@thedesertfox With respects sir (presumably), you lack vision.
Who cares if the German battleship pairs up with the cruiser under air cover? That’s three fighters not going to Russia.
And that Italian fleet? Italy can’t keep it for long. The destruction of the Italian fleet is inevitable, no matter what Italy does. If it is spending money protecting its fleet, it is not spending money on ground forces and transports. As soon as it tries to leave air cover, it dies.
Fin
@nixonium said in Hall of Shame - tales of the worst dice ever:
That’s right, 0 Jap casualties, complete US fleet annhilation.
Well, he attacked 26 defending Japanese units (including the scramble) with 14 US units. On average he should have gotten 5.5 hits and actually got 4.
Of course, if Japan used its kamikazes effectively he took out a destroyer and a cruiser (on average), which would reduce the expected hits to about 4.5.
I’m not sure that counts as worst dice ever. It’s just a bad attack…
Marsh
It’s more a matter of standing up to the Germans instead of running back to Moscow and hiding behind their Mommy’s skirts. You buy a combination of infantry and offensive units (tanks, artillery) and continually counter-attack the Germans where they expose the most tanks. You hit them with everything that can reach and then they are stuck rebuilding for yet another turn, and then another. You’re hanging onto more of your money while they are getting less of it so you can continue to make those kinds of purchases. Next thing you know help has arrived on the Western Front and up from the Middle East. Those 10 tanks of yours will die as soon as they hit the border and you’ll be saying to me “What, are you crazy? You’re not supposed to be able to do that!” Then I hit the next batch of tanks that roll over the border. Try it sometime in one of your games and see how effective it can be as a deterrent against the Germans. Or don’t. It’s your choice if you think there’s no way that Russia can possibly stand up to the Germans. Hitler didn’t either.
Frankly, if your opponents are exposing German tank stacks to counterattack with no or light casualty bufferage, your opponents aren’t that good.
Marsh
Well, it sounds like Russia was spending a lot of time and energy fighting in China and mainland Asia as well as occupying the Middle East. That could have detracted seriously from the ability to press Germany.
Marsh
Not only does it make Moscow weaker by at least four infantry (more if Russia actually builds there), it also forces the UK’s hand. Now the UK must defend the Middle East and be prepared to fight for Caucasus while Moscow is under siege. Under no circumstances can Germany be allowed to hold Caucasus with a Russian-built IC present on the territory.
A Russian IC in Caucasus is a bad idea, pure and simple. It’s almost as bad as pulling all UK forces out of the Med on UK1 so that Italy can lock the UK out of the Med on I1.
Marsh
The way I would do this:
Build three transports on J1. Move your sea zone 20 transport to Palau Island on J1 to pluck the lone infantry (if you don’t want to leave it alone, also bring in a cruiser to cover it). Leave the mini fleet off the Carolines in position. Leave the transport in sea zone 6, or move the transport from sea zone 19 back to sea zone 6. This gives you five loaded transports to move on J2 (including the one in sea zone 34) for your attack. Position your southern fleet elements for your J2 DoW. Consider not using the bombers in Yunnan and landing them in Caroline Islands instead.
On J2, declare war. Take New Guinea, depriving ANZAC of all its objectives. Clear the sea zone off Queensland and kill anything that can reach that sea zone. Move your four loaded transports with at least two full carriers and other naval forces to Caroline Islands, bring in your strat bombers if you didn’t already get them here, and take three fighters from Japan to cover the fleet. If possible, you also want to take Western Australia so that your bombers from Caroline Islands have a good place to land.
On J3, invade New South Wales with five loaded transports, two carriers, and as many planes as you can reach. You should win if ANZAC sent all its fighters and a couple of infantry to Java – the fighters cannot make it back on A2, and frankly ANZAC has no good options at this point. If have more force than you need, divert transports to money islands and possibly New Zealand because you are definitely going to need as much income as possible as fast as possible.
If this does work, you have all of ANZAC on J4, which totals up to 15 more IPCs including bonuses, and you are well positioned to complete the capture of the money islands if you haven’t already.
