Posts made by GuamSolo

Thanks for posting a screen shot!

Can you guys post screen shots here in the thread? I’ve never been able to get Triple A to work on my computer so I’m enjoying reading the interactions about your game but guessing somewhat at the larger “look of things” on the map. If not - no worries.

@crockett36 A little late in my reply here to Crockett’s question about cities of most importance, but I believe Larry Harris said that Egypt was the key for Allies. Didn’t he say this to you @crockett36 when you met him at YG’s tournament?

@Valladares I just read the history of Corsica and WW2. Very interesting. Thanks for posting this.

@Valladares I like your idea about Spain being pro axis and how you can collect, or lose, 1 IPC from the bank. We may try that one.

With that cover art it looks like the new unit added to the game could be a Tron light cycle!

@Argothair Good thoughts. I think that is a good approach.

@crockett36 Pfft…why didn’t you just post this picture on page one of this thread? It would have saved us all a lot of time. :grin:

@crockett36 Lol - no worries. It worked once. But that is what I appreciate about this forum/thread. I like seeing how others play the game and learn from it. To your credit, I saw your video about how you went with Malta (in subsequent games) and was thinking about that move, but I went with the French ships because it worked before. I was second guessing that after a round of combat…:relaxed:

I haven’t ever had sea lion attempted on me. A lot of the dialogue in this thread is focused on defending a scenario I’ve never seen play out in a game I’m playing. But I am mindful that the Italians can get tough to deal with if their navy is allowed to consolidate. Swinging the UK Med up towards sz110 to block the Germans seems to leave too much intact for the Italians in the Med.

How do you (@crockett36) deal with a consolidated Italian fleet, after you have merged the UK fleet around Malta (with some fighter cover that can scramble), AND the Italians don’t attack UK? I think I remember you saying in one game the Italians attacked and it was a mutually destructive battle, but in another they just sat in their harbor for many rounds?

@03rlp We discussed merging with the French fleet earlier in this thread. I have done this in the past 2 games. The first game it worked well as an attack went well for the allies, but the second game it was a disaster for UK. The Italians took Southern France first, then attacked the fleet off the coast. One a hit was taken on the carrier the fighters have no where to go if the Italians call the battle off and retreat. But if you lose the fighters your odds of winning decrease significantly.

As this thread is up to 9 pages now, I thought to re-direct readers back to pages 1-2 where a lot has been written for an allied playbook including opening moves for each allied nation. @Argothair detailed some very good opening sequences for the allies, and @crockett36 has written a lot about objectives for the allies.

@AldoRaine @weddingsinger @M36 @Argothair Wow - a lot of catching up on this thread for me! I enjoyed the dialogue and see some new approaches for UK. It does seem like the conversation is focused on the opening moves for UK. How would you guys fold your dialogue into the bigger picture of this thread - an allied playbook? I actually think that this recent discussion of UK opening moves dovetails with the more general objectives that @crockett36 has spent a lot of time on. I would see it this way:

1. Defense of London comes 1st. This also involves preserving units you start the game with and trying to destroy enemy units as well. With that the decision to attack the Italian Med fleet piece meal must be weighed against the possibility of a Sea Lion. Watch what the Germans do G1. Maybe a stack in SZ92 is a good option to help save London which is what you guys have been talking about.

2. Defense of the Atlantic is 2nd. This sets up the UK to pose some threat to “nibble at Germany” and work toward a main objective of the allies–Destroying the Axis’ ability to wage war. If the Axis own the Med, or the waters around London this is really difficult. Maybe the stack in SZ92 also helps with this?

3. Defense of Egypt is 3rd (most important). I think that the consolidation of the Italian Med fleet makes this difficult. Especially if UK have to swing their fleet from SZ92 up to help defend Sea Lion. The allies have left the Italians with a strong presence to take Egypt. In the game I used as an example earlier in this thread the UK lost their Med fleet and Germany owned the waters around London. Italy kept slowly building their navy up (with few troops in Italy to defend any invasion). But an aircraft carrier, destroyer, etc later it eventually led to the allies loss.

So, Taranto is a fairly certain/safer way to neuter Italy’s Med Naval presence and North African ambitions. I would like to hear from Aldo or whoever has used the SZ92 stack what happens when there is no Sea Lion and the UK fleet is left in SZ92. Do they engage the combined Italian fleet for a mutually assured destructive battle?

