Topics created by JamesAleman

Nice thread James!!! :-)

I’ve thought about an Allied Spain gambit for a while.  I believe if the Allies can somehow get Turkey and Spain it could work.  I definitely think that Spain can’t be taken early- I think its a late game tactic when the Germans press into Russia and leave France/Italy open- Spain maybe be a necessity to stop the VC win and gain an advantage.

I think a Spain gambit is tough, but someone is gonna figure a way to pull it off in certain situations.  Maybe you’ll be the one- keep thinking. :-)

Uk retreats, lost the 2 air , Germany does sea lion minus a CA bombardment…success!!

Strategy Summary:
Using 7 starting pieces and 5 purchased pieces on turn 1 assemble a Far East Task Force
Prepare a Russian turn 2 Declaration Of War against Japan.
or
Bait Japan(surprise them once per player) into a J1 DOW.
Use Far East Task Force to secure Burma road turn 3, India turn 4, and redeploy air to USSR by turn 6 or 7 for defense of Russia. 5 Russian air units are a nice scramble/carrier cargo in India on turn 3.

Note: The India DOW against Japan turn 1 discussed below is designed for the surrender London Strategy I have proposed elsewhere, simply ignore to evaluate this proposal independently.

Strategy Details:
Turn 1:
Purchase 2 fighters, 3 Mechanized Infantry.
Deploy 17 infantry, 1 AA gun to Amur as bait(above Manchuria+Korea).
Deploy 1 infantry to Yakut S.S.R. to redeploy against a blitzing tank later.
Deploy 1 armor, 1 Mechanized Infantry to Volgograd(Southern Victory City/Factory).
Deploy 2 fighters, 1 Tactical Bomber to Russia(non-surprise/feint option) or Caucasus(feint).
Deploy 1 Armor, 1 Mechanized Infantry to Caucasus(feign a Middle-East staging, prevent a German 5 turn assault on Moscow).

At this point, few Japanese players are expecting Russia to deploy 7 land units and 5 air units in China, so they may choose to seize Amur. This is a critical blunder and should be avoided as you consume 10-11 land units in Asia plus 2-3 air units to destroy that force, without pulling your entire fleet out of position. These 11 land units are needed in China. In my opinion.

China turn 1:
Build 4 Infantry
Deploy 12 infantry to Szechwan, 1 Fighter
Alternative: Attack and kill 1-2 Japanese land units(if 3-4 are present, soften up for India) with 3 infantry and 1 Fighter leaving 9 units plus fighter in Szechwan turn 2.
Collect 8-9 IPCs

_India turn 1: (hinges on if US enters the war turn 2 by surrendering London, disregard this section for independent review of USSR tactic)
Purchase 1 air craft carrier. Save 1 IPC.
Declare war on Japan
Deploy 6 infantry and 1 Artillery to Burma
Capture(preferred) or Clear Yunnan with 2 infantry and 3 planes, land 3 planes in India.
Deploy 1 DD to sz 37 block Jap Navy
Deploy 1 Transport to Sumatra, secure 4 IPCS with 2 Infantry from Malaya.
Deploy 1 Infantry from Malaya to Shan State
Deploy 1 BB, 1 CA to sz39 to protect carrier build.
note Deploy 1 DD french sz72 and 1 DD UKsz71 to sz 75 (in range of sz 39,76,80,41,57,60 as needed)
Collect 21 plus, 5 IPC NO, plus 1 saved for 27 IPCs.

Anzac turn 1: Build 3 infantry save 1 IPC
Deploy 1 fighter to UK carrier
Deploy 2 fighters all land to Queensland to secure landing for US planes on turn 2.
Deploy 1 transport and 2 Infantry to Java_

Russia turn 2
Deploy 2 armor, 5 Mechanized units to Sikiang, China via Kazakhstan (DOW on Japan if needed)
Deploy 4 fighters, 1 tactical bomber to Szechwan to protect 10-13 Chinese units from Jap air attack.
Deploy Amur forces if alive to capture or clear Manchuria and Korea(lower priority)