Doing this later than J3 gives ANZAC more time to collect income and build defenses (including the full return of its fighters), which is the last thing you want to happen. That’s why I would DoW on J2, before ANZAC becomes too tough to crack and requires more than five loaded transports.
The big problem with this is that the entire thing is obvious as a clown in church if anyone is paying attention once you move additional naval elements to the Caroline Islands on J1 – you’re moving before the Allied players, so they cannot possibly miss the threat under any kind of reasonable examination. So, you have to do it without moving additional fleet elements to the Carolines on J1, and that makes it kind of hard to kill everything you need to kill without a little lucky Allied assistance – you really want ANZAC ships to move west on A1 and for the US to pull its fleet back to San Francisco on US1. If not, on US2 the US can make life really nasty for you by deploying blockers to sea zones 46 and 49, and the free ship kills are little consolation for the lost turn – you will still kill ANZAC on J4, but then it has probably cost you enough time to make the Pacific a tough battle for you, and it will cost you a lot more in terms of lost units on defense – your five loaded transports might barely be enough with a lucky defensive roll.
Marsh
It looks like you’re mostly in control of the Med, Germany has not achieved victory in Europe (not even close really), and Japan does not appear to be imminently about to capture India, Hawaii, Sydney, or San Francisco.
It’s hard to see from the tiny screenshot what strength levels are around the various stress points, but overall this is what I would try.
Russia Fight those German NOs, but otherwise build nothing but infantry. Try to trade your infantry for German mechs and tanks.
US Take Norway as soon as possible. You have to get Germany’s income down.
In the Pacific, start shuttling two ground units and a fighter per turn to Hawaii. Also, retake Alaska to regain your NO. Kill Japanese transports whenever possible. If Japan maneuvers its fleet to a point where sea zone 26 is no longer a viable location for your fleet, drop all your planes on Hawaii and retreat your fleet – every fighter you drop on Hawaii requires Japan to bring another loaded transport to the invasion (at that point you just start flying in two or three or five planes per round and Japan just has to keep building loaded transports). If Japan is spending all its money on loaded transports, it is hampered in it’s ability to attack/defend India, contest the money islands, and threaten ANZAC. (Also, it’s ok for him to take Hawaii as long as he also doesn’t take Calcutta, Sydney, and San Francisco.)
All the while this is happening, you are pounding Germany with the rest of your money.
You need to get control of the Med and get some ships into the Med quickly (enough that Italy can’t just blow them up with a couple of planes) to stop Italy getting it’s NO, and you need to get some subs into sea zone 97 to start nerfing Italy’s income. The best way to accomplish this is probably to build a new task force on the East Coast and sail the existing task force into the Med bound for sea zone 97. Depending on how dire the situation is, you might need to pull the Pacific fleet completely and rely on the plane strategy to keep hold of Hawaii.
UK Make sure that the UK cannot fall to a late Sea Lion. One or two units a round should do it.
Start funneling troops through the Middle East into Caucasus to kill Germans (any German troop the UK kills in Russia is a win for Russia and a loss for Germany). Also try to relieve some of that pressure that Japan is applying to Russia (which also helps you in the Pacific). Get some fighters to Moscow in a hurry – they defend against strat bombing and also kill attacking Germans very well.
Get some strat bombers into Russia to strat bomb the Ukraine and Novgorod and Volgograd factories. Pound them each round, without fail, unless the risk is higher than you can afford.
In a couple of turns, you’ll want to make sure you have some loadable transports, destroyers, and planes backing up the US fleet.
ANZAC Fight the money islands so Japan cannot just rest on that income. Either Japan spends money struggling over the money islands with you or leaves a small task force down there to keep you from taking the money islands (if the latter, you start building a small task force of your own to force Japan to tie up even more money). Either way is a win for the Allies. If Japan heads down towards ANZAC, turtle hard. If Japan feints into your neighbordhood, turtle hard but then unturtle when Japan moves away.
