@cds I was more trying to make the point that there’s tons of Axis & Allies maps out there beyond Classic in this day and age, so there has to be at least one game that will scratch your particular itch.
Some people still prefer Classic despite being aware of all the other scenarios. Even I prefer Revised and Anniversary over G40 (which is most peoples’ favorite).
@franklin_cain said in Canada's distinct ownership icons:
Regarding the distinct ownership icons used for the Canadian territories, I have these questions…
- Why? That is, why did/does Canada need to have its territories marked differently from the rest of the UK?
This one is actually a bit interesting. Way back when these games were first coming out, Pacific 1940 and Europe 1940 were released about a year apart from one another, with Pacific 1940 coming out first. When P40 was first being revealed (as the entire G40 experience was hyped to the moon, information was drip-fed to folks via semi-regular updates from Larry), the map for Pacific 1940 got its own dedicated update.
You may or may not know from poking around this site, but A&A actually has a rather large following in Canada, so the fact that Canada clearly had its own territory, distinct from UK, coupled with the facts that:
hopes were high that Canada was in fact going to be its own playable country. However, when Europe 1940 was being revealed, and the playable countries were announced, there was no unique Canada faction. Instead, the Canada territory markers were given some excuse like “to pay tribute to the heroism/exploits that Canadians made during World War II”, citing stuff like Canadian Action during D-Day, etc.
So, tl;dr: the Canada markers mean nothing, but are a neat tease at what could have been.
- Why wasn’t Newfoundland/Labrador so marked as well? (It is part of Canada, isn’t it?) Was this an error?
IIRC, historically, Newfoundland wasn’t part of the Dominion of Canada, and during the 30s and 40s was a direct colony of Britain. An actual Canadian probably knows this history better than me though. I just used Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_and_Labrador#Commission_of_Government_and_Canadian_Confederation)
The problems you’re describing with the Zombies extremely favoring the Allies by virtue of existing is the main problem we all found with the main AAZ game way back when, too. We never really did find a way to overcome the odds aside from bidding.
@JuliusBorisovBeamdog Whoops. Must have missed that in the interview itself. Sorry about that.
Don’t take my (admittedly) harsh tone the wrong way. I am definitely looking forward to playing this game on release and am glad to have a representative from Beamdog on this website in communication with the (more hardcore) fans.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I fully understand what this game is for the time being. I’m just expressing hope that this game becomes a starting point for something bigger instead of just a one-off deal. A hope I’m sure you and your team share as well.
Looking forward to getting in the Early Access when the time comes.
@the_good_captain Game History
Round: 4
Puchase Units - Ottomans
Condition TankProductionOttomans: Ottomans has their production frontier changed to: lateWarProduction
Ottomans buy 6 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;
Combat Move - Ottomans
1 artillery and 2 infantry moved from Ankara to Syrian Desert
1 artillery and 1 infantry moved from Trans-Jordan to Smyrna
1 artillery and 6 infantry moved from Constantinople to Ankara
1 artillery and 2 infantry moved from Serbia to Albania
3 artilleries and 11 infantry moved from Romania to Sevastopol
1 infantry moved from Bulgaria to Romania
2 fighters and 1 infantry moved from Ankara to Constantinople
Combat - Ottomans
Ottomans creates battle in territory Trans-Jordan
Battle in Syrian Desert
Ottomans attack with 1 artillery and 2 infantry
British defend with 1 infantry
Ottomans roll dice for 1 artillery and 2 infantry in Syrian Desert, round 2 : 0/3 hits, 1.33 expected hits
British roll dice for 1 infantry in Syrian Desert, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
British and Ottomans reach a stalemate
Battle in Trans-Jordan
Ottomans attack with 1 infantry
British defend with 2 artilleries and 1 infantry
Ottomans roll dice for 1 infantry in Trans-Jordan, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.33 expected hits
British roll dice for 2 artilleries and 1 infantry in Trans-Jordan, round 2 : 2/3 hits, 1.50 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the Ottomans lost in Trans-Jordan
British win with 2 artilleries and 1 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is -3
Casualties for Ottomans: 1 infantry
Battle in Albania
Ottomans attack with 1 artillery and 2 infantry
British defend with 1 infantry
Ottomans roll dice for 1 artillery and 2 infantry in Albania, round 2 : 2/3 hits, 1.33 expected hits
Italians roll dice for 1 infantry in Albania, round 2 : 0/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the British lost in Albania
Ottomans win, taking Albania from Italians with 1 artillery and 2 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3
Casualties for British: 1 infantry
Combat Move - Ottomans
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Ottomans to Trans-Jordan: 1 infantry
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
Place Units - Ottomans
6 infantry placed in Constantinople
Turn Complete - Ottomans
Ottomans collect 18 PUs; end with 18 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Italians regular : -0.50
Ottomans regular : -1.00
British regular : 0.00
I moved all but one INF out of TJ but forgot to edit it out/edit it back in so I just put it back during NCM (it didn’t score a hit on any of your guys anyway).
@Panzerboy0191 That “National Advantages” (i.e. special units/rules for each faction) are not in Revised, but having Italy + China as playable countries and having two scenarios (1941 and 1942) more than make up for that in terms of casual enjoyment.
The game’s not as balanced as Revised, but it’s not extremely unbalanced either. You should definitely pick it up. Easily in the top 3 A&A games alongside Revised and G40.
Considering neither of my actual favorites (Revised and Anniversary) are listed, I’m going to do the mature thing and vote for 1941, the worst game in the series.
Geez, that’s an insanely strong strategy by your opponent. I definitely didn’t come up with that idea in particular (best I ever managed was an Allied strat to purposely suicide into territories to trigger the “Zombie Apocalypse” game-end condition.
I honestly don’t know how I’d deal with a strategy like that by the UK/US as the Axis. Seems like a game design oversight to me, and a pretty bad one.
Haven’t seen any activity related to A&A Online in a while. Steam Page hasn’t been updated since the AMA back in late March.
Just wondering if anyone’s heard anything about when the Early Access will become accessible to folks other than the “chosen few,” so to speak.
@the_good_captain Yeah we can do that.
TBH I went for the KIF as a “let’s try it” sort of thing since that strategy was only built/tested on LHTR. I never bothered with it on OOB because I assumed the game would play out more-or-less exactly like ours did (I already gave my 3 paragraph rant on it above).
I probably won’t make R1 until the morning but get the game ready and I’ll get on it.
