Allied Playbook - G40 Collection of Essays - Compiled by jacobgeo24 Nov 18-19 2023

@jacobgeo24 no worries brother :)

Rock On

@jacobgeo24

Very fun game report! As a high schooler I like to talk politics too (mostly with adults).

I’m curious about you saying Japan wasn’t doing well navally on J3. How? It wasn’t at war with the West yet on J3 and I cannot imagine even the worst player losing to China navally.

I’m glad you won but also a bit sad that the Axis lost (I weirdly root for the Axis to win in every game).

Past midnight… no comment (no offense 😉).

Can’t wait for the next game!

@jacobgeo24

Agreed. Honestly that infantry buy early on I find is not very good. There’s enough ground forces on the home islands to defend against attack early on, and infantry should only be built to defend the capital if you see a potential attack. It’s hard for a fleet that can amphibious assault enough ground forces to defeat 10 infantry to be a surprise.

Not even going into more complex moves like blockers.

From my experience Japan is always the toughest power to play.

I just had an example of why a tight Allied playbook is almost impossible. Bear with me and I’ll try and lay out what just happened playing A3.

I was messing around and was going to go all in on Middle Earth UK with almost 100% USA build for KJF. This was my strategy going in, 100% committed to this because I wanted to see what it looked like with UK dumping all it’s resources into the ME and USA building huge Navy.

Russia, I was going to turtle in Moscow and potentially bring some of the Far East force to Moscow if it looked like they could make it after a few rounds.

UK, keep the absolute minimum that I thought that I had to in England to prevent Sea Lion, and everything else in the Middle East.

US, minimum in the Atlantic, carrier fleet builds in the Pacific.

G1,
DOW on Russia.
2 subs to Canada.
BB and 2 subs to the Channel with an air force that could one shot the scrambling fighters so I held them back.
1 sub to the North Atlantic

2 subs in Canada sunk the Canadian fleet with no losses.
Channel force 1 shot the British fleet, but the fleet hit on every shot and sunk the 2 subs and hit the BB.

Germanay is left with 2 subs off Canada
BB in the Channel.
CV and C w/ transport, in the North Sea or Baltic, I don’t remember.
Air Force in Belgium, maybe some in W Germany.

R1,
bought a Tac to tag up with my 2nd fighter for long range counter strikes and then all INF and maybe an ART if the IPCs come out right.
Pulled back from FE.
Setup to turtle with a strike force ready to take advantage of an over-reach .
Put the whole Air Force in Leningrad, 2 fighter and 2 tacs in Leningrad, plus the C and Sub at port.

J1, DOW and attack US in the Phillipines, not USSR though. I won’t go into details as much into the Pacific unless someone wants those (they’ll be fuzzier, especially the China part).

USA1
Purchased a DD in the Atlantic to deal with the German subs off Canada and in the North Atlantic. I sent the Bomber to Hawaii.
The trans to Brazil to grab the Inf, IPCs and flee the German subs.
I kept the C in the Atlantic to help the DD in case the UK couldn’t destroy the German subs off Canada. I wanted the Atlantic battle over with as soon as possible so that I didn’t have to deal with the hassle of it.

UK1,
I was all in on for dominating the Med if I could hold it round 1. Buys, Minor for Egypt, 1 Tank and 2 Mechs for South Africa.
India, 1 Tac again for counter strikes. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with their Air Force. Keep it in SE Asia or send it to the ME.

This is where decisions we make and dice rolls can totally change what we had planned going into the game.

I passed on Taranto to take care of the Atlantic.

I sent the British Isle DD to Canada to face the 2 subs. I also sent a fighter and the bomber from UK with it, I didn’t want a lucky 1 end up making the battle for the Atlantic last 1 or 2 more rounds than it had to.
I sent the North Sea fleet with 2 fighters to take care of the BB.
I sent the Gib Cruiser and Malta fighter to take care of the DD and Trans around the island.

The German subs off Canada were sunk with 1 roll with no return hit.
The BB in the Channel was sunk and missed on it’s return fire.
The Italian Destroyer was sunk and missed on it’s return fire.

