Thanks for the insight guys. We’re about to start the 2nd round now, hopefully all will go well for me :D

Hey all. First of all, let me apologize if this is the wrong section. I saw a Player Help forum, but I’ve also noticed similar threads as this one on the AA42 forum, and since the version I’m playing is AA42 I figured it’d be ok to post it here :)

I just started playing AA42 with my roommate. I’ve never played A&A, Risk, or any strategy-heavy boardgame before, which is weird because I LOVE turn based strategy games on the computer (I’ve been a Civilization fanatic since 1991). I’ve always wanted to get into strategy boardgames, but never had the chance until recently.

My roommate, on the other hand, has played A&A for 15+ years, albiet not much in the past 10 years (or so he says). We just started a game two nights ago (my first game ever) and I’ve done a good deal of reading (rules, strategies, etc) in the past few days “preparing” for this match, so I’d like to believe I at least have a basic knowledge of what I’m doing… but I figured I’d try and get some insight from the A&A gurus here.

I’m playing Allies, and he’s Axis. We only completed one full round (Russia thru to USA) before we called it a night. It took us quite a few hours, mainly because it was my first time ever and he was rusty, so there was alot of going through the rulebook  :-D

I’ll summerize how the turns went as well as I can remember.

R1 - I bought 6 inf 1 tank, attacked Eastern Europe and West Russia, taking only West Russia.

• I then moved inf from all Russian territories to reinforce Caucasus and West Russia, and I THINK I moved whatever was in Archangel to Karelia. I also moved my sub in SZ4 to SZ6. On the eastern Russian front I moved my units in Yakut and SFE into Buryatia.
• For placement, I placed 4 inf in Caucasus, and the rest (2 inf 1 tank) in Russia.
• So at the end, Karelia had a tank and 2 inf, Caucasus had a few tanks, 6-7 inf, a ftr, and art, and West Russia had tanks and inf. Russia had 1 tank and 2 inf.

G1 - He bought 4 tanks, some inf, and I honestly forget what else. But he used all of his IPC. He attacked Caucasus with a bunch of tanks, inf and a fighter. He attacked Karelia with a tank, 2 inf and a 2 fighters (I think). He took Karelia but lost in Caucasus.

• He also anihilated my sub in SZ6 with his fleet.
• He moved his Algeria units into Libya, reinforced Karelia a bit, and left a small force in Belerussa, and one tank in Eastern Europe.
• For placement, he split it pretty evenly between Germany/Southern Europe

UK1 - I bought 2 bombers, and saved the rest of my IPC

• Combat consisted of me doing a SBR on Germany, using my sub near Australia to attack a lone Japanese sub (in SZ45 I think?), and using my fighter on my AC in SZ35 to destroy the lone Japanese transport in SZ59. I also destroyed a lone German transport in SZ14 (I forget how/why it was alone… but it was, and I sunk it).
• I moved my transport I THOUGHT to SZ10, but I’m looking at a PDF of the map and if it starts in SZ2, it cant make it that far… so maybe its in SZ9 (I’m at work so I cant check the board right now). Regardless, I was moving it to SZ10 to help the US ferry units to Africa. I moved Persia’s units into India, and I moved any close units towards Anglo-Egypt Sudan.

J1 - He bought a transport, some inf/tanks, and I think a destroyer or cruiser.

• He took China, and tried to take Buryatia but failed. He took an AC, dest, cruiser, 1 ftr, and a transport with 1 inf 1 tank to SZ52 and destroyed the US fleet there. I’m assuming he’ll take Hawaii next turn.
• At the end of his turn most of his fleet was in SZ52, French-Indo China had 1 bomber in it, China had 5 inf, and Manchuria had I think 2-3 inf.

US1 - I bought 1 cruiser, 3 tanks, 5 inf, and didn’t attack anything.

• I moved 1 ftr to Hawaii, loaded up 2 transports IN sz10 with 3 inf 1 tank and moved them along with the cruiser and destroyer to SZ12 for my impending takeover of Africa.
• I placed the cruiser in SZ55, one inf/tank in WUS, and the rest in EUS.

My strategy is to try and keep Germany on the defensive with Russia as much as possible. I don’t intend to push the line but I don’t want to just leave him free to build up units to roll Russia over. I plan to buy more tanks/inf with Russia next turn, maybe 4 tanks 2 inf or 3 tanks 3 inf. Should I buy fighters instead since mine were lost?
The UK, with 3 bombers, will conduct constant SBR on Germany. I don’t know whether to continue building bombers to aid in more SBR, or build a navy, or land units and transports, or possibly an IC in India.
USA I’m using to take over Africa. I built a cruiser in the Pacific to try and keep Japan a little more occupied there, but I don’t intend to spend many resources there. Next turn I may have USA buy an AC and fighters in Atlantic, along with another transport, or start buying bombers for attacking Europe.

He’s obviously going after Hawaii with Japan. I put two USA fighters there just to give him a harder time of it. If he wants to keep his fleet in the Pacific trying to take over 1 IPC islands then that’s fine by me. I’m not entirely sure what he plans with Germany. He’s mentioned a few times that “Germany must play defensively”, but from all I’ve read on these forums, Germany should be aggressive to try and break Russia before it can get help from USA/UK. Maybe he’s just trying to sych me out, or perhaps he doesn’t know the game as well as he thinks he does?

Anyways, that’s pretty much it. I’m not really seeking help on exactly what I should do, but I just figured getting some basic analysis on my strategy and if I’m making some major bungles :)