Posts made by SgtBlitz

@Imperious:

Actually they found a flaw in my plans. Baltic transports are prone to planes reaching.

But alas i have a new solution to still do the job!

V4 ( vengeance weapon #4)

Builds: 1 DD, 3 AP

Attack: SZ 106 with 2 subs ( no more tank and infantry)

Attack: SZ 110 with 2 subs, 2 fighters, 1 Tactical at 4

Attack: SZ 111 with 1 sub, 1 Bomber, 1 tactical at 4 and 1 Fighter

Attack SZ 112 with 1 BB, 1 Tactical at 4 and 1 Fighter

all planes used.

IN NCM the CA blocks the CV and DD from Gibraltar in SZ 110 and sits with 1-2 subs.

Germans have 2 fleets:

110 they got 1 CA and 1-2 SS
112 they got 1 BB, 1 DD, 1-2 SS, and 4 AP

UK must kill 112 with 3 fighters or face its downfall.

Problem is Germany can lose that fleet in the exchange and everybody dies.

Great idea, IL!  That CA block is something I never would have thought of (too used to using brute force vs. maneuvering to get the job done)!  Here’s a nice addition…  How about instead of stacking all those APs in with the BB and DD, you put them in SZ 113 instead!  They can still reach SZ 110 (move 3 spaces from SZ 113), but are out of reach of UK fighters!

In fact, IF the UK goes after your BB/DD/SS or CA/SS stack, they’re just weakening their airforce they could be using for defense!  Your own airforce is still largely intact and can easily blow up any little blocking fleet the UK tries to put up with the CV in SZ 110.

Hell, why not go all out and build 4 transports G1 and make sure you take out the UK Round 2!  I think as long as you manage to not get diced too badly in France, UK SZs, and the UK itself, Germany stands ready to take the UK with minimal losses on G2!

IL, with that CA block you may have singlehandedly broken AAE40.  I’m going to post it up as a separate thread now.  I’m hope you’re proud.  :-D

@gredert:

I agree, free moves will allow players to cover ground at a rate that otherwise would not be acceptable. I know it isnt free moving, but I still dislike the idea if i get as I believe it works. I say nay nay.

Bah!  I’m sure Manstein’s counterattack to rescue Von Paulus’s army trapped at Stalingrad was something to this effect.  (Except for the fact that Hitler was crazy and wouldn’t let Von Paulus’s army attack in a retreating fashion, which was suicidal.)

Plus it only really works in a few situations, and at Turn 1 for Germany, you’re only saving like 1-2 spaces where they’ll move the inf over that way later on anyway.

LOL, nvmd, I figured it out.  Right mouse button.  Yeah.

How do I get the screen to scroll over without resizing the window?  I’m using a 1920x1200 monitor and it almost fits on the entire screen, but it won’t resize past Hawaii in the Pacific.

@13thguardsriflediv:

@SgtBlitz:

So like everyone else here, I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the new political rules and Axis and Allies wonderland that is AAG40.  It is turning out to be one hell of a game, with umpteen zillion different strategies and maneuvers to be tried out yet.  I haven’t had a chance to try out this particular idea yet, but it seems like it might really be something worth trying, especially for:

Helping out Italy in the Middle East
Opening a second front in Russia
Widening a corridor to India
Holding Gibraltar to protect the Med

I’m gonna try this soon, but I do see one slight danger, you are spreading out thin and if one or two attacks (say, in the North Sea against the RN fail then you might have a problem). Or if France refuses to fall, which almost happened in my first game when Germany allocated its planes elsewhere in G1.

Yep.  That goes without saying.  It’s also possible that at least one of these attacks is going to get diced as well.  But, by trying this move out you are officially declaring you are the Axis player with the biggest balls in history.

WOOT Thanks Func!  We can now start epic G40 games without referring 5 million times to the board/website!  Thanks much!

@Gargantua:

I’ve thought about this, but to be honest, it’s a better American strategy.

American or British forces can land in SPAIN in one move from an NB.  If you add a NB to SPAIN then you can shuck back and forth every turn.  Landing combined allied units.

The best part is, MOST of the now pro Axis neutrals, like in Africa or S.A. there is limited access too.  And the axis still HAVE to go there, etc.  Plus German loses the N.O. if you hit Sweden.

Even better because France has more then one territory touching spain,  The axis has to clump to one side or the other, It’ terribly dificult to defend against, especially with british advancing ground and amphibous units, with american support.  Italy is directly under threat almost immediately.