If you’re interested/don’t recall them, LHTR are here: https://axisandallies.fandom.com/wiki/Larry_Harris_1914_Tournament_Rules
It’s a pretty big deviation from OOB though (other than the two-move thing, it basically applies a limited version of RR to every country in the game) so it’s pretty far from the sorts of changes you usually advocate (i.e. adhering to the base rules of the game as much as possible).
Round 1
From what I was told, my opponents were the previous year’s champions. They played well save for the very last turn of the game, so that does check out.
Side: Axis
Bid Die Roll: Lost
Bid: 0
(technically “Axis +2”, but the convention’s rules say that you may not bank bid IPCs. This may seem strange if you’re used to online play, where banking bids is allowed. There was also no rule against putting multiple bid units in the same territory, but the bids here were so low that it was never an issue.)
J1:
Buy: 2 TT/1 BOMB, bank 5 IPC
-CV/2 FTR/BB attacks SZ35 (British India fleet)
-3 INF/2 FTR/BOMB attacks Yunnan (Chinese FTR)
-2 INF/TANK attacks Fukien (amphib, INF is from Okinawa, TANK is from Japan)
-2 INF/1 FTR attacks Hupeh (1 Chinese INF)
-2 INF/2 FTR attacks Suiyuan (2 Chinese INF)
The point of this opening is that I do not attack Pearl Harbor. This accomplishes two things:
1.) Puts the odds of all China fights at ~99%. This prevents any disasters that could throw the game off the rails.
2.) Preserves most if not all of Japan’s fleet (it’s possible to lose the CV in India if the Allies roll well), which helps protect against USA later.
3.) Allows me to keep 1 INF in Manchuria and land 3 FTRs there, to prevent any Soviet walk-ins during R1.
Luck-wise, the battles went well enough.
Collects 35, ends on 40
R1
Buy: 8 INF
USSR went for what is considered the standard line for Allies at Gen Con:
-Attacks Ukraine with 3 INF/1 ART/BOMB
-Attacks Belo with 6 INF/FTR
-Attacks E. Ukr. with everything in range (3 INF/1 ART/4 TANK)
The odds on these are:
Belo - 99%
E. Ukr - 97%
Ukr - 94% (odds of taking the territory, not winning the fight outright)
This seems fine enough, but the odds of winning both E. Ukr and Ukr are .97*.94 = 91%, meaning that in roughly 1-in-10 games something is going to go wrong during this opening.
I bring up this statistic because this game proved to the “1-in-10” for my opponents. The Ukraine fight failed with 1 BOMB retreating Vs. the TANK. This led my opponent to retreat from E. Ukr. after reducing the German stack there to 2 TANK (the Germans rolled well on the first defensive combat roll, and the Allied Team wanted to prevent their TANKs from being destroyed by a German counterattack during G1 (they rolled Ukraine first and thus knew that the Germans had an extra tank available)).
The only compensation to the Soviets was that they cleared Belo with 0 losses.
Collects 25
G1
Buy: 1 FTR/9 INF
-INF+TANK from France load onto SZ13 TT.
-TT (INF/TANK loaded)/DD/FTR (Bulgaria-Romania) attacks SZ15 (Egypt SZ, 1 DD)
-2 INF/2 TANK/1 BOMB attacks Egypt (1 INF/1 TANK amphib)
-2 SS/1 FTR (France) attacks Africa fleet.
-All other available forces strafe Belorussia.
The point of the build is to compensate for the potential lost BOMB in Egypt with the FTR, and the INF are to fill production slots start a INF-push towards E. Ukr (forking Caucasus/Moscow) or Belo (forking Karelia/Moscow) depending on the game.
The Egypt fight stats are:
Fleet battle - 93% win, 4% transport survives (also a win), 3% loss
Egypt battle - 43% win, 8.5% draw (also a win, see explanation below), 48.5% loss
This fight is not necessarily intended to be a win (unless Axis receive a bid, in which case your odds jump to 68% (3 bid/INF) or 75% (4 bid/ART)). Rather, the intent is to reduce the number of units UK can possibly bring into the ME/India as much as possible. Reducing the stack in this way, even at the potential cost of the German Bomber, forces UK to vacate TJ during B1 or risk having the entire ME stack blasted away by the Italians during I1. In either case, as long as Germany isn’t completely destroyed on the Egypt attack (which can happen), the Euro-Axis will take the Suez during round 1, which will set up a 1-2 punch of India during I2/J3 (which is an excellent counter to a hypothetical B1 UK IC play). If UK does not build the IC Italy can just take India itself, which allows Japan to keep its fleet in better position to stave off advances by the US and play into the mid/late game at a large advantage.
The Belo fight is self-explanatory. Strafe the stack there and fall back to prevent any counterattacks. This puts the Soviets on the back-foot for most of the game, given the ~6 turn time limit.
In this game, the Egypt rolls went exceptionally well, and Germany took the territory with 2 TANK/BOMB left (so only 2 losses). This paired with the bad Soviet rolls during R1 caused major problems for the Allies for the rest of the game, to the point where if it was a casual game I would have offered to just start over for a more fair experience. Winning this way isn’t fun for anyone involved, and I hope I was able to get that feeling across to my opponents at the time.
Collects 34
B1
Buy: CV/TT/FTR
Nothing too special here. Fleet got consolidated as you’d expect and the air power from UK attacked the bare German navy (I rolled +1 there. They made the decision to drop both FTRs instead of keeping one for the CV). They also went to Norway for a walk-in (I moved everything to Finland during Germany’s NCM). Everything else is about what you’d expect, but I don’t think the India stack went back to Persia to cover the retreat of the TJ stack, which caused problems during G2.
Collects 34
I1
Buy: 3 INF, bank 1 IPC
Nothing special here. Just walk-ins @ Egypt and TJ while shuffling forward the spares on the mainland. FTR went to Egypt to be in-range of a potential I2 India crush.
Collects 11, ends on 12
A1
Buy: 2 CV/1 FTR
This was the usual Gen Con strategy for Allies, which is to move all units towards the Pacific to prepare for a KJF push. The East Coast DD moved to the Africa SZ along with Bomber support to clean out the German sub there.
China bulked up it’s remaining forces in Ningxia to defend together. They built 1 INF in Chinghai (the territory next to USSR)
Collects 38
J2
Buy: 3 BOMB, bank 4 IPCs
-UK left their Africa TT in SZ33 (in 2-range from India SZ), so I sent an empty CV to kill it (this minimizes how many resources are left out of position for the critical fleet showdown that is fast approaching).
-BB from India to SZ36 (SEA), all available transports to SZ36 (the ones from Japan pick up all available units from Tokyo, the one from China stops at Philippines and picks up the 2 INF there).
