in a position to make a mistake, or did you just flat out miss something and make a mistake on your own?

YOU:

Either your opponent blunders, and makes a mistake on his/her own, or you force your opponent to make a difficult decision.

Perharps I shouldn’t have used the word “mistake” in the first sentence, but they basically say the same thing.  Force a person into a “lesser of two evils” decision.

If things are going to hard for one party…
try restarting the game :-)

If you’ve made one mistake early in the game, it’s possible you will see the devastating effect of the mistake you made some turns later…
here you can see it already:
apparently, your allies did not work as ONE team…
I believe that’s the first and best strategy to keep in mind!

Otherwise, I can only recommend reading soime topics at the forum :-)