So what if the axis pick up a few inf in turkey, swe, and Switz,  I don’t think it’s enough to warrant against the fact that america can dump on you in one move.  thus, every turn.

Once Russia is in the war too, what are they going to do?

Certainly worth considering for either side.

Germany does not lose the NO if it takes Sweden (Axis Controlled).  The Allies would have an easier time taking either Norway or Denmark to screw up that NO.

Germany… with Paratroopers… on Round 1 on the game…  That is the best possible setup you could have ever hoped for!

It seems the UK didn’t see Sealion coming or thought that there wasn’t much he could do to prevent it (though you did only invade with 1 transport and 4 inf, think he didn’t buy all infantry like he was supposed to.)  The US should also have been liberating the hell out of England with a J1 attack by Round 3, especially if you only had 1 transport to reinforce the island.

@calvinhobbesliker:

You forgot that Britain activates 4 inf in Africa

4 Inf in Africa, 2 Inf in Saudi Arabia, and 2 inf from Afganistan!  Quite a gamble!  But still, if they can’t get reinforcements through, I think it’d be worth trying.

So like everyone else here, I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the new political rules and Axis and Allies wonderland that is AAG40.  It is turning out to be one hell of a game, with umpteen zillion different strategies and maneuvers to be tried out yet.  I haven’t had a chance to try out this particular idea yet, but it seems like it might really be something worth trying, especially for:

Helping out Italy in the Middle East
Opening a second front in Russia
Widening a corridor to India
Holding Gibraltar to protect the Med

Run a standard opening G1 ploy for a Sealion attack (1 DD, 1 SS, 1 CV built), all UK navy round England destroyed, etc., but take out N/B on the first round as well as France, though.  Take Yugoslavia.  Align Finland and Bulgaria (you will need the 4 inf from Bulgaria).  Stack your troops in position to attack Greece the next round, and make sure you reinforce Finland using your G1 transport (inf/art).

On G2, build 6 inf for N/B + France, a minor IC for Yugoslavia (maybe, if you feel like getting the Cairo NO later on), and whatever else you feel like (navy, air, you’ve got 68 IPCs!)  Send your fleet out into the Atlantic to prevent England from fleet buys around the UK, take Greece with maximum forces (you will need at least 6 units left), and position your armor from France so that some will be capable of reaching Spain from N/B or sending east (W. Germany should work fine, put some in Bulgaria if they reach as well.)  Drop some more inf/art off in Finland, and make sure your air force is centralized so its capable of hitting multiple targets (again, W. Germany or Yugoslavia).

G3, CRUSH THE TRUE NEUTRALS!!!  Show that ungrateful Franco what he deserves for declaring neutrality after sending him so much help during his Civil War!  Split your forces accordingly and go after Spain, Turkey, and Sweden!  They will only have infantry and should at most inflict only superficial casaulties (well maybe not with Turkey, but with plenty of air it should keel over quickly).  You might want to declare war on the SU as well if the border territories are empty (and also to kill the Soviet BB in the Baltic).

PROS

You can send tanks into the Middle East now!  You can even threaten India to the East, and attack Russia from the south!  You can constantly build infantry in France and send a 10 man stack into Gibraltar and keep the Allies from sending navy into the Med!  Italy can land troops against Russia from the Black Sea!  You also gain 7 IPCs from those troublesome meddling neutrals!

CONS

ALL the other True Neutrals on the map become Pro-Allied!  The US gains +4 IPCs and troops from S. America, the Brits gain a few from Africa/Saudi Arabia/Afganistan, and Mongolia will either become Russian or Chinese!  Your tanks are not where they need to be to threaten Russia!  Russia can also attack you through Turkey now!

Overall though, I think it might be worth it.  Russia will have some extra steam from not really being attacked by Germany until round 4, but then Russia will be making less IPCs than Germany will, esp with the neutral money factored in.  They will also have more fronts to cover.  Germany will also have more fronts to cover as well, especially Spain, but the advantage of sending troops overland across France will offset the need for Germany/Italy to buy transports/compete navally with the Allies to try to reinforce Gibraltar for blocking.

I’m thinking if the Axis can hold Spain/Gibraltar for a few turns, that’s plenty of time to screw up the Middle East, open the way into Africa for Italy, and possibly threaten India if necessary.

Sure you mean SZ 118 for UK1?  UK cannot build into SZ 118.

