Hey all.

I am a new AA player, currently enjoying AAO.

I only play ranked - that’s Harry Larris 3.0 - and only Axis.

I find this thread really interesting and useful, even tho it’s about allies, as it explains a lot of stuff. This being said, I am looking forward to an Axis opening thread. :)

@Black_Elk If you have time, could you please elaborate a bit on the Japan factory on East indies opening? Why is it hard for allies to crack this one open?

After reading about it in your post, I tried it too, because examining the board it feels much easy to win India in < 3 turns. However, I’m at my 3rd try now, and every time the allied player answered with KJF. Which of course diverts my efforts from attacking India to defending Japan.

Now, discussing allied openings a bit from the other side, I have to say that I struggled the most when the allied player did the followings:

• kill everything in Ukraine, including the fighter
• killed the 2nd japan transport
• took Burma
• landed US atlantic transports in Africa to defend UK

All this together makes it for a very slow axis expansion and allows time to allies to build up their forces.

@DoManMacgee thanks for your replay.

I am platinum player, indeed (before rank reset, actually) with about 67% WR.

My game plan usually involves taking Leningrad + India + Honolulu. So taking India is more important (and seems more easy) than Moscow. This unless the ally player switches to KJF, in which case is usually piece of cake for Germany to deal with Russia. In fact I never lost a KJF game even if I managed to lose Tokyo once or twice.

In KGF scenario, Japan makes a build up in Burma, supported by 4+4 transports that bring 8 units per turn from Tokyo there, overwelming anything that the ally can do in the long run. And once India falls, it’s usually game over.

Since this is an ally thread, please discuss how can the ally player prevent this, in a KGF scenario?

Hmm, I thought KGF means US moves everything to Atlantic. If it will split build Japan will eat its navy in Pacific. Unless UK wins in S37, but that means the 2nd japan transport will be alive and kicking and frankly I prefere this scenario to a lost transport.

In anycase, my J1 build is usually 3 transports, 1 tank and 1 inf. So getting to 8 transports is not hard, presuming US leaves me alone. And if US split builds, I still have 2 turns to build up vs India until I have to build ships too to compensate, and this means UK has to move everything he’s got here, so even less pressure on Germany.

I can confirm collecting is permited.

@Black_Elk
Ever since I read your post about East Indies IC I built it in 99% of my games. However since the rank reseted and I am still silver (after a 5/0 placement it seems that now I drop faster in rank due to ‘idle’ than I can win games), the outcome is inconcludent so far. In fact is too good to be true haha.

To explain, if ally players get full KGF and leave Pacific uncontested AND UK doesn’t kill 2nd transport, I can potentially win India in turn 3. Unless diced, ofc. Wich, again, in AAO it happens a lot.

However, with 2nd Jap transport destroyed I prefere building 3 transports in J1, I feel I can expand faster like this.

@Dimitri said in All the Russian openings: For Begginers:

@Green-Vandago I am confused about the East Indies IC. It is on an island, so you still need transports to utilize it fully. Why not just use Japan and not waste the 15 ICs?

Because it opens up the possibility of an early turn 3 attack on India. It’s of course situational, but when the possibility opens up it can be deadly. Unless diced, of course.

Anyway, it works best if both initial transports are available. And it can be done regardless of what US is doing, but usually will try to build a fleet to counter you.

Edit:
Here’s how I play, if Japan has 2 starting transports.

1st turn:

• I clear as many ally naval assets I can, especially Hawai fleet is a must
• transports move troops from Japan and from Phillipines to Burma
• I take Yunnan and Anwei and defend Kwantung
• I build 1 IC and 2 transports

2nd turn:

• 1 arty and 1 tank from Burma + 1 inf from Borneo and East Indies each will attack Western Australia
• all available land units move to Burma
• BBs, fighters and bomber move in strike range on India
• 2 inf and 2 tanks bought on East Indies IC

Doing this, in turn 3 I can attack India with:

• 13 land units from Burma
• 8 units brought by transports
• 3-5 fighters and a bomber
• 1-2 BBs

As you can see, that’s quite a lot of troops, and most of the time India will fall.

I can confirm collecting is permited.

@Black_Elk
Ever since I read your post about East Indies IC I built it in 99% of my games. However since the rank reseted and I am still silver (after a 5/0 placement it seems that now I drop faster in rank due to ‘idle’ than I can win games), the outcome is inconcludent so far. In fact is too good to be true haha.

To explain, if ally players get full KGF and leave Pacific uncontested AND UK doesn’t kill 2nd transport, I can potentially win India in turn 3. Unless diced, ofc. Wich, again, in AAO it happens a lot.

However, with 2nd Jap transport destroyed I prefere building 3 transports in J1, I feel I can expand faster like this.

@Imperious-Leader I am the guy that builds a CV with Germany. So my BB is there to stay. :)

I think attacking S37 only makes sense when planing KJF, as the US fleet in this case will put pressure on Jap at least 1 turn early.

