I agree with you! It happened regularly that one had a good round or two and everything seemed to swap one way, while one turn later the balance shifted by one unforseen event. This could happen one or two times before one was getting really stronger than the other.
That is one of the fun things in the game to me.
I’m not so familiar with calculations, but i did some simulation for this case. I found that on average the damage is about equal to the cost. That means that it is not a very strong strategy. You do need some luck for it to be effective. However, if you have average luck, you’ll be cutting germany’s income quite a bit. If at the same time you are able to kick him out of africa, you will give Rusia a much easier time to hold off Germany, until you are able to start a second front in Europe.
US Bomber Strategy
As many new people to the game I have been struggling with the strategy for America. I have experience with revised. There I would by default reinforce my Atlantic fleet with a carrier, get my battleship to the Atlantic and go for Africa first. By building up there I threaten Germany until I grap an opportunity to get a foothold somewhere in Europe. But in 1942 second edition it is just not so simple. With the starting position in the Atlantic for Germany it seems impossible to get England and America in an effective ground war with Germany in time to make a difference.
Because of this I was contemplate the feasibility of a partial bombing strategy. American bombers can hit in the second turn after purchase. If you would continuously buy a bomber and start to max out the damage of German production. But I have a few concerns.
With the new price of 12 IPC the average damage the bombers do, this can break even according to my quick calculations. There is a good chance that you do more damage. At the other hand there is a chance that Germany throw a few lucky roles and your attack never gets momentum. And that is my main concern compared to other strategies. This strategy has about a 30% chance that you only hurt yourself. This is quite a high chance.
Does anybody have experience with this style of play, or other comments on how to put the US to good use?
I found playing US difficult, but i found a strategy that works for me most of the time.
My standard strategy for US is to focus on Europe. But first liberate Africa. In the first phase of the game Germany is taking over Africa. In round 3 Germany almost completely owns Africa. This gives them a good IPC bonus. The US has very few units in the beginning and Africa is a good objective to start with. I buy a carrier in the first round, and go in at the second. Every round i buy a transport and enough land units to transport. I bring the leftover sea units from the Pacific to the Atlantic. They can help later to take out German fleets when necessary.
In the second phase of the game Germany is kicked out of Africa completely, and the US is building up a considerable number of units in Algeria. With this number of units in Africa and a tranny or 8 germany is forced to leave a considarable number of units defending WE and SE. They take the pressure off from the East front. But this is not enough. Now it depends a little bit on the circumstances on the board and the cooperation with other players what to do next. But here is a few options.
1. Land on Norway
England most likely is building up his forces on Norway (or Karelia), but is not strong enough to put Germany under pressure by himself. When US starts to shift his forces to Norway, Germany can not overpower them and is pushed back to Germany. This takes the presure off the Soviet Union, whe then can focus on Japan. The US need two fleets of tranny’s. One can bring units to England. And one can bring units across to Norway, or even Karelia and Eastern Europe, depending on your progress.
2. Push Japan via Africa
If from round 2 you are pushing units into Africa, them from round 6 or 7 you are arriving in Persia. It depends on Japan where he has his main force for the US to make a difference there. If Japan’s main push is via India, then the US is not going to stop them there. But with anything less, the US can distract Japan and have him go South. If you play this strategy well every turn the US gets 10 or more new units from its pipeline through North Africa. An other posibility is to sail the US fleet through the Suez Canal and start to take the Islands back. This depends also on whether Japan still has a strong fleet. If that succeeds, Japan is seriously crippled.
3. Open a front in the South of Europe
With the South of Europe I mean all countries that border to the Meditiranian Sea. You might want to start with Ukrain since they do not border a factory from Germany. This will be easier to hold. Then you can push slowly West. Now Germany need to fight boh the US and England. The Soviet Union can now concentrate on Japan. With this strategy the US need to have two fleets with tranny’s. One to bring units to Africa, and one to bring units from the African coast to Europe.
4. Knock on the front door of Germany
An other option is to start attacking Western Europe. Especially if Germany is a bit careless and leave too less defenders there, this might be a good option. England can help by soften up the defenses. Because you fight next to the factories from Germany, he might take it back easily at first, but it will exhaust Germany and take the pressure off Russia. Germany will have to call his tanks back from the East. If England and US are able to take Western Europe a few times, you will see that it will take Germany more difficulty each time to take it back. For this strategy you can use Canada to pick up your troops. You can work with one fleet or two. If you work with one fleet you can attack every other round. But you can bring around 20 units every time.
An alternative strategy for the US is to focus on Japan. I found this in some cases a feasable option. For example if Japan does not attack Pearl Habor, or he has very bad luck on the sea in the first round and looses some ships. In this case you can reinforce your Pacific fleet and go after Japan. You have to take the Carolina Islands for there strategic position. From there you can take all of Japan’s high IPC value islands. If this is successful then England and the Soviet Union can fight Germany. I would use US units from the East coast to liberate Africa as secondary objective anyway.
I hope those strategies will help you. If anybody has better ideas, i love to hear them. Or if you know effective counters for those strategies it would be nice if you share them.
Thanks for reading!