Good way of thinking so far I would say :-)

As with the Allied fleets: Even after G1 UK holds a a small but nice fleet on the board… the problem is: it’s scattered: India, Australia, maybe one ship in Med, Canadian coast. Try to unite them in the Atlantic meeting somewhere west of South Africa. In the meantime the US will have built up a strong naval force (Pacific fleet coming to the Atlantic plus US1 and US2 purchases: I do mostly 2 carriers+ 2 Figs to load them, 2 destroyers, bit by bit up to 8 transports) to support the UK fleet. UK should build up a strong Fighter force to hold India, and when the fleet comes up to the European coast it can start bringing troops from UK heartland to Europe on maybe 3 transports, later 4.

Mostly I bring what is stationed in the US heartland from the beginning over to North Africa in turn 3-4 (depending on German naval actions and purchases) and after that several turns to Scandinavia, bit by bit supported by UK to take back Karelia or at least keep the Germans occupied there in favor for the Russians… and finally directly to Europe: France and Northwest-Europe from turn 8-10 on (again: depending on German purchases and moves). If it didn’t work that way or the Russian died too early I lost my games  :cry: Quite often it comes to eventually giving up India (in round 7-9) to support Russia with 10+ UK Fighters and to take the Caucasus into UK hands for the time being, but keeping the Russian alive with it: He can turn east then and defend against the Japanese as long as UK and US are dealing with Germany.

Caucasus could work for some turns, that’s right… If you have an eye on Asia still and don’t plan to go for India at all costs that is a hard nutshell for the Allies to crack… I haven’t tried that one yet, do you have personal experience with it?

I guess the Russian could go on a strafing mission there in Caucasus if you’re not careful (taking as many Japanese fighters down as possible). Even risking his Inf-fodder can’t be too bad, if it keeps his back clean in Asia and the UK swing their fighters from India to Russia on time… It also increases the pressure for the US to enter the arena even quicker in order to keep the Russian alive…

What do you think guys?

Not that the Germans are in too much trouble in this game from the beginning anyway, but yes, you could provide even more defense for them with the Japanese Air Force. But this way I certainly promise, you won’t take Egypt down for a long while… Of course always depending on where you put those fighters exactly and how the British plays… but without the Fighter force in Burma, the British should sweep it clean in round 3-4 and Asia becomes quite British with some serious consequences: Britain gets many highly needed IPCs for getting to business in Europe and Russia doesn’t have to fear Japanese pressure from the east… Of course now it depends on how Russia acts, but if it hits with some nice strafing attack-retreat-moves, the valuable units might get some losses… And here we are again in the vast lands of speculation :wink:

@MarineIguana:

Trading heavily as you’re describing is decisively unfavorable for Russia. For the reason that 1. UK/USA can’t support until round 4 and 2. germany produces 13 vs 7-8 of Russia.

End of Russia R1, zero bid, attacking Baltic with 1inf/1art/1fig and stacking Wrus:
Wrus 9 inf/2art/4tank
Arch: 2 inf
Baltic states: 0 units or 1 art
Russia: 2 inf/2 fig/+purchases

Agreed on this just the same  :-) I would just take 2 or even 3 Inf to the attack on the Baltic states to definitely take it (brings the IPCs, blocks a heavy movement from Germany and forces him to attack there as well)

If germany stacks Karelia R1 with 7 inf/3tanks counter stack karelia with 11 inf/2art/4tank/2fig. Attack-retreat for 1 round with expected outcome of 6 germany inf lost and 4 Russia inf lost. Russia has an even better trade if Russia gains an extra 1-2 artillery in the initial bid. If low luck, Russia should attack retreat 2 rounds and leave germany with 1 tank in Karelia.
With Russia R1 purchases moved to Wrus, Russia can continue to deadzone Karelia unless Germany makes some extremely aggressive purchases. Aggressive purchase caveat: I’ve worked out the math and Germany can stack Karleia R2-R3 only with something like 8 tank buys a turn R1 and R2. This makes it immensely weak vs UK/US R4.

I have to admit the attack retreat option is a good one and it takes some guts to do it… That’s probably why only experienced players use it.

The Germany optimal line among top players is to buy 13 units a round, stack France with fighters, and stack baltic states with inf and poland with tanks and just enough infantry to trade ukraine. This is done until Karelia can be safely stacked.

The Russia optimal line is to purchase inf/art, stack Wrus, trade efficiently (e.g. trade Ukr/Belo with 2 fig/1 inf instead of 2 inf/1fig), and deadzone Karelia until R4 when UK/US can apply pressure on Germany.

That’s agreed upon as well. If you meant this deadzoning alas attack-retreat on Karelia, then we’re on the same page here. The thing is, that I basically played against intermediate Axis players so far but man, this board plays you hard as Allies if you make a mistake! Good talking about the advanced strategies and I will definitely try some stuff next time.

Keeping Moscow Soviet until round eight might be possible, even wihout ANY help from the Allies (which should start coming over the Atlantic by round four-five latest), but keeping the German from producing in Karelia until round five is basically impossible, if the German goes purchasing full land (mostly tanks and fighters) beginning G1. An example:

Soviet turn 1 takes West-Russia and Baltic States, stacking the first with almost everything available.

