Posts made by BigBlocky

Besides, if you want something really different try AAP or AAE. I swear playing AAP for the first time made me feel like a virgin all over again…… AA virgin that is, I can’t remember that far back otherwise smirk.

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Ozone, hear hear. Perhaps I am a bit too sensitive. I don’t however recall telling anybody NOT to use a strategy, I get a bit defensive over false charges I suppose.

By playing ‘devil’s advocate’ for each other we become better. It should never be personal and hopefully it itsn’t.

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Well, you are right about the Brit Navy. What was their policy? All american sailers were really british traitors even 20 years after king charlie lost it……

At that time the sun never set on the british empire… Not even god trusted an englishmen in the dark… :-)

Thankfully, that sort of tom-foolery has been left far behind. Mind you we feel a bit bitter about the softwood lumber thing… So we just raise the price of oil to you down there, nadda prob :-)

I think during 1812 the US crushed the Laker fleet of the British. I believe your victorous admiral reported back to your president “We have met the enemy, and he is mine”, after capturing 1/2 the brit fleet and sinking the other half (or there abouts, you get the picture).

As for as congress and declarations… A rose by any other name is still… :-)

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Meijing, I suspect you are a much better player than you lead on :-)

Both the US and Brit have their fleet parked in the UK home waters ASAP, everything going to Norway, no second load to Africa. At some point, maybe T2-T3 you will have to drop off a load into Africa, both allies move their fleets south 1 space. Time the builds so yes, you put tanks in Africa than can move towards Persia fast. A few infantry as you might fight a bit. Having a few slow units moving East is OK, they are ‘safties’ and will be used sooner or later. That being said don’t put more than you need in Africa.

The reason for a few tanks is this mainly for harassment against the Japanese. It is so so important to have 1-2 tanks and 1-2 inf for each ally in asia. With airpower this small force welds a great deal of ‘leverage’. One ally ‘kicks the door in’ and the other ally pours through so to speak. The Jap player must spend time to consider how a 3 member allied force opens up possiblities. 1 ally slips into the territory so the others come in and land ftrs. All of sudden the Jap player is concerned about defending factories. Huge Jap stacks of land units can have their path blocked by a single allied player letting the others come in behind.

C_F, no truer words were spoken. I’ll take one axis victory over 10 allied victories!

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No, it seems silly don’t get me wrong. But somewhere in the rule clarification sheet it just states that the Atlantic is connected to W. Canada. I couldn’t believe it…… I now have a number 1 in a circle in the Atlantic pointing west and a circle with a number 1 in western canada pointing East.

Just wait until you pull that move on somebody, I hope they were as shocked as when it was pulled on me…

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C_F, I agree it’s sometimes a royal pain having the US transports follow the Brit defense (god help you if you screw up that 1-2 move…). But, the main reason the brit player would move the fleet is to drop off troops to Africa. Yeah it’s an entire round no troops get to norway but it’s not like they are lost. Maybe each ally drops off 1/2 to 2/3 of a full transport load and ensure it’s mostly tanks. Having to drop them in Algeria instead of FW. Africa is a tiny price to protect both transport fleets and have them both pumping dudes into Africa/Europe. Going the other way, into EE or Ukraine as you mentioned is where you have a hiccup if both fleets must stick together.

This doesn’t occur often in our circle but sometimes there are a stack of tanks with little fodder for defense. If the German player makes the mistake of the thinking the allies won’t pounce on it for fear of losing a full turn of US transatlantic shipments then I spring the America tactic “Japanese Overload” (I think you can search for it if curious?) if applicable, or I bite the bullet and build bombers, gotta weigh the cost/benefit on each scenario I guess.

Ozone, if I were to do ‘pearl’ then it would be one of either of your plans. Bringing in the loaded transport is what wrentches my gut and has for years. You’re figuring Jap takes 1 hit and if 2 then a plane and if a plane then the ftr? Taking the island certainly eliminates the threat of the 2 ftrs, the americans might have to attack you anyways for fear of ‘use it or lose it’. I gives you more saftey in the off chance the Yanks does god forbide 3 hits. One variation to your PH-II I do is bring in the transport empty and use 3 ftrs, leaving 2 ftrs and the bmbr for asia. I’m hoping I do 3 hits on T1, lose the transport. Having a sub left for fodder the next turn makes me feel safe if the Yanks attack with all they can I’d end up on the winning side. If the brits build that carrier on T1 then the US ftrs MUST fly to it (assuming the german luftwaffe poses a credible threat) then there is almost no chance for a US counterpunch.

