Posts made by Ansbach

Japan will never be able to take the USA. However:

There is a mythical Japanese strategy out there that has yet to be discovered. It involves Japan putting equal amounts of pressure on Russia and the US with the idea that Germany would have some relief from the US but would face more pressure from Russia.

If you can find this White Elephant, you will be one famous Samurai!

We ought to put all of our heads together and try to figure it out just for fun, with the understanding that it will never be as effective as going after Russia full steam.

Welcome!

I really think you are trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip here, and I would highly recommend abandoning your current efforts and instead playing against others online. If you have been playing A&A for any length of time, that will be the only way you can challenge your skills. There are numerous online clubs, and there are always plenty of players of various skill levels willing to play pick-up games on The Zone.

Failing that, I would suggest that you would get more ‘skill improvement’ out of the single player game by playing against yourself and testing out various strategies.

I’m sorry I don’t have a more positive, helpful suggestion… the AI is just aweful! :-?

np.LG - Without even worrying about details, let’s back up and look at the big picture here - I am going to guEss that your Allied opponents are missing the key strategy to playing Axis and Allies: the North Atlantic convoy.

As soon as possible, the UK and the US should be dumping as many infantry as possible into Norway to help Support Karelia and Russia. Very soon in the game, this will be at least 16 Allied infantry every turn into the European Theatre! And there is almost literally nothing the Axis can do about it. This infantry support turns Russia into an almost impenetrable fortress - Karelia will never fall to a good Allied player, and the Allies help defend Russia from the West, by marching troops into and through Russia. A good US player will do everything he can to ignore Japan and the Pacific as much as possible, and get masses of troops over to Europe instead.

I know this isn’t a lot of detailed information, but trust me - it is true. For the Allied strategy I am speaking of, take a look at the essays on the following website:

http://donsessays.freeservers.com/

The essays do a good job of descibing the Convoy strategy. Read them, learn them, then play your friends with the Allies - and watch the look of revelation on their faces!

If you play the CD game, I will be glad to meet up with you online and teach them to you in person. Just send me an email at jg2_ansbach@yahoo.com.

Have fun!

Excellent job of summing up all of the major variations, SUD!

Each has it’s own merits, and largely depends on your playing style - I think I have used every one of those at one time or another.

Currently, I prefer to take out the BB in Gibraltar so that a.) it can’t protect UK/US transports to Africa in Turn 1, and b.) the UK will be forced (more or less) to buy an AC on Turn 1 instead of bombers. These two go quite a way in helping to secure Africa.

If I am UK and I don’t lose my BB on G1, I will buy 2 Bombers on UK1 and the German Fleet is toast on UK2.

However, if I am Germany with Axis Advantage I will be more conservative with the fighters and use the 5 fighters to the North Sea variation that SUD mentioned.

North Sea: 4 Fighters, 1 Sub, 1 Transport (Lose a Ftr ~ 85% of the time)
Gibraltar: 1 Sub, 1 Fighter, 1 Bomber (Lose a Ftr ~ 25% of the time)
Egypt: Battleship

‘Typical’ losses (roughly):
Both subs, 1 transport, and…

O Fighters - 10%
1 Fighter - 70%
2 Fighters - 20%

@TheJediCharles:

Well, then there’s an expanded rule I could sure go for! “Speed A&A”!!

:lol:

That’s why I prefer the CD game these days - I don’t have the spare time I had back in college. A game that takes 6 hours in real life will take you about 2 hours online…

Also for a long game try “World in Flames”, aka “Weekend in Flames”…

http://www.spring1942.com/JAG/Rules/

Check out Rule #3 and ignore the first paragraph about ranks - that is for ladder play. These rules are specific to this one online club, but the bidding explanation is the standard that everyone uses.

@micayla:

Hi, I am wondering what options are available to the German player under the following cicumstances.
– no Russia Restricted
– no Axis advantage.

First turn the Russians attack norway and load up on karelia all men. In addition the Germans have no fleet left in the Baltic.
In addition they pool 6 guys and 1 tank in the the interior of their country not attacking Japan with it. The placement of these units is 1 territory inland from the sea.

Assuming that England and America will fly their planes to Karelia what to you suggest doing?

I am thinking of buying all men and a transport?

All men and a transport is pretty good, or I might even buy all infantry. In fact, in that game I would probably buy 100% infantry for Germany the whole game, and hope I can hold out until Japan takes Russia.

I am assuming you didn’t get to bid? What I really suggest doing is pointing out to your friends that the game is completely unfair for the Axis with no Russia Restricted, no Axis Advantage, and no bidding. Point them to one of the club websites, where the average bid in a game like that is in the 20’s, i.e. Germany will get an extra 20+ IPCs worth of units to start the game with, wherever they like - just to make the game fair. If you did get to bid then ignore that rant and don’t forget to put a few men in Africa.

