Posts made by Kobu

@calvinhobbesliker:

Have you tried the following:
Taking Gib and stacking it with German/Italian planes?

What a horrific waste. Destroyed as soon as the US enters the war, and it’s better than killing Axis ground troops for their IPC value.

@calvinhobbesliker:

Building a German Fleet in Z112, taking Gib, and entering the Med?

That’s German troops not on the ground. They’ll never get to Moscow and struggle to defend themselves.

@calvinhobbesliker:

Blocking Z91 US fleet from reaching Italy?

It dies when the US enters the war. If Italy blocks other zones, US air power should be enough to dislodge it, and the planes certainly aren’t needed for the later ground assault. At the worst, the transports break off and land in Normandy for a turn while other US ships clear sea zones.

@calvinhobbesliker:

Having Japan attack North America?

The US is forced to build tanks and planes for a turn. Which end up in Europe as soon as Japan sees how pointless their feint was. As they are getting pushed back in Asia by turning around. Oh noes.

@calvinhobbesliker:

Also, have you tried playing on after Italy falls?

Why bother? US has a steady troop flow that Germany can’t interrupt and can now start building tanks right in Italy. Game over.

@calvinhobbesliker:

If Italy remains with the two transports, then Egypt and eventually most of Africa will fall, especially with a Sealion and the alpha setup reducing India to 3 planes. If Japan doesn’t attack until turn 4, US can’t move to Z91 until US$, and it will be US5 before they can invade anything. An Italian block of Z92 delays this until US6, by which time, Italy should have a sizable fleet and multiple transports and ground units in Africa.

2. I see nothing historical about the entire royal navy being sunk by submarines and planes. If you’re going to remove the Gibraltar naval base, might as well remove the one on Queensland(since the US never used it to attack the DEI).

The “alpha” setup is just silly in the global context and shouldn’t be considered outside of trying to balance the Pacific game. Italy only has a fighting chance if left with some of it’s navy. It’s certainly not assured even if the UK doesn’t bring over fighters. If you are having trouble holding Africa until the US arrives, you should re-examine your strategies.

Your #2 does not follow.

@oztea:

The gibraltar naval base can not be removed, it is 100% historical.
I think Italy should start with a bomber
Thats it

They can bomb the Gibraltar port between the US and UK turns so the UK cant repair it before the US can use it.
This is historical because Italy bombed both Malta and Gibraltar regularly during the war
This also comes in handy on earler turns to give italy that “slight” advantage it needs.

To balance this there might need to be an AA gun added to Egypt

I usualy buy a bomber on I2 or I3 just so I can start bombing Gibraltar.

You could not bomb it first turn when it is sorely needed, and it’s certainly not a guaranteed thing. When the US is in the war and they are using it to stage all attacks, it would be ridiculously easy to stop the bombing run.

And balance with a free AA gun in Egypt? Now that’s just silly.

@calvinhobbesliker:

Can balance issues please focus on weakening the US and not the UK? The UK is already very weak, and removing that naval base(with historically should be there) just gives Africa to the Italians.

Two points:

1. The UK is hardly weak. It can fall to Germany, but the chances of Italy ever taking anything of importance in Africa by the time the US arrives is slim. Even with the capital gone, they are still a viable force in Africa and all they need to do is hold, if that.

2. I see nothing historical about the US using Gibraltar as the staging ground for directly invading Italy AND Germany. You can imagine there is a base there, but it should not be granting extra movement to hit such far-flung targets. There are plenty of other bases that aren’t represented in game terms. Operation Torch isn’t even a consideration because the Axis will never even get into French North Africa, so there goes accuracy.

Well, I pretty much answered this in the topic I posted on removing the Gibraltar naval base. Short answer: no, it can’t be done.

I’ve played this game a long time and come up with some unconventional strategies that have turned the tide before, going without bids on earlier editons and winning handily and consistently. However, I am completely stumped on what to do after this attack.

I did the Yugoslavia IC. It’s too slow. I’ve played Japan perfectly and rushed them over to Africa after taking out India. Too slow. I’ve seen Sealion done hard and soft, and have no bearing on the Axis getting pounded because Italy is the weak link. Any babysitting Germany does is pointless because it weakens them against Russia, and does nothing to stop the US onslaught.

Even if someone does come up with a great strategy, what does that do for us? It locks us into one strategy and counter-strategy. It’s not fun and this needs to be addressed.

I cannot see a way to stop the US from crushing Italy shortly after the US enters the war. I’ve gone through many different strategies of trying to stop or slow the US, and they can pretty much ignore everything else, including an occupied Britain and fleets off the their West Coast. Those do next to nothing against a player who stays on target. The game is basically over by turn five no matter how far Germany and Japan have progressed. Even if the Axis have played perfectly and are on the verge of owning Asia and advancing on Moscow (this is being generous), Italy is still going to be struggling in Africa and will hardly have anything to counter the US fleet, air power, and the sheer number of troops that will be landing every single turn.

