Attention All Axis and Allies Fans!

The Allies have to work together to win, but it does take cooperation. And honestly, when I play…I typically ignore the Japanese in the Pacific (except for China, which I’ll explain in a second)

ROUND 1: (Russia) I actually move 2 INF from Novosibiask > to support the US troops in Sinkiang. I also move 2 INF from Evenki National & Yakut > Novosibirsk

(UK Round 1) i typically buy 1 Aircraft Carrier, 1 Transport and 2 INF.
*I consolidate forces around India, including 1 INF from Persia and Trans Jordan. My UK Ftr MUST destroy the transport in SZ59. In addition, I get the Transport and the Submarine out of SZ40 and move them> SZ 20. If I’m feeling daring, I’ll pick up 2 INF from Australia and load them on the Transport as well…though this is a risk because it can easily be attacked by the Japanese…but even this has some advantage to it. If the Japanese attack them, they will not be able to attack India for another round…and that is another Round to build up the Allied collation in Asia.
*If they have survived, the UK Battleship and Transport that was in SZ 2 needs to be moved > SZ 8. This is the focal point of the invasion for Western Europe.
*ALWAYS STRATEGIC BOMB GERMANY!

(USA Round 1) If I’m going to defend Asia, I’ll buy an Industrial Complex R1 along with Transports and INF. I’m different than a lot of players…as the US, I typically ignore the Pacific entirely (except for the Asia defense I’m working with Russia and the UK on.) I pull my Battleship and Transport out of SZ 55 and send them through the Panama Canal toward the East Coast. I also move the Destroyer in SZ20 back toward the East Coast.
*Bombers fly to the UK and the FTR lands on the Aircraft Carrier the UK just produced to help defend it. Once the Bomber is in place for R2…ALWAYS STRATEGIC BOMB GERMANY!  (You might even want to buy another US Bomber) By R3 the US and the UK should be taking out between 9-10 IPCs from Germany each turn…and that will become HUGE. Work together with the UK player on this and each round send another bombing raid on Berlin. I can’t stress this enough.
*If the forces in China have survived, pull them back to Sinkiang at the end of US Round 1. If Japan didn’t take out the US FTR in China, they are stupid and you have a gift!  Place your Industrial Complex in Sinkiang.

Now look at the Allies situation at the beginning of ROUND 2
*On Russia R2, Russia can pour 4 more INF into Sinkiang from Novosibirsk, pushing those defenses up to 8-10 INF (+1 FTR if you are lucky) The US Industrial Complex can produce 1 FTR + 1 ARMOR, which will make those defenses even better. By R3, Sinkiang could have: 2-3 FTRS, 2 ARMOR & 8-10 INF. This is a lot of firepower and will cause the Japanese some headaches for several rounds…which is all you need.
*UK has a force in India with swelling support. Again, this will force the Japanese to split their attention between the US and Russians in Sinkiang and the UK force in India. It will take them several rounds to capture both…which is all you need.
*You also have a growing fleet in SZ 8 with an Aircraft carrier, Battleship and some Fighters. A second US Battleship is on its way and should be there R3. This is strong enough to protect the transports that will be flooding in. Here is the time you are needing that the Asian collation has given you. Japan will be stalled in Sinkiang and India for a few rounds and as you are building an invasion fleet in SZ 8, it will force Germany to pull forces from the Russian front to defend Europe. Once I have enough US and UK forces collected, I begin pouring in the assault in waves. Transports continually resupplying fresh troops in SZ 8 in a chain from the US. (The transports are produced, loaded, moved to SZ 8, Invade Europe, & return to the US for another round of troops.

The Industrial Complex in Sinkiang is not defensible forever. Keep a close eye on when the right time to abandon it might be and fall back into Russia. This typically is a welcome relief as it will provide Moscow with some much needed FTR and Armor defense. Japan is going to get an Industrial Complex on the mainland of Asia eventually, so I don’t even worry that I’ve gifted the Japanese an extra one. What the Allies need is time, and this buys them 2-3 extra rounds.

Japan can be an economic powerhouse, and own all of Asia and most of Africa for all I care, as long as Berlin falls and Moscow is protected. Typically, about the time Japan is gaining some real power in Asia and breaks through the defenses, Europe is about ready to fall to the Allies. Once this happens, its really over for Japan as they can not beat all three powers alone, no matter how much their territory has grown. They Allies will simply take it all back, and concentrate on Japan.