And, more importantly, how that fits into the meta strategy for this allied playbook? How do opening moves play into the allied decision regarding order of importance for defending positions on the map? How does this set the allies up in the early game to nibble at and debilitate the axis war machine.

@weddingsinger Good notes for this thread. I have tried to use the UK Middle East IC to mostly roll mech up to Russia and spread a few fighters in. 3 Fighters a turn would eat up most of UK’s money - do you not spend on anything else? For example, some type of transport threat to get at Germany (or nibble as Crockett puts it).

Also, has anyone tried using the ANZACS in the Middle East? @siredblood has a video on his webpage called the ANZAC Express where he uses a British transport to move an ANZAC infantry from Egypt to Persia in two turns. They build a minor IC and then shoot mechs, or even a fighter or two up to Moscow. I tried this in my last game. It was going to help, but the game ended too early as I’ve detailed in earlier posts on this thread. Japan wasn’t positioned to threaten Sydney which helped. I built ANZAC infantry only for defense in Australia while funneling cash to the minor IC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcC2A1oevLE&list=PLUfMZorDuTU6p_D1UondElpCedG5377Q7&index=7

@crockett36 But we would also like to hear Crockett36’s opinion of the ongoing discussion - since you’ve been driving this thread!

@crockett36 Totally cool with that.

I think it is just important that the UK takes out the Italian ships - even if over a couple of turns. If they aren’t, then the Med is difficult to deal with and the US when it gets there must engage in a big battle whereby casualties will force the US to replace ships needed to protect transports thereby delaying shucking into Europe - giving Germany more time to get to Russia. So, back to Taranto UK1. That might be the easiest solution because the Italian fleet can be attacked piece meal.

@M36 Just to be fair to Crockett36, I have seen a more recent video where he criticizes moving the English fleet to combine with the French ships for the reasons being stated in the last few posts. He does offer a different move - consolidating the English fleet next to Malta where fighter can be scrambled in defense, and where they can land in the event of an Italian retreat. I think Crockett’s goal is to let the Italians come at him in his combined fleet strength and fighters defending at a four. Here is the video link to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Q0xIxiOwQ&t=9s

@M36 Here’s a link to Crockett36’s English strategy where I got some of the Med UK Naval moves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtziXSzJR6o

@Argothair Those are really good thoughts @Argothair especially regarding assigning countries to new players based on their personality type. The reality is that these new players are new friends of my son who is a freshman in college. I hosted the game for their spring break. My son played Germany so the two experienced players were split.

Here’s the funny part of the story…I did talk about strategy with my allied counterparts. When Germany made their first thrusts into Russia I coached Russia on hitting the Bessarabia stack because the German units were spread across the whole of the Eastern front evenly. With the air units the German player can’t predict where the Russian would strike. He wiped out the Bessarabia units.

Later, I had to leave the game for half an hour. The German player consolidated everything with a thrust into one territory. On Russia’s next move he tried to hit it with his air units and tanks and not enough infantry. When I walked back into the room everything was on the battle board and the other allied players were telling me, “We told him not to do it.” He lost nearly everything and what could be retreated was destroyed on the next German turn leaving them next to Moscow.

The Russians had a stack of infantry in Lenningrad up north but couldn’t get them to Moscow on time now that the Germans were close. But this is were you just have to roll with it and let new players learn and enjoy the fun of the game. And that’s not to say I can’t learn from games like this as well - because my son/Germany played really well and had UK on the ropes despite what other allies were doing.

I think the ship builds in Canada is a great counter move that you suggested. You can bring them over on the same turn you purchase and drop ships next to London. What we ended up doing was swinging the US fleet we had parked in 91 up to relieve London - while at the same time sneaking a group of transports to Rome and taking it while the Italians were busy in Egypt.

In the end we lost 2-1 using YG tournament rules.

@M36 On UK1 I took out the Italian ships in SZ96 next to Malta with one destroyer and a fighter. With that SZ cleared of enemy ships I moved the remaining UK fleet in the Med to SZ93 where they merged with the French cruiser and destroyer. I then landed 2 fighters on the carrier that combined with the French ships in SZ93. The tactical fighter that starts on the carrier was sent to Ethiopia to take out the Italians there.

London fighters were lost in scrambled defense of UK fleets and the Med fleet was lost when the Italians hit SZ93. The issue in that battle became order of casualties because a hit to the carrier meant the planes would have nowhere to land if the Italians only fought for one round. Which they could do and then leave the remaining ships for the Germans.