After some thought the game actually is balanced. In AAR it was an allied advantage. In AA50 they have balanced the game (50-50 win) by making Japan stronger to counter the KGF strategy.
The real question should be how do we make this a “GLOBAL WAR” and keep it balanced?
A fighter in Russia does not make it a global war.
I still stand by changing the NOs.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! LOL
Thanks for all that info guys, good stuff.
It would be very interesting to see a setup using AA50 and the facts from 1941. For example a realistic US income level. I also remember seeing some info on a few American BB in the Atlantic at the start of the war. How many CVs did the US have in the pacific in 1941?
I think my standard move with Japan will be to move the CV and it’s 2 fighters to the Med for supporting Italy. The CA could probably tag along if you do see a strong KIF. Japan will never miss these units. Possibly send another fighter or 2 for reinforcements if the 2 on the CV are hit.
Question…
On Italys turn I amphibious assualt Egypt with 1 infantry and 1 tank. I also bring my fighter and the 2 infantry from Libya. My Cruisers and my BB come along to bombard the coast. Are all 3 allowed to fire since I have committed 5 units to land combat or are only 2 allowed to fire since I only had room on my transport for 2 units???
@Flying:
If the Italian fleet is off the coast of Egypt the UKs CA and DD cannot attack it anyway. I like to use the German transport to take out Jordan on G1. Then I1 use all resources to hit Egypt. You get 3 bombardments, likely hitting 2. If they miss you are in trouble though. It’s a risk I take because you get the 3 bombardments instead of a G1 attack on Egypt.
You only get 2 bombardments, you can’t have more bombardments than landing units and since there is only 1 Italian transport that leaves you with at most 2 shots.
Does this include the 2 infantry from Libya? Honestly I’m not sure now. I figure if you are commiting 3 infantry, 1 tank and 1 fighter that includes 5 units then you can bombard with 3 ships.
@Flying:
You can’t get to East Indies J1.
Yes, you can. You have two transports off the caroline islands.
New Guinea sea zone connected to East Indies sea zone? Map is at in laws. I thought it wasn’t connected there.
Well, the way i play Japan it does. You take the east indies and borneo with two inf and 1 inf respectively, dump 3inf and 1 art from the loaded transports in burma, and land 1 inf and 1 tank in FIC. park a carrier by the burma coast with two fighters, and land 3 fighters from your china fights in FIC.
kaboom!
You can’t get to East Indies J1.
To make this work for Japan you have to go all out J1 for the J2 attack. If that happens then UK should NOT build IC but if Japan does not setup for it then I say build it. IMO the best route of action is to take Borneo and New Guinea J1 with a planned attack of Austrailia J2.
Russia could build 4 tanks also on R1 then R2 goto India.
If the Italian fleet is off the coast of Egypt the UKs CA and DD cannot attack it anyway. I like to use the German transport to take out Jordan on G1. Then I1 use all resources to hit Egypt. You get 3 bombardments, likely hitting 2. If they miss you are in trouble though. It’s a risk I take because you get the 3 bombardments instead of a G1 attack on Egypt.
My opponent tried a global strategy with USA last weekend. He probably put 90% of builds in the Pacific. I was able to hold him off as Japan(shocker). But what I did on J1 is send my closest CV and 2 fighters to the Med to protect Italian navy. It worked like a charm and the navy survived until the last round(6). By then it was too late I had Africa most of the game and I was attacking Caucus the last 3-4 rounds. Japan never even missed that Carrier.
Japan still took Asia, India, and held all of eastern Russia with USA going 90% into Pacific.
Italy is a seperate power. We have a USA controlled China. I wonder if it would have been a good idea to have Austrailia as a UK controlled miner power with an IC and some income with English convoy income(THINK AAP). Forgive my history knowledge but Austrailia was it’s own nation and India still a colony???
Instead of getting upset that it has resorted to KGF, come up with a strategy to beat KGF. If a strategy is developed that will beat KGF 60-70% of the time, guess what, no more KGF.
I cannot try this against my inexperienced opponents but would love to see if it could work against a player going KGIF……
1. Get Japan to 35 ipcs per round or more. Take India while moving most of your fleet to the Med to protect Italy.
2. Go into defensive mode. Do not plan to take much more territory because this will mean a larger investment in land units. Hold your ground, attack when its a gimme.
3. Start buying bombers. 2-3 per turn. Buy infantry with the rest of your ipcs and ship them to your fronts for defense.
4. Bomb the hell out of Caucus and Moscow with the multiple bombers you have.
5. sit back and watch Germany walk into russia
I play with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. Thay are both inexperienced. They played many games of Revised against each other but I only played about 6 games with them. I refuse to use a KGF strat and they have no idea about the strat. So it hasn’t even come up yet in AA50.
Yes you can win the game by using a balanced attack using the Allies. It’s probably a 50-50 game at that point(haven’t played enough to be sure). But if you use a KGF strat your odds probably go up to 65-35. So why not go KGF in a tourney when you looking at gaining some prizes or prestige amoung us freaks. I wouldn’t do it against my inexperienced opponents. In my games as the allies they have left the 2 CVs within striking range after PH(they will learn in time)
The key to Japan and Italy is to never leave your fleet vulnerable to attack. Don’t leave any stragglers out there to be picked off. Always be using them but pull back even when the allies could be in position for an even battle. Make the allies BUILD a large enough fleet to conquer you……this takes lots of time. Time the allies don’t have. Play cat and mouse and you win. I see my in laws make this mistake every game.
