What is the most unusual/annoying/strange allied bid

@shadowhawk

Easier said than done though.

Right off the bat Germany will be consistently making more money than both Britain and the Soviet Union having taken out the rest of Europe and thats before they start attacking the Soviet Union.

Keeping the income advantage really only rests on America since the only change in their income will be losing the Philippines islands, as for everybody else, they can expect their IPC count to plummet with the combined strength of the Germans and Italians.

Also, like I said, taking Rome and Berlin is on the table to accomplish, taking Tokyo however not so much since A) it’s on an island B) It’s gonna have lot’s of dudes on it and C) the Pacific is too big to build any assortment of floating bridge and would be too expensive, hence why we would end the game if Japan is limited to their home island plus maybe Korea since they’re pretty much dead in the water so there is no point in playing any further.

This plan doesn’t ignore Japan, that’s a compete foolish move in my opinion. I just build bombers enough to keep Germany annoyed while maintaining a Pacific Fleet. As I said before, I build a 1:1 build against Japan and make sure Hawaii doesn’t get captured.

Maphead and I won this tournament last year at Gencon.  We will be playing the 42.2 tournament this year, see you in Indy!

The Axis have a distinct advantage in this version, which is not as “structural” as their advantage in G40.  the Axis start with less stuff, but mostly, its because the Axis have less time to recover their position and go into rage mode, and during the tournament there is only time for 7 turns.  The Allies only have a limited amount of time to challenge the Axis income position, their push has to culminate in the game-ending time.  I believe that you have to get 125 income on the board with the axis at game end.

We played 5 “official games”

Kantcon; Allies (Maphead+Taamvan) vs (Bob Roby, Grandmaster) Axis;  Allies bid +6, goes to Russian infantry.  We used our KGF plan, it worked well but this was largely due to luck.  3-4 fleets have to be protected, Greece backdoor shredded the key income.

Gencon Qualifier;  Allies (M+T) vs Jason/James (Axis).  No Bid. Axis victory.  We lose.  KGF didn’t work at all this time.

Gencon Qualifier 2: Axis (M+T) vs  Axis.  No Bid. Axis victory.  UK made a grand sacrifice turn 1, which Japan exploited, conceded turn 4.

Gencon Semis; Axis (M+T) vs  Bob Roby and Veteran Jake (Axis).  No Bid. Axis victory.  Won by amazing luck against 2 very vet players.  total luck in the atlantic, subs survived somehow.  All the German troops survive the open in one territory, which caused Russia’s position to erode quickly.

Gencon Finals; Axis (M+T) vs Jason/James (Allies) No Bid. Axis victory.  Hard fought, game culminated in a huge fleet contest over java which the Japanese won by the skin of their teeth, which allowed them to retain key income.

As you can see by these game reports, the key to winning was playing the Axis.  In a longer, AAA game, that goes to 10-12 turns, im not sure the Axis has such an advantage, because of the ever-increasing amount of allied pressure on the income.    In the tournament play, the Axis really only need to 1) retain all their income to start 2) gain any 2 other regions and hold.

A region is roughly defined as any two of most of (Africa, china, inshore asia, spice islands, Australia, east Russia, south Russia, north Russia, a capital).

The tournament game works a bit like football or rugby, the Axis have to push the income to a level somewhat above the 125 because they get pushed back down the line by the allies as the last turn concludes.  If you are still “over the line”, you win.  If you can interfere with the Allies ability to hurt your income at the last minute, you pretty much win.

The Allies need a bit of at least 8 in order to change these considerations around.  This should be a DD with the scapa flow fleet, so that Germany has to commit more resources to this attack and potentially flubs it.  Even with this change, the Allies are still at a bit of a structural disadvantage because this is a economic victory scenario;  the allies need to “load the shotgun” by turn 5-6 to make a huge push on the final turn without being picked off or screened off the income.

The territories that are worth 1 don’t change the game.    I would suggest studying the territories that are worth 2, 3 and 4.  If the Allies can set up on the Pacific side near austrailia, on the final turn, they “unload the shotgun” and retake the money islands and Malaya.  Japan must confront them here before they spread out.    A factory on Hong Kong helped me win the game, because I could place BBs near the fight, with a NB for free.  Roby pointed out to me what a powerful defensive Axis base this square is.

On the atlantic side, its a bit more difficult to hold all the $$.  Use your Italian can opener as the Axis to take the $$.  Ignore Africa.  As the Allies, you have to prepare to block Gibraltar, or turtle the facing squares that are worth 3 and 4 (s france, rome, south Italy…)

One strat we did not use that was fairly powerful is to build a factory in Persia.  DO NOT FORGET TO OPEN NW PERSIA.  If you run mechs/tanks out of there, india goes from being a fallback zone to a take-area by turn 5, so UK is grabbing $$ back, and Japan is running away.

