Really great discussion and strategy here; it helps me understand overall objectives and how to reach them much better.

Question though:

G1 attack Ukraine with only 2 inf and 1 fighter…

How is that possible? Usually Russia has 3 tanks, 1 art and maybe even 1 inf remaining in Ukraine (after R1 take W.R. and Ukr.)
In order to take Ukr, G1 I usually have to send 5 inf, 2 tanks and 1 fig to get 90% odds.
This changes things a little because then EE has only 4 tanks after G1 rather than 6 tanks, so it takes a little longer to build up.

Another question I have is when you’re just trying to trade territories for example Russia and Germany trading Ukr, what battle odds should you look for? I mean should you only commit enough units to have 75% chance to win or something like that, or should it be more like 90%?

Thanks

I think the goal as everyone said is to stay alive long enough for UK/US to take Germany.
The main strategy towards that is to buy mostly inf and 1 or 2 tanks every turn to help trade territories with Germany and eventually Japan.

Some basic tactics:
Always take and keep West Russia on R1; it is such an important territory since it has access to all the surrounding territories and by stacking your units there you’re always ready to push back any German advance.
Also on R1, take Ukraine or Norway. Norway is good because it saves the british navy; while Ukraine is good because you crush a good amount of German units hurting their advance to Caucasus and it is a safer attack than Norway.
After that just keep trading Ukraine, Karelia, Belorussia as possible.
Once Japan gets close, you need to try to crush their troops as well but by then you should have reinforcements from UK.

Hope that helps!

That’s pretty neat. I don’t have a Mac so I’d have to recreate this in Excel but it’s a great template to start with.

Have you used it much in gameplay? It seems like it would be fairly easy to manage. I know in my board games, we always have to re-calculate income a couple times a game to make sure it’s right.

Also, is there a reset function to set everything back to default or do you just make sure not to save any changes?

Thanks

Hobbes, thanks so much for the detailed analysis.

Looking back, you’re right, I never went for the kill on Germany. I probably could have went full force on E.E with US/UK combined and soon overwhelmed Berlin. I got too defensive there. Hopefully, I’ll get another shot soon.

Also about the navy, I think I was being too cautious but let me give you more details. Germany has 3 bombers by G3 and 3 ro 4 fighters stationed in Karelia. At that point, if I take Norway, I need enough navy to defend against that airforce which can attack at 21 to 24. Do you think just defending at around a 21 with about 7 pieces is enough to deter attack by Germany? He would have 60 to 70% odds but would be left with 2 bombers usually. And maybe it’s a good thing if Germany loses most of it’s airforce taking out that fleet since I can replace the navy (UK/US combined) faster than Germany can replace the airforce? Or is it smarter to bring more US navy and make sure the transport chain is secure?

Lastly, about holding off Japan with Russia. Japan was very well played. They took a slow road to Moscow with 3inf, 3art landing in Buryatia every turn and heading on the northern route to Russia while 3 tanks per turn produced in FIC stationed themselves in India for a few turns along with a few inf, art thrown in. Sinkiang was held with 4 inf and 3 of the tanks from FIC. From there Japan didn’t advance for a couple of turns while the forces slowly built up and soon an IC in india was producing tanks as well. By the time they were in range of Russia, they were too large for the attack to be worthwhile and they were able to storm into Caucusus and then build mix of inf/art/tanks there. Do you think Russia should extend itself early on to help UK hold India or perhaps stack allied forces in Persia?

Thanks again, I think I have a much better grasp of allied strategy now with these discussions.

I played another game as Allies today and using these strategies held up much better than before with Russia staying around a lot longer. However, Moscow still fell on turn 12 to Japan.

UK had a chain of inf funneling into Moscow by turn 8. (It took that long because Germany stacked Karelia. US funnelled troops into Karelia and kept them there to keep Germany at bay and protect UK chain to Moscow. Germany still crushed Karelia once more but with great loss of units. From that point on Germany simply produced men and sent them to E.E. to prevent any further advance by US. Meanwhile, Japan was rolling through Asia and took Caucasus by turn 7 and was slowly building up force to take Moscow. Also by turn 7 Japan got into Africa and while I could have sent US forces to retake it, it would have taken time and effort away from Europe.

