Ok, I thought that for anyone who is interested in discussing balance of play that I would give a quick rundown on the strategies that I have been using so far and their results. These strategies are mostly axis based as it appears that they are in the most need of definite strategic help if they are going to win.

German Strategy
Simple. There is only one strategy that I can see as being effective. Attack Russia with everything that they have got as often as possible. Build inf with a few tanks or artillery and pound away at Russia till the Allied fleets starts knocking. Then turtle and buy inf and hope that Japan can come through with the win. The Germans are never in a position to buy fleet or air units, and simply need to field as many ground troops as possible. On the G1 turn, the German fleet and air force should be able to eliminate nearly the entire UK fleet in the atlantic, of course the German fleet is then almost destroyed and will be by air counterattack on UK1. That does it for the naval strategy and the rest is up to the Allies.

Italy Strategy 1: Into Egypt
The Italians do not start with enough to pose any serious threat to the UK, however, if the UK does not reinforce Egypt it will fall to Italy around Italy turn 3-4. Italy buys another transport on turn one and just ferries troops across to north africa. Once Egypt falls, about 4-5 Italy tanks should subdue Africa in another turn or too. By this stage the UK or USA must respond, but by now Germany is usually colonized and the Allies have plenty left to deal with Italy.

Italy Strategy 2: Support Germany in Russia
This strategy was not very effective. Italy is able to supply a few inf and the occasional tank, but not enough to do much attacking, and not much use unless the Russians are going for the Bulgarian IC and South-Eastern Europe. Again, Italy can pretty much be ignored until Germany is taken care of.

Japan Strategy 1: Island occupation
This strategy was based on the need for IPC’s to fuel Japan’s march into Asia. The fleet on J1 and J2 is capturing all of the british islands and nearly doubles the Japanese IPC’s, which go to buying inf and a few tanks to march through China and into Russia. The strategy worked well for killing China and getting into Russia, but did not capture enough VC’s to come close to win. Australia and New Zealand are so far that the fleet is effectively immobolized for a few turns in capturing them, but are necessary for win.

Japan Strategy 2: All out for Australia
The need for VC’s is great for Japan as they have the best chance of winning for the axis. So I went all out for Australia and New Zealand to capture the IC and VC’s. This however put my fleet too far from Japan, and took too long to recover, the USA was able to build fleet and by USA3 was well established in Northern Pacific threatening the transports landing troops in Asia. Also, British got too strong in Indian Ocean.

Japan Strategy 3: All out for India
The factory at India is key to not only southeast Asia but also to Africa and up into southern Russia. This is the game I am currently playing, and though it appears to be effective, I am afraid that the USA left without much resistance will be too strong and threaten the Pacific before Japan is well enough established.

So I would love to hear criticism of these strategies, and/or other strategies for the game. In all of my strategies the USA went pretty much all out on Japan, with the British split between harassing Germany and fortifying the India IC and navy.

Ok some calrifications on the “transport in the convoy” rule variant that I have been using.

1. Starting incomes are reduced. For example the USA would start with 80IPC’s instead of 100 IPC’s. (They begin with a transport in the Eastern USA seazone convoy.)

2. A nation must have its own transport in its own convoy zone to generate the income. Example: A british transport must be located in a british convoy to generate the convoy IPC’s.

I found that without varying the starting incomes and convoy rules that Germany was never able to take a single Russian VC, the Russians stockpileded a huge number of guys in Belo-Russia and pushed the germans back without difficulty. With the new convoy rule I am in my third game and both times germany has been able to take the VC’s at Kiev and Leningrad, (once took Stalingrad also).  The result being that Germany would be able to eliminate Russia if the Allies did not invade Normandy.

In all of my games I have found that Japan is a lot more powerful than Germany with a much greater chance of winning. With the convoy rule in place the axis were able to get very close to victory. They controlled 18 VC’s total and Japan controlled 9 VC’s before being pushed back. The USA and UK must both concentrate on Japan to prevent them from getting 10 VC’s while still putting mild preassure on Germany to prevent Russia from being defeated.

Ok, this is my fist post. I have played the game 3 times know and have some thoughts on balancing the game. I found that the Allies are excessively overpowering to begin with. The huge incomes for both UK and USA are way too much for Japan to handle, and Germany is barely a match (if a match) for Russia by itself. Italy matters little (historically acurate) and can be ignored until Germany and/or Japan defeated or put into submission. The starting units are good, the economy needs to be adjusted. I found that if the convoy rules are altered it creates a much more even game. (BTW the convoy rules are somewhat vague in the rulebook). If you require the allied played to have a transport stationed on the convoy site at the end of the player turn to receive the IPC’s from the convoy, it evens things out a lot. Here is my reasoning…

1. Under the current rules the Allies have little difficulty in controlling all but the Soloman Islands convoy and Soviet Far East convoy for nearly the entire game. (with the possible exception of turn 1).

2. Under current rules, with the convoys the Allies have enough purchasing power to overwhelm the axis long before they have a chance to capture that many victory cities.

3. It will likely reduce Russia’s income by 20% until at least turn 3-4 before Russia can afford to get a transport safely to the atlantic convoy. This makes Russia able to be beaten by Germany and requires the UK and USA to do more that beat up on Japan.

4. Creates more naval conflict (an item sorely lacking from other Axis and Allies games, mostly due to the limited space for manuvering), the allies now have to protect their convoys as they become vunerable to air attack.

I would be very interested to hear if anyone else has played this game yet and what their thoughts are on the balance of play. Overall I think it is superb, and an excellently done map!

Last thought, Japan seems to be the only Axis nation with a legit chance of winning. The axis together cam close to 20 VC when played with the revised convoy rules, but Japan is definetaly the only one with a chance to get to 10 VC’s. I really do like the 10VC’s rule, as it stops the usual KGF strategy that has seemed to rule ealrier Axis and Allies games (at least with the people I play with).

Ok, so does anyong have thoughts on balance of game play?