Best posts made by DoManMacgee

@the_good_captain 8 UK INF die.

Side-Note: That Ukraine looks pretty ugly wow.

Side-Note #2: I’m not going to do R4 until tomorrow morning, so don’t stay up waiting for my next move.

side-steps the arguing and ranting and raving about dice and whatnot

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog If you want a good reference point for the “Stabilized Dice” feature you’re planning on implementing I’d recommend looking into the “Low Luck” (“LL” for short) house rule that this community has implemented over the years. In a nutshell, it works in the following way:

Each round, do the following:

1. Add up the Combat Value for all units in a fight on each side (ex. If I attack with 2 INF/1 ART/1 TANK against 4 INF, then the attacker’s “Combat Value” is 8 (1 (the unpaired INF) + 2 (the paired INF) + 2 (the ART) + 3 (the TANK) = 8 ) and the defender’s “Combat Value” is also 8 (2 (the INFs) * 4 = 8).

2. Divide the “Combat Value” of each side by 6 and note the remainder (Attacker would be 8/6 = 1 Remainder 2, Defender would be 6/6 = 1 Remainder 0).

3. The number you got when dividing the Combat Value by 6 is how many hits you score as a baseline.

4. For the remainder, roll a D6 and compare it to the remainder. If you rolled less than the remainder, you get one extra hit on top of the value you got in step “#3” above.

5. Both sides remove casualties, attack has the option to retreat (just like in regular A&A).

So basically, each side can get a rough estimate going in of exactly how a battle will play out. This makes the game more chess-like than normal A&A (where big swingy battles can single-handedly decide the outcome of the game), which has its own perks/flaws (the game’s a lot more predictable this way, for better or for worse).

I’d hesitate on having any mode with this setting replace the core “ranked” ladder though, as it’d be a good way to get purists mad. However, a separate ladder for low-luck may appeal to people who are upset by the dice (not naming any names, but you’ve been putting up with us long enough to get the idea).

Thanks as always for popping your head in here and taking the abuse you take. I don’t envy you.

EDIT: Minor cleanup of post structure.

@argothair It depends on which battles failed.

Typically, if any battle is going to go sideways, it’s the SZ12 one (DD/CR off of Gibraltar). I don’t mind losing/drawing this one too much, as all does is gives UK an opportunity to either go all-in against the Italian fleet or consolidate their Atlantic Fleet (which Germany really has no means of stopping even if you kill everything).

In the extremely unlikely event that SZ2 or SZ6 (where the actual transports are) go badly, you’re probably in really horrible shape. Only real recourse at that point is to turtle up, by tons of INF, and pray for better luck on Japan’s side of the board.

@the_good_captain Game History

Round: 3

    Puchase Units - Italians
        Italians buy 2 artilleries and 5 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs; 

    Combat Move - Italians
        2 artilleries and 8 infantry moved from Venice to Tyrolia
        1 artillery, 1 fighter and 3 infantry moved from Rome to Tuscany
        2 artilleries, 1 fighter and 1 infantry moved from Tuscany to Piedmont
        1 battleship and 1 transport moved from SZ 18 to SZ 17
        1 artillery and 1 infantry moved from Egypt to SZ 17
        1 infantry moved from Belgian Congo to Anglo Egyptian Sudan
        1 artillery and 1 infantry moved from SZ 17 to Piedmont

    Combat - Italians
        Battle in Tyrolia
            Italians attack with 6 artilleries and 12 infantry
            Germans defend with 3 artilleries, 1 fighter and 8 infantry
                Italians roll dice for 6 artilleries and 12 infantry in Tyrolia, round 2 : 7/18 hits, 8.00 expected hits
                Germans roll dice for 3 artilleries, 1 fighter and 8 infantry in Tyrolia, round 2 : 5/12 hits, 6.33 expected hits
                7 infantry owned by the Germans and 5 infantry owned by the Italians lost in Tyrolia
            Germans and Italians reach a stalemate
            . Battle score for attacker is 6
            Casualties for Italians: 5 infantry
            Casualties for Germans: 7 infantry

    Combat Move - Italians

    Place Units - Italians
        2 artilleries and 5 infantry placed in Rome

    Turn Complete - Italians
        Italians collect 15 PUs; end with 15 PUs

Combat Hit Differential Summary :

Italians regular : -1.00
Germans regular : -1.33

Game History

Round: 3

    Puchase Units - Americans
        Americans buy 3 artilleries, 1 fighter and 7 transports; Remaining resources: 0 PUs; 

    Place Units - Americans
        7 transports placed in SZ 1
        3 artilleries and 1 fighter placed in United States of America

    Turn Complete - Americans
        Americans collect 20 PUs; end with 20 PUs

Combat Hit Differential Summary :

1914-game-7-usa3.tsvg

If, for whatever reason, you wanted to drop the G FTR instead of an INF, just edit it on AH4.