I’ll have to look again but it seems if Japan wants to take India it can BUT they have to commit everything on turn 1 to set it up turn 2 don’t they? If they are all out for India they have to forget about other targets. I think it depends on Japans first turn whether or not it is wise to build an IC in India.
I have not played as Japan yet but it seems Australia is a better and easier target on turn 2. It is setup by the turn 1 attacks on Borneo and new Guinea.
There are a few ways of fixing this warping problem, but here is what I did.
I got a scrap piece of sheet metal (not aluminum) from work. I could only find a 43" x 25" piece. 46" would have been the best. I then went to Home Depot and got 10’ strip of 1 inch wide magnet. It also had adhesive on the back of this magnet. I simply cut the strip into long pieces and attached them to the edges on back of the map. Put it on the sheet metal and it is perfect. It does not slip even if I pick it up on it’s side. It is completely level. I figure I’ll lay a towel down on the table surface so the sheet metal can’t harm the finish of the table. The reason I went with this is so I could still breakdown the map and store it in the box.
$4 for the magnet. Home Depot had the sheet metal for $26 though, I wasn’t about to pay that much.
I thought about using velcro too but it was too expensive.
Bids in 41 will certainly go to the allies. It is also likely the bid will go towards a KGF strategy since it has a better chance of winning the war over a global strategy(fighting Japan too)
You could give a bid to the allies and mandate that it goes in the Pacific theater. But really it would have to be a large bid to compete with the Japanese expansion. Do we really want to do that?
I see no strategy evolving that includes fighting Japan with a large enough effort that simulates the real war. It will be KGIF. I do think KGIF can be defeated by Japan buying large quantities of bombers and using them to blast Russian ICs. This would give the Germans an opening to crush Russia.
You would have to be a really horrible player to get beat down using Japan. If you get crushed by the USA then I’d guess you are playing AA50 for the very first time. God himself could not beat me if I am Japan. He’d have to make the dice roll funny to make that happen.
Now, obviously, we are going to see KGIF in 99% of games(1941). After USA leaves the pacific and Japan is gaining say somewhere in the range of 35 ipcs per turn what would happen you think if Japan just held their ground and bought 2-3 bombers a turn and just SBR Moscow and Caucus? Would a strategy like that work? Could Germany roll Moscow before they are defeated? I’d like to see how that would play out, but only like one time because KGF is so fuckinng boooorring.
How about inventing some nice Allied counter strategies to the KRF (kill Russia first) ? They haven’t been all tried yet, have they? So no, I’m not convinced the Axis got a '41 auto win…
If the USA is active in the Pacific then THAT IS a counter to KRF. Japan cannot ignore USA. Getting the USA active in Pacific should be the game designers main goal. They tried but they failed and this time it’s worse than ever.
i’ve played the game twice now (once with NO and once w/out) and I do believe Allies has an advantage. Before Japan can get to Moscow, the Allies will be breathing down the necks of Germany and Italy.
KGIF, how predictable. I thought this game was created to get action in Pacific?
When are we gonna stop dicking around and admit this game is the same ole broken record and come up with ideas that make this a global conflict? I tried but no one is listening.
@Nix:
OK, it does seem like the Axis are having a quite big advantage
Am i the only one thinking the axis are at the disadvantage here?
Just played a game (admitidley with 6 players) but the ais was crushed beyond belief…
KGIF?
Any bid would probably go to a KGF campaign. Never would have thought a global game like this would turn to giving allies a bid. It feels like that episode of Star Trek when they visit that planet where the guy from earth brings the Nazi ideology with him. He proceeds to conquer the planet. I wonder if that planet’s USA equivalent had a weak economy too……maybe they based this game on that planet’s war and not ours?
@TG:
Flying Tiger
American NO……
-Gain 15 ipcs if at the end of your turn the value of all American units in Pacific theatre are more than 90 ipcs,not including ICs or AA guns.
(Pacific theatre includes…Alaska, all pacific islands, WUSA and Pacific ocean)If you really think about it the American people would have been furious if we had not fought Japan after PH. If we are not engaging them then morale should be low and no bonus should be given. This would also get America to its ideal ipc level.Typically I think rules that require you to Count the Number of Pieces on the Board are not desirable from a playability standpoint. It bogs the game down. The Americans already get NOs for being in the Pacific. The problem is they can’t go after them because Japan is too strong and building up to 90 IPCs requires over 2 full turns of commitment.
I disagree, counting the value of units will be less than 30 seconds, unless your math skills are bad.
All this will do is evaluate your commitment to the Pacific theatre which if high will boost morale in the states and give you your bonus.
Sure there are NOs in the pacific for USA but the Phillipines are far away and protected by large japanese fleet. The NO for Midway, Wake, Solomans should be easy for the Japs to squash for at least 2 turns. The Allies are not getting France for awhile so the Americans are not represented correctly IPC wise when Japan starts with a huge navy and the ability to expand their economy larger than the USA by turn 2. Quite frankly, it’s bullshiat. They designed a game where Japan is more powerful than America. Give it time, in 2 months everyone will come to the same conclusion.
In the real war America fought in the Pacific, and Africa while building up in England for DDay. You can’t fight in 2 theatres with the income given. The bonus will make America fight in the Pacific and give them just enough to send something to the Atlantic which is ideal.
