Map for 1941 axis strategy

@cheezhead1252 Good luck, and have fun!

…oh, and congratulations! :-D

You’ll find that the best approach to the Allies is a slow burn. The Axis start off with way more stuff than you, and the 41 scenario just takes that divide to the extreme. It’s best to stay back and slowly accumulate advantage before making your big push. In most cases, defense is stronger than offense in A&A (i.e. INF attack at 1, but defend at 2, and FTRs attack at 3, but defend at 4), so try to use that to your advantage when possible.

One more note for USA. Rather than go straight for Japan’s jugular, try parking the fleet in the SZ that contains the “Solomon Islands” Territory. It’s a nice territory to camp out in with your fleet, as it:

Puts you within 2-moves of Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, Dutch East Indies, and Philippines, the Pacific territories that are either worth a lot of money, are part of NOs, or both.

Keeps you within 2-moves of West US, your spawn point for new units, so new reinforcements will always be on the way and you always have a safe point to retreat to if Japan is too strong for you.

Keeps you more than 2-moves away from SZ63 (Japan’s spawn point for new units), so Japan will never be able to send a large amount of units your way without first spending a turn moving their units towards you (and thus, giving you a hint that Japan is planning on attacking you).

Just food for thought. Of course, Japan has ways to play around you basing your fleet in the Solomon Islands, but that mini-game of fleet positioning is part of the fun of A&A’s Pacific Theater.

@taamvan Can you say a bit more about what Japan is doing in your games? It’s true that with a well-executed KGF Germany will be contained to the core territories of France, NW Europe, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania – but that’s still worth $30 a turn and it takes the Allies a very long time to build and load enough transports to crack it.

Meanwhile, a pure KGF usually leaves Japan free to take India, then the Caucasuses, then Moscow – the Allies can certainly rush a few fighters to Moscow, but sending even one ruins the only practical Russian national objective, and if you build too many then you never get enough Allied ground troops to crack the German turtle – fighters in Moscow can’t reach to support an attack on France.

In my experience, without a bid and with NOs on, the Japanese attack on Moscow is much faster than the American attack on Paris, let alone Berlin. How does the Pacific play out in your games?

As this topic has fallen asleep, I want to discuss the allied bidding strategies in aa50-41, no tech, low-luck, bid: 13 IPC

I - Russian fighter

a) fighter on the western front, maybe on Caucasus to eventually kill the German transport in the med or to Karelia to make a German assault to expensive (high losing risk and forgoing too many other targets) and eventually killing the lone German transport (if the cruiser attacked the UK destroyer)

The 3 IPC left can be used for any allied country, e.g. an infantry in Egypt

b) fighter on the eastern front to Buryatia to kill the transport in SZ 62

b1) With 3 IPC go to the US and buy an infantry on the Philippines, land the fighter there. 3 Inf + 1 Fighter is hard for Japan lacking one transport and having no shore bombardment
b2) With the 3 IPC go to UK, e.g. Egypt, land in Yakut und go to the western front against Germany
b3) With an infantry bid in Burma or India: land in Yunnan. Yes, this is a sacrifice, but 3 Inf + 2 Fighters just allow the Japanese to clear the country, but probably not conquer it. This will slow the Japanese very much in moving against India.

II Anti-Manchuria

Bid: 1 Inf to Buryatia and 1 tank to Soviet far east and one to Stanovoj C.

attack Manchuria with 4 Inf + 2 Tanks - 2,5 units left is the expected result in low luck, means 2 tanks or 2 tank + 1 inf
a hard punch against Japan but no bid for Africa/Europe

III-UK fleet

IIIa destroyer in SZ2

While SZ 2 is still attractive, only 2 subs + fighter + bomber is a safe deal.
Which means Germany has to sacrifice one fighter in SZ 12 for at least one battle round to secure the Italian fleet.

IIIb destroyer in SZ12

in SZ 12 the italien fleet is endangered severely so Germany must attack here.
both attacks, SZ 2 with 1 sub+fighter+bomber and at the same time SZ12 with sub+2 fighter make both somewhat risky, probably losing a fighter for Germany too.

the 5 IPC remaining will probably be a UK tank in Egypt or a Russian tank on the front against Germany

IIIc a sub in SZ12 and a sub in SZ 35

the one in SZ 12 is to threaten Italy, while the one in SZ 35 wants to harrass Japanese ships or lone transports

Buying both at the same time is one option, the other is buy only of of those subs and some ground units

IV - pro Russia

buy any units for Russia for 13 IPC placing them on the front with Germany

V pro UK

buy any units for 13 IPC for UK, maybe to strengthen either India oder Egypt/Africa

Have I missed some good allied bids ?

