Posts made by KGrimB

I think when discussing the pacific war you have to have a larger idea rather than a turn sequence plan.

With that said I think there is an exception to be said that the first turn the US should build at least 2 aircraft carriers. Without them it cannot safely cross the atlantic or project force in the pacific.

Since the USA initially has an economic advantage I would advocate for an aggressive search and destroy approach. The USA should focus on taking important naval bases like the Carolines. The US has a smaller airforce, but they can put themselves in several locations on the map where they have multiple targets to strike. Japan cannot defend all their islands and by capturing islands you can reduce the impact of their airpower by restricting its range.

I think Bombers are an incredibly useful purchase for the US. Bombers parked in Western US have a large amount of range and a stack of about 6 or 7 can do tremendous damage.

When building air power for the carrier fleet, the USA should consider mixining in some tactical bombers. Being on the attack will favor the US because it limits the number of planes Japan can bring to fight.

I think the allies in the pacific win the war by forcing Japan to spread itself thin. The US has to have a powerful fleet backed by 2 or 3 transports so that it can land and take multiple islands. The islands in the middle of the pacific may not have a lot of IPC value, but the amount of times my opponent couldn’t attack my fleet because they didn’t have a place to land their planes was greatly appreciated.

Anzac is the other ally that I think can provide some offense. They can build airbases and provide fighter scramble to cover the US and occasionally can do submarine convoys.

Not really sure why you guys don’t play with the victory city rules. The continental United States is practically unassailable being able to drop over 20 infantry in one turn. The victory city rules force the allies to find quick and impactful solutions to the boardstate created by the axis before Russia and the weaker allies get overwhelmed.

The starting setup is always the same unless you play with a bid; because of this countries that have an earlier turn in the turn order are easier to plan, while other countries often lose many of their starting units.

The general priorities of the allies are as follows:

Priority 1 - don’t lose your capital
Priority 2 - capture axis capitals

I wrote that because for many of the allied powers the early game is about defense and finding opportunities to counter attack.

Russia: Russia starts the game with 37 ipcs. They go directly after Germany and within the G1 turn Russia either gets attacked or they don’t. I personally find that Russia normally needs more offensive units in order to be able to counterattack. For these reasons I normally recommend purchasing some combination of tanks, artillery, or tactical bombers. The point being there are two territories in Russia on the map that you can counterattack most of the German forces from. Using your forward factories early to place tanks can also help a lot. The infantry in the far east normally do a little maneuvering before retreating to Moscow.

United States: The United States is the most powerful allied player, but they are very far from the action. In the early turns as the US you will want to build capital ships like carriers and battleships. These ships will provide the backbone of the fleet used to protect your transports from German air and the Japanese navy. Gibraltar is a key location on the Atlantic side and can be a spot to offload troops before deciding where to invade.

China: China is normally based around 1 territory, that being Yunnan. China does not need to hold Yunnan in order to stay alive they just need to be able to successfully attack and take it each turn for as long as they can. If Japan does not do a J1 the fighter plane can land in Burma after fighting in Yunnan forcing the Japanese to declare war if they want to kill the fighter. The fighter plane is the key to China everything else about them should be used to slow down Japanese forces approaching India.

UK Europe: UK Europe focuses on the priorities I listed. They have to defend London and stop Italy. Attacking the Italian navy is critical to success in the Mediterranean. I almost never build a factory in Egypt turns 1-3, but GeneralHandGrenade made a video about the merits of a factory in Persia. In Europe if London is safe, Strategic bombing Germany and Italy can impact their ability to attack Russia.

UK Pacific: Again hold India, a good way to be able to hold India is picking up a money island early. If Japan dedicates all of their resources towards taking India early, the other allies need to act on the opportunity of the Japanese being busy.

Anzac: Hold sydney. After that I think having a good amount of fighter planes is invaluable. Anzac fighter planes can fly to air bases to provide scramble for the American fleet. Building an airbase on an allied island to provide cover for the American fleet is smart and Anzac normally can pull in about 20 ipcs per turn once they get their objectives. Anzac can also build transports and capture undefended Japanese islands in order to deny them landing spots for their aircraft.

France: The infantry in French west africa and in Syria should work there way towards holding Egypt. The infantry in North Africa i normally don’t group up because they are useful for spreading the Italian forces thin. The french fighter plane in London helps defend London during strategic bombings and actual attacks.

The Axis powers can earn tremendous amounts of money, but they can’t earn enough to fight against a coordinated allied counter attack. The Axis powers have to attack swiftly and this mostly boils down to the USA being such a tremendous powerhouse in the late game. If you are playing without the victory city rules, I would imagine most games are won by the allies.

