Axis or allies?

@Fleetwood:

Okay, thanks for the reply. Stacking Karelia is a bit of a habit since I’m used to being able to do it against a lot of opponents. Against a considerably lesser player, victory comes quickly that way. The only issue I have with making drops in Archangel is how difficult that makes trading WE since I’m assuming the German player at some point abandons and deadzones it. I would hate to let Germany have it for free or to have the Brits cash out 6 short. The UK might not be able to do both, depending on the German plane placement and how many capital ships are available.

Agreed that Western must be traded, but if USA is in the Med they can take up the challenge (12 can be defended minimally assuming the Kraut figs aren’t on Western).

In my last two PBEM games, one as Axis, one as Allies(in progress) the Axis has won(1 inf to Ukr, 2 inf to Lib). In both, the Japanese controlled Africa, entered the Med, held Novo and were/are able to take Moscow. I think I just need to adjust improve my Allied play to beat better Axis play.

That kind of bid would throw my Axis game off…I wouldn’t allow a bid of 9 unless it was a tech game.

I disagree with your analysis–from what it sounds like, UK1 was played quite well.  Ignoring Japan for a few rounds is not a problem.  As far as I can tell, the main factors contributing to Allied loss were
—not contesting Africa (big one!)
—losing the British fleet (carelessness + your luck)
—Panicking on the USA west coast–your landing in Canada could have been handled easily

Sounds like there was solid Russian play all the way through, and mostly sound Allied play, but with the aforementioned oversights.  If he had shut you out of Africa and not had to rebuild the USA fleet, I’ll bet Germany would have been about ready to collapse by the time Moscow fell.  Generally the Allies can win if Berlin falls even a round or two after Moscow.  I don’t think the idea of letting Japan go for a while and going full bore against Germany is wrong as a big picture approach, it just sounds like a couple of the details were botched.

@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.

quite simply, transports have to be defended, and the allies can put have in range alot of threatening airpower before japan’s second turn…  and every ship that’s left defending them reduces your ability to cheaply destroy the various allied fleets that might be making a mess in the pacific on turn one.

Other than that, the additional transports allow for 6 units a turn, similarly to the IC’s.  The additional transports give you the ability to grab guys more quickly from the islands, as well as the ability to push on india and africa faster and harder.  But each of these require some tradeoffs (ideally, mass troops in manchuria, but if india looms you may have to deal with that, slowing the flow of 6 units/per turn.

transports assuming a factory build later also ends up reducing the flow of fast moving armor, if that’s necessary.

Don’t get me wrong, i’m a big fan of transports, but they have their drawbacks too.

@ncscswitch:

@Jennifer:

My bad…I thought I was in the classic thread.  Much apologies.

Not a problem, have done that myself recently :-)

Yea, it’s easy to do when you hit “show unread posts since last visit” instead of hunting by catagory. wink

It’s not a copywrite violation I’ve done it, not at kinkos but at another repro place

88 knows that I agree with him;

“#1 The most fun you’ll have is by trial and error. There is no perfect strategy.”

The one tidbit that I will add in any thread or discussion in any of the posts,

“What are the victory conditions you have set for the game?”

If you are after a minor victory (8 cities) then Germany can focus on a land war, navy be damned.
However, a major victory (10 cities) or total victory (12 cities) is going to require an Axis navy to reach the 10th/12th city.

IMO, I have a German Navy at the start of the game that is easier to add to and maintain in order to play a role in the 10/12 city VC (Victory Condition).