-1 INF (Suiyuan)/1 TANK (Fukien)/3 FTR (Man.)/2 BOMB attack Ningxia (main Chinese stack)
-1 INF (Hupeh) walks into Sikang
-1 INF (Yunnan)/2 FTR (India SZ, FIC) attacks Burma (1 INF)
The IJN consolidates in SZ61 (China coast), the air ball consolidates on either the available CV or Manchuria. Everything is now in-range in case USA tries to move out during A2. This is also the point of the Bomber spam, stalling out the American advance in the Pacific by means of threat projection with high firepower. This will become evident as the game progresses.
Collects 37, ends on 41
R2
Buy: 7 INF/1 ART
Straight defense from the Soviets. Just a walk-in @ E. Ukr (I left it empty to do the Belo strafe) + a trade in Ukr. (I had 1 INF there to block). Siberia stack did not move forward. I suspect they feared the potential for the IJN to turn around and wipe them out with help from the air-ball.
Collects 26
G2
Buy: 10 INF/2 TANK
Germany took all available air power to blast through Persia alongside the 2 Tanks from the previous turn. Normally this level of effort wouldn’t really be necessary, but given the single-elimination format I didn’t want to take any chances. Beyond that, all I did was walk forward with Germany across the front. I heavily stacked Belorussia with everything available to exploit the fact that USSR was building more-or-less all INF, and was thus not capable of effectively counterattacking (because their units were split between Caucasus and Moscow).
Other than that, everything else marched forward. 2 INF stayed behind in Berlin to join the build just to make sure UK didn’t try for a lucky Berlin attack.
Collects 38 (E. Ukr. trade failed because the INF died)
B2
Buy: 5 INF/TT/FTR, bank 2 IPCs
They went all in to attack Karelia and got it. At this point UK was already getting air units funneled to Moscow ASAP because of Germany’s strong position.
Collects 32, ends on 34
I2
Buy: 2 TANK, save 2 IPCs
I bought Tanks because UK’s fleet is in the White Sea, and thus unable to hit France on B3. These tanks will be making a beeline for the Russian front to make threats where possible.
Regardless, the Italians sail through the Suez and crash into India with everything available. The forces in Europe walk forward to join up with the Germans where possible. They blitzed E. Ukr on the way as the Germans killed the blocker but failed to take the territory during their turn.
Collects 15, ends on 17
A2
Buy: CV/2 FTR, saves 4 IPC
Nothing special here. Just bulking up before moving out later.
Collects 38, ends on 42
J3
Buy: 3 BOMB, banks 5 IPC
With India gone, I made a minor over-extension in what was probably the first mistake of the match. I moved the IJN to Philippines and took 6 land units (5 from FIC + 1 INF picked up in Borneo). The idea was to fork Hawaii and Australia, and force the US to make a move, but the Philippines SZ had a slight coverage issue, which will become apparent on A3.
In Asia, I intentionally kept the last Chinese holdout alive because I wanted to start moving land units back to cover the inevitable advance of the Siberian stack.
Collects 37, ends on 42
Note that because I am spamming bombers and the Allies are spamming CV/FTR combos, and that Japan’s income is on-par with USA’s, Japan actually has the advantage in the Pacific the longer this stalling/buildup goes on for.
R3
Buy: 7 INF/1 TANK
Soviets continue to defend Caucasus/Moscow and trade. One neat trick was that they parked a sub in SZ13 (Italy’s SZ). If I were buying more navy, this could have caused annoying problems with loading/unloading, but it didn’t end up mattering here.
Collects 25
G3
Buy 7: TANK/1 INF
The point of the Tanks is to go for a timing-attack on Moscow for G5. UK hasn’t been giving the best support to Moscow or putting on the best pressure, and Soviets are still building mostly INF because of the extremely poor dice they got during the early rounds. Thus, the plan is to send the big tank stack to E. Poland G4, and then break for Moscow G5. If Soviets defend well and the odds aren’t looking good anymore, everything will go for Caucasus instead to go for a last-second VC grab.
The only battle other than walk-ins/blitz moves this turn was having the Belo stack turn around and smash Karelia.
Collects 41
B3
Buy: 7 INF/FTR, banks 3 IPC
Without much to do, UK gets the fleet back in the Atlantic and goes for NWE (it’s the only relevant target and could force a response from Axis).
Collects 31, ends on 34
I3
Buy: 4 INF/TANK
Italy also doesn’t have much to do outside of their support role. They do take the India guys and charge down to Australia to soften up the VC for a future JP walk-in (or outright take it if they get lucky enough). The battle ends in a draw, which is good enough as now JP doesn’t have to send any fleet out of position to grab the VC.
Collects 14
A3
Buy: 1 FTR/2 BOMB, banks 8 IPC
USA makes their move, which is to specifically move to SZ58 (one SZ north of Iwo Jima, still borders the Japan SZ (62)). The Allied Team’s intent was to exploit the fact that the IJN based out of the Philippines cannot reach SZ58 from their current position, meaning the air has to go alone.
Collects 38, ends on 46
J4
Buy: 2 FTR/4 INF/2 TANK
The buy was to hedge my bets in case attacking the US Fleet fails, of course.
When looking over the position, I came to the realization that the positioning of the US Fleet has one exploitable weakness in that it is not over an island. This means that the Allies need to mind their OOL or I can retreat and force the loss of multiple FTRs for free.
With that in mind, I attacked in everything in range. The battle was roughly:
4 FTR/8 BOMB
Vs.
SS/4 CV/2 DD/1 CA/1 BB/7 FTR
Obviously a terrible odds fight. I didn’t make any attempt at calc’ing it by-hand at the tournament it so my numbers here may be slightly off. The point was always to strafe, of course.
The second half of this plan was to move the Philippines fleet to Hawaii (save for 1 TT, which walked into Australia). The plan here of course was to do everything in my power to convince the USN to turn around during A4 to retake Hawaii instead of making a play in Asia.
The air battle worked. I lost a large number of air units but the Allied Team took CVs as losses before any FTRs, so I was able to withdraw after 1 round of combat and force the loss of 3 FTRs for nothing. This significantly weakened the USN, which would make it easier to kill on the following turn provided they went to Hawaii as expected. Going to the Philippines during J3 was definitely a major error.
That being said, that battle in the SZ could have very easily gone terribly for me and put me on the back-foot in the Pacific. I was lucky the Allied Team got the OOL wrong or things may have gotten very ugly.
