Axis or allies?

The Pacific route may like an attractive path, but in practice, it take much more naval investment to protect the transports.

Typical air and naval:
Germany - 5 fighters, 1 bomber. 1 fighter is usually lost in ukraine and baltic fleet is sunk by uk
Japan - 2 battleships, 2 carriers, 5-6 fighters, 1 bomber, 1 destroyer, maybe 1 sub, + any transports japan bought.

Japan starts with a much larger naval threat, and US would need to invest 50-150 IPC for a US pacific fleet to survive.

Also, the Atlantic route is shorter than you’re describing.
The typical starting route is for land units purchased in East US to move to east Canada. From there, a transport can move it to Algeria each turn. From there, transports can threaten South Europe or West Europe. US also has the option of placing a fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. That fleet can transport from Libya to Ukraine, Caucasus, trans jordan, Southern Europe, and Western Europe. A US1 buy of 1 carrier, 1 transport, and land units is a great start to accomplish this.

@Granada:

oh well, i have just tried the strategy against an experienced player and i was destroyed terribly. SZ 12 IS NOT A SAFE PLACE R1. You would not have 2 UK trans in most cases. I played against bid 9 so there was one sub more from the start and an AC on G1. Any kind of convoying system is necessary for US but next time i am going to make sure that i control the atlantic solidly first. I made some childish mistakes too, but if the germans put an effort to contesting the atlantic you cannot just build trannies. You have to sink their ships first and you have to do it quick and as cheap as possible.

Btw if the convoying system is to work smoothly you need for US actually three sets of transport ships, two wount do.

Early allied shipping losses can really hamper your game plan. It is always vital to protect not only the transports, but that British battleship! If Germany invests 24 ipcs in the water, you will have to wait a round or two to be safe, however, thats all right, as Germany took away 24 ipcs from the Russian campaign, you have time to get going.

Yea, I never said it was a good strategy, but it does give you the option of really decimating the allies early on.

GK for that!  LOL

@Woodstock:

In this thread, the G1 AC + 3 TRN buy seems to put quite a load on both UK and USA, right to RND2 at least.

If you know what you are doing, then AC+3T can be a very good buy.

If you dont, you can be defeated much easier.

This really is wonderful!thanks a lot

Good karma for you!!!

@U-505:

I would have to say that you should be careful about advancing heavy Russian forces too far into Europe. Drawing Russian ground units away from Russia is a trap I frequently like to set with Germany. It gets really had to resist trading a bunch of advanced territories with Germany because the prospect of Russia making 30+ IPC’s a turn puts dollar signs in the Russian player’s eyes. With the Axis outnumbering Russia by 5 to 1 with air units, trading a lot of territories and ground units with Russia almost always favors the Axis, even if the unit trade is 1 for 1. No matter how much Russia makes, Japan always outproduces them by up to twice as many units and that point will get hammered home when a large number of Russian forces are aimed at Germany and their reinforcements going west dry up instantly because they are desperately trying to hold back the flood of Japanese units coming at them. Japan has a tendence to look benign one turn and the next turn be all over the map, in force, and Russia can quickly get into trouble by being too aggressive toward Germany. Especially if the eastern defensive structure is poorly maintained.

I completely agree.  I’ve used this “rope-a-dope” tactic a few times.  retreat with germany, attack with japan, and then usually around round 3-4 i counter attack with germany and squeeze russia out and hope that germany conquers russia so i can get the IPC’s.  I say thi cause usually the Allies have taken western Europe with this strategy at some point and I have to retake it.