When facing Germany I take the invasion of Europe in 3 phases: Phase 1 DESTROY THE GERMAN NAVY. Phase 2: DESTROY THE GERMAN FTRS (this will take awhile, and usually involves several German attacks against the growing Allied Atlantic Fleet…but it’s Germany’s only option to stop the build up of Transports. Eventually, Germany will lose their FTRS by having to attack this fleet. Of course, the Allies will have to keep building lost transports that the Allies will sacrifice to soak up the attack, but that is losing 8 IPCs (for a transport) for the German 10. (This gives the Allies a +$2 IPC advantage for this attack) Germany can’t replace FTRS as easily as the Allies can replace Transports.
Phase 3: D-DAY and invade Europe wherever practical!  (Only do this when Phase 1 & 2 is complete)

Game over.

First of all, you didn’t explain all of the first round purchases for Germany, just the CV and DD.  I think if I was playing in this league:

Russia: I would hammer West Russia leaving 1 INF on Karelia to prevent the blitz, 8 INF 1 ARM 1 FTR (might leave 1 more INF) on Caucasus, and the rest of the front on West Russia.  I’d consolidate the 6 INF on the Eastern Front in Buryatia.  I’d pull the 4 from Novosibirsk and Evenki back to Russia.  The 2 on Kazakh would be part of the stack on Caucasus. The Russian FTR would land on Egypt.  For the most part, Russia would thereafter engage in the typical land war with Germany.  If the German player bought that much naval force on G1, that is going to make life a bit easier on Russia for the early game.

UK: Due to the UK+6, I would build the IC on India.  As for the rest of my build, I would probably go for a second BOM, a CV in SZ 2, or a few land units to begin shoring up UK, just in case things go awry.  It would depend on how things went on G1 and the final placement of their air units.  The 2 FTR and 1 BOM on UK attack the Baltic fleet.  With 2 FTR 1 BOM against 2 DD 1 CV, UK has a 76% to win and keep at least the BOM, which I would land in Caucasus (or West Russia if the FTR’s survived).  If the SZ 2 fleet is still afloat, I would drop it down to SZ 12 to attack Algeria and to block in the German BB and TT in the Med.  Now, UK is under no immediate threat of a German landing on UK.  The Egypt ARM would move east to Persia.  The Indian TT would grab the 2 INF from Trans-Jordan and bring them back to India.  The 2 Persian INF would walk into India leaving a total of 7 INF there.  I’d pull the rest of the Indian fleet down to SZ 38 to merge with the Australian fleet.  Normally, I would go to SZ 30 for the merger, but in this case, I would go to SZ 38 to bait the Japanese into attacking the UK fleet.  In order to have the odds to succeed, they would need to commit a 3rd or 4th FTR (FIC and/or SZ 50).  Japan would no longer pose a serious threat of taking India on J1 and may greatly reduce their threat at Pearl Harbor.  If they ignore the fleet and instead attack India to capture the IC, they are going to suffer significant losses, even if they bring in every possible unit (4 INF 4 FTR 1 BOM).  They would not get the bombardment with the BB, as the ships are engaging in combat against the transport.  They are likely to lose 3 INF 2 FTR (29 IPC’s worth of units) compared to UK’s 21 (forgetting the AA), leaving Japan with only 1 (maybe 2) infantry for the capture.  FIC and Kwangtung would likely both be bare, except for possibly any air units landing after the India battle.  Likely the Japanese player would want to defend their fleet, so their 2 FTR’s would land on their Indian Carrier.  Their BOM may well be stranded alone in FIC or perhaps with 1 extra FTR if Japan got lucky in the India fight.  Those air units are tempting targets for a US assault from China as they do not have cannon fodder to chump block for them on defense.  Granted, Japan does have the TT in SZ 60 that they COULD ferry 2 units to Kwangtung or FIC, but the transport would then be a sitting duck for the American FTR on China.  Assuming Japan succeeded in capturing India, Russia can liberate it with their 2 FTR and the ARM from Caucasus.  If the rolls are horrendous for the Russians attempting to liberate India on R2, UK should have little difficulty wiping out the Japanese fleet off of India and recapturing India on UK2.  With 1 CC, 1 CV, 1 SS, 2 FTR (possibly up to 4), and (likely) 1 BOM against the Japanese 1 CV, 1 BB, and 2 (or less) FTR UK has a 63% chance of success and likely keeping 2 units.  If UK has more FTR’s and/or Japan has less, my odds are that much better.  As for the land battle.  If UK needs to recapture India, they can bring in 2 INF from Australia and the ARM from Persia.  If Japan has 2 INF left on India, UK has an 81% chance to recapture using those 3 units alone.  Thereafter, Japan would be in no position to make another attempt on India for some time.  IF Russia succeeded in the liberation, things are even better for UK.  The ARM on Persia can head eastward and hit FIC along with the 2 INF being transported up from Australia.  This would depend on what air units Japan landed there at the end of J1 (and/or any transported units from Japan) as well as any other naval units Japan might have in range that might threaten the TT if left floating alone for a round.  Thereafter, I would pump out 3 units every turn in India and the rest at UK, building a couple naval units and then ground units to drop down to SZ12 and thereafter my transports would return to UK for more land units and drop them back off in Algeria on the same turn.  If Japan appeared to be threatening a strike upon India again, UK could temporarily suspend Atlantic builds and build more costly units to shore up the Indian defense.  However, it will not take long before the US/UK units from Algeria will make their way over to Caucasus or India

