Posts made by liquidvet

I would love to play online, as soon as I get my own gameboard I will do just that.  We have been playing all our games on my friends new gameboard, that is how I became familiar with the game, I want my own now though.

I think techs make the game fun and add another element.  Some games we go the whole game and no one buys any because troops are absolutely necessary and then another game someone like America will be feeling froggy and buys heavy bombers and hits them first/second turn of the game.  Last night after I blew into Germany with Russia I had 108 dollars so I bought a ton of fighters and rolled 30 bucks of jet fighter defense and didn’t hit it at all, so I think the gamble is fun sometimes.

I think a newb can start as either axis or allies, but I think they should be limited to either Russia/Britain on the allies or Germany on the axis.  All of these countrys are pretty cut and dry and with Russia/Germany they get a good feel for troop production/movement/combat in a confined space.  Plus what they need to do at that exact moment is pretty visible (defense/attack, spreading too thin etc).  Britain is a little more challenging because most newbs will have to choose between air assaults and taking the ocean (and most choose going heavy air instead of keeping that much needed atlantic ocean).  The problem with America and Japan is they are too open and everytime I watch someone with limited experience play, it seems like 95% of the time they wander around with no direction as to what they really want to do.  Overall though I think the easiest country to play is the Germans because you can make mistakes, yet still quickly recover.

Well we had a five person game last night and surprisingly it only lasted around 3-3:30 hours.  I ended up on the side of the allies and I was initially dismayed because I had first random pick of the countries, and of course I end up with the Soviet Union. That is okay though because out of the 10 or so games I have played I had yet to play as Russia and I knew they are pivotal in the destruction of the axis.  So anyways it was basically me and two very inexperienced players ( the UK player it was his first time) so basically I was trying to tell them what to do so that we could win.  I figured we were dead in the water because the two axis players were both skilled.  First turn I absolutely crushed Germany with a hit to west russia and belorussia.  I think I made the perfect opening Russian move.  I was torn between Ukraine and West Russia and Belo/W Russia but I think I made the perfect choice.  I know a lot of people argue about demolishing the fighter in Ukraine which is helpful but I am now a firm believer that my opening move was the correct one.  My troops were so stacked along the western front that Germany had no idea how to hit the Russians and it actually caused him to only make a minor offensive on the first German turn which helped me restock caucases and w russia even more.  Regardless later on in the game I screwed up royally but it kind of helped out a little.  I accidently didn’t realize he had 6 tanks stacked so he rolled over west russia with a huge air assault/infantry charge.  After this I only had a few guys in Russia so he was able to hit me with a 6 tank attack and take out my capital thus earning my money.  The catch was is that he screwed up even more because he didn’t place any of his planes in germany and only restocked it with 6 infantry, 3 tanks, 2 artillery and he had one bomber there.  Regardless next turns Britian was able to do an amphibious assault and took out all but one guy.  USA had heavy bombers and heavy bombing (we don’t play with LHTR only the boxed rules) so he used his bombers and fighters from britain to take out a huge stack of infantry positioned in front of Germany.  This opened the door for a stack of 3 Russian armor to move into germany on my turn and take their capital (he had only one lowly infantry yet).  It was a huge blow and was the deciding factor of the game.  I got all of my money back, protected my capital after retaking it and japan was just beginning to make the offensive move into Russia.  Germany was able to take back the capital but britain retook it very next turn and then there was no hope for germany. Had he not of made this huge mistake the axis might of actually prevailed but we lucked out.  Either way it was a great game and I now love playing Russia as much as I love playing Japan.

Got into a game last night and I must say that besides Japan, it was my first chance to play russia and I must say that I love them.  Sure they don’t get to do much but they are key to allied victory.  Even though I had few moves, I felt like each one was probably the most important of the round because If I fell before germany, game pretty much over for the allies.  I still have yet to play with USA.

Japan is my favorite.  I love the options you have and they just seem so important  in winning the game for the axis.

@Axel:

Like I said in my post:

@Axel:

I can’t remember anything mentioned in the rulebook on this specific topic, so I guess it’s not possible?

playing by the book, I know an ally can only get paid for a LIBERATED friendly allied territory.
but why wasn’t this mentioned in the rulebook?
I mean, wouldn’t it be logical to give the IPC’s to the ally that occupies the friendly allied territory with only his units on it, after the capital of the original owner of the allied territory fell?

according to what I have read here that is how it should be.  If Russia has fallen and Germany/Japan controls moscow any territory an ally picks up in russia will give the IPCs to that ally.  If Moscow is liberated, the Russian player is back in the game, now making money, and all allied russian land will now be back under his control.  Now if Moscow fell while Uk troops were positioned in 2 territories, they would immediately begin making money for it since they are already bringing order to a hostile territory with no rule.

For me so far it is 11 times, all with friends.  I don’t think I could play myself alone :)  I think I would be too inclined to be biased towards a specific faction.  Japan is my favorite country so I would probably play them to a tee.

@trihero:

I don’t think the Sinkiang complex is worth it. It will be taken over, and you’d rather be spending your money on those pesky heavy bombers =)

I would seriously mass heavy bombers if you’re using the normal combat rules. Double dice is ridiculous, even for pure combat and not strategic bombing. A stack of those suckers with an inf shield does amazing amounts of damage and can be reused (although they are susceptible to AA fire).

Now that you mention it and I am thinking about it that heavy bombing under normal rules sounds very unbalanced.  I mean you could get a group of 20 infantry for fodder and if you even had 4-5 heavy bombers to attack with that is 8-10 dice with a 4 roll or less.  pretty nasty.

