Posts made by Redjac

Yes. The rule is - Fighters and/or tactical bombers may “scramble” to join the battle in an adjacent sea zone to defend the transport (or others ships). The island must have an airbase for the planes to scramble.

I have seen players save money many times in Axis and Allies. It was always done to build a navy in a later turn.

I have never seen people hold money for air or land units. Small navies can be destroyed easily while a larger one may survive.

UN Spacy

I may be out of touch with my World in Flames games. We played World in Flames Final Edition in the '90’s. We played with pre-game political setup, the oil rules, the upgrade for ships. planes and optional pilots and the Guards Armored and Guards Mechanized upgrades for the Soviets. There were over 3600 pieces to the game. And we only had 3 players, the same 3 players we have now. (We had more players at one time but they got jobs that took them out of state.)

Once we got to the big summer turns in '42 the game really slowed down for us. There was no really fast way to play out the German/Soviet clashes along with the Japanese/American naval battles. Since we only have 3 players someone was always sitting on the sideline. We rolled through the '39 - '41 turns fairly fast. Once we got to '42 the summer turns for us could take 4-5 hours. So we would play about 2-5 turns a weekend depending if we play 2 days or just on Saturday.  With breaks in the game flow, it may take us 4-6 months to finish the game.

Since the '90’s we put the game up. If there are new versions since then we have not played them. Our group thinks that Axis and Allies Global 1940 is the better game.

No, I am including World in Flames as a strategy game. I think Axis and Allies is the better game by far.

World in Flames has some good stuff going for it. It has a very detailed map and unit scale. It has development of the planes over the years and good rules for weather as well. It has a better convoy/sub attack system than Axis and Allies. The sea zone system for naval combat in general is very good. The oil rules were a good addition too.

So with the above comments you would think we would play World in Flames all the time right? No, we never play it anymore. It simply takes too long to play. With a half day for set up and mid game turns taking a whole day to play it can take 20 weekends to finish a game. (This is not even a complete game by the way. The axis powers normally have it won or lost by late '43 so the big Allied counteroffensives are never played out.)  And you have to leave up the game setup the entire time. In Axis and Allies you can set up at 10AM and still be finished by 9PM the same day. This is with taking breaks to get some seafood at a nearby resturant.

The strategic decisions in both games are the same - whether to reinforce Africa as the Americans, or invade UK or go straight for the Soviet Union for Germany. But in Axis and Allies, these decisions play out a whole lot faster which makes for a better game IMO. The level of detail in World in Flames may make for a better simulation but not for a better game.

I have played almost all of the strategic games concerning WWII ever made. In my view Axis and Allies Global 1940 is the best one of the lot. It combines strategic decisions with a simple fun fast combat system. Buy the game!

Timewise, our little 3 man gaming group can set up and play the game to someone concedes (usually around turn 7) in about 10 hours.

My only concern is that it takes a bigger than normal space to set up and play. Otherwise, the game is great.

Unless you have time or space concerns, the game is well worth buying.

We have played 3 games. The Allies have won all three games.

But the axis powers are getting better. The last game it was 8 turns before the Axis conceded defeat. The Italian player finally broke out and conquered most of Africa and Persia. And the Soviet Union was giving ground to the Wehrmacht. It required a combined British and American force landing in Denmark to force the Germans to move their armored corps to protect the heart of Germany. When Germany saw that it would be on a permanent defensive posture it surrendered.

In this game Japan was the weak link. We used the suggested changes from Larry on the P40 and used them in the Global game. The Japanese player was using the old strategy of going all out for India first. That just did not work and was a waste of time. If Japan had concentrated on China and the Soviet Union the first 2 turns I am convinced they would have done a lot better.

Our gaming group got the game on Tuesday.

Since then we have played 2 games and in both games the Americans have bought heavy navy from the beginning of the game and wiped the German subs off the sea lanes. The Italian navy has never lasted more than one turn. The Japanese have fought kicking and screaming but they never really got rolling in any game we played.

As far as your pure Axis naval strategy goes, I have not seen it tried yet.

My initial view is that victory hangs on a razor’s edge for the Axis. If any of the Axis powers makes any mistakes in strategy at all then the United States is free to move the remaining Axis powers with almost overwhelming force.

Which I suppose is the way it is supposed to be.

