I would love to discuss this subject matter for to the light of day. You remarked that I wouldn’t see the greatness of All Power to Germany, until I witnessed it myself. The problem is that I have, many, many times. All Power to Germany is not a new strategy or a very innovative one at that – nor does it mean instant victory. There is something to be said about coming up with you own unique playing style in a field dominated by norms. Now some people are content with consistency, so I really wouldn’t know.
Now you say that Germany can do nothing about an Allied invasion. I feel that this is untrue, as Germany can still accomplish a whole lot. On the first turn, Germany can hamper an Allied assault by UK through the total destruction of the navy. On the following turns, I can consolidate my gains in Africa as well as Eastern Europe. The mounting numbers superiority of the Allies does wreck havoc on Germany psychologically. However, if I can maintain control of Europe, then I still have a collectable income of 25 IPCs. On average I can still buy eight infantry per turn.
I agree with this for the most part. I also don’t doubt your experience. Many of your previous questions seem to indicate that you haven’t been playing against advanced Allied players, which is why I am under the impression that you haven’t seen the Crush Germany strategy played to it’s full potential - but I most certainly could be wrong, all I have to go on is what you have posted. Also, that is not at all an ‘attack’ on you or your opponents - I know that tone doesn’t come across on the Internet, so understand that I am only trying to help and I don’t mean anything negative in any way!
Also, I am curious as to what rules you play with and who you typically play against? I noticed you don’t use 2-hit battleships, so maybe you are playing 2nd edition. What about Russia Restricted, submerging, stuff like that? Those factors can make a world of difference.
Now you said that there are a few things Japan can do about it, but doing so relieves pressure against Russia. I really don’t understand what you mean by “few things,” either by sending planes to Germany or what? I always came to understand that the greatest way to help out Germany is by hurting Russia. So by increasing pressure on Russia, I am in fact relieving pressure from Germany by forcing Russia to defend her home boundaries.
You are exactly right. As I said in the original post, Japan has one job to do: take Russia before Germany falls. The ‘few things’ I alluded to are some minor and/or advanced Japanese strategies, such as landing in Alaska, sending the fleet around South America to threaten Brazil/South Africa, sending the Japanese Fleet west in the mid-game, etc. The specifics are worthy of entirely new posts, so I wasn’t going to get into the details of them. The important thing about all of these strategies is that they must take away as little momentum as possible from Japan’s assault on Russia.
Now the way GGF (Get Germany First) sounds, I will constantly be forced to send troops to Europe no matter what. So would I continue sending forces against Germany even though Japan is on the verge of conquering Russia?
That is correct, you send all of your troops to Europe (or occasionally Africa) no matter what – because Japan is on the verge of conquering Russia. The Allies can defend Russia from the west much easier than from the east. All the Allied troops in Karelia allow Russia to divert forces from Karelia to defend Russia, and if things are looking grim the Allies can move troops into Russia as well.
“(However, Germany can’t hold EE unless the Allies have screwed up somewhere - see below.)”
In this quote you attacked my idea that Germany will hold Eastern European. However, if you had examined my quote a little harder, you would notice,”…I think that many will agree with me that it is a victory that Germany can keep the Allies at Eastern Europe throughout the game. “ See how I said keep the Allies “at” Eastern Europe. So I am assuming that the Allies will indeed retake Germany.
My mistake, although I’m not trying to ‘attack’ any of your ideas!
Now the defeat of Germany is inevitable. But the number of turns this would require is the winning difference for the Axis. I can derive this from the fact that if Germany falls, Japan still has a chance of winning if it takes Russia. Based on IPC count, Japan would function at a income at 56-65 IPCs and the Allies around 74-85 IPCs. Japan does have one great advantage though she doesn’t have to split its forces between two countries like UK and USA do.
Yes, the number of turns Germany can survive is the winning difference for the Axis, but Japan has to take Russia BEFORE Germany falls. To be more accurate, Japan actually has to take Russia about two or three turns before Germany would have fallen, then prevent Germany from falling by putting pressure on the Allies from Russia. Japan cannot win a 3 on 1 game, no matter how out of control they are.
The battleship movement is also slightly flawed. First, this movement expects that the Japanese fleet will not go after the American fleet the following turn. Second, this movement assumes that Japan cannot launch fighters from its aircraft carrier to intercept the battleship. Now normally at Hawaii I will lose 1-2 units. On the following turn, the Japanese fleet attacks to unprotected transport, while the battleship is attacked 2 fighters. The battle is in favor of the planes at 83%.
I think the other guy covered this for 1-hit battleships, and it’s even worse for the Japanese fighters with the 2-hit battleships that most people play with now. I’ll also steal a quote from those advanced strategy essays I told you about:
Ignore any Japanese fleet in the Pacific. Move ALL surviving U.S. fleet through the Panama canal to assist and support the “shuck-shuck” transports in the Atlantic. If the Japanese player wants to take out your Battleship and Transport near Panama, fine…too bad for the Japanese; their fleet is now at least TWO TURNS out of position, effectively eliminating them as an early useful force in the game. This is a sucker move, and it will cause Axis death that much earlier.
To all: I can’t stress the value you will get from reading those essays enough! Players really need to fully understand the concepts of infantry pushes, the ‘shuck-shuck’ strategy, and especially dead zones before they will be able to develop strategies feasible against advanced players under the standard rules.
Here’s the website again for those of you who missed it:
http://donsessays.freeservers.com/
To TM Moses VII, maybe you have already read them and just don’t agree with them – nothing wrong with that. Maybe you know all of those concepts by different names through experience. Maybe you are only playing with your own circle of friends and don’t have to create strategies that will beat advanced players – just ones’ that will beat your friends. Maybe you put more value on developing unique strategies than perfecting existing ones – nothing wrong with that either.
This thread took a right-hand turn because we noticed you were making some strategy assumptions based on poor Allied play, and you seem to be unfamiliar with the specifics of some advanced allied tactics. That is not a personal attack on you by any means – I’m certainly not familiar with every advanced tactic myself, and I don’t know if you’ve played 5 games or 5000. Our discussion is really only on advanced Allied strategy – you are preaching to the choir about developing new strategy - everyone’s all for it. The original intention of this thread was to help improve the play of beginning and intermediate players, not to debate the value of new strategies. I’m genuinely interested in your ideas for a ‘balanced attack’ strategy – let’s all toss around ideas and see how much we can do with it!
However, all that having been said, the only strategies of value to many of us are the ones that are based on the advanced play concepts that have been proven effective over the years. Hundreds of players have already walked the path in front of you. There is nothing wrong with developing a unique playing style, but to misquote Bismark – your skill will evolve much faster if you learn from other people’s mistakes instead of your own.
[ This Message was edited by: Ansbach on 2002-05-16 14:02 ]