A couple of general thoughts:
1. Always consider the outcome before you fight the battle, from both a strategic as well as tactical perspective. For example, some folks like to attack Tobruk on UK1 but they lose most of their UK ground forces doing it (which makes the Med considerably easier for the Axis despite having lost forces too – Italy can just ship more troops in, but the UK can’t. That battle is a logistical and strategic win for Italy even though it loses the battle).
2. Pass on risk. If your opponent is making bad odds attacks and getting lucky, let it go. He will get unlucky eventually. Make sound attacks guided by your long term strategy.
3. Consider not just your opponent’s counterattack but your counterattack on that counterattack…
4. If your opponent leaves money lying on the table, kill it (i.e., always kill unescorted Japanese transports. Strat bombers and sub swarms in the Pacific are great for this if you can get them there, since it dilutes Japan’s fleet power by forcing them to escort transports)
5. Focus on the basics, in order of strategic importance. For example, Germany has a 70% attack on Moscow? That’s far too high – get some UK planes in to get it down to 30%. You have to start looking at this during Russia’s turn and follow through on it later in the same round with the other Allied powers – it does you no good to say that the UK will ship fighters into Moscow, only to have the UK use those fighters somewhere else.
Marsh
I think if you are playing against yourself you have to have good notes about what each side wants to accomplish and that the other side responds to your movements in the best possible way. You have to take your time, ask what if, and explore the possibilities.
Marsh
@squirecam True, you can land nine units every turn. But Russia is still 30 IPCs ahead of you on ground troops, and you started behind. Those naval units can only get you to Novgorod, which means that you are forced into a northerly attack and cannot pressure the Middle East until later in the game.
Yeah, I’ll play it my way. If I’m building ships, they won’t be used in the Baltic.
EDITED: You can only land six units per round in Novgorod with three transports. Not sure where the nine in the originnal note came from or why it didn’t register when I responded.
Marsh
@squirecam said in Axis are underpowered.:
You can pressure the middle east as well if you build a german fleet to aid Italy. You dont have to play out Moscow or bust every game.
In the scenario you’re describing you’re either splitting your forces, which means Russia is on definitive seek and destroy (and possibly even pushing you back), or you’re concentrating in the north, which means there is no pressure on the Middle East until several turns after you build this second fleet.
Assuming you build your fleet in Southern France, you need several turns to build a fleet that can survive if the UK is doing alright and essentially in control of the Med. Your Med fleet depends on the Italians to survive unless you’re spending a lot of money (more not spent on ground troops). If there is any UK or US air presence, your fleet will be blown out of the water as soon as you start building it without an Italian navy or air cover (which you have to build and anchor fighters there – more forces NOT helping you in Russia).
Of course, you might be trying to move your Baltic fleet to the Med. That is several turns of concerted movement through a hostile Atlantic and you are depending on Italian control of Strait of Gibraltar.
And once again, those ships do not occupy territories – they don’t help your economy directly. They are not “boots on the ground”.
I 100% agree with you that you don’t have to “Moscow or bust” every game, but you DO need to shut down the Russian army in a way that makes it totally defensive. That takes a LOT of ground troops and planes.
@snpic said in Axis are underpowered.:
@marshmallowofwar thank you for your advice, I will try it on tripleA and tell you what I think.
But I think that there’s a problem because if you take all of Russia you still need another victory city.
That’s true, but it’s rarely an issue. Your practical choice for VC is now Cairo or London. If things have been going well-ish for the Axis in the Med at this point but Egypt still holds out, there’s an excellent chance that the UK player has short-changed the spending on UK defenses. NOW you can build your fleet and air force while you bolster your Western defenses and consolidate Russian territories that you haven’t been able to conquer yet. A late Sea Lion is a beautiful thing (for the Axis).
On the other hand, if Egypt can be destroyed by the forces you currently have at hand (and can produce and deliver in a timely manner), you can go for Egypt.
Marsh
@thedesertfox I disagree with attacking the planes in Romania. As juicy a target as they are, you will be trading two of your very valuable planes (that you cannot afford to replace) for three of Germany’s proportionally less valuable planes.
(Yes, Germany’s planes are valuable, but it has more of them and can afford to replace them over time. Russia has much more difficulty doing this.)