In addition to that, there’s little reason for the UK to not cripple Italy by destroying Italian ships first turn. There’s really nothing the Axis can do to prevent this. Germany has to give some ridiculous bait to lure the UK aircraft carrier north and prevent it from destroying Italian ships. And then, well, you’ve weakened Germany so win either way. Even the Sealion threat shouldn’t deter the UK from doing this. This hurts Italy so badly that it makes it really not fun to play. Starting out with 10 income, no good way to get one of their national objectives for most of the game, and having a heck of a time making any headway into Africa pretty much seals Italy’s fate.

I don’t think this is a cure-all for the balance issues, but but here’s what removing the Gibraltar naval base could do:

• Give the Italian battleship a decent chance of survival.

• Make Italy’s counter-attack on the UK forces more likely to succeed, or let German planes do the work for less potential loss of aircraft.

• Allow Italy to just maybe collect their Mediterranean NO for a while.

• Let Italy grow a decent fleet while still putting troops into Africa before tangling with the US.

• Let Italy hit Tunis/Algeria/Morocco/Gibraltar while still putting troops into Egypt.

• Slow the US by one turn getting to Italy.

• Remove Gibraltar as the destination of choice for all US ships, and force the US to decide whether to go north or south.

• Give Italy a chance to occupy Gibraltar, giving them another turn to slow down US forces.

• Really allow a German Yugoslavia IC the chance to make a difference in the Med and Africa.

I feel that the Allies are still too strong to start in the Med with this change, but it would be a start.

It’s an interesting strat, but still doesn’t address the US devouring Italy, and then grinding Germany into the dust in a couple more turns.

In the single game I’ve played, I was the US and simply crushed Italy with a steady flow of transports into the Med. I was only delayed because of an early UK attack to kill some freebie planes and hold open the road. When I arrived though, it was in full force and we called the game seeing as there was no way to stem the tide of incoming troops.

The Axis moves were far from optimal. Japan had a high income but had not managed to crush India or China. They split attention too much. Italy was stalemated with the UK in Africa. Germany was doing okay against Russia but made a bad mistake in leaving a stack of tanks vulnerable.

So, it did look like the US is completely unstoppable in that game, but I really need to play a game as all the Axis to see their real potential. I reserve judgment until I’ve seen several games and have worked out what I consider best course actions for all powers.

Many years ago, it was pretty much a given that the classic game required an Axis bid to be even remotely balanced due to the US “shuck”. I agreed–until one player convinced me to try a fairly unorthodox Axis strategy. I argued strenuously against the strategy, and then had to eat a whole lot of crow when I finally tried it out. I then went on to an unbroken (I think?) Axis winning streak, including against players on this board.

Lesson learned: Hundreds of veteran A&A players can be dead wrong, and all it takes is one person ignoring conventional wisdom to find a new, workable strategy. I wouldn’t count the Axis out yet.

Very nice, well done!

@Krieghund:

That being said, I do think that the AA50 rulebook is probably one of the cleaner ones to come out in a long time.  It’s just unfortunate that the sub rules section is a pretty major blemish on it.

I agree. I think a lot of rules that seemed ambiguous before were cleaned up nicely. I’ve managed to correct long-held rules misconceptions in three different area play groups based on the new rulebook.

The sub rule will be tricky to integrate, but I’m looking forward to the FAQ.

@Krieghund:

Air unit hits can’t be assigned to subs unless there’s a destroyer friendly to the air units in the battle.

You had me pouring through the rulebook trying to find anything that indicated this. Finally, browsing other threads, I saw that said this would be in an FAQ.

I find it odd though that the rulebook specifically indicates that the reason air alone cannot hit subs is that they are allowed to submerge before air fires. Shouldn’t it instead then have said that the reason is that you didn’t bring a destroyer along?

Why the discrepancy in what should be a very polished product? Getting people to play with a rule introduced outside the rulebook is not going to be easy.

@Krieghund:

No.

Huh? Why would that be?

RR and Axis Advantage is a better game than normal for sure. Reverse Axis Advantage isn’t nearly as good. Japan rarely defends with jets and the German subs are good for about the first turn.

The game is still very challenging for the Axis with those two changes. I have about a 75% across the board win ratio that way. 2-hitters would probably bump me up to 80%, a bid of 6 would send me over 90%. Against only top players, I think I would still have above 50% with everything.

As Allies, unless the Axis are given a heavy advantage I generally try non-optimal strats. Part of that is to prevent a last minute tech victory, and part of that is just for fun. You can make a lot of dumb moves even in RR with Axis Advantage and still win most games as Allies.

Best use of a transport:

You’ve got an infantry unit in England that is itching to deploy to the Western front and an infantry unit in France that misses it’s mommy. Load them both on an unused transport, and then unload them where they want to be. Rotating tours of duty!

Try it out in your next game. It is guaranteed to shock and awe your opponent!

@Grigoriy:

This means that the people I play against are nothing near excellent, as I tend to win when I play Axis even without bids or RR. :roll:

That is probably correct.

I wasn’t commenting on your advice at all. It is simply prudent to distrust people named Bill.
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And I was ribbing another Bill who might happen to be reading this.

I have noted while playing with friends that you should generally distrust the advice (and the ability to count correctly) of people named “Bill.”

I usually wait until later in the game but I’ve been known to send that transport around the board collecting empty territories.

All you need to do is a fly-over, pay 3 and it is yours. No need to occupy it.

I thought you were Mr. Brink. My apologies. Aren’t you registered here?