Stories of winning as the Allies with no bid at this game

2 Chinese fighters

I think the #1 lesson I learned on the forums and actually playing the game is this.

UK1 YOU ALWAYS BUILD: 6 INF + 1FTR or 9 INF on London.

If Germany is going to go ahead with sea lion make it a honest attempt. Defend London to the best of your ability on UK1 and UK2 and see what happens.

UK gets in trouble when they do not defend London to the max on their first 2 turns and goes off script. UK cannot afford to miscalculate the situation and be under manned on the first 2 turns on London and let Germany waltz in and take it.

UK2 Your purchase is a response to Germany. If they go Sea Lion build you MUST build more defense on the island. If they go with a Russia build and no TRS that is when you can build that minor IC somewhere and start looking at areas to annoy the Axis.

Thanks!

Yep, that’s what we did, we just played another round before calling it.

@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!

How a cheaper Navy helps the allies is this. The US comes in after turn 4. With a cheaper navy, namely transports, Japan could be a real threat to Australia, forcing the US to pay attention to it, making it historically accurate.

The US paying some attention to Japan helps the Germans.

Lastly, IMHO, the game is close enough that these changes don’t ruin the game. But seeing your point, to go along with this, you would also have to fix the sub problem which is horrible. The advantage Germany had in the beginning of the war with their subs just doesn’t exist in the game. They need to make the subs more stealthy, like rolling the dice to locate them before attacking them, (destroyers would have a better chance than other units) and greatly expanding the areas they can convoy. Also giving the Germans a wolf pack advantage that the US copies and made use of much later in the war against the Japanese.

This whole incredible aspect of WW2 was somehow left out of the game.  A real shame. That would bring some balance.

@knp7765:

By the way, has anyone else noticed that Allied victories usually take much longer than Axis victories? Most of our Allied victories are roughly 13-15 rounds while Axis victories tend to be around 7-8 rounds.

I’ve had numerous Allied victories after 3-4 rounds (when they realize that USA and USSR entering the war is going to be too much to handle), and you can have them in the first round especially if an attack on 95 or 97 goes almost perfectly.
Again, since the Allies win if the Axis can’t, whenever it becomes apparent that the Axis can’t, it’s over.  So Allied wins happen at all different stages of the game.  Have you ever had Germany fail to take Paris in the first round?  Or have their sea battles G1 go badly?  There are many ways for the Axis to lose, and lose early  :-)

You made very good insights and overall summaries of common situations in the game, by the way.  Haven’t heard much from you for awhile, unfortunately!

when i wrote my original reply alpha was in its early stages. since then lh has gone to great lengths to balance the game. i now am very happy with the new set up and think it is balanced

Kwangtung has to be better in most games.  Just something about how far forward the Americans were made me want to get away from them so I could keep killing Chinese also.  Malaya is nice and close to Africa and Australia as well