Posts made by goldenbearflyer

What is “SU2”?Â

Sorry, SU=Soviet Union, so that’s the Soviet’s 2nd turn.  My latest post is talking about the way the board looks heading into Germany’s 2nd turn (“G2”).

Being surrounded at Karelia is not a problem.  The Allies usually do not build a mighty ATTACK force at Norway, they are usually just concerned with holding Norway.

Yes, but let’s say G2 takes Karel, but then SU3 moves 5-6inf into Arch, so even if Allies only hold Norway 1 round, can Germany defend Karel from both sides?  (Remember, W.Rus has 6inf 2art 4arm, so SU has offensive punch.)

My main problem with the strategies discussed for Germany is that many of them seem to assume that SU is simply sitting around waiting to get crushed, whereas in my experience it grows quickly into a monster if not repeatedly attacked from turn 1 forward by German ground units, ground units and more ground units (with fighter support and possibly even sbr).

And that, of course, is assuming that England doesn’t fall to Germany which would give the Axis + 8 and the Allies - 8

IMHO, that’s a safe assumption.  It’s not really “costing” UK anything to build up ground units to protect its island, because normally it would build those anyway to plan for invasion.  Plus, the US is probably using the island as a staging ground.  The Allies can kill two birds with one stone, while Germany throws money in the water.  Meanwhile, for every tr or sub Germany builds, that’s 8IPCs of ground units Germany did not buy to use against Russia.  I agree with ncscsswitch that Russia at 32-40 IPCs will be too much for Germany to handle.  On the other hand, units parked in UK cannot also take Africa, so it must slow the Allies down at least a bit.

Nevertheless, you have played this game much more than I have, Jennifer, so I will try out the strategy you describe.  In my other thread, as you know, I am experimenting with the Kreigsmarine.

Wow, ask and you shall receive!  Thanks, everyone.

OK, last night with limited time I mocked up round 1.  I did indeed end up with a board looking much like Nix’s heading into SU2, except I may have made a mistake by leaving 3inf in Belo, because E.Eur has only 4inf.  Egypt went so well the Germans lost only 1inf, so there’s 1inf 2arm there plus 1inf 1art 1F in Libya.  Africa will fall quickly.  I like to park the bomber back in Germany.

Here are the problem areas:  after SU2 the Russians hold:  W.Rus 6inf, 2art, 4arm, 2F(UK) amd Cauc 5inf, 1art, 2F, Ukraine 6inf, Belo 2inf, plus 5inf reserve in Russia and 2inf in Kaz, so their lines are not exactly paper thin.  That means SU has 24inf 3art 4arm 2F + 2F(UK) on or near the front, whereas the Germans have 14inf 1art 5 arm 2F(AC) between E.Eur/Ger/Balk/SZ5.  (5 extra inf or 3arm instead of the AC would come in handy.)  UK1 I lost 4 IPCs to sbr, so 38 IPCs to 28 for SU is not a huge lead; even with extra IPCs, it will take several turns to match the numbers of the SU, let alone gain the advantage.  US2 threatens sbr as well.

The navy looks great in SZ5 with 1AC 2sub 1DD 1tr, and that will let me funnel 2 extra ground units per turn into Karel, so I see the benefit there.  However, after R2 SZ8 has: UK 1BB 3tr 1AC w/ US 2F, US 2tr 1DD, SU 1sub.  Even with 3F in W.Eur and 1bom, I would be hard-pressed to attack that on G2 – Allies can give up 1DD 1sub 1 hit on BB before I kill anything meaningful, whereas I would probably lose several F.  By the time I would move out of SZ5 within range of SZ8, I assume the Allies will have even more strength.  I guess the point is to stall the Allies’ navies, at least temporarily, to buy time for Japan, but I will probably lose airpower I cannot afford to replace.

US2 could land in Africa or Norway, with a second wave already waiting in E.US.  UK2 threatens Norway with 4inf 1art 1arm, so if I take Karel in force I’ll be surrounded.  Not to mention W.Eur may need reinforcements.  As far as the argument I’ve heard that UK must worry about the Kreigsmarine, I wonder why; UK will build at least 4inf 1art 1arm each turn anyway for its transports and the US may park its units there as a staging ground, so I see no actual threat of SeaLion.  Add to that the 8IPC fewer ground units for each transport Germany would build, and SU only grows stronger.

I understand this plan requires an aggressive Japan to move against SU.  Unfortunately, UK sunk the Kwang transport and the SZ45 sub and holds India with 4inf 1F.  Of course J1 took China and sunk the US at Pearl, but only 2 ground units could then be moved onto Asia during NC.  It will take time for Japan to mount a sizable threat from the east.

I think I see why I need to learn about the bid system! :-D

I need more detail about how you play Germany, because I have trouble with it.  Caveat:  I’ve played Revised only a couple of times; my experience is mainly with the original version.  Although certain changes helped the Axis, the Allies also gained advantages here and there.  Also, I have no experience with the bid system.  (This post was intended to follow up on the “Axis and Allies first turns - Germany” thread started by newpaintbrush, but I have so many questions and I didn’t want to kidnap that thread.)

First, let’s assume R1 took Belo and W. Russia, left Karel and Arch wide open, but left big stack in W. Russia (3Inf, 1art, 4arm) and heavily fortified Caucasus (e.g. 7inf, 1art, 2F) – I based that assumption on newpaintbrush’s R1 option to attack Belo and W. Russia and used the battle simulator at http://www.dskelly.com/misc/aa/aasim.html to estimate results.  (F=fighter, art=artillery, arm=armor, inf=infantry)

Second, I’m intrigued by all the talk about G1 AC; I’ve always thought building any navy at all would doom Germany, but so many folks seem to disagree, so I guess I better try it. :wink:  So let’s start with 1AC, 8 inf for the sake of argument.

Questions:

1.  I figure I should take Karel, but from where and with how much inf?  from Norway?  with 1, 2 or 3 inf?  This is important, because…
2.  Should I reinforce Norway with 2inf from Germany, or move those 2inf to Eastern Europe.  If I reinforce it, should add fighters?  Except…
3.  Which fighters should land on AC?  from Norway and E. Europe?
4.  I assume I should take back Belo (which should have only 1inf based on the simulator), and I would do this with 2inf, 1F?
5.  After all that, the most I can leave in Ukraine is 5inf, 1art, 2arm, 1F, but Ukraine then faces a huge combined stack from W. Russia/Caucasus R2.  Do I pull 2arm back into Balkans for a counter-attack?
6.  How much to leave on W. Europe?  I would like to leave at least 3inf, 2arm, 2F, possibly 3F.
7.  I assume I take Egypt with 2inf, 2arm, 1F, so S. Europe has only 1inf to move into W. Europe or Balkans.  (Note:  the battle simulator says on average I will be left with but 1arm in Egypt, 2 if I’m lucky.  I move 1inf 1art from Algeria to Libya during NC.
8.  Where to place 8inf?  1-2 in S. Europe, 6-7 in Germany?

I really enjoy reading all your posts, everyone, and I certainly appreciate there are many good strategies and no one “best” strategy, which is why it’s a great game.  However, many of the strategies I see discussed could address these types of details in order to be more helpful to less experienced players like me.  Thanks in advance for your thoughts on the above.