@CPT-Flint Give me a bit and I will get back to you. I don’t play 42SE much these days but I might be able to pull up some old notes.

Are you asking for AAO (or online play in-general), or for IRL Face-to-Face play (i.e. 6 turn time-limit, etc.)?

@the-spaceman A couple of things:

A1 - You might as well build a carrier because you start the game with a lot of free FTRs that can land on the carriers. Lots of free value + threat projection.

B1 - If Germany doesn’t take Egypt or Trans-Jordan G1, and if the UK Fleet off of Morocco survived, you might be able to send everything + the Bomber from UK to kill the Italian Fleet immediately. You’ll lose absolutely everything but the trade is absolutely worth it as it will secure Africa immediately.

B2 - You should be able to take Norway on turn 2. No idea why you’re waiting until turn 3.

A3 - If you built a Carrier A1 you can probably kill the Italian Fleet on A3 if it didn’t evacuate to the Indian Ocean/Pacific.

The Indian Fleet should not wait to link up with the Australian Fleet. If either of them survived, they should make a break for Europe ASAP to escape the Japanese.

UK in general should not be bothering with Africa. The general strategy should be:

US Navy - Camp out near Africa to threaten Italy/France/Scandinavia.
UK Navy - Camp out in English Channel to threaten France/Scandinavia/every territory bordering the Baltic Sea.

What you do from there depends on whether you’re playing with or without NOs (I would recommend playing without, but there are others who will vouch for NOs, so I’m not going to have that argument for the 4th thread in a row).

If playing with NOs:

-USA should build up to a 3-4 TT shuck. One group of TTs in US East Coast, one group of TTs in Morocco SZ, one group of TTs in the English Channel. Rotate them as needed to ferry troops from USA -> Morocco-Algeria and from Morocco-Algeria -> France. This forces Germany to constantly commit resources to defend/stack France (if they stack France, just land in Northwest Europe instead). By doing this, you’re taking away from the resources Germany can send east, which will take increasing amounts of pressure off of USSR and allow them to start fighting back around round 4/5 (and start transferring forces to fight Japan around round 6/7).

If playing without NOs:

-USA should focus on building a massive naval stack off of Africa so you can eventually seize Italy. You can send the occasional TT to France if it’s lightly defended but your main goal should be Italy. Killing Italy will force a response from Germany or they’ll lose the factory. And even if Germany does retake Italy, it earns them 0 income and you can just build up your landing force as many times as is needed to secure it.

No matter what, you should aim for the following general idea with UK:

1.) Sink the Baltic Fleet immediately (not possible if Germany did something weird like a Carrier opening, but if they do that USSR can punish them badly by being aggressive early).

2.) Take Scandinavia immediately, as Germany can’t reliably defend it until after they take Karelia, and even if they do retake it from Karelia, the units sent to fight over Norway/Finland are very far away from Moscow (which is great for the overall Allied cause).

3.) Once you have your fleet built up enough to not die to a German Air attack, aim to land in places where Germany either has no units or weak groupings of 1-2 INF. You want to force Germany to trade for as many small territories as possible (or big territories if they leave France unguarded), because it:

a. Detracts land units from the invasion of USSR.
b. Pulls Germany Air Power away from the USSR/potentially away from attacking your fleet.

4.) Once your fleet is at full power, prioritize attacking Baltic States and Karelia. If you attack Karelia, it gets rid of Germany’s ability to build units that are deep inside of Soviet territory and prevents them from being able to deadzone Archangel and Finland, which will secure the Soviet economy long-term. If you attack Baltic States,you’re cutting off the flow of reinforcements from Germany -> Karelia for a turn, as the Berlin stack will need to attack Baltic States before it can move into Karelia. This is good because it either gives USSR a breather from the German onslaught or might even give them an opening to either stack Belarus or outright attack Karelia.

That’s about all I can think of. Most of your other specifics seem good enough.

@the_good_captain Last note on this: Charging Kiel is an absolutely awful idea due to the extremely devastating impact mines can have on the game if a few go off in an untimely fashion.