Let me play a few more games….

Redjac

Hello all,

Longtime reader, seldom do I post.

I used to play a game called World in Flames. It is same type of games as Axis and Allies - WWII strategy game.

In World in Flames one could choose not to move units in the combat phase and later move them  farther via Strategic Redeployment. (It has been a while. I think that is what it was called.) With Redeployment units could move by rail as far as the rail lines could reach.

In essence by giving up their combat phase units could move a long way across the map in preparation for the next campaign. There is no reason we can’t do this in Axis and Allies. Extend the movement of land units in the non-combat movement phase. It could be far, perhaps as far as 4 spaces. The actual movement rating of the infantry or tanks do not matter, because they are all being moved by train anyway.

I recall being told that these turns represent six months of time on average. In division strength units can travel far in six months.

Redjac

Our little three man gaming group has played P40 about 30 times. Most of the time the Japanese have won. Lately, we have been experimenting with different Allied strategies to defend Yunnan and Singapore. Out last game was wild, the Allies lost Australia (a first for us) and still won the game.

Our crew leans toward the view that the game is Japan’s to lose. But a few bad moves by Japan and Allies can and do win.

I have a few more ideas about defending the mainland for the Allies. I have not seen the forum games, so I don’t know what has been tried, and what has not been tried for the Allies. When we play them a bit more, I will post my ideas on the forums.

Our little gaming group (all three of us) played A&A P40 tonight. After the last few defeats the Japanese countered my strategy of attrition in the Sea of Japan pretty well.

The Japanese bought a lot of fighters and a only a few destroyers a turn. He kept the fighters in Japan. I never attacked the Sea of Japan because I was never able to get sufficient forces to attack to begin with. With the remaining money he overran the mainland of Asia.

While the submarine attrition strategy is a tool in the toolbox, to be used when appropriate, it may be simply too slow in the build up to work as a main strategy.

kausfschtick suggests buying TR in Japan for the first 3 turns and then buying a complex in Singapore to be better able to assault Australia. The Japanese air force is so strong it can defend Truk and Japan. These seems like a sound strategy for the Japanese.

Our gaming group (all three of us) gets together tonight to play A&A P40. I will see if I can build a sub/bomber force fast enough hurt the Japanese before they take Calcutta. My hope is that if the Japanese build only invasion forces, TR and/or troops for the first 3 turns, then the Americans will be strong enough to attack their navy and prevent the invasion of Australia (or Hawaii). Our gaming group makes its’ share of blunders and mistakes but I will post the builds and the results after the game. If this does not work then we will have to adopt the bid system for the game (as kaufschtick and others have done) as I have no other ideas for American strategy.

Despite what I suggest about the Allies having a chance to win the game though the above strategy, I agree 100% with kaufschtick in the above comment. Why give the Japanese kamikazes? Why give them such a massive Air Force? Why do you give them bonus money for India? I have no idea. As it stands now, the Japanese do not really have any strategic decisions to make. This is almost unforgivable in a strategy game. They do not have to decide to whether or not to defend Truk or Iwo Jima when they make their purchases. They can simply fly some of their fighters down there and use the rest in China. One last point, the island scramble rule favors the Japanese as it makes it very easy to defend Truk and Japan. But Australia and New Guinea are not islands, so any invasion force (Transports) has to be defended by navy not adjacent airplanes. I like the island scramble from air base rule. I just don’t know why it is only islands and and not all air bases.

I am new to these forums. I am an old time World in Flames player and started playing A&A when it came out in the 50th Aniversary Edition. I look forward to playing the Global game when it comes out in August.

P.S. Are there any tournaments or conventions that most/some the forum members attend? I would really like to meet and play some of the players from this forum in person.

As kaufschtick says, the Japanese do get more money than the Americans after turn 2. But in our last few games the Japanese have not been able to conquer the mainland without spending a decent sum of funds on invasion forces.

Usually it goes like this:

J1 3 TR or 2 TR and a minor industrial complex.
J2 Inf and/or tanks for the industrial complex and a few destroyers. Maybe another industrial complex for Hong Kong.
J3 3 tanks and some more inf/art for finishing off China and an assault into Burma and India.

When the Japanese did not buy some ground forces the attack would often stall, even with their large air force.