Now Japan turn 2 must use caution if they hit Amur. They have too few units(11-12) to stack in Kweichow as Russia can hit those units with 7 land and 5 air, clearing that stack.
If they stack in Hunan 12 units (assumes fleet elsewhere unless Amur is ignored), then China moves into Yunnan with 10-12 land units builds 2 more, 7 UK units merge in, along with 7 USSR units on turn 3 prior to J3 assault, plus as many air units as desired up to the allied total of 5 USSR+ 3 UK + 1 Anzac = 9 by turn 3, 11 by turn 4 or later when other 2 anzac land on carriers. US planes to follow as an option from Australia.
These leave china with 26-28 land units plus 9 planes in Yunnan(1 more land if Shan state infantry is alive to move in), vs Japanese 12 land units and typically 12-14 air units even if all 20 air units can hit, its not pretty.

Japans land movements get tricky if they can not land air units to protect them, this keeps China in the game multiple rounds, and using can opener maneuvers, you can drive Japan back since 12 units from Russia are a size-able threat.

If India goes fleet with heavy air support, then Japan must choose whether to sink it since that raises the potency of the US fleet off Australia. See actual play test description below for large naval battle composition.

Unless Japan stays focused like a laser this situation creates opportunities for China/and its allies.

I welcome your comments upon any of the merits or lack there of, of these proposals and plans.

(Sorry for my absence, I have begun to focus on Allied strategies now.)
Maroon text is background information, skip if you just wanted strategy details
Recently, I began to seek ways to address my biased perceived weighting of Alpha2 towards the axis.

Summary: Germany takes UK by turn 3 or 4, Russia can move into Germany on turn 4 but is often driven back. Japan destroys China by turn 3 or 4. US spins its wheels staging in the Pacific to keep a powerful Japan from ending the game, Europe grows into a forest fire that the US struggles with after the focus lifts from Japan. <biased view=“” based=“” on=“” my=“” observations,=“” feel=“” free=“” to=“” disagree=“”>While testing a failed Russian navy concept(I had to try it once before I rule it out), I took two things out of this:
1st: A Russian navy was ineffective, but a one destroyer build with a starting sub and scramble from sz 127 shows promise of keeping the sz125 Russian Objective 2-3 rounds without a moderate German naval/air effort that could draw assets away from the US on those critical turn 4-6 maneuvers.
2nd: Russia’s first turn build is expendable in a 10+ turn game with a SeaLion Threat.

Summary: Having concluded(perhaps shortsightedly) that Russian offensives against Germany are ill-advised, and that having Russia sit and build up while doing nothing until turn 4 is also ill-advised, the logical focus of early efforts is in Asia.

Note: The below strategy was play tested 12 turns in combination with a surrender London, and Turn 1 DOW against Japan by India and Anzac after a Japan DOW turn 1 on Russia’s bait.
Japan had 2-3 critical choices to make, all of them could have changed the outcome which was: Japan was brought to her knees, with no American builds in the Pacific until turn 5, and 1 UK carrier built in S. Africa on turn 1.
Starting US Navy was forward deployed and used in Pacific when it entered the war on turn 2. Japanese navy was stacked off of French Indo China to threaten an India first campaign.
India and Anzac collected at war NO’s on turn 1 (Anzac did not have the island NO)
(all Mediterranean forces were stacked in sz92 Gibraltar turn1. 2 Land units(London/Scotland) and 3 planes were landed on Algeria(sz109 transport was critical) to prevent an Italian landing site for a German air assault against the UK sz92 force G2, (1 DD was left to block Italian bombardments/naval assault in sz 94) Turn 2, UK Navy Reinforced US navy in sz91 Gibraltar.
Buy turn 3, India was able to stack:
3 carriers, 1 BB, 1 Cruiser, 2 DD(French/UK), 9 fighters(3 Anzac,2 UK, 4 USSR fighters-3 scrambled
vs. the Japanese fleet able to hit it by turn J4:
3 Carriers, 2 BB, 2 CA, 4 DD, 2 subs (Japan had moved fleet to Philippines turn 2, as one transport was  used turn 1 against Amur, 1 was in Japan, and with only 1 transport, India first was not viable.) This was the second critical choice that failed to see the potential of the Indian navy on one side, the US navy off of Australia, and the cost of the first critical decision to hit Amur depleting Asian land units and pulling 1 transport out of range.
Egypt did not fall in 12 turns stacking 5 UK fighters (2London,Scotland,Gibraltar,Malta) plus 1 Tactical on Egypt turn 2 as US planes landed on UK/US fleet, causing Italy to drive through Middle-east to grab Volgograd rather then engage 15 land units, 6 air in Egypt. Italy was not safe to move away from scramble air cover for first 3 turns, as a 6 UK air force would scuttle 1 BB, 2 CA, and 2 DDs in 3 combat rounds. (3 hits round 1, 2 round 2, 1 round 3 vs. Italy 2 hits round 1, 2 round 2, 1 round 1 leaving 1 French fighter to sink unescorted transports if all UK air lost) this forced an Italian carrier build on turn 3, and fleet was able to move out turn 4….by then 5 US air offered a one , two punch threat.
In fact, the axis were forced to use a turn 2 neutral crush on Sweden, Spain, and Turkey just so Italian units could be transported to turkey when fleet was able to deploy on turn 3, this also permitted the axis to stack 30+ units on Gibraltar by turn 5 as Germany went navy for first 4 turns to drive the US away from Gibraltar since Germany was out producing the US due to capital plunder early on.</biased>