If your opponent is seriously just building mass tanks as Germany and sending them East there’s a handful of tools available to you to put up a fight:

1. As USSR, forget about trying to hold Leningrad and concentrate your forces in West Russia. Your objective should be to trade Ukraine lightly (as in, send 2-3 of your Infantry + air support to kill 1-2 German Infantry) each turn while waiting for either Germany to make a move or for help to arrive from the UK/US.

2. If Germany just pushes their entire army into Ukraine blindly, you can pull off a “strafe attack”. Basically, you send in several ground troops you have available + air support, stay for 1-2 rounds, then retreat to either West Russia or Caucasus (where your surviving forces will be reinforced during NCM by fresh troops from Moscow + newly built troops.  The idea with a strafe is that you’re trying to do one of two things:

A: Remove all or a large portion of the German Infantry from their stack. This will make Germany’s follow-up attack on your forces more cost ineffective to them, as they won’t be able to assign losses to expendable Infantry anymore.

B: If Germany is seriously just building mass tanks, then you’ll be trading Infantry for Tanks in your strafe attack. Even if you take sizable losses there’s no way Germany can take 2:1 IPC value losses for an extended period of time. It’s suicide.

I can go into more detail on strafing tactics if you want, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

3. Fly Fighters from UK -> West Russia (or Moscow if the game gets desperate enough, but you’ll need to by a CV to do that).
4. Have the USA focus on the Pacific. UK stands absolutely no chance against Japan alone and you need to clear out the money islands ASAP to stop Japan from becoming a monster and winning by itself.

5. Don’t just spam amphibious landings in Europe. Small landings are too easy for Germany to repel. Instead, focus on building a large fleet as the UK and threatening to land troops in Europe. This will force Germany to divert an increasing number troops from the Eastern Front to guard Europe. If Germany ever leaves a territory empty, just land one Infantry there to collect the fre IPCs and force Germany to waste effort retaking it on their turn.

6. Your main landing target should be Norway/Scandinavia, in case you weren’t aware. Germany can’t defend that part of the board reliably so it’s a good boost to the British economy (which they’ll need since more often than not Egypt+Africa will fall to the Germans for a large chunk of the early/mid game). Plus, a healthy force of British troops in Scandinavia forces Germany to commit forces to defend the factory in Leningrad, lest they allow the Soviets to reclaim it.

7. Never commit a large invasion force to France unless you’re certain it can survive the German counterattack. If you’re going for a last minute desperation play to save the game, land in Karelia (Leningrad) instead. It’s worth less IPC, but is:

A: Farther away from Germany’s centers of production
B: A Factory for the Soviets, who can stick two extra units there on their turn to help hold the territory.
C: An immediate threat for the Germans in Russia, who will need to waste a turn or more attempting to dislodge the landing party before they can finish off Moscow.

Your friends (and the other posters in this thread) aren’t wrong, though. 1942SE is a terribly balanced game to the point that Allies basically can never win in a no-bid game when both players are experienced, but I don’t think your opponent is playing particularly well as the Germans, so I believe that you can turn the tables on them.

You also may want to look into the Larry Harris Tournament Setup, as taamvan suggested. It’s a lot more balanced than the regular setup and it might be easier to sell your friends on the idea of a “cool new scenario on the same map” than it to sell them on a bid system.

@thedesertfox Are you playing with NOs on or off? As @OLA mentioned, which side is favored in the 41 setup swings based on whether NOs are being used. Off = Allied-favored, On = Axis-favored. It boils down to the starting income gap being easier to mitigate when Axis have access to their NOs.

Not sure if German navy is the right way of going about things. In higher level games it’s usually Japan that ends up winning the game for the Axis while Germany/Italy hold the line.

@the_good_captain Yeah I had lots of stuff go completely sideways on me this time.

I poorly distributed my initial guys in Poland and botched the dice on dealing with the German fleet (in hindsight, I probably should have tried attacking with the R Battleship to try getting a lucky hit in), which more-or-less locked me out of getting any British guys to Karelia in time to impact things at all. That in turn snowballed the Russian front out of control to the point where Russia died way too early, which in turn negated the benefits I’d carved out for myself on the Western Front (you were able to literally send 100% of the German build west on G5, which was basically the last nail in the coffin).

If I were to try that “hold Poland R1” move again, I’d probably have to be content with leaving Ukraine empty, which creates its own problems as I’m sure you can imagine.