Setup for UK at the end of the round.

Off Canada, a DD with a Fighter in Ottawa and the Bomber in the E USA.
Gibralter fighter, I didn’t send it into combat, I wanted to see if I needed it in the Med or UK. (My thinking and I’d like to know guys opinions if it was smart to not us it in battle and save it for where it was needed. My thought, I had enough to 1 shot the BB and enough to 1 shot the DD, send the Fighter for whichever direction needed the reinforcements if the Axis hit in the Channel or Med). Since there were no hits, I sent it to the UK so that I could have a 3 plane scramble against potential German raid on the British Fleet in the Channel.
Cruiser off Malta
I kept the Med fleet off Egypt to prevent from an Axis Landing (in hindsight I should have moved a DD blocker)
I sent the Med Tran w/ an Inf and Art to Persia.
I sent the India Tran to Sumatra (don’t know if that’s a good play or if I should sent it to Java, Persia, Iraq or Africa. I went with money that was close by).
South Africa DD to Persia to protect the Trans, I don’t know if Bomber could have hit it, but I didn’t want to give it away for free. My other thought was to put it in the Red Sea.
1 Inf in Alexandria, should I pull it back to Eqypt with everything else?
1 Inf in Sudan, should I pull it back to Eqypt? I left it there to defend or counter attack Italy in Ethiopia.
Moved SA inf up.
Placed India Tact and Fight in Transjordan to counter attack Italian fleet if it hits Eqypt. Placed West India Fighter India.
The India C and DD offf Somalia
The Malaya BB to India.

Placed Minor in Eqypt and mobile forces in SA.

I1
My concern, they’d throw everything at the Fleet of Eqypt, win, land and keep the Minor. I’m reeling if they get it and hold it. (I should have put the DD off Greece.)

Italy was faced with ships in 3 spots in the Med. The went conservative with their fleet and aggressive with their planes.

The whole fleet to sink the French fleet.
The 2 fighters to the C at Malta.
I don’t remember what they did with the Bomber, I know that it ended up in North Africa.

This is where lucky dice continues to change things.
Both French ships hit, Italian BB is hit and sub sunk.
C is sunk, but it hits a Fighter.

Italy ends with fleet off France down a sub and a hit BB. Fighter and Bomber in Tobruk with a split army, small one going West, larger one with the Air Force in Tobruk.

The most crucial aspect of allied play is missing from the PDF -

Don’t drink and TripleA kids - the consequences are severe!

@mainah no drinks on the table. Same as pool :)

Couple of questions.
1 G1 DOW on russia and you bought a CV eg a carrier?
2 J1 DOW but you let the BB of malaya live?

@ampdrive
Who is this question to?

@mainah It regards a previous post by Lousy Lions

@jacobgeo24

Awesome!

Some crazy thoughts:

1. Do you sometimes buy R1 a sub or destroyer to convoy germany or liberate sz125? I think de 6 or 8 IPC can be earned back quickly?

2. Do you sometimes take greece on UK1 when doing taranto so the UK fighters on the carrier have a place to land and to force germany to send troops South to attack greece and thus buying time for russia?

I try to maximize defense of Russia. An extra two infantry can dramatically change the odds. Or a few art instead of inf can make it hard for Germany to stand toe-to-toe with the Moscow stack.

I don’t take Greece unless Germany lost many planes on G1

@Cornwallis

Taking Greece is considered capturing it, so the fighters in sea zone 97 cannot land there on the same turn.

@SuperbattleshipYamato i ment when on G2 Germany sends its luftwaffe on the UK fleet

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris me neither but when bought on R1 that sub can reduce the number of german troops at the doors of moscow by turn 6 perhaps?

@Cornwallis

I understand now. Not sure where those fighters can go or what they would do. Same with strategic bombers, they can’t reach anywhere unreachable. There’s not much reason to base aircraft there.

@SuperbattleshipYamato if you don´t have greece you can´t tip your carrier bc the UK planes on them (after the taranto raid when italy doesn´t scramble) can´t land anymore.
I have never done it, landing in greece, but maybe players have?