Surrender isnt part of our vocabulary,  correct me if I’m wrong in alpha2 when London falls that brings the US into the war,      so why not fight    or just give it away  I game for the battles (Kursk) = big tank battles between Germany and Russia or (truk Lagoon) big naval battles between Japan and USA  or the Battle of Britain/Sealion.    and I like to win , to add or change the rules can be fun but this game was not designed to be redesigned by all of us, It’s a step up from the Anniversary edition.  If because the Axis won the last 4 games means the Allies cant win , then I think you may be missing some thing but I dont think so from what I can tell the people on the forum are skilled, experienced players.    There are a bunch of people who think the game is unbalanced with the Allies being the one with the upper hand. This subject might get ya to think that it is balanced the other way.  In 25+ yrs I’ve seen where one side will get a bunch of wins only to be offset by the other,  overall I would say that the score is about 50/50  we play on average 2 games a weekend.    How did Hitler say it……fight to the last man  I think Stalin said it to… Keep gaming and post the results.

i am very pro-nr.4, which should have been the general rule, i think

@RedHunter:

I have a few problems with all of this as follows…

1. As pointed out the Uk has no reason to declare on Japan…the USA player would kill the brit player if they did that. This would be a case of the allied players not talking to each other. In which case they are going to lose anyway.

2. The USA player can’t be so stupid as to disreguard threats near them, you can’t suprise them really. Again if the USA player is that stupid you don’t need weird tactics to beat them, you can beat them straight up through tactics.

1: You no longer need UK to declare war on Japan. See reply number 32 for explanation. Japan is free to fly over UK territories while neutral. This does not cause a declaration of war, per Krieghund.

2: You no longer need to surprise the US. In fact, it appears that keeping US neutral 3 turns prohibits them from being able to stop this air force move.

Finally, the only player able to stop/impact this, is USSR. They need to shove 12 units to Siberia turn 1, to threaten a take back of Soviet far East. Japan should lose 2 air units and 2 ground units destroying this force on J2. This is not likely, as Japan hasn’t started the game yet, so they would have to “guess” that Japan is going this route and expose a large portion of their starting Eastern forces to a Japanese invasion.

This post is regarding moving the starting Japanese air force to German occupied Alberta. It is not an argument for just America first. It is a discussion for how to always be able to get the air force to the Atlantic. America first may have a lot of problems yet to be resolved. This is one less problem.

If France isn’t taken by turn 1 Germany is in trouble and the UK will thank you for leaving France intact.  Also the USA would collect all of South America if you hit a Netural nation like Turkey.  There are a lot of other holes in the plan…you assuming above average dice rolling which can’t be assumed. Your also assuming the Russian player is stupid and doesn’t figure out your plan and move to counter it. Because all Russia really has to do is hold on and wait for the USA to arrive to help. This tactic wouldn’t work on me as a USA player because I would be sitting in Rome turn 5 especially with Italy having no fleet in the med I would just park my fleet in the med and let you take pot shots at it with fighters(that would be fighters you wouldn’t be able to use to help take the other VC).