USA: My purchases and overall direction would depend greatly upon what Japan brought in to Pearl Harbor on J1.  If Japan kept back the SZ 50 CV to aid in the takedown of the UK fleet, the attack on Pearl Harbor would be weak.  If the Japanese attack both the UK fleet and India, they would need the BOM to attack India AND the SZ 50 CV pulled back to provide a landing space for the 3rd FTR engaging the UK fleet.  Therefore the J1 Pearl Harbor attack would be extremely weak, though it should still certainly succeed.   US would easily counter on US1.  With one half of the Japanese fleet sunk at Pearl Harbor during US1 and the other half about to be sunk (or already sunk) in the Indian Ocean, Japan would be in a world of hurt and I would go KJF and have several options in how to pursue that course.  Assuming the Japanese player goes for a strong Pearl Harbor on J1, Japan would be forgoing the assault on the UK Indian Fleet or India - both are good scenarios for UK.  However, if the Japanese pursue the strong Pearl Harbor assault, that portion of the Japanese navy poses no threat to India until J4 at the earliest.  Therefore, as the US, I am drawn between the Pacific and the Atlantic options.  If Japan didn’t bring in everything possible and/or they had less than stellar results, I may go full-bore KJF.  If the Japanese brought in maximum possible force into Pearl Harbor, I would probably turn tail with my TT and BB and head for the Atlantic.  If the UK SZ 2 fleet was destroyed, I would drop the US SZ 10 CC down to SZ 12 to block in the German Med fleet and hold back my transports in SZ 10.  The DD would pull up to SZ10, merging with my 2 TT and my builds.  If the UK SZ 2 fleet survived and made the move down to SZ 12, I would bring over the CC and 2 TT along with 4 ground units from EUS.  I would buy 1 CV, 2 TT, 3 INF, 1 ARM.  Thereafter, I would primarily focus on doing the quick ferry ride from Algeria back to Eastern Canada, picking up as many land units as I can carry, and returning back to Algeria each turn.  UK could do the same by returning to SZ7 to pick up fresh troops and heading back to Algeria all in the same turn.  This would protect the joint US/UK fleet from splitting up and being vulnerable to attack by German and/or Japanese air power in Europe.  This would keep the African IPC’s pouring into the Allied coffers, as well as maintain significant threat to Western Europe and Southern Europe (once the German Med fleet is eliminated).  Germany would need to hold back more units from the front line, further easing the burden on Russia.  US and UK can keep this up and march their tanks and men across northern Africa into the middle east and up to Caucasus or Asia.  With the German naval build on G1, that is one more turn for US and UK to get boots on the ground and over to the front.  At the drop of a hat, the UK, followed by the US, could switch up the plan and invade Western or Southern Europe when they are ready.