Collects 40
R4
Buy: 7 INF/ART
Continued trades/minor pushes. However, the Soviets did divert their tanks + a decent INF stack from Caucasus to go to Persia. The intent of course was to get India back (since it was basically empty). They clobbered the small German/Italian force there no-problem, but now several INF are out of position for the planned Moscow push.
Collects 22
G4
*Buy: 7 INF/2 TANK/FTR
Every single unit possible went to Belorussia to prepare for the final attack on G5.
Collects 34
B4
Buy: 7 INF/FTR, banks 3 IPC
-Picks up 1 INF from NWE + 7 from UK + all available air and attacks Karelia.
-Rest of the INF from NWE go to France.
-The INF/ART duo from South Africa have finally reached Egypt.
The Allied team is likely thinking I am going to turn around to attack Karelia again.
Collects 38, ends on 41
I4
Buy: 4 INF, banks 2 IPC
The Italians in Russia join the main stack in Belo. The navy in Australia goes to the Philippines to get ready for a potential counterattack if the Americans go to either Pearl or Japan. All units in Italy proper go to retake France.
Collects 14, ends of 16
A4
Buy: 2 CV/FTR/DD
The buy is to land all the FTRs purchased the previous turn.
As hoped, the Americans turn their fleet and air ball around and pound Pearl Harbor to retake Hawaii. Destroying the Japanese Fleet causes the Americans to lose most of their ships (everything except the Carriers and Battleship), and also take a few Bomber losses to make sure the Carriers and Fighters stay alive. This plays directly into Japan’s plan as you will see immediately.
Collects 38
J5
Buy: 3 BOMB, banks 4 IPC
The Bombers from Japan move out to hit Pearl. I don’t remember whether the Bombers alone sunk the fleet but even if they didn’t, the point of the attack was to do enough damage to the Americans that the Italian navy was able to follow-up and sink what was left before America could move again.
Collects 39, ends on 43
R5
Buy: 7 INF, banks 1 IPC
Everything began walking back to Moscow at this point, as my opponents sensed the danger they were now in. However, they also sent 1 INF to retake Archangel and also bought 7 INF instead of specifically buying 6 units for Moscow to marginally improve their odds of survival.
The Siberian stack also moved up at this point, even thought it’s a bit late in the game for that to help.
Collects 29, ends with 30
G5
Buy: 8 INF/2 TANK
The Battle for Moscow was:
17 INF
1 ART
16 TANK
6 FTR
1 BOMB
Vs.
26 INF
1 ART
1 BOMB
5 TANK
5 FTR
AA
I Calc’d the battle retroactively, and it says this was a 72% German win.
Germany won here, but not a lot survived. Only 2 TANK made it through for Germany (I purposely killed air first to increase my odds of holding the territory through the following Soviet turn). The Allied Team rolled much better than I did, but for some reason insisted on keeping their Bomber alive until after all of their Infantry died. I imagine this at least somewhat made them roll under for the battle.
Ends with 34. Stole all of USSR’s money from taking the capital so ends on 64
B5
Buy: 2 FTR/1 TANK/2 ART/3 INF
Goes to France with everything that can make it. The force in Karelia tries to get in-range to relieve Moscow. The Egypt force starts taking free IPCs.
Collects 40
I5
Buy: 5 INF, banks 1 IPC
Anything in-range gets into Moscow to help defend. I forget whether the Italian Navy needed to mop up the Americans at Pearl or not. I am assuming that they did.
Collects 12, ends on 13
A5
Buy: 2 TT/2 FTR, banks 4 IPC
If the Italian navy moved up, the Americans killed it with their air. Either way, the new navy stayed parked in U.S. West Coast to bulk back up.
Collects 38, ends on 42
J6
Buy: 3 BOMB, banks 7 IPC
Since America was all the way back home, Japan was free to hit the Siberians with everything in-range.
Collects 40, ends on 47
R6
Can’t buy
Throws everything they have at Moscow. It fails.
G6
Buy; 2 FTR/14 INF
At this point the game is effectively over, so I fan out, lock down every VC I can reach, and bolster Moscow and Berlin to stop any last-second tricks.
Collects 42
B6
Buy; FTR/4 TANK/3 INF
UK All-ins @ Germany. It fails, then the Allies resign.
Axis Win
Not much to discuss here. The miss on the positioning of the Russians doomed them. The attempt to break out of Caucasus and go to Persia specifically is what cost the Allies everything. I would have liked to play a more standard game without the Axis’s insane luck during R1/G1 because that set the tone for how the European half of the board played out and it made life very difficult for the Soviets/very easy for the Germans.
(2/6)
Europe 1999 was my first A&A game. I spent hours back in the day making my own custom scenarios for it (super-easy because they had every country from interwar Europe as its own territory on the map).
Terrible for balance, but a fun intro game and even more fun for wacky custom scenarios (Making Italy its own faction, NATO Vs. Warsaw Pact, etc.)
While there are folks who have done map files for the other editions, and could probably do this for you, the majority of the community here despises this game for no good reason (because it has Zombies in it and was made post-Larry Harris, mainly).
I know myself, @thrasher1 and @taamvan appreciate/play this game on some level, but I don’t think any of us have the technical know-how to make said file for you. That being said, I’ve tagged the two of them just in case. You never know.
Glad to see you enjoy the game for mostly the same reason I do. Smaller maps are good to have around for occasions when you want to play A&A, but don’t want to dedicate 1-2 entire days to playing a larger scenario like G40/GW36.
!
Great to hear! I still check steam every few days waiting for the release, haha.