Thats funny, when I am with a group of my friends we are so competitive that the last couple of times it was a free for all yelling match (except last time when it was just four of us, that went pretty well).  It sounds like you are doing alright, as long as germany hasn’t fallen by the time russia goes down, then the axis can pretty much swing the game from there.  We have not played with NA yet so I am not too familiar with them.  Keep us updated on your progess and good luck :)

@Perry:

Heavy bombers is the way to go, unless you play with LHTR (which you should since the original rules on SBR sucks!).

Otherwise:

• Build one trn, a cv and 6 inf on US1 in ECO/EUS, move your Pac fleet through/towards the Panama Canal
• Fill up your 3 Transports with 2 arm, 1 rtl, 3 inf and ship’em on US2 to ALG. Move your 6 inf bought on US1 to Eca.
• Build enough land units on US2 to keep your 3 trns full every turn from now on (you may go for a 4th or even 5th trn if you got the money)
• Shuttle land units to ECA every round - your trns can load up in Eca and unload in Alg within one single round (it was a revelation for me the first time I realized…)

You may do the same, but unload in NWY, but that will slow you a turn - and who is reclaiming Africa for the Allies meanwhile…!

We are relatively new to the game, maybe 8-9 games or so in the last couple of weeks, so we still use the rules included with the rulebook, I doubt anyone is going to change anytime soon, I will probably nix using heavy bombers anyway until maybe germany is starting to stack guys in its major defense cities, I will use the early time to set up troops in africa and deploy them into karelia to help russia.  Thanks for the suggestions.

Do you think it is worth buying an IC in siankiang, or will it just eventually be taken over by japan?

There wasn’t too much info on USA and I just had a few questions that weren’t answered in another post.  I am going to start with a 3x3 trannie system with the usa, my only question is where should I be offloading these troops.  Should I be crashing directly into the shores of Western Europe, shoudl I go up north to the little passage that feeds directly into Russia, should I start from the western side of the usa instead of the eastern side, or should I be going somewhere else totally different like africa?  Also should I buy an IC in brazil, or anywhere else for that matter?  Thanks for the help.

PS. also is it worth it to invest in bombers/heavy bombing so that I can launch strikes from the UK or will I just be wasting my money?

If you have the extra flow with japan I don’t think jet fighters is a bad investment, that is if you can roll it, I got lucky and hit it first time on a dice of 3, whereas my friend rolled for heavy bombing with america and he missed it on his first 4 roll dice, so it can go either way.  I don’t know where you are in your game but you might want to also start thinking about moving troops to africa to fortify it.  In my game by the time russia had fell and I had britan and america invading germany I had complete control of africa and the indian passages and I think that is relatively important.

Japan is worth 8 :)

@BlackWatch:

You must physically control each territory to earn that territory’s income.

BW

Thanks, that is how we have been playing, but then I was beating the crap out of my friend 2 nights ago and he all of a sudden questioned it because I just brought down Russia, when I looked it up it didn’t have an answer although it seemed logical that you would just each have to control a territory, thanks.

I just want to make sure that we have been playing right, the rule book is rather vague.  If a country gets completely wiped out like Russia, does the capturing army assume control of the entire Russian territory and make money off all of it, or just the lands that each country has captured, or do the lands not produce any money at all anymore? I was assuming that each country makes money for the lands within the region that they have occupied, but then this kind of screws the british and americans since they can only liberate, not take control of Russian lands.  Make sense?

I usually shuffle them into indochina.  Some of the men that are further away I leave on the islands but the 4ipc islands I generally use them as well as the ones closest to japans mainland.  If I find usa is taking my islands I will harass him with my pacific fleet and retake them back with an amphibious assault.  Lately though my opponents keep trying to maintain and IC on india so I would prefer to have more forces there.

@Malus:

Lets look at statisics shall we

3 arm
9/6 = 1,5 hits per turn (potential 3 hits per turn)

5 inf
10/6 = 1,7 hits per turn (potential 5 hits per turn)

I’d always go for infantry first
If you need to threathen your opponent by possible attacks I suggest you build up your infantry, add a little artillery when possible. This is a cheap way of building up lots of defense while still having the option to take territory.

Also hope is not lost, he just lost 15 IPC on a complex in brazil lol

Regards and good luck
-Daniel

He already has 22 infantry though, he needs to diversify a little, 2 units will not make a difference but the presence of three tanks will.  I would even go artillery before I go more infantry so at least if he does decide to push back after a massive assault he still has the numbers.  It really all revolves around what the other individual is going to attack with as well, now if you take a huge hit to your infantry, than yeah it is time to buy more, but I think 22 infantry is a sufficient base to start diversifying.

Yeah, no need to push into America until you are ready, just become annoying to them, before they have the chance to mobilize any kind of sea effort you will be able to reinforce your navy if needed.  I would suggest instead of buying more infantry, spend the bread on a couple pieces of armor (if you were planning on buying 5 infantry that would obviously be 3 armor).  The extra die for the tanks is helpful and it will help in keeping your opponent a little at bay with the prospect of a retaliation.  Plus I find when I had that many 2’s I didn’t hit as much as I liked, they were more there for fodder.  I am not sure which one is statistically better I don’t have a calc with me, but I am pretty sure  that 3 3’s is slightly more favorable than 5 2’s.

@critmonster:

it seems that when new to the game axis wins alot then it shifts, forcing the axis to improve their play dramatically.  if you want more variety in the strats you need to employ try the national advantages, i conjecture that is what they are designed for.

All I have heard on here though is that the national adv. immensely favor the allies (national adv that are suggested in the rule book) so by that logic wouldn’t it insinuate that without the national advantages the axis has the upperhand in most games when played well?