@jeffdestroyer:

WUS to GIB via Mexico caught my eye.  A bomber will have enough movement to hit the adjacent sz

You can also use the fact that CUS borders Z101

When I play test, I set up the board and try to find counters to an idea as I work though the turns, so no opponent. Obviously, that will not mean the idea works until I try it live. Its just to test the concept. If the concept is sound, I use it in a live face to face game and see how the other guy(s) respond.

This first game I focused on the subs for blockading. That part does not seem reasonable at this point. Its still interesting that it delayed the US transports and gave Germany a nice income, but I don’t think the axis will pull a win out of the bag. By the way, when I meant to blockade I would leave the surface fleet back in the face of a large air force and wait for additional subs, you could then counter attack a DD build with air and sea, taking the air units off so that the carriers can stay back. Even convoy raiding for 22 IPCs would be nice.

Next test, I want to build a G2 transport wave as well, this will force UK to keep with Infantry making Italy’s job easier, and give me the resources to secure S. America while the US is neutral, with enough, I hope to divert 3 towards West Africa again, as having the German land unit in Egypt is a nice thought. I realize UK is the same amount of IPCs as S. America, but I’m testing the concept of taking an area out of America’s way plus they have multiple factory sites if it seems possible to use them.

There are some early risks I discovered. The G2 move to Gibraltar in the first game put the German Fleet of CV,BB,CA,2FTR in range of a UK CA,3 FTR and TAC…a bold player might take that shot. I also had UK do a weak attack [CV+FTR+CA] on the Italian fleet, it worked [damaged CV with a CA] while leaving the Tac for London.

Turkey was a tight fight G3, as I only had 5 inf, 3 arm, 1 tac, 1 bomber in range…I ended with 1 inf, 3 arm and the 2 air. Losing 2 units in Greece could have made it 4 inf for the assault. Turkey missed a lot, I could see losing armor in the future as an outcome.

Other concerns are if Russia stages north and drives on Norway, Germany’s income would plummet. With many transports, I hope to discourage that option.

I had UK protect Quebec, but I’m curious about how many players would suspect a G3 three transports full landing on Quebec? The potential to send planes staged in Gibraltar to sz 101 has merit as building carriers in 106[Quebec] would allow them to land and enable a weak looking axis force to “surprise” the US navy round 4. The transports can then hit Venezuela, West Indies and/or Central America turn 4. [This may prove to be a great move for a failed Sea Lion as sinking a US fleet would delay the US a round or more.]

The South American concept seems crazy since the US can just build large amounts of land forces. However, the US must choose fleet or land, and typically will go fleet, meaning there is “some” time for early gains and possible factories. I’m trying to limit the investment to two German productions as I want turn 3 and 4 builds to prevent Russia from getting their foot in the door.

I’m as gentlemanly as they come, but I’d check-raise my Grandmother if she sat at a poker table with me.

No.  The transport must be accompanied for its entire move in order to be “escorted”.

Good idea, but i think if you use long strips of paper and alot of folding, you can do with less stapling and get soemthing like this:

@JamesAleman:

When planning attacks do you round up or down the number of hits you will get as the attacker and the number of hits the defender will get?

To keep it simple in my head, I round my attacks down and the defenders up. If I am likely to win that way, then I will do the attack if it is minor.

Simply put, attacking 5 armor is 2 hits, defending it would be 3. So I would not attack 5 armor with 5 armor as it is a coin toss and to be safe I favor the worst case to keep me from making rash attacks.

So what do you do when planning in your head?

Round them as you stated and assume that any BB/CA amphibious bombardment will miss (and enemy ones will hit) and at least 1 AA hit, depending on the number of planes.

Found Reply#6 that refers to Canadian shield…i.e. operation Hollywood. They credit me and my friend for independently publishing it first :) Search for Hollywood.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=6090.0

I’m looking for the original on Avalon hills site if its still there…have to remember my password and old email address. I’ll post it in Revised if I find it…Kind of cool, people became serious about a KAF strategy.