Ozone, I also totally agree with your long term view of Japan and how to get there, now if only more German players understood the need to last a bit past that! :-)

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Nadda prob :-) One map connection our local group managed to play without for years (OK, we’re a bit slower out in the sticks…) was the atlantic ocean being connected to Western Canada. When that was pointed out to me I was slack-jawed. A ftr on a carrier at the Hawaiian sea zone could fly to a carrier in the UK sea zone. It also meant that the US player when doing the supply line to Norway should build troops on W. USA, move them up to W. Canada, then have the transports from the UK sea zone move to the E. Canada sea zone and load the troops from W. Canada. This is a legal move and makes Japan landing in Alaska a suicidal move.

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Ozone…… I am relaxed, you should read me when I am not, and you haven’t yet :-)

I think this would be a rather interesting varient, though I’d agree with Ozone the IPC threshold might be a bit higher. I do however think that if too many special rules are required than something fundemental was changed a bit too much. Not saying this is a case but something to be wary of.

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Let me get this straight, the Russians won’t attack the Japanese until Japan is down to 11 IPC? How does Japan get to 11 IPC without russia attacking?

Let me get this straight, the Japanese won’t attack the russians until the russians are down to 11 IPC? How does Russia get to 11 IPC without Japan attacking?

Damn I swear you’re just pulling our legs……

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Thanks for confirming this, I am sure everybody was just waiting for somebody of your calibre to look over what I had said….

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Xi, this is a forum where we critque each others strategies, I don’t like to be told effectively to shut up. You really seem to have a problem with me in particular, is this just my imagination I hope?

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The axis can be very fun, unless I play the allies…… :-) I play a very very boring game for the allies, as the axis you feel like you are under a big old wet blanket that slowly smothers you.

Once the atlantic navy gets going by end of T2 usually it’s all infantry. Perhaps 1 tank per allied country per round if I am feeling saucy. No chancy moves, just more and more trrops into Norway. Yeah it’s a long supply line from Washington to Karelia but the sooner you start the sooner the troops become available for combat. Germany is parked in EE, the allies in Karelia so the germans and some ally trade Ukraine, germany is stuck at 28 IPC and uses 2-3 Inf/round retaking Ukraine each round.

The Japs are up alot but since they trade Kazakh, Novosibirsk and Evenki and perhaps persia they are losing 6-8 infantry/round just trading territories back and forth so even with a 40+ income they are not building up as quickly as one would expect. And even if Japan is at say 45 income, with germany down to 28 the allies are outbuilding the axis, it’s just a matter of time and time is on the allied side in this case.

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I totally agree with you. The allies want to get moving FAST in the Atlantic, there is not need to wait for any Pacific fleet to move around.

I do have an urge however to use everything I can each turn. Japan can’t attack with 2 of it’s fighters and most likely BBs on Turn 1 unless doing Pearl. Is this a good enough reason? Maybe not.

With an allied fighter in Yakut, Japan can’t build transports on T1 and do Pearl. With the Jap navy on Hawaii it’s too far to threaten Afica for awhile.

When I play the americans often my Pacific fleet just hovers around the Panama canal looking for a weakness in Japan or just an opportunity to threaten with the Pacific fleet, however weak the threat may be.

To do Pearl right you need to put everything you can in pret’near, resources that could be used elsewhere.

I never do Pearl, but far be it from me to conclude I am always right…. :-)

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With no Russia restriced and no bidding the allied player would have to be much much weaker a player then the axis player to lose.

I’ve played the allies this way, moved the russian navy in with the brit BB/transport and put everything I could into Karelia save 1 INF. The germans built a ftr thinking they might lose one. They took out every single allied naval unit including the USA transport without taking a hit… I was whining something fierce… But the allies can be patient, as long as they don’t make a huge mistake it’s always gonna end the same. Either Germany fails as the Japs are almost ready to take Russia or the Germans are bottled up and allied units run wild over asia, the allies out build and bide their time…

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There are 2 sea zones between the India sea zone and the S. Europe sea zone. The red sea is a single sea zone.

There are 3 sea zones between the E. USA sea zone and the W. USA sea zone. The rule book clearly states that Sea zones on either side of the Panamal canal are seperate sea zones. It’s 2 complete turns to move the BB and transport from LA to Washington.

