Try your strategies out in the league

Starting R7. Wild mood swings this game. couple turns ago thought Axis had it locked up. Turn ago looked like Allies were going to win. Italian and German one-two response last turn might have swung it back to even.

First five turns were a global battle over Persia with every country involved except US and surprisingly, Japan. The French destroyer was involved.

Now the global battle has shifted to Caucasus. UK pac getting too big for its britches in ME as Large Japanese fleet with 5 loaded trns pivoted to Java instead of heading north. UK Pac needs to decide this turn whether to keep going in ME, or head back to Calcutta.

Germany finally sent its tanks into Ukraine to link up with Rostov. Germany had been holding its tanks back since R3 when Russian bombers wiped them off the map. Red Skies going to wipe out the Ukraine tanks now. The Russian bombers have been holding Germany in check, but now Moscow getting it from other side so they will eventually reach Moscow - then bombers will relocate to Siberian troops to retake Moscow.

edit: this game was the most responsible I’ve ever played Germany - their entire G3 purchase was inf for western Europe. Normally that’s pretty empty. US/UK D-Day got pushed right back into the ocean because I had so many ready inf/art in adjacent territories. and now enough planes to go after the d-day fleet.

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Thanks Tirano. The reason that I didn’t take Southern France on the first turn is because I want to disguise my trip to the Med. I want the UK to have to bite on Sealion and they won’t know that the Italians aren’t taking S. France until after they have taken their first turn. Other than slipping a couple of units into Northern Italy (which I try to do inconspicuously)I have given no indication at all that I’m going to the Med. I don’t need to put units on the complex in S. France right away anyway so it wasn’t necessary to have it on the first turn.

@AndreasI:

Just some thoughts from someone who hasn’t really done the math nor played enough rounds to actually see this tactic through.

Can US really be at war, at their own initiative, with Germany on turn 3 (Combat/Movement phase?) so they can actually move to Gibraltar at all? Or are there any second edition additional rules that I have missed?

And then on down to the tactics on getting a strong fleet supporting units into Normandy or other mainland european regions:

Am I correct in assuming that Germany loosing it’s entire bomber force against, let’s say, a strong naval presence from US/UK equals a lost game for Germany? I am aware that Japan can still grow to be a monster and win the game for the axis anyhow but let’s keep focus on europe for now. Creating a fleet according to Nippon-kokus suggestion (or similar) would create a situation that requires Germany to respond with their bombers. Once there is a strong static fleet that Germany can’t attack without risking it’s entire air force it’s quite easy for the allies to maintain that ratio of units so that it stays safe. And what happens then? The US can land units basically every turn once the shuttle is running. 8 or 10 units are not frightening, I admit. Easily countered by Germany but the way I see it is that Germany from then on are forced to use their bombers plus land units each turn against a landing force. Using german bombers on that front every turn makes them unusable against the russians. I can certainly see where there could be a bit of trouble breaking through russian lines.

The way I see it, if the US can do this, why would Dark Skies really matter? Would buying 20 Infantry and 10 Tanks be any different? Germany still couldn’t kill the Allied fleet, would still have to divert forces from Russia, would still face the Allies landing every turn…

…and on top of it, It’d be harder for Germany to counter attack.

Seems like Dark Skies is still an optimal strategy against a US invasion.

What I meant was that the owner can only use those abilities on their own turn. In contrast to scrambling, which can never occur on the base controller’s turn.

Sorry my wording got jumbled. I just wanted to point out why scrambling is not relevant to the rule Shaniana referenced.

J3/J4 dow is only if you are industrial bombing russia with japan. Allies have to take as much ground as possible, because russia will fall come G5 or G6, afterwhich usa/uk have to put enough to defend london and egypt.

Japan’s best window is J1 if he wants to attempt a pacific victory.

As allies, there are only a handful of strategies. You can race pacific against europe and go full KJF. You can prepare a massive d day landing off gibraltar, basically build up to take italy / liberate france (you pretty much sit there till your one big attack is good to go). Or you can attempt to turtle up russia/calcutta.

A J3/J4 dow pretty much makes KJF the best bet for allies.

Ok I’d suggest not using this strategy.  I got my ass handed to me.  Didn’t help either that I was mildly intoxicated  :-D.  I ultimately only got 5 bombers to the UK.  I was able to hold Egypt and the US bombers smashed the Italian fleet.  I wasn’t able to put enough pressure on Western Europe and Russia got smashed.  Also Japan carried out a successful Calcutta crush.  It just takes to much time to setup a successful bombing campaign especially when Russia falls G6 or 7.  I feel that Russia needs to build max infantry to stay alive as long as possible which I didn’t do even though I usually do build a ton of inf with Russia.  Anyway it was a lost game but a good learning experience.

See the thing is it still doesn’t matter Germany is crushed and the game is all but over as Italy falls soon after. Then Japan can be ganged up on no matter how many ipc’s they have.

In my experience so far a good Russian player playing conservatively can make Moscow close to impossible to take.   The way Russian territories are set up allows them to fall back and shadow any approaching German army until the Russians have reinforced their stack to the point where it can turn around and chase out or destroy the invaders.  There’s no real downside to this vs standing and fighting as you’re only giving up 1-2 ipc provinces as you fall back and you’re continuing to preserve and grow your Russian stack at a rate faster than the Germans can hope to reinforce theirs (assuming, of course, that GB and the US are putting any sort of pressure on the other side of Europe).  I’ve pretty much given up going for it and instead have resolved to find some way to take Leningrad and Stalingrad.  I’ll admit that Germany and Italy, given free reign to attack Russia can eventually bring them down if they focus all their strength on it but how are they doing this while preventing or counter-attacking allied landings?  There’s just not enough IPC’s available for them to effectively do both.