@COJOH said in German mass tank build - how to counter?:

@taamvan / Hello, I’ve played with some friends sevaral times Axis 1942 Revised and we also find the game inbalanced in favour of the Axis. Could you please tell me were I can find the patch “42.3” from Larry Harris ? I searched the internet but cannot find it. Regards,
JC from Belgium

Not taamvan, but I notice you used the world “Revised” in describing the game you’re playing. This is the board for A&A 1942: Second Edition, released in 2012. You may be referring to A&A: Revised Edition, released in 2004. You can tell the difference between them easily, as 1942: Second Edition has a brown box, while Revised Edition has a blue box.

Just making sure you’re asking about the correct game, as several of the Axis and Allies games have similar names, which can make it difficult to distinguish them from one another.

@Altruex No clue, haha. Haven’t tried it myself. Best I can think of is changing Russia’s in particular.

• “10 IPCs if Allied Powers control at least 3 of Norway/Finland/Poland/Bulgaria-Romania/Czechoslovakia-Hungary/Balkans” should be “5 IPCs if USSR controls at least 2 of Russia/Karelia/Caucasus”. Change the appeal of “extra morale for spreading Communism” to “extra morale for holding cities significant to the Communist Regime (Moscow/Leningrad/Stalingrad)”.

• “5 IPCs if no other Allied forces are present in a territory controlled by the Soviet Union and if the Soviets control Archangel” should be “5 IPCs if USSR controls Archangel, UK control United Kingdom, and no Axis naval units present in Sea Zone 3 and 4”. This one’s a bit complicated, but the point is to represent Lend Lease making it through the White Sea and into Russia. There are a fair few books on this topic, as U-Boat interference with this aid was a point of contention during the 40-43 phase of the war, before the Allies got the U-Boat situation under control.

@the_good_captain Yeah 1914 is really REALLY weird with the rules. As you saw during our games I stepped on a lot of rakes myself.

Anyway, if you wanna start up another round I’m game (let’s swap off again though). I won’t be ready to go until tomorrow or Tuesday though.

Also; think of what else you can be doing with that 15 IPC.

• 1 SUB/1 DD OR 2 DD (This is technically 14/16 IPC but you get the point) - Helps USA build up its Pacific Fleet to stop Japan OR provides absolutely vital cover for the Atlantic Fleet, depending on whether you’re going KGF or KJF.

• 1 TT/1 INF/1 ART (again, 14 IPC, blame the devs for making TANKs cost 6) - Starts your land-bridge

• FTR + whatever else you want - Can reach Moscow in time for the final battle if you start moving it A2 (USA -> Greenland A2, Greenland -> ??? (Various options in Russia) A3, ??? -> Moscow A4)

EDIT: forgot East USA FTRs can’t reach London in 1 round in 42SE. What were the Devs thinking?

All of these either start the process of applying pressure to your opponent, or set yourself up for a direct contribution to the defense of Moscow. Arguably the IC in China helps with the “defense of Moscow” bit, but the second Japan sees this they’ll make a beeline for it and use it to start pumping out TANKs in Russia’s backyard.

@Altruex If you’re going with a bid, try either bidding to the UK Atlantic Navy (to save it from getting wiped out by Germany G1), an extra INF in China (to defend the FTR), and/or Egypt (to possibly hold it during Round 1, which will delay Italy’s economic expansion significantly by keeping them at 10-15 IPC/turn for the first round, which snowballs).

@The_Good_Captain same rules as always. OOB + RR.

Game History

Round: 1

    Puchase Units - AustroHungarians
        AustroHungarians buy 2 artilleries, 1 fighter and 4 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs; 

    Combat Move - AustroHungarians
        1 cruiser moved from SZ 18 to SZ 17
        2 artilleries and 6 infantry moved from Trieste to Serbia
        2 artilleries and 6 infantry moved from Galicia to Romania
        1 artillery and 5 infantry moved from Budapest to Serbia
        1 artillery and 7 infantry moved from Budapest to Romania
        2 artilleries and 6 infantry moved from Bohemia to Galicia
        2 artilleries and 12 infantry moved from Vienna to Galicia
        2 artilleries and 6 infantry moved from Tyrolia to Switzerland

    Combat - AustroHungarians
        Battle in Romania
            AustroHungarians attack with 3 artilleries and 13 infantry
            Neutral_Allied defend with 1 artillery and 5 infantry
            AustroHungarians win, taking Romania from Neutral_Allied with 3 artilleries and 10 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 10
            Casualties for AustroHungarians: 3 infantry
            Casualties for Neutral_Allied: 1 artillery and 5 infantry
        Battle in Serbia
            AustroHungarians attack with 3 artilleries and 11 infantry
            Neutral_Allied defend with 1 artillery and 3 infantry
            AustroHungarians win, taking Serbia from Neutral_Allied with 3 artilleries and 8 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 4
            Casualties for AustroHungarians: 3 infantry
            Casualties for Neutral_Allied: 1 artillery and 3 infantry
        Battle in Switzerland
            AustroHungarians attack with 2 artilleries and 6 infantry
            Neutral_True defend with 1 artillery and 1 infantry
            AustroHungarians win, taking Switzerland from Neutral_True with 2 artilleries and 5 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 4
            Casualties for AustroHungarians: 1 infantry
            Casualties for Neutral_True: 1 artillery and 1 infantry