@domanmacgee Game History
Round: 1
Puchase Units - British
British buy 3 artilleries, 1 fighter and 4 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;
Combat Move - British
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Adding units owned by Contested to Persia: 1 coastal_artillery
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
1 cruiser moved from SZ 19 to SZ 14
1 infantry moved from Rhodesia to Belgian Congo
1 infantry moved from British East Africa to Belgian Congo
1 infantry moved from Anglo Egyptian Sudan to Belgian Congo
1 artillery and 1 infantry moved from Union of South Africa to Angola
British take Angola from Neutral_Allied
2 infantry moved from India to SZ 29
2 infantry moved from SZ 29 to Persia
2 artilleries and 4 infantry moved from India to Persia
2 infantry moved from Egypt to SZ 19
2 infantry and 1 transport moved from SZ 19 to SZ 27
2 infantry moved from SZ 27 to Arabia
British take Arabia from Neutral_Allied
2 artilleries and 4 infantry moved from Egypt to Trans-Jordan
1 infantry moved from Scotland to Yorkshire
1 infantry moved from Yorkshire to Wales
Combat - British
Battle in Persia
British attack with 2 artilleries and 6 infantry
Neutral_True defend with 1 artillery and 3 infantry
British roll dice for 1 battleship in Persia, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 0.67 expected hits
British roll dice for 2 artilleries and 6 infantry in Persia, round 2 : 2/8 hits, 3.33 expected hits
Neutral_True roll dice for 1 artillery, 1 coastal_artillery and 3 infantry in Persia, round 2 : 2/5 hits, 2.50 expected hits
2 infantry owned by the Neutral_True, 2 infantry owned by the British and 1 artillery owned by the Neutral_True lost in Persia
Neutral_True and British reach a stalemate
. Battle score for attacker is 4
Casualties for British: 2 infantry
Casualties for Neutral_True: 1 artillery and 2 infantry
Battle in Belgian Congo
British attack with 3 infantry
Germans defend with 2 infantry
British roll dice for 3 infantry in Belgian Congo, round 2 : 2/3 hits, 1.00 expected hits
Germans roll dice for 2 infantry in Belgian Congo, round 2 : 2/2 hits, 1.00 expected hits
2 infantry owned by the Germans and 2 infantry owned by the British lost in Belgian Congo
British win, taking Belgian Congo from Germans with 1 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 0
Casualties for British: 2 infantry
Casualties for Germans: 2 infantry
Battle in Trans-Jordan
British attack with 2 artilleries and 4 infantry
Ottomans defend with 1 artillery and 2 infantry
British roll dice for 2 artilleries and 4 infantry in Trans-Jordan, round 2 : 0/6 hits, 2.67 expected hits
Ottomans roll dice for 1 artillery and 2 infantry in Trans-Jordan, round 2 : 1/3 hits, 1.50 expected hits
1 infantry owned by the British lost in Trans-Jordan
Ottomans and British reach a stalemate
. Battle score for attacker is -3
Casualties for British: 1 infantry
Combat Move - British
Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Turning on Edit Mode
EDIT: Removing units owned by Contested from Persia: 1 coastal_artillery
EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
Place Units - British
3 artilleries, 1 fighter and 4 infantry placed in India
Turn Complete - British
British collect 32 PUs; end with 32 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
Germans regular : 1.00
Ottomans regular : -0.50
Neutral_True regular : -0.50
British regular : -2.67
I bungled the coastal artillery mechanic again but here’s the breakdown of what ended up happening:
UK Battleship Bombard: 1 hit
UK INF fire: 0 hits
UK ART fire: 2 hits
UK total: 3 hits
Edited in Coastal ART + 3 neutral INF + 1 INF fire (all @3): 2 hits.
So since no UK INF hit anyway I just accepted the outcome of the battle and edited the Coastal ART back out of Persia once the battle was over. Fortunately this time there was no actual impact on the outcome of the battle (Persia survives with 1 INF remaining). LMK if you’re all-good with this, otherwise just make whatever adjustments you need during O1.
Round 2
My opponents this time, by their own admission, were not expecting to win the tournament. From what they told me, they were happy to have gotten out of the first round this time. They were very friendly and we each let each other to make minor adjustments to previous moves as long as it wasn’t something that was a retroactive reaction to a die-roll. I think each of us changed one detail of our game (I let them modify a build, they let me play China’s turn when I forgot to at one point, since Japan hadn’t moved yet).
Side: Allies
Bid Die Roll: Won
Bid: Axis +4, placed an ART in Burma
I was hoping they’d give me Axis +3 but I later learned that the attitude at Gen Con has shifted from “Allies are stronger” to “Axis are stronger”, so giving the Axis any bid was seen as strange on my part.
J1:
Buy: IC/2 TT, banks 2 IPC
These opponents did what is more of less the standard Gen Con opening for Japan (with some minor adjustments), which is:
-BOMB/SS/DD/FTR (Caroline Islands SZ) attacks Pearl (usually they bring the CA also, but this team did not).
-BB/CV/2 FTR (DEI SZ) + 1 FTR (Formosa) attacks India fleet.
-3 INF/ART/FTR (Burma+FIC + bid) + 1 FTR (Man.) attacks Yunnan (Chinese FTR)
-2 INF/1 TANK (amphib) attacks Fukien
-4 INF (3 from Kiangsu, 1 from Man.)/FTR (Japan) attacks Suiyuan (normally they try to hit all Chinese territories, but this team did not attack Hupeh).
These battles mostly worked, but Japan did eat some significant losses (1 FTR lost in Indian Ocean fight, 3 INF died in Yunnan). Sparing Hupeh was a strange move though in my opinion.
The IC went to the Philippines. The 2 TT were completely undefended in SZ62, meaning US Bombers could snipe them A1.
Collects 33, ends on 35
R1
Buy: 2 INF/2 ART/2 TANK
My USSR opener is:
-6 INF + BOMB to Belo
-All other units in-range to E. Ukr. (No. I do not attack Ukraine).
-NCM SS to SZ2 (UK Battleship).
-NCM all air + 2 INF from Kazakh to Caucasus.
-NCM 2 INF from Novo to Chinghai (Chinese border territory)
-NCM all Siberians in-range to Stanovoj, UNLESS Manchuria was vulnerable (it wasn’t in this game).
-NCM all other Siberians west.
-NCM AA from Leningrad -> Belo, NCM AA from Moscow -> E. Ukr.
This idea is to prevent the E. Ukr. stack from being countered without heavy losses for the Germans. Additionally, if a strafe is attempted on the Belorussia stack and Germany accidentally takes the territory, the E. Ukr. stack + 1 INF/2 TANK in Moscow can step up and wipe them out.
The secondary idea is to have 10 INF ready to start making progress in China. The Siberians will, in most cases, step up to Bury during R2 to threaten Manchuria and (hopefully) force the IJN to turn around and fight it. If they don’t turn around, the Soviets go on a rampage in China and make a break for the coastal VCs. The 2 INF in western China advance slowly, using air support to pick off isolated Japanese land units and win the occasional territory back for China before their turn (which sometimes helps them build 1 more INF than they would have otherwise). If Japan is particularly thin on land units this can often snowball out of control and lead to China building 3/4 INF per turn, which is usually enough to either cripple Japan or force them to spend huge amounts of money to get under control (which draws them away from the other Pacific VCs).
In this game, there was nothing special to report about the opener.
Collects 26
G1
Buy: 4 TANK/CV/INF
For reasons I can’t understand, the Axis players at Gen Con were absolutely obsessed with German naval strategies. From what I gathered during prep/research, the winner of last year’s tournament used a Baltic Carrier to good effect against an unprepared opponent, so it looks like a lot of the other teams this year made it a point to copy the strategy and put their own spin on it.