@general:

@miamibeach:

general jason…why did your UK player decide not to attack the German fleet? with the CV, DD, TAC from Gibraltar, and the 3FTR’s in UK?  How did Germany destroy the two CA’s in 112?..ie…did the German fleet come into 112?  If not, then why did the UK player not block 112 with the DD from Gibraltar?

The entire British fleet save Zone 112 and New Brunswick was destroyed G1. There was no destroyer because I made a suicide attack against 112 with 2 subs in G1 in an effort to disable the carrier from launching. UKE1 saw the Bismark and the cruiser go down off the coast of Denmark with the carrier from 112 moving up to attack thus saving the Italian fleet.  The German transports were still in the North sea and out of range of planes. The British Carrier went down G2. Sea Lion took place G3.

Hindsight, if Sea Lion was to be attempted again I’d go for a Carrier and build in near the Atlantic side of Denmark where my Battleship and Cruiser would be after G1. Unfortunately with the Brits being completely unable to kill this fleet the remaining fleet in 112 would be left to cripple the Italians at Taranto after UKE1.

Poor British play all over the place.  The carrier could of and should of been pulled up to SZ 112 and had some planes land on it (it would have been repaired even if it had been damaged from the 2 subs attack on G1 with Gibraltar’s NB.)  The planes landing on the carrier/England (3 FIG and 1 TAC) could have all participated in the SZ 112 fight on UK1 and been used for fodder hits.  The New Brunswick DD/TRN could have rolled on up to SZ 119 on UK1 and acted as a blocker for UK2 in SZ 112 (though its still in range of Germany’s bomber from W. Germany and subs).  If your Sealion took place on G3, Britain should have been building around 8-10 inf a turn and you should have been facing more like 20 inf and 3 planes (Germany has no chance with only 5 loaded trans attacking).

I’m supposing you built 3 trans in the Baltic’s SZ 114 G1 where’d they’d have been safe for a turn, then moved them to SZ 113 for the invasion.  All the UK needs to do in this situation is either keep the carrier back UK1 where they can move it into SZ 112 for UK2 and destroy the transports either in SZ 112 or 113 with planes that will land on the carrier, OR build a Sbmr UK1 that can reach SZ 113 easymode.  4LL UR TRN5P0RT5 B3L0NG T0 M3!!1!!11  :evil:  You’re going to have to build a carrier to protect those weak-ased tranports at some point.

All I’m saying is that Germany simply cannot pull off a Sealion on the cheap against a dedicated British player… (unless they have some uber major luck G1 with a UK air raid and sea attacks followed by an awesome takeover of France finished with some great combat rolls invading England G2 with only 3 loaded transports.)

@miamibeach:

We are, should I say…experienced in this issue;-)

I fall asleep EVERY night TORMENTED by the one thought that keeps pounding thru my skull:  HOW CAN GERMANY TAKE OVER BRITAIN WITH A SEALION ATTACK IN AAG40???  Visions of bombers pasting London to the ground and submarines torpedoing UK capital ships in the night stand juxtaposed between images of Churchill’s haughty, drunken, jowly face laughing maniacally over and over again at my pathetic attempts, all in vain, blowing evil-smelling smoke with a rancid cigar clutched between his yellow-stained, crooked British teeth.  What an ***hole.

I wake up, contented, with a new strategy in my head and a smile on my face, but it falls crashing to pieces every time I type it out onto the AxisandAllies.org forums and realize there is yet some hole or unaccounted for flaw in my brilliant new plan.  Or, finally, upon having typed 200 or 300 lines of stupid combat operations just to set the damn scenario up in the first place in a PBF game, I find that the godforsaken dice roller has killed my chances for victory yet again.

Someday, I will be victorious, but today is not that day.  Perchance to dream, given low luck or at least dice than don’t forsake me when the critical roll is needed, I can win.  This is not just war.  THIS IS AXIS AND ALLIES…

Aye, I’m thinking maybe playing defensively in the East, and having more fun attacking the UK/US than I normally do with Germany.

How about taking Spain and putting a stack of inf on Gibraltar with reinforcements in range?  The US and UK would have to commit to large TRNs builds to send enough fodder there to even get into the Med.  Meanwhile you can harass them with sub and airforce purchases to buy the Italians tons of time, plus let the Italians reinforce Africa and recover from the UK1/France1 attacks.  Meanwhile Russia is split between Japan and Germany and forced to build defensively which limits its options; yet even with the Axis sending 1/3 of its IPCs to the West to tie up the Brits and Yanks, Germany is holding them off with moderate Mech and Arm purchases.