Keep in mind that most stuff you buy after turn 5 wont even be able to enter the battle.  There are exceptions (forward bases, bombers).  Buying is critical.  I bought 1 fighter on Turn 5 for japan, after all the other air headed south, wasn’t sure why I did it, but It ended up killing an American invasion fleet coming for Japan that was coming in my back door.    Study what you buy, small mistakes esp with japan, uk and usa can lose you the game.    Wasn’t trying to stall but one Japan buy literally took me 20 minutes, I rebuilt it from scratch 4 times.  Had I chosen any of the first 3 configurations, I would have lost the game.

1)  all else being equal, play the Axis
2) do not play this like a normal game; it is a timed game.  You can sac everything on the final turn, even if you lose everything, the sun sets at 7h 45m game time.  You will not play an incomplete turn. 
3) time is not on the Allies side
4)  but, the Axis cannot protect all (10?) $$ and $$$ zones, this is where the Allied win is at.

Slight Axis bias.  No bias in open play.  Some players do not like to play with a bid, learn your opponents preferences and predilections.

You will be playing for 30 hours, if you are lucky.  My brain was on fire the final day.  Wake up time is 6AM.

Good Luck, Have Fun.  Jon

@Commando:

@ghr2:

@Commando:

@ghr2:

Brando, why would you leave 1 inf in each territory?  The only ones that matter are rostov and Baltic States.  You will lose 6 ipcs in units for not much gain in epl/bess.

I leave 1 Inf in each territory, so the Axis/enemy can’t just walk in. Inf have a 33% chance of a hit. Prevents a country from just taking a territory w/1 Inf. Usually the attacking country has to attack w/2 ground units, just in case your Inf gets a hit. Also prevents the enemy from sending just one ground unit on a long walk across your territories(i.e. when Japan starts marching across the Soviet Far East). I don’t always do this. Like in China, I consolidate the Chinese Inf whenever possible. But in Russia, I always try to leave at least 1 Inf in each territory. One thing to point out, I don’t leave 1 Inf in each territory, unless the enemy has a chance to take that territory.

Because they only have a 33% chance to hit, I would not want to risk giving away nearly free infantry kills to Germany unless they are defending something valuable.  Each infantry you put in his way is 1 less body defending something critical for a 33% chance to kill 1 thing.

It’s not just a 33% chance of killing something. It’s making the enemy commit more than 1 Inf/1 ground unit to take the territory How would this hurt a country like germany that will have mechs constantly reinforcing and the positioning does not screw him?. Maybe you didn’t read my entire post. Again, I don’t always leave 1 Inf behind in each territory(i.e. China and other territories) Japan can just send 1 inf and air, it really won’t hurt him if he wants to.. However, leaving 1 Inf behind on such things as islands, even 1 IPC islands. Your enemy would most likely have to commit at least 2 ground units to take the islandIt depends on the value of the island and the likelihood he/she would go for it.. Therefore, forcing your opponent to commit more resources to take territories and have less units to use elsewhere. I understand what you mean, but this is also a game of economics and efficiency.  If your opponent does not need to go for it, or is not even affected by it, the one infantry won’t be an issue.Like I said in my explanation, Soviet Far East is a good example. There are 13 IPC’s from Soviet Far East to Vologda/Samara. If your strategy is to leave these unguarded for Japan to just take w/1 Inf, then go for it. In my opinion, over the 26 years I’ve played A&A, it’s the wrong stategySince russia can easily stop japan from taking it unless Japan commits more to the front, it really is not an issue.  Also, with mongolia, it won’t be unguarded.

Building a factory in Norway/Finland seems to be the route needed to go. With that, Russia, UK and US putting pressure on Europe Berlin should fall.

Yes, once the DD is destroyed the planes can no longer hit the Subs so the battle would end.

And yes, since subs can never hit planes any sub hits go to fleet elements.

I guess this would form a partial exception to the “transports die last” rule.  For instance if two DDs, three fighters, and a transport attack 3 subs, and on the first round the subs get three hits, the transport would be sunk even though the fighters are still alive, since that third sub hit could only be resolved on a sea unit.

you have to balance the Japan opening w/the European side of the board.    J1 attack was great in Pac40 as we all know, but do you really want to put the US to 80 IPCs on US1?  Ask the Nazi next to you if HE wants you to do that.

Yes