Carrier opening aside:
-This Axis team took a battle of 1 German Sub Vs. the American East Coast fleet. The odds of this are effectively 1/3 success (German sub wins) and 2/3 failure (US Destroyer wins, or draw, meaning the US Transports survive). In this game, it was a draw.
-They sent a very large amount of force (DD/SUB/BOMB/2 FTR (1 from Germany, 1 from France) to attack the UK Fleet off of Africa.
-To support this move, they needed to NCM the French INF/TANK to libya via the transport and then move the Libya units to Morocco (to protect the FTR from Germany that needs to land in Morocco-Algeria due to only having 1 move left).
-The only other attack was a large ball of INF/ART/FTR attacking Belo (which had an AA). The AA missed and the Germans had good enough luck in taking Belo with low losses.
-The Axis Team intentionally held their Tanks back (from both Belo and Karelia), probably to avoid losing any in a counterattack on R2. They instead moved as many as possible to E. Pol. to create a main stack.
Collects 38
B1
Buy: 2 DD/1 CV, banks 1 IPC
Germany didn’t kill the UK Battleship G1, so I can move that to SZ6 (Scappa Flow) and place my buy there to completely shut down the German navy and then kill it B2 (if Germany abandons it) or B3 (if Germany insists on continuing their buildup). I moved the Canadians into UK (to block Sealion in case it somehow becomes relevant) and used the other available UK transport to dump 1 INF into Norway.
Other than that, the rest of the UK plan is to consolidate forces in the Africa/ME/India area as quickly and efficiently as possible. There’s a total of 9 INF/2 ART/2 FTR/AA there, so if everything can get together, they can become a nigh-unkillable force in the region.
Collects 34, ends on 35
I1
Buy: 1 TT, banks 3 IPC
And so begins the other trend of this tournament. Italian TT openers. This slows Italy’s momentum down but played right can lead to big pressure later due to the BB/2 CR combo they have for bombards. Faced with a start like this, it was tempting to have Allies transition into KGF instead of KJF, but given that the game only lasts 6 turns, that isn’t really enough time to effectively defeat Italy or Germany and offset the number of VCs you lose in the Pacific (3: India, Australia, Hawaii). You’d need to hold Karelia + take 2 Euro-Axis VCs to win the game in that instance, which is easier said than done when both Italy/Germany can just transition into spamming Infantry and positioning Germany’s strong initial army well to keep Soviets in-check.
Strangely, the Italians went out of their way to take Gibraltar I1. I thought it was a setup for a 1-2 Sealion attempt at first, but that wasn’t it at all.
Collects 12, ends on 15
A1
Buy: 2 CV/1 FTR
I ended up being so tired/nervous from the unexpected openings across the board that I completely forgot to have USA send a bomber to kill the two undefended Japanese Transports for free (NCM to join the Siberians). That was a major unforced error, but fortunately it didn’t cause any disasters.
I open with USA in a near-identical way to how the rest of the players were doing it. I only start to deviate starting in round 2. I do sometimes send the East Coast crew to UK, but only if Germany built a TT G1 (signaling a legitimate Sealion threat).
There are two minor optimizations I do A1 that I did not see anyone else attempt:
1.) E. US Tank NCM to W. US (instead of going on the TT and not arriving there until A3).
2.) W. US TT goes to Hawaii and picks up an INF to bring back to W. US. Saves 3 IPCs later in the game if you need to fill more TTS.
China walked into Shanghai, which was empty, and stacked Hupeh. I tried to place both INF in Hupeh (which had 2 INF present at end-of-turn) but it caused a rules dispute. I think it’s technically a legal move, as that’s how TripleA implements it, but I was already feeling very far ahead in the position and didn’t want to ruin the positive mood that we all had at the table, so I played by the other team’s interpretation of the rules in this case.
Collects 38
J2
Buy: 2 FTR/3 INF/TANK, banks 1 IPC
Japan spent the turn building up for a J3 India crush by moving their TTs into position (the one that started the turn in China picked up 2 INF from Philippines to drop in FIC). They did make a questionable play by sending the entire Indian BB + 2 FTR to kill the lone African UK DD (the FTRs NCM’d back to the India SZ to land on the carrier from J1). But other than that Japan’s turn was spent cleaning out Hupeh and Kiangsu.
Japan based all of their air on the carriers and in Fukien at this point. I failed to properly evaluate the range on all the available aircraft at the time, which will cause some problems for me during A2/J3, as you will see soon.
2 of the INF from the build went to Philippines.
Collects 35, ends on 36
R2
Buy: 2 TANK/ART/4 INF
The Siberians and Chinese moved up to put more pressure on Japan (and to hopefully get them to turn around from India).
East Poland was under-stacked, so I stepped forward with the E. Ukr stack + all air + the 2 Tanks bought during R1. The battle was:
3 INF
2 ART
6 TANK
1 FTR
1 BOMB
Vs.
4 INF
5 TANK
2 FTR
I Calc’d it afterwards and it said it was 79% to win. I didn’t even want the kill. Just to clear all land units and maybe the Italian FTR if I was lucky, so I could retreat all the high-power Soviet units to E. Ukr. and continue stacking.
Instead, I ended up winning the fight with ~3 Tanks + the air left. This meant the tanks were going to die to the German counter, but now Germany is very thin on land units due to the naval buy, so my hope was to get them to stop building navy so UK can wipe the German fleet during B2 and clinch the game.
Collects 24
G2
Buy: BB/DD/2 INF/ART
The Axis Team at this point seemed to be losing confidence in their game, and were adamant on matching the UK Fleet piece for piece. However, despite this, they refused to play defensively to conserve their pieces on the board, taking aggressive trades basically everywhere.
They did, however, exploit the fact that the UK Cruiser was isolated from the rest of the fleet, and destroyed it with a Bomber + 2 Fighters from the Baltic Carrier.
Collects 43 (NOTE: When attempting to recreate the game, I am not sure how Germany made 43 IPC on this turn, I was only able to figure out how to get them to 40. May have been an error at the table).
B2
Buy: 4DD/INF
The plan here is to just keep the naval arms race going as USSR gradually turns back and defeats the Germans, abusing the fact that, since Germany is buying so much navy, they aren’t buying land units to keep up the Russian front.
The entire ME British stack united in Persia at this point, with two exceptions:
1.) The African INF/ART, who were stranded due to losing the TT during J2.
