@special:
An alternative choice (in case you wish to quickly beef up ANZAC) is for India to take Dutch new Guinea (+10 IPC in NO’s for ANZAC) and then let ANZAC take Java (+4IPC), giving them 24 IPC’s after their first turn.
(haven’t actually done it myself yet)
NO is only worth 5, and only starts when at war?
I think this depends on how many new player you have.
If there are 3 veterans and only one new player, give him USSR.
If there are more newbies than veterans, then let them choose, but maybe dont go 150%.
To my experience:
DON’T TELL THEM WHAT TO DO! Give them an overview of their possibilities and goals (USSR: survive, UK: harass Italy, Germany and Japan, US: Go by force, and finish them off)
Its easier for new players to play the allies, because of their very clear objectives (Do not loose), whereas the Axis have to figure out a way to win. Much more preparations have to be taken, to get you on the win. Its much easier to loose for the axis, due to stupid mistakes.
the national objectives are handy guide aswell…
i strongly agree ^^
a 1939 version of the map would be great too
or a simplified
or even 1941
but nevertheless, i think the neutral countrys then are liberated instead of conquered (especially france and dutch)
there are few mistakes i think
i thought japanese NO for FIC was worth 10 ipc?
and japan recieves 5 IPC per ‘western center of control’, aka calcutta, sydney, honolulu, san francisco?
Your post seems to suggest I may have underestimated the effectiveness of Japanese infantry. I’d be happy to have an excuse to strengthen the early game Axis, especially Japan. But before I can increase the qualitative effectiveness of Japan’s infantry, I will need a link to a reasonably authoritative source which addresses the subject of Japanese infantry’s effectiveness.
IMO, the strength of the Japanese military is very clear. They were a Effective fighting force. During Iwo Jima, only 22,000 men held off 70,000 men for a whole month, and it was expected that an invasion of Japan itself would involve MILLIONS of American casualties. I think that’s just amazing. However, they did not have the manpower to replace the lost units.
if they used the soldiers they lost on those desolate islands in Burma in suicidal attacks, the fate of India would have been much different…
i’d start with a lang nations, 3 planes and 4 diff troops are easier to explain than ships and such…
that’s why i’d chose (in world): china, france and perhaps ANZAC, to learn.
In europe (perhaps italy with aiding germany or) russia with or without france.
@Young:
In hind sight, do you think the UK should have attacked the Italians fleet in the same manner, or would you attack the Destroyer and Transport with an all out amphibious assault on Libya or Tobruk?. That way, you could get odds and scramble planes from Malta in a defense effort during an Italy 1 attack.
Yes, I think that moving everything to Malta and then launching an amphibious assault on Torbruk would be the best bet. I think that you either need to put the UK Alexandria/ Egypt forces on the offensive right away or have them fall back… otherwise, I see them getting destroyed on I2 unless you sacrifice the UK fleet and block SZ 98.
If you attacked Tobruk, you could pick up the Inf and Art from Egypt, have the mech (in Egypt) move through Alexandria, and have all of the ground forces in Alexandria join the fight, you would have:
UK: 3 INF, 2 ART, 1 Tank, 1 Tac Bomber, 1 Fighter (if you bring the one from Malta)
Italy: 3 INF, 1 ART, 1 Mech, 1 Tank
can’t italy ravish the british navy then, killing remaining brits in africa later through landings on tobruk, egypt and moving out of uncaptured ethiopia (to iraq?) ?
inf are the best, trade them against other inf (attacking lone or groups of inf with inf and sufficiant fighters)
artillery are the best offensive power, but you need a core (i like 20, some like 30 and my brother like 50) of tanks, coupled with tacticals. those are the units who will fight to the last, your core, essential offensive power of the army.
Mechs are good to race troops to eastern front coming from berlin.
@Cmdr:
With normal dice, Tobruk and Ethiopia fall with heavy British units left and all your planes so you can really annoy the Italians. It’s not better or worse, but it is valid.
very true
i’ll try it in my games.
but problem is my precious egypt…
and don’t forget, you lose british fighters, but you can kill german and italian figs aswell, along those transports which can immobilise italy long enough for US to save the day (either in europe or japan)
italy can go wild with its entire navy?
and it’s not like you lose all your fighters
with worst dice for UK and best for’ axis, UK still had tactical left. usually another fighter aswell.
@Cmdr:
Tobruk + Ethiopia is England’s way of seizing initiative. Taranto is a good place to lose a lot of equipment.
don’t you almost certainly lose cairo then?
but of course, we have completely different visions: i prefer to hold africa instead of india (taranto + ethiopia, +sending 2 indian figs)
@Cmdr:
Sea Lion was too easy, it almost always succeeded with the right German purchases. You could even get up to 40 ground units to England reliably. That was insane. So making it a little (and I emphasis little) harder is a great boon to the game. You can, and probably just as reliably, take it on round 4. I have twice now and with England dumping everything into homeland defense.
