Those US pacific builds- really a NO thing?

I generally don’t build up my navy.  Italy starts with so little money that its hard to do.  There’s also little that Italy can do if the Allies decide to focus on your navy and take it out.  There is simply nothing that Italy can buy to prevent it.  I’d rather not risk losing that money on a sinking ship.  I focus on landing as much into Africa as I can before my navy gets whacked.  Hopefully that means I’m cashing in around Africa once that has happened.

@dondoolee:

-Think I am getting off easy because you “only” role 2 dice for heavy bombers

-Am still filled with wonder by transporting an infantry unit AND ANYTHING ELSE I WANT!

-Still think it is a bit rude and unsportsmanlike to attack Germany with Russia on R1.

Hehe - what a great post.  Yes, I’ve played enough Revised (about 70 games on GTO) and Anniversary that I think all of the Classic stuff is actually expelled from my system.  However, the ones I quoted still resonate with me.  Although with Germany right on the doorstep, it doesn’t seem rude or unsportsmanlike to attack Germany on R1 (which was crippling in Classic, as you imply)  In Classic you had the Caucasus buffer zone.
I’ve got some new ones to add.
-  I still have urges to attack subs with planes for the free shots.

-  Still cringe at attacking transports with planes because I might lose my planes and still not hit the transports (actually, I got used to the Anny rule very quickly)

-  Still have the urge to attack Russia with Germany with all available personnel every turn, especially turn 1, to get that all important Karelia factory!

I find the US/UK vs Japan option (1941) is very viable.  Maybe I am misreading what was said before, but it actually seems more viable to me than a traditional kill Germany first. (I think this is because Italy can liberate/take land and Germany can reinforce it with fighters to defend now, a very significant and major defensive capability!)

America may be limited to 52 IPC or less a round if they go Kill Japan first.  However, England should be making significantly more than the 20-30 IPC they get in a kill Germany/ignore Japan campaign because of the NO in the Pacific, the non-loss of the NO in the Indian Ocean/Africa/Australia/etc, the increased land ownership in the Asian SE and SE Pacific Islands, etc.  Meanwhile, Japan shouldn’t be earning too much either, America could, realistically, be earning near to more than double what Japan is if played right.

Smoke a bowl…

@Cmdr:

If you are lucky and Japan is not primed to take India round 2, an Indian IC can be a godsend.

If Germany did not hit Egypt, than an Egyptian IC is even better! (Italy has no chance, not with 4 Infantry, Artillery, Armor, Fighter, Bomber in Egypt at the end of England 1.)

I like one in Philippines as well, FIC isn’t half bad either.

France works well for the Allies too.

If your building in France, Phil, Man, or FIC doesn’t that mean the game is well in progress and your at stages you can’t really plan for at the begining of a game?  And if the UK happened to take France it is so darn close to it I would hesitate to build an IC there (unless making massive amounts of cash).

A Brazil factory seems pointless/ a liabilaty, A Norway factory for the UK seems redundant (unless they are making massive amts of cash) but may be OK for the US player.  Canada seems silly.

I have never been in a position to be able to consider an early IC build in Egy or India.  If one insists on an early factory build I would say SAF is easily the most defendable option, but the better option if it can be done would be a T2 Aussie buy

Thanks, I would be interested in the list of changes you made.

I’ll post my complete setup in the House Rules section once I’m satisfied with it. I’m still testing it for now. As you said, it’s very similar to what you have done in the Pacific, but Europe is a bit different. The main difference is that I gave Germany control of East Poland and Baltic States, so the game starts a few months into Barbarossa (late summer or so), while the German still had momentum.

What the designers did was break up the big Japanese sea zones into a lot of little ones but they left the sea zones close to the US wide open which encourages a policy of harrassment by a smaller US navy. But, the US is unlikely to make it very deep into Japanese controlled sea zones without spending every dime on the Pacific.

However, with a small naval investment the US can usually claim the Midway, Wake, Hawaii, Solomans National Objective and keep a decent portion of the Japanese navy tied up.

The bonuses countering each other stuff only works if germans cannot retake Kar, but if the target is not letting germans build at kar, I agree.