Posts made by billcallaway

The Axis roll for each empire getting lend lease. They only intercept on a 1. It’s not possible to intercept half the time, its not even possible to intercept a quarter of the time. The money can get lost OR intercepted about half the time (actually 5/12 of the time) but it’s worth the risk to send 4 different empires 12 IPC each every turn. 24 IPC of it makes it. 8 infantry on the ground that the US doesn’t have to ship over.

US can only send half their income to people in the war. The first turn they send 6 IPC to UK, the 2nd turn about 12. I never send anyone more than 20 because roughly every 12th roll a 1 will be rolled! That is why I say lend lease and fortresses on cities are the key (so far).

I actually like playing the axis in 7.1 more than 6.1 even though axis are behind. At the end of the 1st turn Germany is noticeably a bit weaker than in 6.1. Italy is a turn behind now in 7.1 too.

Rules say never more than half of US production. US gets 100 IPC if you count their N.O. The N.O. does count as production as the N.O. explains if read. Therefore US loans half of their income every round. US gets roughly 95 - 105 IPC a turn. We play US as supporting empire only. They keep convoy boxes free of Axis units and max lend lease and send units to Africa every other turn. Sometimes they will build destroyers for UK navy defense but the Russian navy usually gives the UK their needed defense. US never really does much except keeps the UK and Russia IPC up so it’s easier for them to fight the Axis

I should also say India gets their bonuses 1st turn because they are technically at war w/Germany. The extra 5 IPC adds up quick to help against Japan.

Anzac are at war w/Germany too so they can go into S.A. right away and often do. Unrealistic but it’s free IPC.

On a 1 the Axis capture all the lend lease. That’s why we spread out the lend lease between 3 empires. One time Russia got 50 IPC from the US because Moscow was in danger and the Axis would have won because Russia couldn’t have taken it back and it would give the 12th victory city needed. Russia got all 50 IPC and the Axis lost, but it was a big gamble. They bought a fortress for 2 turns and max infantry and had 30+ units. You can only make things so realistic when you turn 20,000 soldiers into a 12 sided dice. It’s not very realistic but it’s fun.

The best part of this game is war entry and lend lease in my opinion. Japan and UK are the most fun to play because they have the most options.

I forgot to say that UK takes every neutral they can in Africa and South America that is free and open unless it causes their other territories to become Pro Allied to the Axis (like Portugal). This is another 10 -15 ipc per turn around turn 4. Two infantry can walk around over half of S.A. and take it without casualties. Not very realistic but the rules allow it.

With Japan we make their sneak attack semi worthless (compared to what it can be) if they wait too long to use. If they don’t use before turn 4 there are almost no ships of importance within range for them to hit except Anzac. India navy/planes against Italy gets through sometimes. US builds infantry in the West until in the war to stop a landing there.

Fortresses on cities and lend lease is the strategy for us. Spread out the money on lend lease though. One time Germany inherited 40 IPC that was sent to Russia. It was pretty much game over.

It’s not very realistic to have Japan so strong and the US so weak but it’s really fun. We hate to lose veteran units so we may play Japan too soft the first turn. Seems Japan is almost too weak the first turn with no regular infantry and no regular fighters on the front line (more or less).I’ll try more aggressively with Japan to see what happens. The Japanese sneak attack timing is very important. We might experiment with earlier or later but no one wants to lose so everyone is careful. Our games take about 10 - 15 hours.

@ Garg - it almost sounds like we playing different games. I wonder if we have different rule interpretations. We are all 20 year players so we exploit every hole after we find it in a game.

Played with the official 7.1 and Axis lost. No one even got too lucky or made mistakes. They were always 1 city shy. I think fortresses and lend lease is probably the key more than anything else for the Allies. Russia had 10 super troopers on their fortress in Leningrad and Germany never took until very late in the game. It’s our standard now for UK to build India fortress at first sign of trouble. The upgrade of the India factory is very expensive but we just build max infantry now and fly fighters over every other turn and Japan can’t take. The game comes down to Stalingrad and India so far every time.

I agree, but with the 7.1 setup now it takes Italy an extra turn (or two) to take Egypt. UK always build an extra 2 units on Calcutta every single turn every turn and South Africa every turn. We build max infantry on Calcutta every round and let Japan (basically) go and go all 80% against Germany. Otherwise Russia is doomed. Russia keeps Germany busy in Finland until Russia is in the war then begins to defend Leningrad. The fortresses with 10 infantry really help on defense. 10 infantry in the east on the Russian fortress really ties up a lot of Japanese infantry. 2 fortresses is nearly impenetrable. We also do max lend lease to Russia/Uk/India every turn. Anzac’s throw their navy away every third turn to keep japan busy.

Since the new rules came out no one has been able to take Stalingrad once.

It takes Germany 3 or 4 turns to get ready for Russia in our games. We found that if Russia pounds finland every turn it keeps Germany too busy to get ready for everything (neutrals, convoy boxes, etc.)

UK attacks Norway or Africa and not Europe until turn 8 or 9.