I’m not sure what I did wrong, possibly spent too much on navy early on because I was afraid of Germany’s 4 bombers being in range. Also, I ignored and empty W.E. maybe I should have considered sending forces there…I think maybe I just tip my hat to Axis player and call him my daddy!

I had one game where Moscow fell but allies won…because Germany fell to US 2 moves later. Then US added a few men in Western US on every turn to prevent Japan takeover while focusing most US/UK effort on Europe and eventually rescued Moscow.

So it is possible but unlikely, I believe only if Allies are within 1 or 2 moves of taking Berlin. If allies can’t take and hold berlin then it’s impossible because then Germany can go 1-on-1 with UK and Japan can go 1-on-1 with US. At that point it could take ages to resolve the game.

as Japan, if I saw UK build IC on Aus and move their fleet to sz29, I would place Japan EIN fleet in sz30 next to the UK fleet. this would prevent the UK fleet from heading towards Aus. If I see US build Pacific fleet, then J2 would involve attacking any UK fleet in range while also building enough navy at Japan (combined with whatever I sent to Pearl) to counter US pacific fleet. although this might distract Japan from Asia a little bit, it also wastes time for allies to support russia. unless this becomes a full-out KJF strategy, the delay seems to hurt allies more than it hurts japan’s road to moscow.

UK IC in egypt also doesn’t seem efficient, it can only produce 2 units and i doubt UK would be making enough IPC to produce anything other than 2 men or maybe 1 tank, 1 man, assuming 4 men, 4 art produced in London. those 2 men would take 4 turns to get to russia. and by then caucasus will probably belong to germany anyway.

India as mentioned by everyone would take too many resources to defend and would become free factory for Japan soon enough.

i think NOR is the only place worth placing an IC; if it isn’t safe, you should wait until it is.

I was beaten by a similar strategy yesterday. The axis player bought a bomber for germany every turn along with 2 tanks first turn and almost all inf after that. by turn 4 he had 4 bombers and 4 fighters which could easily trade territories with russia while also threatening any allied fleet. he was able to destroy russia’s frontlines and push them back into russia by turn 5. at that point the strategic bombing started and russia was finished off by japan on turn 6.

while this did allow the allies to take some territories in europe, the german airforce was able to take those territories back with some infantry fodder. perhaps a more experienced player could have figured out the proper way to defeat this but i couldn’t come up with anything.

thank you Concealer and Hobbes for your advice, sounds like a well thought out strategy.

I’m going to try landing on Norway earlier with UK, but what can i do if germany is building up their forces in karelia and can crush my troops in norway?

Also, how many transports do you usually have with US by turn 4 when you join up with UK?
If you lose the 2 initial ones, then it takes a while to build up to 10 which is what i usually work with.

I gotta try this out and see how it goes

I’ve mostly played with Axis and had success, but the last few games I’ve tried my hand at Allies. However, I haven’t been able to take Germany before Japan takes Russia. I’ve tried two different paths to Germany with no success.

1. UK lands in Norway by turn 4 while US lands in Algeria, and then S.E. by turn 5 or 6. However, Germany usually has a stack of forces in Karelia and crushes the UK, while also being able to trade S.E. By turn 6, Russia is in retreat mode, so Germany can turn its forces back westward while Japan moves into Caucasus and takes Russia usually by turn 8. Also, one game Ger. had 4 fighters and 4 bombers, and was able to easily switch fronts to trade territories, as well as force UK/US to spend significant amounts of money to defend the fleets. :-(

2. UK and US combined landing in W.E. by turn 4 or 5. Turn 4 is usually too early to set up the pipeline of forces so turn 5 works better. Africa is left for Ger and Jap to split. But again Ger is able to pull its forces back by turn 6 and just hang in there while Russia falls to Japan.  :x

Any advice or alternatives to take germany?
Thanks! :-)