German turn 1 could bring up to 7 Inf and 3 tanks to Karelia (using the transport in the Baltic Sea), also taking Baltic States back and keeping his fighters close for defense. Then what? If the Soviet takes Karelia back wih the West-Russian stack and Caucasus with Soviet turn 1 purchase units, Caucasus is quite weakly stacked and Karelia in a heavy German deadzone… So whats left from the attack on the Soviet side is taken by G2: 5-6 tanks, 3-4 Inf, up to 8 figters… And that’s it with the Soviet stack and keeping Germany out of Karelia… So to be honest, I would consider opening up a south front with that Soviet stakc against a weakly defended Ukraine then… Or other stuff, but keeping Germany out of Karelia at all costs is taking the valuable Soviet units down too quickly… Why not taking Karelia back with the Allies, landing in Scandinavia turn 4-5 and attacking the German from round 5-6 on…

Interesting game and interesting moves… But the Allies are done, it’s only a question of time now (Just compare Axis IPCs and Allies IPCs and you see what’s comin’). Some things could have been avoided from the beginning, though: For example why didn’t the British move their tank and inf in North America to Alaska first round (his transport was lost anyway)? That would have kept the Jap out on turn one. The British could have also sunk the Jap transport and destroyer off the coast to avoid the Jap gaining too much attack force 1st round… And with the Soviet I would have also conquered the Baltic states in the very first round: 2 more IPCs to collect and taking one of the German tanks out… And why sending the valuable (and vulnerable) US transports to Morocco for basically nothing which is having one tank surviving only instead of grouping forces to make some trouble in the Atlantic… :| Well and then the very bad dice gods on the Soviet defence, that’s a shame…  :evil:

… and you will most probably HAVE to change if G1 has a bombing on UK. And if G1 purchase is 2-3 more of those bombers, UK has to reconsider its role anyway (let alone the Japanese starts to bomb India as well…)

Another thing with W-Russia: Soviet2 will be a movement out of W-Russia for me most of the times (with one AA left as BlitzBlocker) to recapture Caucasus, that would leave those Fighters quite vulnerable there  :-D Why not sinking the small German fleet and going over Gibraltar? If that’s not an option because of G1 occupying Gibraltar you have to come up with something else… For example taking North Africa UK2 (cuz G1 used the transport in Med for Gibraltar, not North-Africa, so you can make some space there!?) But if G1 had a successful bombing you won’t have 31 IPCs to spend anyway… Then I buy 2 Fighters and what’s left for Inf and Art (in the worst case you have only 24 IPCs in UK1 to spend!) and place it all to India: Et voila: 2 Fighters there in UK1 already, nice  :mrgreen:

Long story short: Yeah, I guess you just react to G1!  :-D

I’m not quite sure if I understand you right there… The Jap can intercept your Aussie fleet in round one with 1 Sub and 1 Fighter… the odds are slightly in his favor then but it can also go wrong for him… in any case, those units are a nice-to-have but not the most crucial things on the board in my opinion. What is much more important is to get all US navy into the Atlantic, though. Because you want to secure your troop movements over to Europe as soon as possible with the least IPCs to spend… because from round 3 on you really need the US IPCs for land units to let them flow into Europe… Well, that’s at least how I play it. The US production is under a lot of pressure from the beginning to bring as much stuff into action as possible and asap. I have seen players not really knowing what to do with the US and splitting forces and wasting the first rounds for undecided actions in both Pacific and Atlantic… I think you should decide very early in the game whether you go for KGF, then you should throw literally everything against him (apart from some action out of India against the Japs in Asia). Or you go for KJF, that would be a different approach, harder though (stalling the Jap on his mainland, using united Brithish and US forces in the Pacific -> that eases the pressure on Russia from the east but Germany can go wild… not so good for the Russians, which might fall in the 4-5 round if you have an aggressive German player who sees what you’re up to from the moment you buy stuff for UK in the first round… but that’s a different story I think)

Coming to the balancing issue again: I very carefully reconsidered and I can only repeat myself: The board might favor Axis from the beginning, but it is shifting during the game. I personally like to play the Allies because it’s a real challenge, and when I win I know I earned it…  :mrgreen:

@seawolf:

Hey guni-kid, thanks for some nice input on the allied strategy.

I was curious about why you always would go for a UK1 buy of 2 tanks, 2 art and 1 fighter. The one artillery in UK would not be used until later rounds. Why not a 2 inf, 1 art for India, and 2 fighters UK?

And about the northern route from US to Norway. I guess you mean moving units from SZ10 (Eastern Canada) to SZ3 (Norway). How can this route enable the British fleet, since UK cant place transports in any of those zones? Do you split the US navy between SZ3 and a UK SZ when it is time to drop the UK navy, or do you take a 1 round pause in the US landing to stack the navy safe?

Hi Seawolf,

sorry for my very late answer… Was busy with other stuff and totally forgot to take a look into the forums…

Okay to your questions: Yes, I changed my 1st round purchase for UK indeed: 1 Tank, 1 Art, 2 Fighters (1 Fighter to UK, the rest to India), this way I have more material to hit the Axis in all war theaters.

And to the northern route: Yes again, I mean from SZ10 to SZ3. This is the way the US troops will move there and back (slowly growing the Transport capacity over time to about 8 transport ships, being escorted by all the US navy you have from the beginning plus two more fully loaded carriers). The UK transport and destroyer do it only once to SZ3 in round three (since the US fleet is coming the same way this round, it’s safe for the UK units). In round 4 they go to SZ8 where they meet the merging India and Australia fleets. Put fighters on the Indian carrier and build even a second one if you like (depends on how the German plays his fighters). Now you should have three UK transports in SZ8 ready to take action… From round 5 on you can bring each round 6 UK Units plus 8 US Units to Europe and add it to the few units Russia is getting by this time (let’s hope it’s still allive � 8-) ) Do that for about 3-4 rounds and the German will face a real Problem. If you held India against the Japanese and Russia is still alive by this time you are about to win. It’s getting more interesting when India falls and Russia seriously struggles… Which is more likely � :evil:

I hope you still read the answer since it came so awfully late… Sorry again!