@Flying:

Doing this leaves Africa to the Allies doesn’t it? Can a lower income Italy do this? What do you do, stack up tanks and infantry for 4 rounds then attack Russian territories? I can definately see this working though seems like a more risky strategy than going for africa/middle east.

When I say using Germany to let Italy have a crack at Russia I mean the Caucus not the Russian capital.

You can do both.  You don’t need many italian tanks to open a hole in a wall of inf that is only 1 or 2 inf.

and, yes Germany can can opener the Caucasus for italy, but we find it’s better to have Germany (or even Japan) to take the caucasus over Italy.  They could make better use of the IC with 4 unit capability.

a good Russian strategy depends on what the Allies are doing overall. everything i post is assuming Dice because dice allows the probablity factor unlike Low Luck.
Also it is important that the Brittsh will kill the Itlian fleet R2 or R3
KGF
Buy 4 tanks 1 fighter you have enough inf for turn one not to buy any.
A basic strategy I like is to give up Karelia leaving one man behind and regroup in Arch(with AA gun from Kar) then R2 counter
As well as take back the Ukriane R1.
my buy round two varies but if i can one figther that  being the last one i will buy for Russia heres how i would get the money if going for a fighter buy R2, on R1 i attack Finland with Kar if doable and take ukraine. leaving baltic states and East Poland to the Germans + getting your bouns  for no allies in your country which is a given R1, giving Russia 35 Ipcs on hand. then buy my 4inf 2 art 1 tank 1 fighter giving me two fighters to swap territories with. Fighters act as permanent tanks and don’t die when the territory you just took is recaptured, From R3 out i buy twice as many inf as i do art or tanks and i try not to buy more than two tanks that way i get the most units down so i can hold my capital and still have enough boots to swap with, when The Japs arrive on scene i pick my battles wisely. now at this point the Brittish and the US should be set and start destroying Germany by round 4 which means less pressure against Russia,R5 should be the last German push then you focus mostly on the Japs. russia’s goal now is to swap persia and kill the intial Jap force that will be coming north which won’t be there in force until Round 6. All they have to do by R7 is survive swap novo, persia, Kazak, and Evenki there shouldn’t be any German/ Italian Offense at this point and if there is your done for.

KJF
I do the bury stack and along with a India IC (KJF) is going to be built by the Britts I would go with 4tanks and a fighter(or 2inf 1 art) 3 tanks in Caucus R1 then R2 back the inda IC with those three tanks, so India has 4 britt inf 1 britt art and AA gun and 3 rus tanks. versus 4 jap planes and 4 inf Defender wins 73% with 2.78 units left (three tanks). If at all possible I bring those three tanks back R3 by then jap should be buying navy to fight the  U.S.  A KJF means to me three tanks a turn by the britts in India and the Britts killing the Itlian fleet, along with the Britts fighting for Karelia via SZ 4. I then try to back chinghai with one inf a turn from russia.
My Russia KJF then starts to look more like my KGF but now there is no Japs and all you have to do is just swap one teritory away.

In all Russian Strategies it is Key that all of your offensive battles take place at least three teritories away from Germany that way you don’t get your guys killed by a spawning tank/German airforce combo.

Also, Reading this I see alittle bit about a navy and I know for a fact that no surface ships that Russia builds will stand to a german airforce. and subs seem like a waste to me.

I have yet to try to the bomber strat because I like the fighter defence over the bombers because russian offense isn’t always an option especially if the Italians try a one two punch with the germans and stop the Russian one man blitz blockades.

apperently, i’m the only not-risky guy :-)
i prefer killing british destroyer east of england with sub and cruiser
2 subs, 1 fighter and 1 bomber to sz 12
take out all 3 eastern europe countries
hold france

doubting wether attack egypt or not.
if you do, sz 12 is more risky without bomber, but perhaps still acceptable?

imho if japan hits india j2 ,  he can easily set up a southern front against russia. much faster from here, than through china or up north :D much faster than wus attack. can pop out 5 units each turn at burma/india at j4. he doesnt need to defend theeseIC’s against chinese cannonfodder so 25 ipc each round go rolling to caucasus from then on, leaving japan enough for pacific/china

how fast can uk/us set up serious invasion of france/ italy ?