Hi. Thanks for the reply!
Anyway, I’m going to quote MarineIguana here and ask a few questions with the hopes that either he or you can answer.
@MarineIguana:
This is almost certainly more advice than you are looking for. I’m going to give you the secret for playing near perfectly as Germany. This is tried and tested against the best Revised Axis and Allies players in the world across more than 500 games.
Might have been more than OP wanted in that thread but I’m gonna need all the help I can get if I wanna pull out a W in this tournament…
@MarineIguana:
I’m assuming a bid of 9 by germany to ukraine, west russia, and libya
Well that’s different right off the bat. From what I’m read in terms of tournament reports for this other tournament they’ve been giving the Allies a +3 bid for the last two or so years. I think the difference is that online Revised games are played under LHTR, while this tournament is on a stricter time limit (4 hours, 30 minutes which roughly translates to about 5-6 turns depending on how fast people are playing).
That being said if the meta at this tournament is just outright flawed I can probably take advantage of that.
@MarineIguana:
I’m also assuming that russia attacked ukraine with 4 inf, 1 art, 3 tanks, 2 fig ; west russia with 9 inf, 1 tank, 1 art
I’m assuming this game is low luck with no tech
The opening is what I’ve used as my standard for years now, so I’m assuming that any intelligent opponent I face will be using it (it’s the only way to not end up with Germany stacking Ukr. and winning with relative ease iirc).
One rough thing about all of this is that the tournament I’m prepping for is 100% luck (So someone can play perfectly and still lose because RNG). No tech though so that part is fine.
@MarineIguana:
I’m assuming your goal is to maximize your probability of winning against an opponent.
More like holding on to at some group of Egypt/W. Europe/E. Europe/Ukr/Norway for 5 turns while Japan captures an equal or greater amount of Sink/India/Novo/Australia/Hawaii but same difference really.
@MarineIguana:
The most common mistake I see with Germany players is that they think they’re on the offensive. In reality, Germany is a very defensive country that receives allied pressure, while Japan pressures Russia.
I remember when I was a noob and bought 8 tanks/turn as Germany. 2004 was a simpler time for sure.
@MarineIguana:
Best practices:
1. buy almost all infantry. I usually spend 90+% of my germany IPC buying only infantry for the first 15-30 rounds. Eventually, Germany gets to a point where it can stack 3 territories with over 80 units each. This makes it difficult for UK to land and support Russia past round 30.
2. Prefer to attack and stack territories. This means moving a large force of units in an attack, so that the opponent can’t counter. Axis and Allies is inherently a zero-sum game, so you win by accumulating profit through income or battles. Generally, the most profitable battles are: attacking & stacking > trading efficiently > attack & retreat > doing nothing > trading inefficiently.
As a general rule, germany can stack 2-3 territories safely against a strong allies. Always stack berlin (obviously), 2nd stack can alternate between France and Italy, 3rd stack between Karelia/Eastern Europe/Ukraine
3. Try to keep Germany strong. It’s okay to make large trades against Russia, but avoid large trades with UK or USA unless it’s for a large profit. The most common way I win against top allies is to accumulate stacks of 100+ infantry as Germany. Japan accumulates as well around Persia. By round 30-40, Japan has 300+ units and eventually forces Allies off Russia.
While all of these points are valid that all aspiring A&A players should memorize, the rules of this tournament don’t give enough time to play out 100+ round slugfests, although the idea sounds pretty fun/masochistic. Reminds me of the Classic games I’d spend weeks playing after I read those papers on Inf stacking back in the day.
@MarineIguana:
Standard buy for germany is 10 inf, 2 tanks.
This was already my build so that makes me happy.
@MarineIguana:
1 sub, 3 fig to sz13
Can you pull this off reliably with just 1 SUB, 2 FTR in a 100% luck scenario?
Battle calc says it’s 90% chance to win with a 5/9 chance of both FTRs surviving. A gamble for sure but it frees up a FTR to send to Egypt instead. Which leads me to:
EDIT: See my HUGGEEEE MISTAKE below…
@MarineIguana:
3 inf, 1 art, 1 tank, 1 bomber to egypt
This assumes I’d be lucky enough to get an axis bid out of someone at this tournament, which seems unlikely given the results of previous years. Because of this, I’m going to need the extra FTR if I want to break Egypt. I could always pull the FTR from the SZ13 attack, but I don’t like to auto-lose 1/12 games, as MarineIguana points out:
EDIT: I JUST MADE A HUUUUUGE MISTAKE!!!
Turns out you can’t pull another FTR to SZ13 because none of the others can reach! Looks like I’m gonna have to choose between risking an Egypt loss and risking the B-Ship unless I can fine-tune the opening more…
@MarineIguana:
The other fighter (from Balkans, as the Ukr one usually dies in the R1 Ukr attack) that can reach is needed for sz15. If you attack sz15, there’s a 15% chance the battle goes badly where the battleship transport needs to retreat or battleship gets traded against uk destroyer. If either scenario happens, the game is effectively over against a top player. I prefer not to auto-lose 15% of my games as axis.
Anyway,
@MarineIguana:
1 battleship, 1 trans, 1 fig to sz15
appropriate forces to trade ukraine. usually 2-3 inf + 1 fighter. Possibly as much as 3 inf, 1 tank, 1 fig if 3 russia tanks survived
Am I to assume everything else is being sent to Karelia? How much am I leaving in E. Europe to Deadzone Ukr? What’s the practical advantage of stacking Karelia over trying to hold Ukr reliably? Is it the potential to deadzone Norway (slowing Allied progress in a KGF)?
@MarineIguana:
Typical non-combat:
stack france. usually with 2 inf, 2 tanks, 4 fighters, 1 aa
stack karelia. usually 8-9 inf, 4 tanks, 1 aa
stack germany
empty belorussia or 1 inf
africa stacks libya
All fine, aside from my gripes over Karelia. What do you do if the USSR stacks Ukr R2? Germany can’t really attack W. Rus. (Since the stack in Ukr and the spawned units in Caucasus and Moscow can all dive on it.), and if you try to charge Archangel Russia has enough time to shift enough forces to Moscow to force the Germans back to Karelia. So at that point you’re just handing the Soviets Ukr for free, unless I’m missing something.
I’m not trying to come off as an elitist of A&A pro by any means, I’m just rusty and don’t know how to dynamic of the Eastern front as evolved over time.
By the way, what is BGO? I’ve only ever played A&A using TripleA.