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I’m guessing not in North America. I understand there are less and less US executives, Chrysler was the junior partner. I have no idea but I’m guessing Germany. I’m Canadian, why should I know? :-) Anyone know (or care) where the headquarters of Nortel is? (It who crushed so many an RRSP)……

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As for weather extremes, winnipeg is noted for it’s winters, well, most of Canada is except for the Pacific Coast and the area around the great lakes where I am. These big fresh water ponds tend to keep the winters warmer (and more snow) and the summers cooler. We rarely hit -20 C in winter, usually it’s -10 to the low +30s in summer.

I’ve heard it gets so cold in winter in the western part of Canada that your car tires end up with a flat spot frozen into it where that part of the tire was in contact with the ground overnight.

How many folks in europe use a blockheater for their car? I’ve also heard that shopping malls in the west have electrical outlets so customers can plug their car’s block heaters in while shopping.

F_alk, we have huge traffic problems around Toronto. That 1 hour trip where you can drive 130KMPH for 80% of the trip is a tad bit longer when you are in stop and go traffic on the highway, it’s more like 2-3 hours. Many people just leave an hour early to avoid the stress and play cards at work until their shift starts. There are certain times you just don’t go on the 3 main links into Toronto (10 % of Canada lives in this city).

You’re right in that 90% of our people live in 5% of the land. The problem is that 5% is in a 100 KM strip North/South and about a 4,000 KM East-West along the border. Having a relatively round country is much better, you can do a grid of transportation links. We can’t, we have 1 big east-west corridor, 1 rail link and 1 highway link. Yeah of course there are smaller roads that cover a portion of the trip but in some stretches you can drive 130KMPH for hours and not see anything but wheat fields.

I must admit however, the europeans do know how to live life better. I spent 2 weeks there (Germany and Holland) on business. I never ever saw a drive through coffee shop. The idea of getting a coffee and not savouring it, not enjoying others company but rather driving your car to work coffee in hand is just not right! They take more time of work on vacation and vacation tends to come before work insofar as projects at work tend to be put on hold to allow the people to take vacations when they want rather then when the company wants. North America could learn much from that. He who dies richest still dies. He who dies with money didn’t enjoy life as much as he could have.

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Well if nothing else the titles are funny as all hell. :-)

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I can’t get it to run behind my proxy-server. I can see one computer talking to the other on my router by neither copy of the program seems to notice the other.

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I always build all inf with germany unless 2 IPC left over, then an inf gets upgraded or if I see a situation where I can build all tanks and hit Karelia due to an allied mistake, be carefull, if you can’t attack due to unforeseen reinforcements (in other words a german screw up!) then the lack of defensive ability might hurt ya!

If you’re not playing russia restricted then you’re left with 4 ftrs/bomber with the baltic fleet sunk at the start of your turn. It can be expensive to try to erase the entire allied fleet. How often can you sink it all (except say the US transport) and only lose one air unit? If you try for every allied naval unit you are spreading yourself too thin IMHO.

Assuming you lose 1 ftr only you have 3 ftr and a bomber with only the US transport left, not bad for the Germans I’d say. The brits will build a carrier and 1 transport on T1, the US moves 2 ftrs on it and it’s 1 transport. Your air power has an attack force of 13, say 2 hits. The allied navy has a defence of 13, say 2 hits as well. You’re down to a ftr and a bomber with an attack of 7, only count on 1 hit here. A fully loaded carrier has a defence of 11, close enough you should assume 2 hits when you’re attacking. Your air force is gone and my navy is invincible as the germans can never again rebuild their airforce.

Assume the germans do so good the Brit is scared to build navy, so he builds nothing. The german has his bomber on western europe so the USA builds 3-4 transports with his 1. Even with only 4 transports you’d be brave to attack it with a lone bomber. If the Yank is a bit scared of this build 4 transports. 5 1’s against a single 4, bring on the bomber!

Next turn the brit has say 55 IPC, I smell a carrier and 4 transports for 50 IPC, build whatever land units you can. The yanks put 2 ftrs on it and move their 5 transports. Voila, the germans are faced with a potentially series land assult by the US as soon as the end of the German second turn. There is no way on earth the germans can ever knock out a fully loaded carrier with 9 transports on the start of their 3rd turn. This navy is functional so fast the US pacific fleet isn’t even required……

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