After stymying the Allies at Gibraltar for several turns, reducing Britain to a shambles by taking over Africa/convoy raiding, holding in the Baltic and N. Russia, and having the Japs enter a southern Russian front, I think the stage is set for the Russians to fall to a one-two or one-two-three punch as earlier described.

@miamibeach:

general jason…why did your UK player decide not to attack the German fleet? with the CV, DD, TAC from Gibraltar, and the 3FTR’s in UK?  How did Germany destroy the two CA’s in 112?..ie…did the German fleet come into 112?  If not, then why did the UK player not block 112 with the DD from Gibraltar?

Yeah, this is exactly what I’m asking…  I’m suspecting poor Allied play is the culprit here.

@general:

Played up until turn 4. Germany’s Sealion attempt has 5 INF, 5 ART, 1 Bomber, 3 TAC and 4 FGT vs. 11 UK INF, 1 French INF, 3 FGT and 1 SB. AA gun did nothing. First round dice rolls were par. Second and third rounds NONE of my German planes hit. NONE. Germany built 4 transports first round. By the end of turn 3 the Germans had no fleet other than a couple of Subs as a result of Sealion failing miserably when I TOTALLY should have taken it, but at this point it’s game over as the UK player had been building up his fleet in New Brunswick and the Americans were following suit.

Only positive affect of this was that the UK did not go for the Italian Fleet in UK1 and as a result the Italians were kicking butt, with their full fleet plus an additional transport. By the end of Turn 3 they had the all of North Africa, plus TJ, Syria, South France, Egypt, Bulgaria, Greece and Iraq and were collecting 36 with NO.

Meaningless though. In a game were the Axis start off with less money from the start and it takes so long for the Axis to catch taking territory - which takes so much longer in this game, I’m really looking forward to seeing my first post where somebody claims to have acheived Axis victory. Even if the Germans were successful with Sealion in this game (which they should have been - read above and do the math) it still doesn’t matter because despite the extra IPCS from taking Britian they have wasted so much money that should have gone towards beefing up the Babarossa offensive - and this was in a game where the Japanese declared war on Russia straight away and had units in Yukuts by turn 3.

1941 finally resolved the 3 on 2 flaw that all the other incarnations of AA had by bringing Italy into the game and making it a proper 3 vs. 3. 1940 has gone back on this and made it 6 vs. 3. France doesn’t really count of course, but despite the massive fleet and air power the Japs have they have WAY too much to do on the mainland and the Atlantic and the American NO just adds insult to injury.

We never played with NO in 1941 after a couple of games because we found that it favoured the Axis too much. Without favours the Allies but it was more balanced as a result because the Allied strats were harder to coordinate. We found it made for a better game despite Italy seriously struggling for income.

After a few more games of 1940 we might be coming to this same conclusion. America can never be taken - EVER, unless of course everybody else is out of the game, so the last thing they need is +30 IPCS per turn. Long term without the NO Normady will happen in 1944 - when it should have happened. So far in this game, and again I admit my experience in this one is as limited as everybody else is, I see the Normady campaign happening WAY earlier and there is absolutely nothing the Axis can do about it.

2 cents.

I’m assuming you built your 4 transports (w/o protection) in SZ 113?  Hmm, I always thought that the UK could reach the transports with 2 FIGs if they landed on the carrier moved to SZ 110 (They get to move 5 spaces with an airbase).  Also, why didn’t the UK player try to block you in SZ 112 with any naval leftovers?  If you’re only building transports G1 there’s at most the BB, CA, and possibly a sub.  Some ships/aircraft could of/should of been in range to annihilate that stack.  I’m guessing the UK player was new or wasn’t familiar with the new airbase/naval base rules.

At least the UK player built infantry!  Imagine if he hadn’t of done that right away!

Yeah, Larry should have pushed the UK fleet either back behind England where it couldn’t be attacked effectively G1, or have stacked the hell out of everything into a massive SZ 110 Channel battle (they’re supposed to be evacuating Dunkirk, right?)…  3-4 subs + all of Germany’s air vs. 2 BB 3 DD 1 CV 1 TAC and 2 CA in SZ 110 would have made a much more entertaining G1 than the spread out boondoggle we’ve got now!

I dunno.  I really think the UK1 Taranto raid is overpowered.  There’s no reason to send the AC back to England since it will get wiped out by the Germans’ surviving subs and airforce, the French fleet support in SZ 93 makes the Italians and Germans think twice about attacking the loaded carrier on Round 2 (and they have very limited/expensive units to counterattack with in the Med), plus on UK1 Britain HAS to build all inf anyway to prevent a Sealion attempt and has no money to fortify the AC stack against the German subs and air.  The raid is the only reasonable choice an experienced A+A player can make, and its OP since there’s really no counter.