About Borneo. As I said, i try to explain when I strugle most from the other side. My problem with Borneo when it’s taken is because the other stuff that happens. That is 2nd transport destroyed. LC to Borneo prevents a BB bombard there and this coupled with only 1 transport attacking can result in nasty surprised - I know this as it happened to me.

One other thing is that if you move UK ships towards UK they will spend too much time out of combat and by the time they arrive they won’t bring anything new on the table, as Germany will focus on land anyway.

So how to best use them is to delay Japan expansion while you focus on KGF. By forcing Jap to retake Borneo AND killing the 2nd tranport that is 1 precious turn you win right there. That’s at least 3 more units you can build in India, not counting fighters you can bring there from UK.

So, speaking form Jap side, the worst UK opening for me is when this happens:

• transp in S61 killed with 1 CV and 1 fighter
• fighter lands in Yunnan + 1 inf from Burma gives Jap a tough choice
• Borneo won with 1 LC and transport
• New Guinea won with 1 LC and transport
• UK sub attacks Jap sub. I always dive, but some players don’t, so I have to put this on the table. And in any case, I focus on other important targets on J1, so that sub stays and will remain a nuisance for a couple of turns.

So yeah, IMO this is the worst start for Japan. The Jap fleet will sustain no losses, so KJF is not exactly the best follow up on this, but the Jap expansion will be stalled for 1 turn and India will become a tough nut to crack.

Now this is a really good point.

As I have never played allies so far I am really curios about this issue. Leave Japan alone and focus entirely on KGF, or split build to mess Japan up? But I think one important thing here is what you do in UK1? Kill transport or gamble in S37?

The thing is if you didn’t kill Japan fleet in S37 then you will need 2 turns to build just to match up Japan fleet. And a 3rd turn to become a real threat. In these 3 turns Japan builds 5 transports + troops to fill them up. And I think only a really bad dice can stop Japan expansion in this scenario.

Hey and thanks for your suggestion.

I always prepare for a 2nd attack on S53, by moving 1 DD and the Indochina fighter to S50. And IMO an ally player that moves his BB there is a weak player because the remaining Japan fleet can be killed by just moving the DD and 1/2 fighters, so why risk losing that BB in J2? THis of course, unless Japan doesn’t lose any units in J1 and is forced to move in the CV, in which case it may be worth to move in the BB too even if it means losing it next turn.

This being sais, personally I think Japan starts with a lot of fighter power and it’s not necessary to built more right in J1, so I’d rather focus on ground units and transports so I can take India ASAP. But if things go bad and I lose the fleet in S37, I’d rather build 2 transports and 2 DDs rather than 1 fighter and 2 inf that won’t get picked up the same turn.

Hmm, I thought KGF means US moves everything to Atlantic. If it will split build Japan will eat its navy in Pacific. Unless UK wins in S37, but that means the 2nd japan transport will be alive and kicking and frankly I prefere this scenario to a lost transport.

In anycase, my J1 build is usually 3 transports, 1 tank and 1 inf. So getting to 8 transports is not hard, presuming US leaves me alone. And if US split builds, I still have 2 turns to build up vs India until I have to build ships too to compensate, and this means UK has to move everything he’s got here, so even less pressure on Germany.

@DoManMacgee thanks for your replay.

I am platinum player, indeed (before rank reset, actually) with about 67% WR.

My game plan usually involves taking Leningrad + India + Honolulu. So taking India is more important (and seems more easy) than Moscow. This unless the ally player switches to KJF, in which case is usually piece of cake for Germany to deal with Russia. In fact I never lost a KJF game even if I managed to lose Tokyo once or twice.

In KGF scenario, Japan makes a build up in Burma, supported by 4+4 transports that bring 8 units per turn from Tokyo there, overwelming anything that the ally can do in the long run. And once India falls, it’s usually game over.

Since this is an ally thread, please discuss how can the ally player prevent this, in a KGF scenario?

Hey all.

I am a new AA player, currently enjoying AAO.

I only play ranked - that’s Harry Larris 3.0 - and only Axis.

I find this thread really interesting and useful, even tho it’s about allies, as it explains a lot of stuff. This being said, I am looking forward to an Axis opening thread. :)

@Black_Elk If you have time, could you please elaborate a bit on the Japan factory on East indies opening? Why is it hard for allies to crack this one open?

After reading about it in your post, I tried it too, because examining the board it feels much easy to win India in < 3 turns. However, I’m at my 3rd try now, and every time the allied player answered with KJF. Which of course diverts my efforts from attacking India to defending Japan.

Now, discussing allied openings a bit from the other side, I have to say that I struggled the most when the allied player did the followings:

• kill everything in Ukraine, including the fighter
• killed the 2nd japan transport
• took Burma
• landed US atlantic transports in Africa to defend UK

All this together makes it for a very slow axis expansion and allows time to allies to build up their forces.