At the beginning of combat phase, the japanese player use his command decision token : he chooses, for exemple, sea zone I where the american fleet is. Then, just before the attack sea units phase, he chose sea zone I with a Night fighting token.
Will the effect of Night Fighting ( hits of 2 are considered 1) last for the 2nd round of combat in that sea zone due to the command decision token ?
In a typical game, the japanese will certainly not leave all their reinforcement on the base card. They will mix their reinforcement, some on the base card, and some on zone B and during turn 2, Japanese will have all his fleet on zone F(unless, of course, us player who has the initiative on turn 2 tries to enter zoneG :roll:) and about all his land units on NG.
Remember, i never said building an airfield on NG on J1 was an absolute killer move for the Japanese. I’m just saying that Japanese have an easier game.
For exemple, on that turn 2 strat that you propose , Japanese will have 3 “free” shots at the US fleet (artillery on NG)on the sea attack phase, they will have 2 more shot because of their fleet advantage ( 2 more cruisers) on the land attack phase, and on top of that, they will play their planes after the us player (they already have an AA gun on NG who will shot at us planes on NG if the US player wants to suicide some planes), so that’s more japanese planes on the land attack if us player doesn’t make anything special with his planes. Us player if he has spent heavily on transports infantry and supplies to deploy, will have a few more land units, but the 2 japanese cruisers and the remaining japanese planes will lower us player odds for the land attack phase. If Japanese is very unlucky with the dices, he will, once in a while, loose control of NG for one turn(4 important IPC), but will still score a victory point for the airfield.
That turn 2 us strat still is the one that gives me the best chances when i play us, but i find it much harder to win with the us than with the japanese.
So, as you might have guessed by now :-D, i win a lot more games with the japanese than i do with the us.
I don’t know…If i happen to be alone with these results, i will conclude i’m doing something wrong, or just not seeing something important (as well as the 4 other people i use to play GC with). In that case, i will be happy to learn.
I don’t know what you mean with “rapid deployment” Frimmel. If you mean the use of supply to gain one or more zone when you deploy, this happens after the combat sequence, so the japs have absolutely nothing to fear on J1. Us player can bring all he wants on New Georgia on J1, there is no way he will beat the Japanese.
If, on J2, the us player brings absolutely all the troops he can and all his fleet on zone I and unload on New Georgia, then the japs will do about the same AND they will bring a supply, just in case the US fleet choose to shoot at the airfield and succeed….
So, i don’t see at all why it would be bad to build an airfield on J1 on New Georgia for the japs, and another one on J3 if the US player don’t do it on J2.
That said, I just want to say that i never said that “a sort of game over move” exists with that game. It is not broken at all. I just talked about an edge that the Japanese seem to have because of 2 airfields in New Georgia. I understand that it is necessary. Otherwise, with only 4 airfields on each side, the players would just just sit in their zone and wait, nobody would attack with the disadvantage of fighting in ennemy zone (artillery).
In my games, i just have not found a way to have a good game with the us against a competent oponent.
When i win with the us, it is because of japanese blunder or because i have been lucky.
About that “perfect balance” potential thing…
I have played a lot of GC games, and the more i play, the more i find out that the game really is not that well balanced.
If you don’t play with the optional tokens(banzai, coast watchers etc…), the japanese have a clear edge.
What is that edge ? Military ? Nope, 2 more cruisers for less planes is not an edge. They start with more islands ? Nope, at the end of the 1st turn, Americans will have taken control of as many islands as japanese, so they will not get less IPC.
The edge is that second double airfield island they have from the beginning and that americans have to attack sooner or later if they don’t want to loose. In fact, if Americans do not bring 3 supplys and troops on that island on the 2nd turn, they loose their only chance to build an airfield there because otherwise japanese will do that on turn 3(they build the 1st airfield there on turn 1). Then, for the rest of the game, they will have to bring more troops on that island every turn just to be sure the japanese won’t score a victory point with the airfield american builted earlier. Japanese will constantly outnumber american on that island, and will have more shoots with artillery at the american fleet.
If the US doesn’t do that on turn 2, then all they have are desperate moves to try to even the score on turn 3, 4 or 5.
When we add the tokens, the game is completely different, and any side can win. The Good logistic combined with Amphibious assault and eventually command decision, if well used, may allow the US to wipe that 2 airfield japanese island, while the japanese can combine Banzai, quiqdrop and command decision to take control of any american island(for at least one turn).
If anyone knows a strat for US without the optional tokens to have a good game, i will be glad to learn from it.
Well guys, Germany can destroy all the UK fleet on Atlantic using shps and planes, so Italy is 100% secure.
A big mistake most players do is use german air power to invade France instead of destroying the british fleet on turn 1.
You do not need air power to invade France, and if you are unlucky, Italy can finish the job on turn 1, so by the end of turn 1 there is no UK fleet on Atlantic and France capital is hold by axis.
Actually not true. There are usually no UK sea units left around the British Isles. There are certainly still UK naval units spread through the atlantic. The carrier, destroyer and tac, the cruiser off south america, and the destroyer and transport off Canada are usually spared, and if they weren’t, that means other UK naval pieces survived. If Taranto happens, then it’s just a cruiser, destroyer and transport left in the Atlantic, plus the destroyer around the horn of africa, and those can form a backbone to a future fleet.
As for France, yes it’s been mentioned that Italy could finish off Germany if Germany is unlucky. The only problem with this is that the UK can actually reinforce Paris with several planes before Italy attacks. If Italy attacks with everything they stand not only a decent chance of losing, but also just BARELY winning. If Normandy wasn’t hit by the Germans (often the case if the luftwaffe is occupied in the channel) France can attack back and immediately activates those pesky free french infantry.
It’s a bad thing if Italy has to kill France. And Italy is rarely, if ever, “secure”. Their future is certainly not 100% secure on round 1.
In 100% of our games, the destroyer and transport off Canada have been sunk on G1 with 2 subs. It is very important to destroy these boats if you want your sealion (or sealion threat) to be effective.
It is true that France will resist once in a while to the G1 attack, but if you send planes to reinforce it on UK1 as you mention, then Sealion on G2 REALLY is a piece of cake…
So i totally agree with Megaeinstein post. Just my 2 cents…
What do you gain by taking control of a base island ? Do you have a 4 IPC bonus at the end of your turn ?