I Think in our group we have done maybe 10 F2F games, usually reserve an entire weekend where we go to a vacation house to be fully focused. We have a steady group of 4 people with a couple drop ins over the last couple of times, it has really spiced the game up.
Just setting the game up and recapping the rules usually takes 1-2 hours depending on how long time since last and if there is any newcomers.
We allow battle calcs, but beers usually reduces the need later in the game :)
I think it’s a good example of taking too much “advantage” of waiting for Rus/US to join the war.
Germany and Japan has advantage in terms of units at the beginning of the game, and as the game unfolds, the US/Russians/UK will be able to match that. Try to invade Russia on turn 2, and declare war on the US/UK/ANZAC on turn 1 or 2 with Japan. They can’t threaten you in the beginning, so you might as well just do it and push for the money islands :)
In many games, the US has a hard time getting into the fight before it is too late. Try to keep that in mind :)
Enjoy and welcome to the forum.
There’s a lot of interesting possibilities here. I assume that sz110 and sz111 was cleared out?
I would advocate limiting the British possibilities. Just a few clarifying questions:
I assume that the strat bomber landed on Malta?
Where is the fighter from Malta?
Where is the tac from sz98?
I assume that there is a CV with 1 fighter, 1 cruiser and 3 fighter scramble from Gibraltar in sz92?
Is there still a german sub in sz91?
If we assume that the fighter, tac and strat is on Malta, that is indeed a juicy target. However, I would probably do someting like clearing the french, send the sub against the cv + carrier and clear the destroyer in 96. Not sure what to do with the transports, but weakening the british fleet before the germans hit it (maybe taking Algeria with 1 trans to allow a place for the planes to land) could remove units worth of an entire british buy round, which makes the US spend more money on navy.
I would probably still build mech + tank for the russian front, kill Yugo and wait with Greece. I think you would be stretched too thin elsewise. Maybe use the second transport to get more units in position for greece round 2. This however requires some plane cover, so I would probably send the transport with the other ships to kill the French fleet. You should beware of british planes from Gib, that can hit that zone though. Auch…
It’s actually a tough one, however, Germany could build some supportive navy from S France, but given a G1 DoW, it’s not really likely.
I’ve read your strategy with great interest as I’ve tried in the last couple of days to activate Italy even more. I think it’s a shame the role Italy takes after a Taranto raid.
What version is this strat based on? The following is based on second edition.
In general I think it’s a cool idea, but many of the attacks are very risky. For the following, Mean Surviving Units = MSU.
Just to name a few battles:
France, MSU: 7,5. Not much room for error, could easily eat some of your tanks. No artillery left for 2nd round attack on Normandy.
SZ111, with 1 scramble, MSU: ~1. (3 fighters lost)
Yugoslavia: Hard to tell, but 3 units requires a quite perfect strafe.
French fleet: 1-2 MSU, can be costly.
Worst is Turkey. As you activate the strict neutral rule by attacking Sweden, Russia could easily slide in and station some fast moving troops in Turkey, leaving 12-14 units to kill for the Italian 14 attacking units.
But again, what version are you playing? :-)