Edit: I guess I didn’t address part of the Japanese strategy that you mentioned.  If Japan totally ignores both navies and simply builds the two IC’s and makes the tank rush for Moscow, UK would certainly deter the progress with the IC on India.  As the USA, I would probably shore up the defense of Buryatia’s 6 Russian INF with a couple US FTR’s (China & Hawaii) and build bombers ASAP to land in Buryatia and strategic bomb the Japanese IC’s.  Granted, the most I could do would be 12 IPC’s of damage between the 2 mainland IC’s.  However, that coupled with the UK builds in India should quickly slow the Japanese tank rush to a crawl at best.  I will need to crunch the numbers later for specific battle stats to run out the likely progress.

Anyhow, it’s getting late and I think I have written enough for you to get the gist of most of my plan to counter that scenario.  If I miswrote something, I’ll correct my post later.  In my play group, we play straight OOB rules without a bid.  If I had a UK+6, this is what I think I would pursue.  Please tell me what you guys think of this allied strategy.

in 1 game, the americans tried to take tokyo twice but failed

you need to 1) stay defensive for 3 rounds, then go offensive

Touche.

Welcome to the board,

+1 karma to start you off!

Here’s the thread discussing about adding China and Italy dice.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=12875.0

Here’s the thread about FMG pieces to be used for AA.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=13894.0

I take back what I said about forgetting Africa.  With the new transport rules, it is much easier to fend off Allied convoy’s, especially for the first few turns.  I did some testing (having the new TripleA now) and this is what seemed to work best:

-Take out see zone 2 with sub and whatever air needed.  Leave Canada transport for Baltic fleet as it won’t have much of an escort with sea zone 2 dead
-take out battleship in sea zone 13 with remainder of air that can reach.
-grab 1 inf and 1 tank from Southern Europe, land in Egypt with all land forces that can reach and fighter that can reach from eastern front.
-take Karelia with Norway troops and reserves.
-consolidate on Karelia, Belorussia and Ukraine

Hold Eastern line (trading if need be) until Japs storm in back side.
trade Baltic fleet for any UK1 fleet build
Keep majority of air in Western Europe and buy a bomber a turn (for 3 turns).  Sink everything

Eventually Japan storms in as usual, and it takes 3+ turns for a large enough fleet to hold off Germany’s air.

Another thing I tried was taking the Japan fleet in the East Indies and spare fighters and take out India fleet, then move through Mediterranian see to hold Gibralter with the German Battleship.  This bought an extra turn or two of holding off allied fleet.  You don’t need it in the Pacific anyway assuming you destroy the Pearl Harbor fleet.

It caused me to lose all but Kwangtung on Asia initially, but I ferried so many troops in after the first turn it didn’t matter.  The allies have no supply line in eastern Asia to stop you, and with half the Japan fleet in the Atlantic with the German boats left, it made African and Western Europe landings impossible.  They only thing the Allies can do is Norway landings, which take twice as long from the US.

I’m not sure of a good Allied counter to this.  I did have the PC move the Russian sub to sea zone 2, which helped take out more units in that battle (still only lost a fighter and sub).

Sorry friend, I am here only occationally (vacations etc) and I am really not a frequent player. I do not have time to play-test in any other way then in TripleA. You can find me there from time to time as Granada but I cannot host now.

Regarding the Russian sub, you are correct. I have not inculded it because it survives only if you decide to submerge it during the R1 attack of German sub, fig and bomb on SZ2 before the fight. But it further diminishes the likelihood of the success in this particular battle. You cannot take the potential hit by the sub on it, which is good because it gives your battleship good chance to get at least one plane. If you keep the Russian sub in the fight the likelihood it would survive is about 60 %.

If you include the sub to the R2 battle calculations in the SZ8, you are correct that it changes the odds for the defender in case of 2subs plus four planes on the German side. In case attacker has built a bomber R1 and still has three figs to hit you, the odds for him to win remain 66% with 1,7 units left.

The fact is that the Germans must build a bomber R1 if they want keep the likelihood of Allies merging in SZ 8 with stronger fleet under 50%. R2 you really can prevent them to merge there and R3 you cannot perhaps prevent them to land some troops somewhere. You are perhaps right in that respect.

Still the question whether the Germans will not get their planes to the point when they will sink some of your fleets especially if you decide to split it will be omnipresent and the dynamics of the sea battles in the Atlantic have definitely changed in their favour.