Germany can, and maybe does not have too, take London in Alpha 3 as they could in Alpha 2 and OOB and Revised and Anniversary. The difference is a matter of degree of difficulty. It’s no longer assured on Germany 3, now it’s plausible on Germany 4.
Alpha 3 is fine. There’s still a way for Italy to avoid the dread of losing all their boats in the Med.
Because Larry didn’t want Germany focusing on London as their be all end all goal. He wanted ground combat between Russia and Germany. It’s why he allowed Russia to attack Germany if London did fall. It makes the German player more honest, in my book. You can’t just strip all your guys from Germany leaving a clear path to Berlin so you can take out London, because Russia will just blitz into Berlin and win.
Yes, I like the AA Guns. They cannot fire at 40 aircraft anymore, now you need at least 13 guns to shoot at 40 aircraft. ANd it’s still just one shot each in opening fire, so it’s not as drastic as some people thought originally.
Yes, Normandy should probably be given up. France is not really all that much harder, most players do not even use any aircraft in France (neither did they in Alpha 2).
ok, good points. but i usually took england round 4. but now, it’s not an NO (BS, pure BS). russia at round 4 is ok, but it does put japan back a lot (UK and anzac declare war round 3 and gain all bonusses, which they have extra now)
i’ve had it with all these rules preventing sealion
germany must and should be able to take london
alpha 2 is fine, there was even a way for italy to overcome the dreaded tarantoraid
but now, alpha 3
no NO for london (how can london not be a national objective??)
the aa guns that can take hits (shooting per aa gun 3 figs is great rule btw)
and even france is stronger, making taking normandy, which is always very risky, even harder…
@urmomsmom7:
I think Jimmy is trying to say to bomb the air and sea bases in Gibralter after England is taken so that they can’t rebuild them and most importantly America can’t use it.
i know, but US can put a whole lot of fighters there to prevent the bombing…
they play before italy, and they’re at war once london is taken…
a practical problem, so it seems :P
but there’s 1 thing i don’t get
someone said india has to be taken to minimalize its defences
why don’t you just block india itself?
they’ll get max an inf (west india + burma) a round
for 1 inf a round extra, i’d use all avaible land units and kill china. usually when holding yunnan and combining north forces you could do the trick
i usually use just 2 land units from japan to kill it (stacking yunnan)
but i’m not sure if i’d use the thai forces aswell
I am assuming in the OP scenario that Japan is not going to war with the allies until London falls.
I would advocate an Indian crush in this scenario as well. As for the European theater Germany needs to be thinking of keeping its fleet together. Either it stays in the North Atlantic attacking Russia, giving you a strong threat to Novgorod. Or it moves south and holds Gibraltar. Moving North is good because it threatens your main opponent, Russia from another angle and could force that Mega stack near Romania back. Moving south to Gibraltar lets Germany assist Italy in cleaning the North Atlantic coast and holding Gibraltar. Plus the threats from Gib work both ways, Axis can hit half of Africa and Most of the Americas.
I can’t remember who, I think it was Garg who mentioned the phenomenal idea of not taking Gibraltar but instead bombing the bejeezus out of it. Now the Allies can never use the AB/NB until they recapture London, then make money, then spend it repairing the facilities!
and who’s going to bomb it? it would have to be germany, on the same round of taking england…
so, in the alpha 0.02, russia no longer gets 2 free inf, but 9 IPC extra, representing siberia.
can germany take those 9 IPC, or take them away from russia?
would it be good idea to represent those 9 IPC by the pacific part of russia, but only playing europe?
if so, with or without 18 inf and AA gun?
We have been having a lot of trouble with Italy too… Then we stumbled on a brilliant move. In G1 send 2 ftrs from West Germany to the SZ with the french and british cruisers, for 1 movement point, then Non Combat Move them another 4 back to Southern Italy to scramble with the Italian ftr when the british attack, the additional 2 ftrs make a big deterrent for any attack on the fleet.
For a few games we had the Italians run rampant with 40 IPC economies, however this was short lived as the british came up with a counter that is basically a small factory UK1 with all their fighters heading over from india via an attack on Iraq (with indian tranny and troops) and landing in syria, then moving to egypt UK 2. Then they build 3 ftrs UK2 to defend cairo for good and from there can actually flat out defeat Italy from the med since its economy never got a chance to take off… (This is usually combined with a KIF heavy US move to the med)
That strat worked for 2 games as SL was not viable in either for some reason or another… But I finally defeated it last game with a successful SL, but Italy was still blunted by the manouvre and left relatively useless.
sorry to burst yout bubble, but taranto (killing italian 2 transports) is still easily done, even with 2 extra german fighters.