If you are landing planes on an aircraft-carrier, does it have to be done at the beginning of the turn?

No, you can land at the end of your turn as well.

1. Can the AC move 2, then have the planes leave and move their 4 moves?

No, the planes can move 4 total spaces, they can’t get an extra 2 out of the carrier. If they are going to fly somewhere they have to take off before the carrier moves.

2. If you combat the land to the right of you and win, but you only used half your troops. Then you want to attack the country 2 to the right, can tanks go through the land you just won? Or is it not legal because you didn’t own it at the beginning of your turn?

You have to plot out all of your combat moves for the whole turn, then resolve all combat. That means you cound’t have got to the second country during your movement phase and can’t attack it.

3. If you want to amphibious attack with a tank, can it move 2 (or 1) spaces from land to the see edge and then get transported? Likewise, can it start at the sea edge, get transported, THEN move 2 spaces??

No and No. Units can’t move if they are being transported, other than moving into the country where they are unloading.

Hope that helps!

Here is something your Allied opponents might not be doing - they should be landing fighters in Karelia to help defend it, and Russia should be putting 6-8 infantry in Karelia every turn. That will keep it from falling before the Allied pipeline shows up.

Online I like to play 3rd Edition, Russia Restricted, AA Active, Axis Advantage, and 2-Hit Battleships. My low bid against a good player will be six - 2 infantry in Egypt.

DON’T YOU MEAN 2 INF IN LIBYA?

Doh!

I’ll even go first…

My bid really, really depends on my best ‘guesstimation’ of my opponent’s level of play - and of course the rules. However, I do have one golden rule - I always buy infantry with my bid!

Online I like to play 3rd Edition, Russia Restricted, AA Active, Axis Advantage, and 2-Hit Battleships. My low bid against a good player will be six - 2 infantry in Libya. If I think my opponent is better than me I will bid 9 for 3 infantry in Libya and hope I don’t get it. ;)

In real life, we play older rules versions with higher bids. My second favorite place is probably infantry in Burma. This will let me dump max infantry into Manchuria every turn without having to swing the transport fleet down south and split up my infantry - maximum concentration of force and all that. It also discourages an Indian Factory.

What about you guys?

For those of you who play with bidding, what do you like to bid and where do you put them?

It would be helpful to include what rules you play with since that obviously makes a big difference.

C’mon, 'fess up! We’ll probably never play each other! :)

@TG:

Ha, I thought the big secret was to always buy infantry! :wink:

Ansbach,
When you play, what it your usual bid? Where do you place?

BTW, Excuse me for not saying this earlier but it’s nice to have you back. :)

Thanks TG - good to be back! And yeah, you are absolutely right - I guess there are quite a few “big secrets”, eh?

My bid really, really depends on my best ‘guesstimation’ of my opponent’s level of play - and of course the rules. However, I do have one golden rule that follows what you said - I always buy infantry with my bid! :)

Online I like to play 3rd Edition, Russia Restricted, AA Active, Axis Advantage, and 2-Hit Battleships. My low bid against a good player will be six - 2 infantry in Egypt. If I think my opponent is better than me I will bid 9 for 3 infantry in Egypt and hope I don’t get it. ;)

In real life, we play older rules versions with higher bids. My second favorite place is probably infantry in Burma. This will let me dump max infantry into Manchuria every turn without having to swing the transport fleet down south and split up my infantry - maximum concentration of force and all that. It also discourages an Indian Factory.

I am not a big fan of extra forces in Europe for two reasons:

1.) Germany can always buy troops in Europe. Put your extras in key places that would normally be hard to reinforce.
2.) I personally think that Germany doesn’t even want Karelia - it spreads them out too thin.

What about you?

Edit: This would actually be a great topic for a new thread - make everybody spill the beans! Think I’ll start one or find an old one and revive it!

Very good thread. It’s interesting but no suprise that half the people pick Japan - they get to go nuts! And I’m also not suprised that the US is lowest, they have the slowest game and probably the least amount of variation. My favorite is the UK because they really have the most options in how to play effectively.

@Major_Damage:

the US must, at all costs, ignore the Japs in the Pacific. It doesn’t matter if they lose their entire fleet in the Pacific. I’ll say it, and others will back me on this…The Pacific is a waist of time, resources, and energy…a hopeless cause! Let Japan have the Pacific…if they do try to build forces to land in the US, you’ll see them planning it before they know what their doing themselves. If Japan tries to go after the US before they attempt to sieze Asia…they’re idiots! Plain and simple. Ok, maybe not idiots…but they’re dead. The US only has to think about the Pacific when Germany is dead.

Well Major, most people seemed to think you’re crazy… doesn’t it make you want to play them with the Axis? ;)
I’ll back you 100%!!!