That being said, how do the Axis get around it?  I’m think maybe Germany could build a minor IC in Yugoslavia or S. France and start pumping 3 subs a round + a CV every now and then into the Med to bolster the Italians weakened fleet.  It will end up getting very expensive however, building 1/3 of Germany’s IPCs into navy, plus the units will be far away from Britain and have a hard time getting through Gibraltar into the Atlantic once the Allies capture it with US’s 82 IPCs a turn (I don’t see Italy/Germany outpacing the UK and US for loaded transports to send to Gibraltar to take it, much less hold it).

Perhaps the Germans could try invading Spain with their forces leftover in France?  This way they could send masses of infantry built in France/W. Germany into Gibraltar without needing transports.  Yes, the other neutral countries will become Pro-Allied, but Sweden is probably a lost cause anyway once the German Baltic fleet gets toasted, and if the Italians are smart the UK won’t have a transport in range/available in the Med to activate Turkey.  The real downsides will be that Germany will have the N/B coast to defend, Spain’s coast to defend, AND Gibraltar’s coast to defend!  Prob at the start it won’t be too bad, but once the US gets going I don’t know how the Germans are going to hang on to all three w/o severely weakening its attacks on Russia.  But its still an option.  If you could get a stack of 10 inf into Gibraltar with reinforcements available through Spain and France it’d take a hell of a long time before the Allies could get you out.

I’m really thinking the Axis are going to be the side needing a bid in this game, and its probably going to go to Italy, just because of this Taranto raid.

@calvinhobbesliker:

@chompers:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@chompers:

Historically, the Axis lost the war too.  It seems they may have taken a page or two too many from the history books rather than worrying about an even fight in Europe/Africa.

Okay, the axis already got the sinking of 80% of the RN. Now they want to take over 90% of Africa?

We go around in circles a lot here.  Taking Egypt does not automatically equate to taking all/or most of Africa.  There’s an IC in South Africa that can churn out some units to counterattack the shattered remnants of whatever Italians actually survive the conquest of Egypt.  The Allies as a whole have a vast IPC advantage over the Axis and it seems that the game was balanced so that it’s up to Japan to do 80% of the heavy lifting in order to bridge that gap, with Italy contributing essentially nothing.  Heck, the Brits don’t even need a fleet.  They can just do army buys their first 4 turns, wait for the US to roll into SZ 110 in force, and then just plop down transports and 1-2 punch Normandy using the Americans for cover.

If Italy has taken Egypt, it probably has both NO’s, giving it 30-35 ipc’s. Meanwhile, the UK has less than 27 ipc’s. Italy can build more units for Africa than Britain.

Let America take Normandy. germany can retake it from West Germany.

What do you mean I’m an apologist for the UK? I think you have the wrong word. Apologist means I am apologizing for their crimes by justifying them. I’m not doing that.

OMGZOR!!!  You mean Italy actually having a chance to meet the UK IPC for IPC is unfair???  Italy also has to stand against the 82 IPC USA, AND hold the entire Med Sea, AND hold the whole African continent to maintain the 30+ IPCs…  C’mon!  Germany has to be strong against the UK at game start so Italy has at least a CHANCE of forming some buffer space against the USA and UK.  The UK1 Taranto attack pretty much destroys any Italian chances for clearing the Med for the first few rounds, and its probably at least 3 turns before Italy can rebuild the BB, TRN and CA with its piddly starting income.  By then its Round 4 and Team America World Police is 2 turns away from landing 10 TRNs in S. Italy proper.  Italy NEEDS 2 extra starting subs with its BS and CA to give it a chance against the UK raid.

There’s no way the Italians can fortify Gibraltar/NW Africa to hold against a UK/US attack with only one transport, much less missing half its starting fleet.  Gibraltar is set up in this game even more unfairly than before, with it giving 3 spaces to the sides that hold it (it WILL be the Allies); the US can send units in one turn from its naval base on the East Coast straight to Gibraltar, and from there its only one more turn (3 spaces) to invade EITHER N. OR S. Italy!!!  Even if everything goes perfectly for the first few rounds for Italy, if the Western Allies are determined Italy is already doomed.  (Italy is basically a stall for time anyway, a distraction from the big show over in Russia.)  So the starting UK losses shouldn’t be that bad of thing, and Italy needs all the help it can possibly get.