What is the most unusual/annoying/strange allied bid

@squirecam
Its not if you win or lose a fight but how you win or lose a fight.
If germany does its normal france attack and wins with 1 tank left they got diced pretty badly.
But since they still won you dont consider it being diced?

But with dice the problem is that on average you get the right results but if you get an outlier on the wrong point in the game you will lose the game because of that. And there is nothing you can do about it.
Germany attacking moscow with 90% odds and losing, sure russia might have had bad luck before or you might have gotten lucky somewhere else but that 1 battle makes or breaks the game.

I dont like Low Luck because its basically deterministic to the point where you know the outcome of battles. Its 2 much like playing chess. But i dont like the idea of extreme dice as well. Ideally you want to cap the outcome of a attack/defence roll to like 30-50% of the bell curve of most odds. But doing that would require some app to calculate.

Also depends on IF:
UK brings in the extra Ftr and a Bmbr.

But as SH allready explained:
What is your goal with Italy. Stall as long as possible UK in the Med.?
Getting aggressiv?
Looking for NO’ s?
Or soften UK RN for the German Luftwaffe?

If you scramble with Italy or not reveals also your future Plans in the Med. :wink:

Flip coin or roll dice for each team
Winning team can choose to call “Axis” or “Allies” or “Pass”
Once a side has been called, the other side will be getting resources if any
Choosing team calls “Axis” (meaning Allies bid of 0 or 2)
Other team responds by accepting Allies as Out of Box setup or offering some amount of IPCs to the other team to PLAY the Allies (thus taking the Axis)

“We will play Axis, and Give the allies 17”  (binary choice;  either choose the Allies, or raise the bid to the allies in return for playing the axis)

No cash can be kept
No change will be given
No bases or factories can be built
Like units only with like units (navy units added where you have like navy, land and air forces where you have at least 1 ground unit in a territory at game start)
Only 1 unit to place per territory* (this is a tournament rule; you could also permit stacking but it makes the bid quite different)

therefore, bids such as 2 (and 11, and 17) do not divide optimally into 1 or 2 specific units some money will be lost

Everyone seems to differ on whether the bid is needed, but not necessarily on where.  I have seen some players give it to the US or China, but the prevailing wisdom is that the best use of the bid is to buy a sub, destroyer and some ground units for UK in north Africa.  A UK destroyer can protect the Canadian destroyer, or the Cruiser in SZ 91, so that stuff is more likely to survive and become the nucleus of your new fleet for later in the game.

Even better, if you can get some ground units or Taranto add-ins (Tirano Suggests-  1 armor, 2 artillery in Alex, Egypt, Sudan, 1 DD with Cruiser or a sub etc for 15-17 bid G40), then the Italians never really have the odds to become a raging threat in the Med, and they are less likely to get income over 20 at some point.  With the extra bid pieces, the war for the middle east is more of an easy win, so you can establish your bases in Egypt or your navy down there without many Italians surviving the first turn.

other popular places to put the bid units are to add Russian infantry or artillery, Chinese infantry, etc to add some staying power.  Infantry are too weak and slow (and for USSR and China) support units might be better because they have so few.  You still can only place infantry as china, note.    The problem with this approach is making a difference with what you do place without it getting pretty quickly killed, but this could help you protect directly against Germany during Barbarossa somehow.    There are tons of ideas about this but no consensus.

the bid helps handicap the teams and give the Allies a better chance at cracking one of the Axis.  However, the bid doesn’t do a good job of addressing the dogpile and running program aspects of the game (attack Russia with everything is the critical path to victory)

G40 typical bids run over 15+, usually as UK units
G42 bid needs to be at least 8, to save the UK BB on G1.

@knp7765:

As Russia, you should definitely grab Norway. With the large US fleet there and London getting liberated, it’s very doubtful Germany will be putting any more boats in the water (…)

I agree completely. I want Norway out of the way first round after London is liberated, just to rid Germany of another 8 IPCs. If the Germans position themselves in Finland however, USA will take Norway instead. Otherwise Germany can enjoy those 8IPCs one more turn.

@knp7765:

(…)Do you plan to liberate Paris if US troops successfully land in Normandy or Holland? (…)

I usually wait to liberate Paris for the exact same reasons as you mentioned. It is a matter of being able to hold it or not. Trading it back and forth with Germany is often unacceptable (but not always), especially if the USA has to spend a lot in the Pacific (sometimes I am forced to invest near 100% in the Pacific with the USA from US7 and onwards because the Japs have taken Calcutta and are investing near 100% on also getting Hawai). For that reason I keep my men and TRS next to each other in Gibraltar, London, Normandy or wherever they are safe while being the most aggressive.

In this particular situation however, it remains to be seen. If taking Paris means the fall of Berlin in a series of falling dominoes then taking Paris it is!

By the way, this sealion airstrike scenario is also the reason why Britain starts out with a mech.  It can go to Eireland and back to London in time for the invasion.

These are listed on page 32 of the Europe Rulebook.

I am remaking the poll to disable cheating and switching over the data so far. Please do not post on this thread again. If any admins have the ability, lock this thread. Thank you.

These are really nice and easy to read.  Printing out and laminating them.

Thanks a bunch…