EDIT:
Here is the AA50 plan I put on Board game geeks since you were curious. Its the third post.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/455961/what-is-next-to-mexico-on-the-other-side-of-the-bo

Here is a recollection of the original Hollywood plan, look at the bottom post by Iron Chef…my screen name on Avalon hill was Original_james back in 2004.

http://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-135650.html

Arminius Germanicus is correct.  Pro-Allies neutral is still neutral.

1. USA
2. Russia
3. Germany
4. Uk
5. Italy

@Krieghund:

You guys are right, the USSR would simply not get the units.  However, the Soviets only have to control the territory during the Mobilize New Units phase, not for the entire turn.

Good point, kinda like the Burma Road (or any NO). Just decide if its worth the resources to take it back to get the free inf.

Yes France has to fall turn 1 because otherwise the UK can renforce it. That means more losses turn 2. Its also one less turn Germany has to deal with the UK before America and Russia get into it.

Its like asking “Would it be crazy to leave the UK with a fleet after turn 1?”

Thats also yes…might as well conceede the game at that point.

Do You want your German tanks to take France on round 1 and then grab Western Ukraine 5 spaces away by round 3? Then read on.
_* Warning the author of this article and the websites it is on do not claim responsibility for games lost due to following the advise below.

Reader discretion is advised._

Take France, on round 2 attack Yugoslavia with 1 Romanian infantry, 2 other infantry/mechs, and 4 armor in France (sending 5 risks winning). Attack one combat round, retreat to Romania with 4 surviving tanks and maybe a Mech depending on if Yugoslavia hit 2 or 3 times. Then attack W. Ukraine (assumes you declared war round 1 or 2 and captured Bessarabia or E. Poland.

Next:

Can you grab S. France, Greece, Iraq, and Egypt all at the same time on round 2 with Italy (gaining a National Objective) and proceed to Caucasus round 4? I can, see below.

(The allies can stop this with effort and foresight)

I1: attack Yugoslavia for 1 combat round with all N. Italy land units and 1 Albanian infantry, retreat at least 2 artillery and 1 armor to Albania. Move other Albanian infantry into Bulgaria to gain 4 infantry. Transport 1 armor from Albania and 1 South Italy infantry to trans-Jordan (if it is not empty stop reading, I am your opponent). Attack Alexandria with all the Tobruk land units. Move the 1 S. Italy troop and 2 fighters to N. Italy and build 1 artillery and 2 infantry there.

G2: land your W. Germany staged airforce 3 air units (if you built 3 planes G1) to Trans-Jordan after sending the 8 air units staged in North Italy to attack Egypt and land in Trans-Jordan. Maybe send 2 tanks from France into S. France if France placed 2 infantry and 1 artillery there, retreat when you hit once. Only do this if you don’t like attacking 3 units with Italy’s force shown below.

I2: Attack S. France with N. Italy land units and 1 fighter. Attack Greece with Albanian and Bulgarian land units plus a fighter unless you want 2 fighters on S. France. Capture empty Egypt or fight any units built there on UK2 with Alexandra force (move the mechs/tanks to transjordan non combat). Move Transjordan infantry and tank into Iraq. Secure your first National Objective!

G3: Land some air units in Iraq if UK has transports that can hit, Maybe clear Persia of any UK units there and land some air units in Egypt to secure it.

I3: Take N. Persia and move tanks/mech from transjordan into either Syria, Persia, or N. Persia as needed.

G3: Use air force in area to clear Caucasus if heavily defended. Then Italy can handle any reinforcements. Works well if you declared war turn 1 and are in Russia drawing them North.

I4: Take Caucasus with up to 4 infantry 2 armor, 2 Mechs and 2-3 fighters.

Yes, I kill most of the RN. except sz 111. 2 subs on 109, 2 subs 2 ftr, 2 tac. on sz 110. 1 sub,1 cruiser, 1 ftr, 1 tac on 112. Norway ftr in France. All air can land in N. Italy. Bomber and Battleship on Russian fleet.

sz 111 is left untouched. 1 Battleship and 1 Cruiser along with sz 106 and 91 also untouched.

Not saying this wins the game, just a way to help Italy.