I encourage you to play with victory cities because they make the games shorter and more skill based because it puts the allied powers on a clock to coordinate a defensive counterattack to allow the USA to knock someone out.

@simon33:

Yep, you’ve got to have some fodder with loaded carriers. If a DD was present you could lose that first and assume that you would score a hit.

So it is true then that wounded carriers can never have planes land on them. That makes subs really good against carriers that are alone.

Having a problem in one of our games and something doesn’t seem right about this. Japanese player has 1 aircraft carrier with 2 fighter planes and 2 empty transports in SZ 56. Western Australia is controlled by Anzac with 1 tank and 1 infantry. Anzac turn 5 combat move 1 sub from SZ 62 —> SZ 56. Combat no destroyers present sub rolls and gets a hit, damaging carrier. Defending fighters do not roll and defending carrier misses. Attacking Anzac sub retreats from combat to SZ 61.

Now this is the part that is mixing us up. We are under the impression that the planes that were on the Japanese carrier now have no legal landing zone because all territories adjacent to sz 56 are sea zones without axis carriers. Japanese fighters are destroyed as a result.

The net outcome is one Anzac sub got one hit and wounded a Japanese carrier resulting in the destruction of the planes it was carrying.

This seems too powerful. We are trying to find if planes can land on a damaged carrier, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, which means one sub can destroy a lone carriers planes.

How do you defend against this. Even if a destroyer was present if the Anzac had gotten two sub hits then Japanese planes would go to the bottom of the pacific. Wounding carriers and then retreating to kill planes seems like a loophole. I know carriers are expensive so two hits seems fair so they can be repaired, but I think by the time I take a hit on a carrier I’m losing that battle anyways.

If he is going hard on Russia and is deliberately trying to keep the USA out of the war, then you really need to strengthen the impact of the UK globally.

UK Pacific: If he is not choosing to declare war on the UK Pacific with Japan than you will be able to easily get the Dutch East Indies. This can boost UK Pacific’s income by more than 10 which will help them build up. If he is sending units into Siberia you can recognize that he is avoiding victory cities. Japan can’t win without getting 6 victory cities so what you do is you can fortify Hawaii, Calcutta, and Sydney. Especially if he is not declaring war until around turn 4. UK Pacific also starts with 3 AA guns which can be powerful against Japan’s large airforce. Additionally, since it sounds like he is really focusing on China, then the best thing you can do is protect the fighter plane. The Chinese fighter plane can land in Burma which the Japanese cannot attack unless they declare war on the UK. His strategy of not attacking the UK with Japan reduces the impact of the USA and keeps them out of the war. You can turn the tables by preserving your units and possibly forcing him to have to change tactics.

On the European side

In my experience the Taranto raid is so debilitating against the Italian invasion of Africa that Britain can normally clean up any chances of continued Italian relevance in the Mediterranean. Even if Germany successfully captures Moscow he will need either London or Cairo to win the game.

With England try this general plan: Attack SZ 97 with Bomber, Carrier, Tactical Bomber, 3 Fighter, Destroyer, Cruiser. Attack S96 with Fighter and Cruiser. (If the Cruiser at SZ 91 sunk send the cruiser that would have attacked SZ 97 to this fight. Sink any remaining Germany navy with your destroyers near Canada or London. Non combat you can land at Malta and pull your forces back to Egypt. You can also get Persia or if you wanted during combat attack Iraq. Italy’s remaining fleet is not large enough to take on your two navies in the Med and the French navy. Your’re surving navy and aircraft should be able to move to the Mediterranean and finish off the Italian navy. I don’t think you need a factory in Egypt. The units London starts with can supply troops from South Africa or India to Egypt. Once Italy can no longer transport units to Africa you can convoy them.

After the situation in the Mediterranean is free then you can focus on Germany. You have to disrupt Germany’s focus. Germany can make a lot of money on the European board, but its not enough to fight 3 players at the same time. If he is not attempting Sea Lion than you can prepare your own invasion fleet. Carriers and fighters can protect your ships and you can use those fighters as escorts in bombing raids against Germany. Some people also like to land in Norway early. Germany normally has to commit air power to retake Norway if they lose it. However due to the NO capturing Norway reduces Germany’s income by 8. If you can hold Leningrad you can attempt a joint defense.

You can lose Moscow and still win the game. It is important to take out Italy’s power in the med early. Once Cairo and London are safe German really only has one way to go and they can’t capture Moscow before the USA enters and turns the tide.

If Germany is buying large amounts of aircraft or submarines you should try to buy destroyers and antiaircraft guns.

