What is the most unusual/annoying/strange allied bid

@rommel13579
I also don’t use my mechs to attack.

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

I think the whole bid system might work better as is, if there were an American battleship added to the setup in sea zone #101.

@Spendo02:

@Krieghund:

The US cannot win this battle.  The fighters will continue to defend in the air until the battle is over.  The Japanese fighters and US subs can’t hit each other, so the fighters will sink transports until the US retreats.  If the US wishes to conduct this amphibious assault, it must bring units that are capable of hitting the fighters.

This is one of those unique situations where you are required to take Trn as losses before subs because that is all the unit can hit?

Yes.  They just need to be the only legal selection for a loss.  That might mean that planes have no other target (like this example), or that Sub hits have no other ship targets, or that the defenders hit everything else in a round of combat and need to assign some more hits before the defender retreats.  Remember, the defender still has the option to retreat, if they can, and transports are only automatically destroyed when they’re attacked, not when attacking (unless the attacker has no place to retreat).

I am kind of interested in what people are having trouble with these 18 inf that russia can throw towards japan? I think those 18 inf are a lot less annoying than say giving brittain more troops, though giving china more troops at the expense of russia’s 18 inf might be a good change. I honestly like it when Russia keeps her 18 inf on the japan border or near it (18 inf and 2 aa guns less for germany to kill in moscow). If you weaken russia’s power here too much it might be worth it for japan to attack russia’s north. Maybe a good way to test it would be to make a house rule where russia looses 6 inf in the east and china gains 6 inf, but you can only put 1 inf per territory. I don’t know if letting china have the Burma road from the start of the game would be fair for japan? US going 100% japan for first couple turns might prove impossible for japan to beat it china is now significantly stronger with those 4 extra inf yunan plus the extra money and possibility of buying artillery. I see japan as being much weaker on the land since china will be more than just a pain, but a real threat and japan will have to buy more ground to compensate making japans navy weaker and in turn making US’s navy that much stronger. I haven’t played and extensive amount of games, so what do people think about the pacific side of the board and those 18 russian inf? Are you guys having a hard time beating japan as the allies, or keeping japan in check?

Fighters that are damaged roughly lose around half their abilities @: attack: 2, defense: 2, Movement: 2, they also gain 5 damage points. The reason to this change, was so that players would feel more enthused to strategic bomb knowing they wouldn’t lose a fighter, instead, they could continue using the fighter just at a damaged level. The downgrade in its abilities would be a temporary result until the fighter is repaired at half the price (5 IPCs) of a new fighter.

Fighters that missed or didn’t get hit, are free to return to base like in the OoB rules.

One other thing i forgot to mention, bombers that are not accompanied with escorts are considered ‘locked on’ therefore are subject to interceptor fire @ 1d6 of damage per defending interceptor.

These rules make bombers and interceptors very powerful units. It encourages players to strategic bomb with 2d6 of damage, however there is also the risk of interceptor ‘lock on’ that would minimize the bombers full 2d6 damage potential.

Yes, they have to take it back, collect their income and then wait till next turn to spend it.

(Providing the Germans don’t take it again before their next turn.)

@Funcioneta:

They will attack each other first round 90% of games if you don’t agree a penalty for the attacker … something like 15 or 20 IPCs. Higher penalty -> later attack

Not sure about that 90% on turn 1, but sooner or later, they certainly will atack!