It’s difficult for me to make out the exact composition of the force in Bessarabia, but if you have an edge over Bessarabia a much better play would be to take the planes in combination with the infantry from Ukraine and hit the stack of German infantry in Bessarabia. Now Germany has lost a devastating amount of ground forces and has to sacrifice valuable tanks and mechs to hold back your assault while it marches in new infantry stacks.
If you don’t have that numerical parity, then you should use your planes in East Poland to get your chance of victory to almost 100%.
Marsh
I mainly agree with @Arthur-Bomber-Harris, but my suggestion would be that before you build a Middle East factory that you bring the South Africa factory fully online. That factory can produced mechanized infantry, fighters, and infantry (with transports to move them) that call all assist in the Middle East. If your sole sources of defensive units for the Middle East are Egypt and a Middle East factory, your output will be overwhelmed more quickly than if you also utilize a South Africa factory. The reason I would use the South Africa factory first is because it takes longer for units to reach the battlefront.
Your local Middle East factories can produce critical but slow-moving infantry units, while your Egypt and South Africa factories can produce fast movers that can reach the Middle East more quickly than infantry.
Once the Middle East falls (and it will unless the UK and US are able to pressure Europe heavily), that South Africa factory makes Egypt viable for longer as well. Troops in the pipeline from South Africa to the Middle East naturally move through Egypt.
Marsh
The initial problem that I see with this is that, unless you’re willing to commit planes to the attack on France, you have only a 93% chance of winning that battle. Basically, you’re losing one game out of every 18 you play just on dice there.
You may not even have planes to commit based on your necessary attacks on the UK fleet.
Any thoughts on this?
Marsh
@Cornwallis Is this your video?
@YUMYAM said in Need help defending as UK until USSR joins:
@MarshmallowofWar Also, Germany currently has 3 battleships. The silver marker in the Baltic is a fresh battleship, and there two side by side in the English channel.
Uh, wow.
So, at this point Russia should consolidating forces to ATTACK Germany. Russia starts ahead of Germany on infantry and with Germany having spent 40 IPCs on battleships is not going catch up anytime soon. Have Russia press the attack on Germany as quickly as possible.
If you can muster five or more planes, kill the stack of two battleships before it becomes three battleships. You’re going to lose planes in this battle, so you need to build at least one replacement.
Start building ground forces in South Africa on your next turn. Since Italy has no factory, you’ll need to force him to either build one or keep building transports to keep expanding in the Med.
If Italy does not take Egypt this round, consider a retreat from Egypt so that you can prepare a proper counterattack there. I would go East to secure Trans-Jordan.
Consider activating Persia using your transport and on your next turn build a minor IC there. Between it and the South Africa factory, you’ll be outproducing Italy 2 to 1 in the immediate area and force Italy to spend its income defending Egypt instead of expanding into Africa and the Middle East.
In the Pacific, go totally defensive, reinforcing ANZAC and Hawaii so that Japan can’t win. Push hard against Japan with China. Build up your US Pacific fleet so that Japan can’t annihilate it. With the little spare funds you have, keep Italy from obtaining it’s NOs in Africa and keep Gibraltar from falling.
Marsh
Who doesn’t love a Russian strat bomber or two?
Spending the equivalent of 20 infantry on five strat bombers is insanity if you want Russia to live until turn 10 or so. Every single infantry matters.
I do see advantage to Russia having a strat bomber – combined with a fighter, it could actually slow down Germany’s approach to and assault on Moscow by using strategic bombing against German-held ICs in Leningrad and Ukraine, forcing Germany to spend extra money to build units there that can be pumped into the offensive against Moscow.
If Germany tries to thwart this strategy by positioning fighters to protect those ICs, Germany then has to spend money building those fighters so as not to deplete the air cover for Western Europe. (Wait, you say, Russia has fighters – true, but if Russia loses them they can’t afford to replace them.)
There are two problems with this idea that I see:
Personally, I would stick with the infantry. A UK bomber can be escorted by UK fighters that have a meaningful chance of either forcing the German player to just accept strat bombing damage or to potentially trade German fighters for UK fighters (always a good deal for Russia).