    Combat Move - AustroHungarians

    Place Units - AustroHungarians
        2 artilleries, 1 fighter and 4 infantry placed in Vienna

    Turn Complete - AustroHungarians
        AustroHungarians collect 32 PUs; end with 32 PUs

1914-game-8-ah1.tsvg

I ended up having more free time than I thought tonight, so I made AH1. No rush on your end. I know you plan on being busy until ~Wednesday.

I’d hardly call Russia buying INF all game and turtling in Moscow “correct play” in 1942.3, but to each his own. I have no tournament experience in this version but I imagine a marginally more aggressive Russia build (at least 1 Tank bought every few rounds) would yield better results.

I think bidding for turn order could be useful in the A&A system. More often than not the static turn order is what enables a lot of the dumber strategies out there (Italy-Germany can-openers against Russia, UK/US can-openers against Germany, etc., sinking entire fleets on the first turn of the game, etc.).

EDIT: In future A&A games, I mean.

@the_good_captain Game History

Round: 2

    Puchase Units - Germans
        Germans buy 4 artilleries, 2 fighters and 5 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs; 

    Combat Move - Germans
        6 artilleries, 1 fighter and 12 infantry moved from Poland to Livonia
        3 artilleries and 19 infantry moved from Silesia to Poland
        1 fighter moved from Berlin to Poland
        1 fighter and 1 infantry moved from Berlin to Hanover
        1 artillery moved from Berlin to Hanover
        1 infantry moved from Berlin to Hanover
        1 artillery and 3 infantry moved from Berlin to Silesia
        4 artilleries and 3 infantry moved from Ruhr to Alsace
        6 artilleries and 11 infantry moved from Belgium to Lorraine
        3 artilleries and 11 infantry moved from Switzerland to Lorraine
        1 infantry moved from Nigeria to Togoland

    Combat - Germans
        Battle in Livonia
            Germans attack with 6 artilleries, 1 fighter and 12 infantry
            Russians defend with 1 infantry
                Germans roll dice for 6 artilleries, 1 fighter and 12 infantry in Livonia, round 2 : 9/19 hits, 9.33 expected hits
                Russians roll dice for 1 infantry in Livonia, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
                1 infantry owned by the Russians lost in Livonia
            Germans win, taking Livonia from Russians with 6 artilleries, 1 fighter and 12 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3
            Casualties for Russians: 1 infantry
        Battle in Alsace
            Germans attack with 4 artilleries and 3 infantry
            French defend with 1 infantry
                Germans roll dice for 4 artilleries and 3 infantry in Alsace, round 2 : 3/7 hits, 3.50 expected hits
                French roll dice for 1 infantry in Alsace, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
                1 infantry owned by the French lost in Alsace
            Germans win, taking Alsace from French with 4 artilleries and 3 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3
            Casualties for French: 1 infantry

    Combat Move - Germans

    Place Units - Germans
        4 artilleries, 2 fighters and 5 infantry placed in Berlin

    Turn Complete - Germans
        Germans collect 43 PUs; end with 43 PUs

Combat Hit Differential Summary :

French regular : -0.50
Russians regular : -0.50
Germans regular : -0.83

I was hoping for a grindout in Ukraine but the numbers just aren’t there following AH2/R2. That being said, I’m not ready to call the game by any means, just wanted to explain myself after getting blasted out of the water there.

1914-game-8-g2.tsvg

@taamvan Yes, but with no Tanks Russia can’t attack Germany ever or even strafe their positions. You’re just letting them run all over Russia and gobble up IPCs. Russia’s base income is lower than Germany’s and the US/UK need at least 3-4 rounds to establish and secure a Fighter Conga Line to Moscow (I typically use a Carrier on the US East Cost -> whatever relevant UK SZ you can manage to hold -> Mosocw, but your mileage may vary based on how your Germany plays).

I agree with your assessment though. If you have poor luck during the opening you’re going to lose as Allies every time. That can be said for most A&A versions, though.