If the Japanese can take the main land with little or no additional spending on the mainland for ground units, then I know of no way to beat the Japanese, as they will have too much money.

With conservative play by the British, Chinese and Anzac, the Allies can hold for quite a while. Do the normal stuff, fight for Yunnan and hold the Burma Road as long as possible.

If the the Japanese see that you have a big sub fleet they can and do withdraw to the coastline of China with their navy. But they can only rid themselves of submarines by attacking with some destroyers and something else, usually a bunch of planes. So only bring a few submarines to the Sea of Japan, maybe 2 - 3. Sometimes I leave just 1 submarine. I never leave more than the Japanese has destroyers off the China Coast. If they do not attack they are losing at lease some income. If they do attack, they will lose the destroyers at least from my counterattack.

And they take a risk as well. If they only leave one or two destroyers, they have to be careful when scrambling their planes from Japan. If I hit them with bombers and carrier planes, they may really get wiped, because defenders cannot retreat, only attackers. If they don’t scramble, then I kill the destroyers first round, and I still only swapping 6 point subs for 8 point destroyers.

At some point as the American, the plan is to force the Japanese Navy to go where they cannot retreat and attack them where they are. To do this you have to be able to base and defend your subs for at least one turn from any attack at New Queensland, Iwo Jima or the Caroline Islands.  You don’t have to defeat all their whole force at once, just their surface navy. If you can sink a decent portion of the Japanese Navy, then absent a tremendous income, their ability to conduct offensives is at a standstill.

It does not always work. One has to be careful and not leave the American Navy hanging out for him to destroy you. But the American Surface navy only has two jobs in the beginning. Guard the sub force at Midway and prevent Australia from bring invaded. The only other lesser task is to prevent Hawaii and the Anzac national objective islands from being invaded.

Mike b,

I assume you are playing the Americans. Where is the Japanese Navy based at? If it is the Sea of Japan or even the Caroline Islands, great. Even if you cannot attack it right away, then the Imperial Navy of Japan is not out threatening Calcutta with invasion. The longer it stays put the better. Eventually you will have a force of 10-15 submarines plus planes and can attack no matter what his defenses. Remember the submarine hits have to be taken on the navy, so you should get some hits on destroyers, carriers and battleships while all of your early round hits are taken on soak off units, submarines. If you think that after the first round you may lose some of your planes, break off the attack and retreat.

If the Japanese can kill all of your submarines on the first combat round and kill some of your planes then they are too strong to attack. But look around the map. They cannot be that strong everywhere. Maybe you can attack the Dutch East Indies or the Caroline Islands.

This strategy does not guarantee victory. If the Japanese can advance on the mainland and take Calcutta by turn 5 and take almost no losses to their navy, then the allies will almost certainly lose. But lately, in our games, that has not been happening and the allies have been winning after a very long string of losses to Japan.

Good Luck in your games.

One can use submarines as casualties if the opponents has navy in the water. If there is no navy, only enemy air units, then the submarines cannot be taken as casualties. This is separate apart from the rule allowing the submarines to sneak attack or submerge if the enemy has no destroyers.  If alive at the end of the japanese turn, they attack the convoys. The Japanese player will usually attack submarines in the Sea of Japan combined with his air planes and destroyers to rid himself of the subs. This starts the cycle of the American player hitting his destroyers/navy with additional submarines and planes.

I prefer bombers to fighters for two reasons. First, the bombers can attack the Sea of Japan from Midway (or even Hawaii) and return to land on Midaway. Fighters have to return to carriers or land on Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima is hard to take and hold in the beginning of the game. Second, bombers hit on a 4 on the attack, versus 3 for fighters, and only cost 2 points more to buy.

The whole point of the strategy is to give the Japanese something to worry about from the beginning of the game. Something to wear down his navy and/or hurt his economy. I have tried attacking the Carolines early and moving to Australia to attack the DEI early. All of those plans failed. This is the only strategy that has given me a chance to win the game for the allies when the Japanese declare war on turn 1 vs. the U.S., Britain and ANZAC. And of course, it goes not guarantee victory.

Correct in part.

I have found no way to attack the Dutch East Indies or the Philippines early. I can move to New Zealand and attack Java, or move to New Queensland and attack other parts of the DEI or the Philippines. But I have never been able to stay there. The Japanese Naval power is so strong that I just get brushed aside and lose my navy in the process. So this strategy does not attempt it.