2.) The 2 UK FTRs (Egypt/Australia), who both NCM’d to Caucasus for reasons that will become clear during B3.
The plan is that, if Japan takes the bait and walks in with their land units (the air ball won’t be able to land in India during the turn it’s captured), UK can easily recapture during B3, and it will take Japan a while to put its transports back into position to make another attempt.
I also tried to trade Norway, but good luck from the Germans meant they rolled 3/3 hits on defense, killing both landing units + my UK Bomber.
Collects 28
I2
Buy: FTR/TANK
The Italians charged Brazil. The idea is to steal money but also force USA to build in the US East Coast (and not in the Pacific). Unfortunately, the fact that Italy split their fleet during I1 meant that their full fleet could not make it to Brazil I2. That, paired with the fact that the US Transports from the E. Coast were still in SZ20 (Panama Canal) at this early stage in the game meant that it was easy for America to turn around and face this threat.
Collects 16
A2
Buy: 2 TT/2 BOMB
The idea with the Bombers is to use their 6 movement to project threats across the board and scare Japan into not building anymore navy (or into trying and being destroyed constantly until the game is over). The transports are for running across the Pacific and lunging at the 3 Pacific VCs (Manila/Hong Kong/Shanghai) to K.O. the Axis.
To that effect, I moved the entire US Fleet to Iwo Jima and took the island. The hope is that Japan will turn around and only be able to face EITHER the US Fleet OR the Siberian stack, or try to fight BOTH and fail. If the American fleet survives, it + the Bombers will do significant if not fatal damage to the IJN on A3, but if the Japanese destroy the USN it’s OK as long as the Soviets get through and start causing chaos in China.
In the Atlantic, two of the US Bombers + the Panama Canal fleet had to turn around to deal with the Italians.
China walked forward and took Suiyuan. Their placement was in Sikang to prevent tank blitzes.
Collects 38
J3
Buy: 2 DD/6 INF, banks 2 IPC
The entire IJN moves to Philippines to prepare for combat while the transports go to India to link up with the fleet that went to Africa during J2 (and land in India in-force). They also try to desperately reinforce Manchuria against the incoming Soviets.
Destroyers go to Philippines SZ. INF go to Japan to prevent a US capital takedown.
Collects 37, ends on 39
R3
Buy: 6 INF/TANK, banks 1 IPC
I bought INF-heavy because of the losses I took during R2’s big attack. The Soviet’s big play this round was to crash the Siberian stack + Bomber into Manchuria. Other than that, they took a walk-in at Belo and took the time to rebuild. My current thought is to not take big risks in Europe because USA is going to win the game for me in the Pacific very shortly.
Collects 22, ends on 23
G3
Buy: 3 DD/TT/INF/ART/TANK
Based on what the Axis Team was discussing at the time, they seemed convinced that this buy was maintaining fleet parity with the UK, and was thus good enough to ward them off. This, however, failed to take into consideration the fact that the 2 UK Fighters in Caucasus can reach the Baltic in exactly 4 moves (meaning they can land on the Carrier I built B1, as long as it joints the combat). As you’ll see during B3, this mistake proves fatal for the Axis.
Germany tried transitioning into an economic game by charging its tanks into Africa. They also went heavy into Belorussia in an attempt to scare the Soviets into turtling Moscow.
Collects 43
B3
Buy: 2 FTR/INF/TANK, banks 1 IPC
The battle for the Baltic was;
1 CV
7 DD
4 FTR (2 from SZ6, 2 from Caucasus)
1 BB
Vs.
1 SS
1 CV
5 DD
1 CA
2 FTR
1 BB
I calc’d it afterwards and it was a 77% for UK to win.
The British also easily retook India.
Collects 29, ends on 30
I3
Buy: DD/TT
The Italians decided to spend the turn killing the US Transports off of Brazil without landing, as they wanted to guarantee the bombardment on the following turn (as bombarding this turn would have meant letting the US Transports live). This will prove to be a fatal mistake for the last of Italy’s navy, as will become obvious during B4.
Elsewhere, Italy retook Poland and pushed its last two NA/ME INF forward into Persia.
Collects 14, ends on 15
A3
Buy: 2 BOMB/FTR/INF
The FTR/INF pair are to defend US E. Coast in case something goes wrong during B4.
I sent the USN to destroy the Japanese fleet at the Philippines. The lone transport from Iwo Jima sacrificed itself to attack Shanghai with Bomber support.
The fleet battle was:
2 CV
1 SS
1 DD
1 CA
4 FTR
Vs.
1 SS
2 DD
1 CV
1 CA
2 FTR
1 BB
I retroactively Battle Calc’d it and it said 82% chance US Victory.
America’s attempt at sinking the Italian Battleship @ Brazil failed. The Shanghai attack also failed but succeeded at its true goal of grinding down the stack there to the point where the Soviets could finish it.
China took Hupeh by attacking with 3 INF.
Collects 38, ends on 39
J4
Buy: CV/2 FTR/INF, banks 2 IPC
The Axis team were in panic-mode at this point, as they did not expect the USN to be able to defeat the IJN. Instead of splitting their forces to mop up the USN and also try defending Shanghai, they sent 100% of everything @ Philippines and then NCM’d to either the Philippines SZ or back to Japan. This left Shanghai mostly undefended.
Collects 30, ends on 32
R4
Buy: 2 TANK/ART/3 INF
Sensing the end drawing near, USSR charged both the German Belo stack and the 1 remaining Japanese land unit in Shanghai. The Belo fight was roughly as follows:
11 INF
2 ART
3 TANK
1 FTR
1 BOMB
Vs.
9 INF
1 ART
6 TANK
AA
Battle Calc’ing afterwards says this was a 53% chance to win. The point wasn’t to win though, it was to grind down the German stack and then simply retreat to Moscow if needed. With Germany’s fleet destroyed Germany had basically no land units with nothing to show for it. UK was set to ramp up TT production and start landing all over Europe (they already did one landing in Poland after winning the naval battle on B3).
Collects 25
G4
Buy: 6 TANK/3 INF/ART
Germany loads all African troops onto the nearby Japanese transports (the ones from the India attack on J3) as part of a scheme I never got to see play out. Germany attempts to assume a defensive position in the Atlantic.
Collects 40
B4
Buy: 3 TT/3 INF
I send all available UK Air (3 FTR) from London to hit the Italian BB and NCM to Brazil. This makes the Axis Team resign, as their last hope in the game had apparently been to sneak the TT into Washington for a surprise Axis victory. At things now stood, Axis were going to lose by OOB Rules imminently, so their team gave up.