I think that keeping your units alive is something that is not mentioned enough. If you can preserve that transport by moving it to the middle east instead of a suicide landing on DEI it can provide value to you throughout the game whether in the med or if you build a factory somewhere it can help move those units around faster.

Stack Japan with Infantry. You can make 10 infantry a turn there where as he needs a transport for his units. If he wants to match your infantry build it costs him 13 to bring 2 men where as it only costs you 6. Then put a destroyer in SZ 7. When He moves his navy towards Japan he will have to take out the destroyer before he can attack your mainland. Depending on how the game is going this could buy you another turn to build units on Japan proper or if your airforce is present you should be able to smash his fleet.

Kill Japan First. Strategy where the Allies focus a lot of their money on taking out Japan because they can be attacked from multiple angles to tie down Japanese supply lines.

What about Italian goals before the Taranto raid became a standard move?

I have seen a couple of people mention before that the reason the Axis powers are viewed as having an advantage is because most of their standard attacks in the early turns are very aggressive and efficient. People have mentioned that before these newer strategies were developed the game was traditionally Allied favored. I was wondering if anyone remembered what those slower axis strategies were and the advantages they provided by perhaps being slower to attack.

For example, how long was Japan attempting to keep the western allies out of the war in the pacific. Was it mostly crush China, I can understand that this could cause economic problems by not grabbing the Dutch territories.

How was Germany slower? What were the targets for all of the aircraft and submarines that traditionally attack SZ 111 and SZ 110?

Anyone that remembers what the older methods were have you tried any of them in more recent games?

@Colt45:

I think most people would tell you that this delays a planned j1/j2 West Allies DoW and say to crush Amur instead. I would agree.

I’m assuming this is an R1 Amur stack which means a j1 amur crush

Yep R1 Amur stack

If Russia stacks everything in Amur, is it worth it as Japan to declare war and attack the forces there. I don’t want to give them the mongolia troops, but I need my land units against China.

Do you think this move was intended so that I don’t attack or so that I attack him instead of China?

His territories are worth as much as the chinese ones.

In general is it worth it to attack Russia with Japan in J1-J3 or should this attack mostly be saved for later in the game?

That’s a really cool interaction never would have thought of it like that thanks to everyone that helped clear that up

Hi everyone I recently got into Axis and Allies G40 and have been enjoying it a lot. I was wondering if anyone could recommend me different people that frequently film and post games they play whether on twitch or YouTube.

I also wanted to know if anyone knew if YoungGrasshopper’s tournament is going to be streamed / recorded and uploaded?

Thank you for the clarification

Hi everyone,

I just have a quick question based on some things I have seen in videos and have not attempted in real life or triplea

Can an aircraft end its noncombat move under the assumption that a friendly carrier will be mobilized into that sea zone. Triplea in the past has told me I still had aircraft in transit and I was curious at what point in the rules are you supposed to check if someone purchased an aircraft carrier that could move to the designated sea zone.

I know you can move carriers to a territory and move aircraft there separately, but I’m asking about mobilizing aircraft carriers into a sea zone with the intent to land planes on them.

Piggybacking off this question can you mobilize newly purchased aircraft onto newly purchased aircraft carriers so that the planes wouldn’t start their next turn moving off the coastal territory?

@Ichabod:

I think it’s a great idea! (wink wink). If we ever play against each other on triplea and I’m axis. Please do this plan! The sun will rise across the sea.

Sarcasm off now. At least for me, I’m usually more successful against an opponent going to the Europe board as opposed to Japan. It’s easier to spam lots of infantry and mech infantry to defend everywhere, than for Japan to counter a full throttled allied attack coming at me from all point of the compass.

So do you think it’s a much better idea for the US to start off the game with fleet on both sides rather than committing all fleet to one?

I would highly reccommend buying the second edition versions of both Axis and Allies Europe and Axis and Allied Pacific. I think they were both released in 2012. They are the latest and greatest version of the game and provide the full experience. If you buy the older versions you won’t get to enjoy many of the newer features.

So do you guys normally buy navy then? I’m getting an impression that most just have a few things to protect transports. I’m a newer player and enjoy using navies in large sea zone battles in the Pacific. Is that not something that happens very often late game with experienced players?

Hi all,

When you try to stage an amphibious assault on an opponent what do you normally buy to protect your transports? My playgroup has had some success using a combination of submarines and aircraft to preemptively strike invasion fleets before they can arrive while at the same time outnumbering aircraft that can scramble from land.

If I’m trying to go on the offensive with my transports but need to protect from both subs and aircraft how should I, based on your experience, make my purchases between destroyers and loaded carriers?

Thanks in advance