As far as Australia goes, the submarines/bombers can be moved to attack the Japanese Navy if they move close to Australia.

The point of the U.S. strategy is to build a force to attack and wear down their navy. If they move away from the mainland of Asia or Japan, and can be attacked so much the better. It is hard to move near them when they are near the coastline, as they have all the naval bases and they have so many planes that moving your surface navy inside the “Caroline - Japan” line is almost suicide. So I concentrate on the Sea of Japan where if they do not defend, we can least attack their convoys.

At some point you have to play the board. If Japan has built little or no navy, then after turn 5 or so, you can attack and hold one of the Dutch East Indies, while still attacking the Sea of Japan. You have broken his big money now, and stand a good chance to win the game even after he has crushed China and taken Calcutta.

Your point is taken though. This is not a complete strategy, rather an opening set of moves like in chess.

Our little gaming group has played P40 about 30 times or so. In the beginning, especially after we saw how effective the J1 attack was, Japan always won. Lately that has changed.

The Chinese, Brits, ANZAC do what they can to delay the Japanese from overwhelming them. Like always. The U.S. buys 2 AC’s and 2 Transports to add to the 1 of each they start with on the west coast, and from then on buys submarines and bombers to attack the Sea of Japan. This continues for a long time until the Americans have naval parity and eventually naval supremacy.

A note on attacking. Only attack with submarines and airplanes. Never commit your Battleship, Aircraft Carriers, Cruisers or Destroyers. If there are few air units in Japan, attack with the carrier planes leaving the carries in an adjacent sea zone out of range from this airplanes in the Caroline Islands or China. The point of the attacks to exchange submarines for his surface ships or his airplanes. If the subs are lost they should have killed more expensive units. If there are no naval units in the Sea of Japan, send in a few subs (2 or 3)  on convoy attack duty in the Sea of Japan and around the Dutch East Indies. When he counter attacks with destroyer or two, hit him again. Remember your air can get hits on his air units. And unless the Japanese rolled very well, the Americans only took hit on their submarines. If you lost the first round retreat with the planes. If you kill all his navy, so it is only planes on planes, unless you outnumber the Japanese by a lot, submerge the subs and retreat the planes.

The order of battle.

US 1 - buy 1 AC or 2 TR depending on whether or not the Japanese plan to menace Australia or Hawaii. If they do not, skip the TR buy for now.

US 2 - buy 1 or 2 AC’s and a Naval Base for Midway. Move the American force to Midway. Unless the entire Japanese Navy is nearby, these Japanese should leave you alone and guard the Sea of Japan and the Caroline Islands. The submarines and bombers do not defend well at all. An all submarine and bomber force is easily attacked by a destroyer and a few fighters. So the Carrier Task Force around Midway only real purpose is to protect the west coast and the submarines.

US 3 - buy 5 submarines and 2 bombers. Look to see if you have enough to attack the Sea of Japan or the Caroline Islands with submarines and bombers only. This may or may not be combined with naval air from the carriers.

US 4 - buy 4 submarines , 2 bombers and 1 destroyer. The occasional destroyer is necessary to screen with. By now the US player should have enough to attack with. If he does not, continue to build up and realize that you are drawing air planes and money from the attack on the Asian mainland.

US 5 and later, continue to buy submarines and bombers until you feel strong enough to invade an island or two, and stay. Build sufficient forces to defend surrounding navy w/air base and planes and attack his naval forces further in.

Weaknesses of the above strategy. This is a war of attrition to wear down the Japanese and gain naval supremacy. It does take a while. If the Japaneses offensive on the Asian Mainland goes very well, it may take too long.

In addition, the Japanese may not base any destroyers or navy in the Sea of Japan. He will hold a few destroyers in reserve near the Chinese Coast to counter attack with.  Just leave a few submarines in the Sea of Japan, no more than submarines than he has destroyers. The turn after he counter attacks, attack his destroyers with submarines and air planes. This will wear him down.  But like above, it is slow going.

We have found with good play from the U.K. and Chinese, that the Allies can survive long enough to put pressure on the Japanese with this strategy and sometimes even win. We have found no quick way to put pressure on the Japanese as their air force is just too strong.

Test it out, it has worked for me a few times against good players. It may even work for you.