Allies Win
The Philippines IC was a novel idea, but it never accomplished anything of note. I moved out super quickly with the US Fleet because of the total lack of naval units build by Japan early. I was hoping to capitalize on their fleet being thin, and the Philippines IC (that now needs to be defended lest the Americans capture it and start pumping out units right next to Japan) ended up being an albatross around the IJN’s neck, as they were compelled to put themselves into a position where the Americans could easily rout them. This was a much more decisive game than the first round was. I don’t think the Japanese and German strategies paired with each other well, as both seemed oriented towards defensive play (under these rules, Axis have to capture 2 VCs to win unless they make an extraordinary amount of progress economically so as to surpass the Allies, which is difficult to do in just 6 turns or so).
(3/6)
The actual answer is “it depends”.
Yes, by the comparison you gave, Artillery are superior. Even in the editions where TANKs cost 5 IPC (Revised/AA50/etc.), INF/ART pairs are still superior because of the fact that you can buy 2 INF/1 ART (3 HP, 6 punch on defense) for the same cost as 2 TANK (2 HP, 6 punch on defense).
However, you also need to consider the advantage that TANKs have over INF/ART in that they can move two spaces. This is incredibly important and should not be overlooked. For example, let’s say we’re playing on 42SE, I’m playing as Germany, it’s my turn, and I have Karelia (Factory) and West Russia occupied currently. Let’s say that Moscow’s defenses are light at the moment, but in 3 turns or so the US/UK will be able to land enough troops in Europe to give me a serious headache unless I pull the luftwaffe back to defend France/Berlin/wherever. Under these circumstances, I’d prefer to be able to take down Moscow before the US/UK become a serious threat 3 turns from now, so I’m going to build 2 TANKs for the Karelia factory so they can 2-move to Moscow (Karelia -> West Russia -> Moscow) on my next turn to participate in the hypothetical Moscow takedown. If I was acting purely on being cost-efficient, I would buy some combination of INF/ART instead, allowing me one or two extra INF to defend against UK/US with, but lessening the amount of punch I’m going to have against Moscow and slowing my push down to the point where I may not be able to finish off Moscow for several more turns, if at all.
Similarly, most Japane strategies on several maps devolve into “build 1-2 factories on the Asian Mainland, then build as many TANKs as you can and head for Moscow/India)” at some point or another. They’re choosing TANKs over INF/ART because the 2-movement points of the TANKs allow Japan to rack up IPCs incredibly quickly, which makes up for your inefficient use of IPCs by giving you more to work with in later rounds. Of course, as the game drags on, Japan will switch over to INF, but the initial rush is almost always with TANKs.
I know the above example is a bit contrived, but you can see examples of it in practice in a lot of Axis openings, especially in G40, where players often opt to open with Strat Bombers G1, in spite of them being extremely cost-inefficient units, simply because of the incredible benefit that their 6 movement points provide.
Personally, I prefer TANKs as a whole, but not to the point where I’d build only TANKs all the time. A Russia player with their back to the wall in Moscow should not be building TANKs, for example. Neither should a Germany player who has lost the offensive initiative (and is instead playing defense while Japan wins the game).
EDIT: Grammar.
I don’t Larry was cashiered–I think he makes plenty of money off his association with AxA and Hasbro and he also makes fine new games. Why mess with that?
I don’t think it’s a “WOTC fired Larry thing”. I think it’s a “Larry doesn’t want anything to do with WOTC anymore” thing. As much as I personally don’t mind the zombies in AAZ I doubt someone like Larry would have accepted them and probably opted to leave WOTC/Hasbro and pursue his own thing with Nightingale Games, which I think is great. It’s just a shame he couldn’t get the rights to the A&A license on his way out.
I also dont think it behooves us to shit on the products or people who design them–its extremely unbecoming for people to look at a work or art or product they would never and could never create themselves and cynically dismiss it
Not sure if this part was directed at me specifically, but I defended AAZ from the people who mindlessly bashed on it for having zombies in it for ~6 months back when the game was coming out. I bought a copy and played a few games of it. The game is simply not good and after going to bat for it to the point where I alienated myself from most of the community here I think I’ve earned the right to say that game is simply not a very good product.
This is big news. Does this mean players can set their own OOL preferences on a turn-by-turn basis?
@the_good_captain Game History
Round: 1
Puchase Units - French
French buy 1 fighter and 6 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;
Combat Move - French
1 infantry moved from Brest to SZ 15
1 battleship, 1 infantry and 1 transport moved from SZ 15 to SZ 14
1 infantry moved from SZ 14 to Portugal
French take Portugal from Neutral_Allied
1 transport moved from SZ 16 to SZ 14
1 infantry moved from French West Africa to Gold Coast
1 infantry moved from Tunisia to SZ 16
1 infantry moved from Algeria to SZ 16
2 infantry moved from SZ 16 to Marseilles
1 battleship and 1 cruiser moved from SZ 16 to SZ 17
2 artilleries, 1 fighter and 6 infantry moved from Paris to Picardy
2 artilleries and 6 infantry moved from Lorraine to Picardy
2 artilleries and 6 infantry moved from Burgundy to Picardy
1 infantry moved from Bordeaux to Burgundy
Combat - French
Battle in SZ 17
Italians loiter and taunt; French attack with 1 battleship and 1 cruiser
AustroHungarians defend with 1 battleship and 1 cruiser
French roll dice for 1 battleship and 1 cruiser in SZ 17, round 2 : 1/2 hits, 1.17 expected hits
AustroHungarians roll dice for 1 battleship and 1 cruiser in SZ 17, round 2 : 1/2 hits, 1.17 expected hits
Units damaged: 1 battleship owned by the French
1 cruiser owned by the AustroHungarians lost in SZ 17
French roll dice for 1 battleship and 1 cruiser in SZ 17, round 3 : 1/2 hits, 1.17 expected hits
AustroHungarians roll dice for 1 battleship in SZ 17, round 3 : 1/1 hits, 0.67 expected hits
1 battleship owned by the AustroHungarians and 1 cruiser owned by the French lost in SZ 17
French win with 1 battleship remaining. Battle score for attacker is 12
Casualties for AustroHungarians: 1 battleship and 1 cruiser
Casualties for French: 1 cruiser
Combat Move - French
Place Units - French
1 fighter and 6 infantry placed in Paris
Turn Complete - French
French collect 26 PUs; end with 26 PUs
Combat Hit Differential Summary :
French regular : -0.33
AustroHungarians regular : 0.17
No thanks Re: the German Subs. I had to prioritize getting rid of the AH fleet. B1 to follow.