Posts made by Dead Rabbits

@meterpaffay To your 2nd question yes that can work but is it the best way to do it?

Think about why you are saving up your US infantry. Because they are better in larger stacks than smaller ones right?

If you put them in France yes Germany needs to attack with more units to take France back, but if they can do so profitably? Then they are losing less units than Allies are and it just makes it harder for you to ultimately beat them, and it takes more time.

So you don’t want to do that. You want profitable trades.

The more territories you can attack, the more Germany has to split its forces, leaving smaller stacks that you can more easily attack.

@meterpaffay What you are doing is totally viable and many players trade with UK but not US.

The US masses units in Finland then they try to take Karelia. From there US moves its large stack into Baltic states setting up for the capture of Berlin.

The Baltic stack might not be all US forces but combined forces of US, UK and Russia. So Allies may be able to hold Baltic but not have enough to attack Berlin from there alone.

This is ok. At this point you can have UK and US land in France together which puts Germany in a double bind. While it may have enough to recapture France, it may not have enough left in Berlin to defend vs forces UK and US can bring to Berlin and from Baltic if it does attack France.

While I think there are some strategies even stronger than this, this method is good and it works.

As to your question Germany should not commit too much of its forces to defend France in the early parts of the game because it wants to advance as many troops to Russia as it can instead.

There are times when Germany can defend France with few units, like 4 in the early game and you are right, it’s good for Germany to deny this income from Allies so they can’t get a IPC boost used to further build up expensive navy they need.

But other than that it’s kind of wasteful for Germany to commit 10 or more units it may need to defend France from Allies. Think of it this way, Germany can build 10 units in Berlin. So 10 or more units is basically a full turn worth of production being used to defend France instead of moving those units to the front lines.

Infantry are the most cost effective unit in the game. They should be the bulk of almost any Army. They are slow however. It takes 3 rounds for them to move adjacent to Moscow from Berlin. So if they are in France instead, it’s a lot of time wasted.

If the Axis is about to win by having 9 Victory Cities, then it makes sense to stack and hold France if it is one of those 9. But not really before then.

Attacking with massive number superiority is much more effective than fair attacks. So having 20 or more units in Berlin is actually better than having 10 in France 10 in Berlin. As now Germany can attack with better odds and take fewer casualties when it does take back France. If it can capture France with enough units surviving that Allies cannot take it back, then Allies land somewhere else and Germany attacks there with its large army. Then keep doing that instead of losing more units when trading. Some people call this pivot stacking. Because the same large core of units keeps attacking adjacent territories pivoting its position, but being strong enough to not be counter attacked.

If Russia does not attack Karelia then Germany gets to build there and 2 more units from Finland reinforce as well. German fighters can land there to help hold it as well as tanks moving in if needed.

Now the tanks may want to reinforce Ukraine instead or may be used for attack on West Russia or Caucus, but Germany has options here about how to manage its stacks.

If Karelia holds this is additional forces that combined with Ukraine stack can pressure and force Russia to abandon West Russia forming combined stack in Caucus as an alternative.

If Russia abandons West Russia for Caucus stack then Germany can combine its Karelia and Ukraine stacks in West Russia with Japan attacking India and possibly landing fighters on West Russia as well round 3 depending on their position.

If UK pulled from India with intent to counter attack India German fighters can land on India to help hold it.

Allies are getting sqeezed out of India and West Russia simultaneously.

If German units in Karelia move to combine stack in WR they still dead zone UK capture of Karelia, possibly with Baltic stack threatening as well. This depends on if Germany is still sending a reinforcements to Poland and then Ukraine and also if there are now landings in France or Italy that need to be traded, thus stopping some of Germanys eastward push.

So it’s a risky move on Russias part to attack Karelia, but Russia may still choose to do so, and in some situations doing so might be considered optimal.

However there are risks involved with this besides Germanys counter attack to Karelia, it also leaves Russia with fewer units to hold West Russia and Caucus. Even without an attack on Karelia one of these two territories may be compromised by German attack from Ukraine. You know how even one or two units can tip the scales making a even attack become favorable. Japans aircraft are in play here as well and it is unlikely that UK has units in Caucus or West Russia yet to punish Japans air or force Germany to hold units back from attacking West Russia or Caucus from Ukraine because there are follow up reinforcements still moving in from Polland, Romania, Finland as well that have not reached the front lines yet.

I think the scenario where 3 UK units being in play has not developed yet this early in the game and may never happen because Japan is also putting pressure on India and setting up for J3 timing.