The UK can’t reliably get infantry and other ground forces to Moscow. They CAN reliably send fighters and strat bombers. Infantry are better produced locally, and by buying strat bombers you’re weakening the very core of your Russian defense.
Marsh
I’m sorry, why are you ignoring his PA’s on me. He’s been a complete dick to me in multiple threads. I’ve ignored him up until now. I’m just trying to have fun convos about the game we all love.
I would be shocked if @AndrewAAGamer had actually made a personal attack against you. You, on the other hand, have shown a deep immaturity and lack of experience in the game.
Disagreeing with your ideas is not disrespect. If he is disagreeing with your ideas, it’s because of the depth of his experience has taught him that your ideas are probably based on what works against inexperienced players.
And don’t worry, since he didn’t accept my challenge to a game and acted like a dick again (and why I finally hit him back) I finally blocked him. He and one other guy seem to be following me around and acting like dicks for no reason. I’ve ignored them both until today. I’m surprised the other guy hasn’t shown up yet.
I have no idea why he would accept your challenge. Inevitably he would defeat you and then you would almost certainly insist that you got “diced”. However, so far the only person I’ve seen acting disrespectably is you.
If you want to play a top tier player, improve your play. A good start to that would be listening to their opinions.
Marsh
Yeah, his last post to me was that I was playing against a two year old. Yeah, that’s not a pa.
Apologies, I missed that and shame on him. That doesn’t mean that you should resort to the same thing.
Marsh
@shadowhawk said in In how many hours can you complete a G40 game:
4 color dice. So each combat round can be rolled in 1 go.
I have never seen this actually speed up any game. Usually the person doing it is a proponent of the method, trying to convert others, and wastes an enormous amount of time trying to perform conversions.
Also, they take a lot of time counting out the appropriate dice of each color.
Finally, they insist on sorting them in the box after the roll is complete.
Yeah, never seen this actually make a difference.
Marsh
Without being able to enlarge the photo to see the actual size of the US fleet, it’s hard to say. My initial assessment is that Japan is in a winning position here. The US fleet looks awfully weak and I don’t see any follow-on forces coming.
It looks like Japan still has a sizable air force. It also looks like Japan has three fully loaded carriers, including at least one that has planes that can reach sea zone 6 on Japan’s next move. This is a sizable fleet, although it is badly distributed and separated in violation of Mahan’s principles.
First, Japan has a blocker in sea zone 16, which means that the US can’t actually attack Korea on its next move. That means Japan has time to gather its fleet in or around the Philippines and regroup it’s air force for a joint strike on sea zone six. Regrouping the fleet is a good idea no matter what.
Japan’s next build should include at least a destroyer for sea zone six, to ensure that the US has to do combat in the sea zone and providing the option to scramble if the US fleet is as weak as it looks. That in itself might deter the US from moving into sea zone 6. At the very least, it would prevent the US from moving into the sea zone with a non-combat move without risking its valuable planes to clear the sea zone in combat movement (the blocker in sea zone 16 prevents the US from using ships).
If I’m reading the situation correctly, I would actually build a carrier and two destroyers into sea zone 6 this round, landing two fighters on the newly built carrier and leave the air cover from Korea and Japan in place. I would build enough infantry that the US can’t actually take Japan (should it miraculously clear the sea zone). I would move the transports back within range of Japan so that they can pick up infantry built this round (I would build more next round along with some fighters to fill the carriers I temporarily emptied).
That combination of builds and movements stops the US from threatening Japan, forces the US to risk it’s air force to clear sea zone 6 even to move into the sea zone in non-combat, positions Japan’s fleet to regroup, positions Japan’s fleet and air force to destroy the US forces should it be dumb enough to actually move into sea zone 6, and sets you up to provide critical ground troops that you can transport south as reinforcements.
(EDIT: If the US realizes the futility of threatening sea zone 6, the carriers positioned off the Philippines can move west to tackle India with the new reinforcements coming from Japan.)
Again, this is all assuming I’ve read the very small photo correctly.
Marsh
