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

Obviously, I concur with Andrew. I would say that the position of those units depends on the Germans. If they drop a navy first turn or build all air to counter Gibastion, that must be punished. If the Russian player is turtling while England is suffering or even being booted out of the game, the German is playing you for a fool and turtling back to Moscow is just waiting to die.

In a recent BBR game I made E Poland radioactive by pushing everything to the front. In very rare cases, I (not a championship player) would replace the artillery with mechs placed in Ukraine and Nov and planes in Moscow. This is very rare. The German player was doing what I call adventuring in the Atlantic and the N Africa.

@crockett36

Sorry, didn’t notice that. 👍

@AndrewAAGamer

Thank you for the advice! I didn’t really know what were the best opening buys for the Soviets.

Hi @jacobgeo24

Would you share some info on the tournament ? :)

@jacobgeo24 Awesome :) Would be cool if you do another thread with a Game reports of how it all goes.

Where are you guys located ?

@jacobgeo24 heh heh mostly N America and Europe but there everywhere :)

Have Fun Gaming :)

@jacobgeo24

May I bounce in with my two cents… You get a hard time playing Allies OOB without bid. IMO they are even further handicapped more than Axis by playing it as physical multi-player boardgame because of the lack of a battle calculator (I assume so) needed for solid defense setup and because coordination is much more crucial for Allies. Thus my advices are

• focus on fun and fellowship even more than victory

• don’t let someone bore out by playing only Russia

• Allies should keep it simple, do only overwhelming attacks and shift/seek their aggressiveness into/in smart strong positioning. Overall secure London, then Moscow, then India and Iraq - be both flexible and focused. Don’t lose Gibraltar or Egypt. Have Western Allies’ planes in Europe that can be also at Moscow in time. And going more into detail: Consider if it counters Axis’ moves and serves your purpose well when you go with planes defending on the route (a) London (b/c) Gib (d) sz99 [Crete] (e) Moscow. btw UK planes can fly to Moscow within two turns if they land on US carriers in sz92 (Western to Gibs) or sz97 which then move to sz99

• Have transports with ground units with your fleets just for creating threats!!

• I personally indeed found for playing the physical boardgame without usual bidding that a great but easy tweak is starting the game with French Turn Zero! Allowedly this severely impacts German opening and default strategies, but is adding a nice portion of balance in both odds and initiative.

• Last but not least I like tech on when casually playing face to face. This is offering an interesting way to deal with different levels of skills, too: Agree on a number of free tech rolls granted to the supposedly weaker player(s)

@pacifiersboard said in Allied Playbook - G40 Collection of Essays - Compiled by jacobgeo24 Nov 18-19 2023:

I personally indeed found for playing the physical boardgame without usual bidding that a great but easy tweak is starting the game with French Turn Zero! Allowedly this severely impacts German opening and default strategies, but is adding a nice portion of balance in both odds and initiative.

Nice ! I think I’ll add it as a triplea option for those that play digitally. At least I think I can :)

@barnee
Cool.

@crockett36 had thought of it in [Global 1940] One rule to balance it?

@pacifiersboard

Thank you for the mentions. That is a great thread and a lot of big names chimed in on my whattsapp. I believe I read that thread on my youtube channel. I have several games of France goes first on my channel as well. It is fun, though by the third time, the Axis players were ready for it and neutralized the advantage by turn 2. Still by that time, Japan had spent itself on a gambit and was on its way down down down.

I also have a Russia for dummies, which is a basic turtle. I believe you end up with around 93 to 100 troops in Moscow. I forget who the genius who said, “Don’t lose Moscow…cheaply!”

I really appreciate your comments to these young men on how to enjoy this game. Technology is definitely an undiscovered country for many here, and it does add soooooo much to the game from variety to historicity. But I digress into an old rant. As in life, we need new blood and this hobby is actually a “good” hobby, grounding the next generation in the courage of the greatest generation. I fear they may need it.

@crockett36 https://youtu.be/ctpBvxkps2k? si=gIZKutZ3J3rd77DU

I did a video and showed the videos mentioned above sans my technology videos.

@jacobgeo24

So jealous! I don’t know anyone in my area to play face to face with.

@barnee

Yes! Yes! Please do so! I’ve been hoping for it for so long (actually suggested that house rule a couple years back) (https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1547656)! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

@crockett36

Agreed on tehcnology. Just played a low luck (no other house rules) game, and the US scoring heavy bombers early was quite a boon. They would’ve been half or even a quarter as effective in contrsting the Pacific without it.