In all seriousness, that is one of the many fun things about playing A&A - it is a lot of fun to teach new players how to play well. You can really teach newer players how to play, moreso than in other games, by delivering a serious butt-whippin’ to them and explaining what you are doing as you go along. When I get tired of ladder games or playing my friends, I’ll sometimes play a pick-up game in The Zone as Allies against someone who isn’t playing with bidding. Then you can teach them and beat them at the same time. Kind of like “You really shouldn’t have bought all those tanks with Germany - you should be buying all infantry. Infantry are the key to this game - look how many I am buying. You’ll see what I mean in about two turns.” You can tell which players are going to get really good because they will want to keep playing you over and over again - “Wait, I think if I try this instead I can stop you.”

Does anyone else do this or am I the only one?

I guess what I mean by all this is that A&A is one of those games where you really have to see strategies in action to believe them, because a lot of ideas sound good in theory but don’t work in a real game.

That reminds me - Yanny, when will the strategy pages get updated on this website? I remember some discussion on it a few months ago… all of them are either garbage or apply to 1st Edition rules… some of them are downright malicious if a new player reads them and believes them! :lol:

Neil: It depends on the experience level of you and your opponents - the more experienced you are at the game, the easier it is for the Allies to win. In other words, with two rookies playing each other the game is 50/50, but with two veteran players the Allies can win 90% of the time.

This is the ‘big secret’ of A&A that players figure out through experience, and marks the turning point of becoming a good player. The solution that most players used is bidding. The players bid on who will play the Axis with an amount of extra troops, and whoever chooses the lowest amount of extra troops gets the Axis.

It is better to just strafe Karelia to do some damage, and “rescue” the armor in Finland Norway. After 1 or 2 rounds of combat, withdraw to Eastern Europe.

I would even go so far as to say this is a bad idea also. Germany will lose 8 of their 11 infantry on average on the first turn and can’t go a second turn, meanwhile Russia will only lose 5 on average (unless you ignore the fleet and bring your planes, which is suicide). Germany is -9 IPCs in the trade on average, and they ‘rescued’ 14 IPCs so they are +5. However those 3 Inf and 1 Tank should get at least 1 hit on an enemy Inf when they defend, so you are at +2 IPCs. Pretty even, so you aren’t really ‘saving’ them. Plus you are giving up your transport as fodder in the North Sea battle, and will just lose it, so you could argue that is -8 and you are at -6 IPCs as Germany. What happens if that tranny was the difference in you losing a plane? And if you don’t bring the tranny and 2 men from Germany, you only have 9 infantry - any luck at all by the Russians during the first round of battle and you are losing tanks. Most importantly, Germany can not afford to trade evenly with the Allies!

Plus Norway is empty - it is much better to make the Allies commit an attack to Norway instead of waltz in.

It’s not that it’s bad - it’s great for Germany if they can do it. The problem is that Karelia can never realistically be taken if the Allied player knows what he is doing (barring some crazy luck on a suicide attack). The Russian player will stack Karelia on R1, and it just goes downhill from there… to even have a shot at taking Karelia on G1, Germany has to bring everything they have - ignoring the Allied fleet - and they still only have about a 70% chance of taking it. And then even if they do it’s suicide.

The real battle is over Eastern Europe, not Karelia. Germany has to put as much pressure as possible on Karelia, to keep Russia from being able to send troops east vs. Japan. But they will never be able to take it unless the Allied players make a mistake. Look at it from Russia’s view - they want to divert as many troops as possible to their Eastern Front vs. Japan, while still holding Karelia and putting pressure on Eastern Europe. This means that if they really wanted to, they could choose to hold Karelia at all costs and fall like a house of cards against Japan. So any shot that Germany has at taking Karelia is the result of Russia sending too many troops east (or later, the US not establishing the pipeline to Europe) - i.e. as a result of an Allied mistake. This also means that the real battle for Russia is vs. Japan.

Germany can never plan on taking Karelia - the best they can do is put pressure on it and wait for an opening…

In The Zone last night I saw someone with instructions on playing without a CD. It looked like you needed two programs - one that converted your CD into a file on your hard drive, and then another that run it as a ‘virtual CD’. I wrote the info down but don’t have it with me right now. I will try it tonight and let you know if it works.

My CD is constantly being accessed in the computer version of A&A. I believe that is the norm, but to have your CD spinning for 3-4 hours straight is not a good thing. Well, once upon a time I thought I read something about copying some files from the CD to your hard drive so that it won’t do that anymore. Anyone know what I’m talking about? I tried copying all of the files from the CD to C:\Program Files\Hasboro\AxisandAllies, but it didn’t work. I also found two NoCD cracks on gamecopyworld, but neither of those worked either - they are both looking for an axis.exe. Any suggestions?