I’m fairly new to A&A Global (one in person game and 3 on triplea which I also just discovered), but have played lots of other A&A and strategy games. Because I’ve just gotten into it (and I’ve had some time) I’ve been obsessing with it (and these forums) and I had some random strategy questions thought this was a good place to post them.
First, I had read (here) about a strategy that some people use called Dark Skies where Germany prioritizes bomber builds and uses them essentially for strategic bombing, support for land unit stacks in Russia, and to prevent a UK fleet from being built and a US fleet from coming in with land units. The effectiveness of this strategy was based on the exterior lines of the Allies + the range of those bombers from the West German or France airbase. The power of this was not just that bombers are a powerful ranged unit that can do a lot of damage but that the threat of their attack would shape allied responses. The US can’t easily send troops because it must both sufficiently protect its transports and deal with Japan, so it would have to hold back. But those bombers would simultaneously threaten the UK and Russia and can Strat bomb to limit production and support land unit stacks to take territory.
There was debate here as to whether this was a game breaking strategy, a potentially good one for the Germans but not unbeatable, or suboptimal (most of the accounts I saw were the former but I saw all three). I looked for people’s counters to it but most of the solutions seemed to be rule changes. Most of this seem to have been posted a few years ago. I’m wondering what the status of this is now and if there is any more of a consensus on its effectiveness. I’m also wondering about the specifics of playing it? I understand you use it to support stacks against Russia, against American/British efforts to build a fleet in the Atlantic, and to bomb factories. But what are the key targets or goals with their use. What other builds go with it. What is the timing of the Axis DOWs that works best with it?
The reason I’m asking is I’m unconvinced (and using triplea I was playing around with it but not particularly effectively). My own thinking is that a significant number of bombers is going to be useful alongside other units, but a strategy that prioritizes them as the main build seems to be high risk (it can potentially fall apart if the allies get one significantly better than the average roll at the right time – this is an issue with any strategy in A&A but perhaps more so with this). I also thought there would be some effective ways to counter it simply by the allies (and primarily the Americans) making unequal exchanges and sacrificing units to force the Germans to use the bombers (reducing the bomber stack, putting the bombers out of position, and ensuring that for at least one turn, they can’t use them on anyone else). It seemed to me (again from playing around on tripleA) that the US could play this role using only half its income leaving enough to pressure Japan. The little bit I saw suggesting counters seemed to suggest something along these lines but I didn’t find much that was specific.
Obviously, I haven’t played against this strategy or enough A&A Global yet, so I realize I may just not be getting it. Thought people here with more experience of the game could fill that in.
