Best Feeling in Round 1

Fleetwood Dan: I absolutely agree, stacking Karelia on G1 can be a watershed moment for Germany, even a game-winner if it holds for the long run.  By the way, if suicidal British are a danger in the first round, you can always NCM a sub to SZ 3 to take that out of the equation.  In my mind, it’s well worth the loss of the sub and the reduced defense in SZ 5.  Long term is trickier, especially if you’re trying to hold it while also ramping up your defense in Western Europe; I’ve seen some very, very good players abandon Western Europe in order to hold onto the Karelia stack (and done it myself a few times).

In answer to the original post: It’s not too unusual to see the Axis equalizing the income by round 2-3, however, it’s often for a fleeting moment because the Allies can recapture Africa and may start to make gains in Europe.  Sometimes you can make a second income surge in round 5 or so, due to Japan hitting 50+ income while Germany holds the line at 35ish (assuming KGF, of course).

One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that comparing the incomes at any one point in time isn’t the best way to assess the economic balance, because any territories that are getting constantly traded will only be counted for whoever owns them at the moment.  (So if you compare after your team’s turn, things will look better than they are, and if you compare after an opponent’s turn they’ll look worse.)  A more accurate index is to compare the total amount of money collected on each side over the last 5 turns.  That may sound tedious to add up, but since people generally don’t save too much, you can get a good estimate by comparing the cash on hand (unless there are a lot of SBR’s going on).

Empty territories just get blitzed into and out of by Russia for free cash.

The idea here is to stack the territories where they have to either attack with significant resoures or yield them permanently.

Well, ya all know me, the AC in SZ 5 is the biggest waste of Cash this side of, well, this side of anything!  I’d rather have 4 fighters or 2 bombers and a fighter to an Aircraft Carrier in SZ 5….(SZ 14 is a different story.)

Of course, you all know this means in the Tourney I’ll be building AC’s in SZ 5 cause no one will expect me too. :P

In order to defeat a defending army worth ~150 IPC, you’d need to spend ~200 IPC.  I generally find this to be the case is for larger battles, say minimum of at least 10 defending units.  Of course it varies by players aggressiveness or risk factor or a couple of other things.

This is true b/c it is extremely easy to defend.  As you both point, Infantry are unmatched it that department.

So attackers need to outspend defenders ~4:3 in order to take.  You need more if it is a combined attack, for example a UK-US 1-2, or perhaps less depending on how much you want to take with, or if you have lots of air, tanks can really move 2 spaces, or something else.

I look at it as simply an easy guideline, like usind a LL method to see if I have “avg” shot at taking, not a hard hitting “must play by” rule.  I think of the same thing with the 3:1:1 army.  It’s a nice guideline but rarely do I ever actually have that in games.

As for my army for 150, I’d probably have something like:

26 inf
8 rt
8 arm

Units:  42
Att:  74
Def:  92

Or

23 inf
9 rt
9 arm

Units:  41
Att:  77
Def:  91

This poll and post is even more difficult to answer than the combat poll.  This one not only depends on prior combat, but also on the outcome of those combats.  Your planned NCM can be obsolete and/or foolhardy by the time it’s time to make it.

Like Switch says, the best laid plans last only until contact with the enemy. (paraphrased) :-D

@Jennifer:

6 Transports = 48 IPCs + 15 IPCs for Industrial Complex.  Total: 63 IPCs
12 Transports = 96 IPCs.  Total: 96 IPCs

That is not an equivalent comparison.

Norway is only 3 IPC, so it can only produce 3 units.  So 1.5 TRNs worth of units.

US sets up 4x4, requiring 8 TRNs to get 8 divisions to Europe per round.  With a Norway IC, to still get 8 divisions requires 6 TRN plus Norway production (they do get 1 extra unit this way).

But for UK… 3 IPC’s is about 15% of their mid-game income.  And as I said, that means eitehr keeping ARM in the mix for them to TRN, or allows 3 INF to be upgraded to ART, and thus add 6 points to their attack (an extra dead German every round).

US only needs 64 IPC’s of TRN’s to send a full 8 divisions to Europe every round.  And if UK can keep their income to where they can fill their 4 TRNs, that is 16 divisions per turn.  And that is serious trouble for Germany.

We have strayed into House Rules.  Further discussion along those lines needs to be moved to the House Rules area.

“Che is a fool’s hero.  Qutoing him with admiration demonstrates ignorance, moral confusion, or both.”

I fully agree with that statement! excellent sig BTW.