I think I see the problem Garg. Russia does get an income. Every round they add 2d12 for IPC and it’s cumulative. 1st round about 12, 2nd about 24, 3rd about 36, etc. Russia dumps all that into the north and Finland can’t keep up.

If Russia didn’t get income they would be screwed you are correct.

I never found that the case, and definitely don’t find it the case at all now. Could be strategy maybe.

Germany and Italy have a couple less starting ships each, UK has 30 IPC of new units, Russia has 70 IPC of new units, Russia/US/UK get cheaper special units, and Germany has to spend an extra 5 IPC a turn on tanks every turn because they cost 6 now. Germany has a tougher time first turn and so does Italy.

We don’t play with tech or optional rules and do max lend lease every turn to UK/Russia/India. That could be the story.

I want to play another 5 games before I make a call, but it seems 60/40 in favor of allies now. It was the opposite before.

I think Finland is nearly too weak still. We played 3 games in a row where Russia dumped everything into the north until in the war and Finland had to fight over one of it’s territories every single round until Russia was in the war. It’s actually possible now for Russia to get that NO. Germany and Italy both have more problems in 7.1 than 6.1 with the Allies - and that doesn’t even count the extra 70 IPC’s worth of units Russia gets in 7.1 vs. 6.1. It could be how we play but the Axis are having a tough time. It’s still fun though.

My previous post about South America was a mistake. I thought S.A. got more infantry but they don’t.

Looks great! Really like the small changes. We will play again today and see how it goes.

Germany really needed those 4 extra infantry in Finland. I like the extra Pro Axis infantry in South America too. I’ve never seen a game where the Axis landed anything in South America so to make it a bit harder for the Allies to take over South America is a good idea.

Really like it that India and Australia can upgrade their I.C.'s. It means that India probably can’t fall now but time will tell.

1 question only:
The fortresses only provide their abilities on the 1st round of combat correct? What if you had 2 fortresses? This is a very very important question for our games because fortresses are holding off us taking cities for the Axis.

Shouldn’t FEC only get their bonus if they are at war with Japan only? At this point it says “Axis Power”. Technically they would be at war with Germany 1st turn and then would receive their bonus every turn. However that doesn’t really make much sense and the Allies don’t need anymore advantages than they have now in 7.1

The Russia + 6 IPC NO is not attainable.

Escorts and interceptors have a combat value of 3, but all the setup sheets says 2.

Special Russian tanks come out turn 3 not turn 5. I think this has been mentioned before.

Up to 10 units against a fortress attack at - 1, this includes coastal bombardments? I think it would but because you mention planes in the rules against fortresses and not ships its a bit unclear. It reads like fortresses can only be built on cities too but I thought I read somewhere they can be built anywhere.

Looking forward to playing this weekend again. I’m playing the Axis and hoping to find the strategy that works against Russia. I still haven’t held a single Russian city yet (for a whole turn) one time, but everyone I play with (more or less) leaves Japan basically alone and goes straight after Germany. Japan is very fun to play like this! Looking forward to having them have the 3 IPC SNLF now too! Japan waits until Russia siphons off everything in the East against Germany and then attacks Russia and they can’t deal with, along with a dead China.

Are the special + 1 Att - 1 Def Italian Infantry worth the extra 1 IPC? This is a 7.0/7.1 change. I think US Marines are worth 5 IPC and I’m on the fence if UK Commandos are worth 5 IPC. I like special units but the board doesn’t generally have any more room for them as a rule (Especially in Europe). I guess I’m asking if anyone buys these units in 6.0 or 7.0 and how often. I never bought special units in 6.1 for Germany/Russia/Japan but in 7.0/7.1 I will buy them every turn. Germany has to buy special units now that their tanks cost 6.

We are playing again on Friday. Any chance it will be up Friday morning?

Differences in 7.0 vs. 7.1 are huge. Japan uses sneak attack different time, Germany gets to use their navy in 2nd impulse, Russia gets less $, and a couple more. They are completely separate games nearly. I wouldn’t even suggest playing 7.0 and stick with 6.1 until 7.1 comes out.

7.0 was completely lopsided to the point it not worth playing. 7.1 is playable but the axis have a tough time. I would say the axis win 1 in 3 with 7.1 but that’s only out of 3 games with the “revised” 7.1 and lucky rolls 1st turn for Germany.

@dafyd - what version of rules are you using?

Is there anyone out there that is playing with 7.1 besides just Koba and I? I’d be interested to hear how hard it is to win for the Axis now.

@ Koba - shouldn’t you play with the rules as they being rewritten so you can tell if the game is balanced before you include resources, rails, etc?

How many times did you play 6.1?

I knew as soon as I read 7.0 that it wouldn’t work, but I’m not sure why the changes were so big? Any ideas? The 7.1 is good except the 2 items we have already agreed upon. We played 5 - 10 games of 6.1 and the Axis won 6 out of 10…but we never usually played turns 14 and 15 because surrenders already took place. Once we figured out the strategy it was pretty clear that Russia was easy to beat in 6.1.

I can’t help but wonder if we misreading the rules in 7.0 and 7.1 because they seem to think Russia is much weaker than what we are finding.