That is part of the strength of the Ukraine stack is that its putting more pressure on the center that has cascade effects into India as well. German fighters may land in Burma to cover Japan Burma stack if needed just as Japans fighters are supporting in Ukraine then West Russia or Caucus if Germany decides to stack one of these territories.

UK could pull its forces from India to Persia and this would cause a temporary bulge or reinforcement surge in Caucus from these units to hold Germany back, but this still takes 2 rounds and Japan will be nipping on UKs heels from India then or potentially attack the fleeing UK units in Persia with its transports if UK pulls from India early.

UK fighters if supporting Russia in West Russia are at risk of being attacked by Germany if Russia decides to attack Karelia or pull from West Russia to Caucus.

UK fighters won’t be there if UK built Atlantic fleet round one, but India forces are also more vulnerable to Japan because of this build, instead of other units with higher attack or defensive power that may have been placed in India instead.

A nice post about the G1 or G2 Ukraine stack AP.

I am a bit surprised/disappointed that there have been no questions or replies to this tactic by Axis concerning the details and Allied counterplay to this situation yet.

A weakness of this open by Germany is that UK is free to drop a fleet to sea zone 7 round one as there will only be 2 fighters and maybe a Bomber in range. This would be a poor odds attack for Germany even under ideal circumstances such as successful attacks on sea zone 7, sea zone 10 and sea zone 13.

To stack Ukraine with reasonable odds for it to hold requires the med transport to drop 2 units to Ukraine, which would be an easy kill for Allies unless the Battleship also goes to sea zone 16 to defend it, which means no attack on the cruiser in sea zone 13 by the Battleship, or a coin flip attack by fighter in Berlin, which means it won’t be able to land in Ukraine if it does survive.

UK will be able to drop a fleet round one. Maybe building a 2nd transport instead of a Destroyer as well if it has the destroyer from sea zone 10 or the cruiser from sea zone 13 available to join the carrier build.

The UK fleet can begin contesting Karelia as soon as round 2 possibly, or at least take Scandinavia and be ramping up to take Karelia.

Germany can put 4 infantry and 1 AA gun in Karelia round one, which is vulnerable to attack by Russia, however if Russia attacks Karelia it may not be able to hold West Russia or Caucus vs Germany Ukraine stack. It’s a delicate position for both sides here.

The details of this need further examination and there are variables here in regards to the number of units Russia has available in West Russia and Caucus compared to what Germany has in Ukraine, as well as follow up in range from Poland and Berlin.

One of the Germany round one builds to synergize with G1 Ukraine stack is 3 or more tanks, with the 4 tanks moved from France, NW Europe and Italy, that’s 7 tanks which could potentially counter attack Karelia if Russia does attack there. A block in Belarus can prevent the Ukraine tanks from reaching Karelia round 2, but not the other tanks still catching up.

Hello mkgionet

I had Shogun too! I forgot about that one. Good times!!

Hello all!

My name is Colin and I just joined this forum so that I could discuss strategy with Aardvark Pepper who I have met on AA online through Steam.

This is a great web site and I have read most of the strategy articles posted here. Shout out to Black Elk for his work which was very enlightening to me. I also think the AA calculator from this site is a great tool!!

I started playing AA original edition back in the 1990s. At one point the game was on clearance for $5 a box at Target. So I bought 6 boxes of those to have more pieces. I also had Fortress America another version of the game at that time.

I made my own version of the game combining some other rules from war games that I was playing and made a new map for this using Rand McNally Atlas and pasted it to the boards, outlining new territories and IPC values for each of these. After doing this I became interested in polar origin maps as perhaps a better type of map for my modified version of the game. As it turns out this is what Larry Harris has done with his new version of the game War Room. Great ninds think alike right?? XD

I have not yet played war room but I would like to at some time.

I was a topographic analyst for the US Army 2001 to 2009. I will say that my interest in maps was greatly encouraged by my experience with this game as well as other war games I have been playing since I was 8 years old.

I was recently reintroduced to the game by it becoming available on Steam by Beamdog. I find it very enjoyable and I think this newer version of the game is very well balanced.

Although I have been familiar with the game for a long time I still consider myself pretty new to it compared to many of you. I only got to play the game with other people perhaps 20 or so times before being able to play it online. Now I have over 300 games under my belt and I have learned a lot but still learning.

I look forward to reading more of peoples posts here on the forum and discussing theory with you all.