Posts made by shadowhawk

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris said in The Bright Skies:

You lost me when you said Russia will invade Scandinavia. That strategy only works against inexperienced Axis players.  Against anyone decent, you will have a bunch of valuable troops stuck with no place to retreat.  Russia being aggressive in more than one small theater is a guarenteed recipe for failure because of the overwhelming air power of the Axis.

If Germany does not have any fleet then you basically can trade units in scandinavia and win it without many land units left.

Germany also has 7 inf there so you sending 7 inf 2 art and your air does not lose out a lot. But its 16ipcs difference. Thats 5 inf each round you build more then germany, so you make up the losses pretty fast germany doesnt.

Ofcourse it makes no difference if germany has 1 transport and trades the countries but without the transport.

Same with Afrika, 2 tanks 2 mechs can take iraq and then surviving tanks can race into afrika. They are protected almost all the way by UK forces and sure you lose 4 units but each turn you can build 2-5 more.

@bakerbei said in Assistance with the bidding rules:

@AndrewAAGamer Would Germany still not be able to take both SZ 110 and 111? I believe that Germany has 4 subs, 4 fighters, 4 tactical bombers, 2 strategic bombers and 1 battleship to bring to bear on the two sea zones.

If it’s split evenly, with the battleship going to the English Channel, Germany has odds on both, even with a Scottish Fighter bid and scrambling the now 5 fighters.

Are my calculations off or is it not a given that the Scottish Fighter saves a fleet?

No they will still win both combats. But it will cost them more units.
Gemany cannot afford to lose most of its planes there, and a bad roll of the dice can really screw up german plans.

@AndrewAAGamer said in Assistance with the bidding rules:

@bakerbei said in Assistance with the bidding rules:

In your opinion though, if you had an 18 ipc bid, where would you place it and why?

With only $18 I would put a fighter in Scotland and an SS in 110. Give the remaining $2 to UK Europe.

The reason I would do this is it saves one of the two main UK fleets. Germany does not have enough firepower to safely hit 110 and 111 with the 2 extra defending units. Then the SS in 110 will survive and it can join the UK Med fleet for Gibastion then start convoy disruption against Italy. The extra $2 allows the UK to build a factory for Egypt, an airbase for Gibraltar and an infantry for London.

This makes UK safe from Sealion and starts them down the road to be able to have a big enough fleet, combined with the US, to make landings on the Continent ASAP,

Im puzzled by the sub in 110, would it not be better to put a DD in 111 instead.
110 if germany hits 2 times with subs yea it gives you a cruiser shot.
Unless you intend to take 1 hit on the sub first as the sub cannot hit air and the 2 cruisers + BB will hit subs first.

@bakerbei

You dont really need the sub, the figher in schotland makes things interesting for germany.
Adding a DD off gibraltar is nice keeps that cruiser alive. Or at least forces germany to send 2 or more subs and even then its pretty risky battle for germany.

You can also put a sub off scotland. Combined with a plane it could make things interesting. Especially since germany has to buy a carrier to attack like you mentioned.

With just 2 subs and 7 air the UK can scramble 3 air.
Their air can only hit your air. With the BB or a DD in 110 the UK air can hit the BB or the subs making scramble a lot worst.

The first strike doesnt to anything in 110 anyway, the first hit will be on the BB which can hit back. Only if they make 2 hits does it make a difference, would you put a bid in a place where 1/9 times it makes a small difference?

Putting it in SZ91 will make a much bigger difference, even putting it with the fleet off schotland would be better.

Interesting things:
Add a art in alexandria and a mech or tank in egypt and destroy tobruk at the same time as destroying the italian fleet.

Put a transport off south afrika so you can take iraq round 1, or if doing taranto put the troops from malta on greece ( your planes from the carrier can land ) and still do your things around east afrika.

If your opponent allows, add an AA gun to china, japan has to attack with planes so you can get 3 shots. Its a gambit though.

@AndrewAAGamer said in Assistance with the bidding rules:

@bakerbei A fighter in Scotland with a sub in 110 or 111 will save half the English fleet. An infantry in Yunnan with an extra fighter in Russia will hold Yunnan on J1 making life tougher for Japan; assuming you fly all your Russian planes to Yunnan. The sub in the Med at 98 will make Taranto easier if you are going with that tactic vs Gibastian.

BTW you are way under Bid as the Allies. The absolute minimum Allied bid should be 30. Most bids are 45-55.

You can see bids as a handicap thing to even out skill difference.
If there is a bigger skill disparity the bids need to be bigger, if the other guy is bad with axis then a lower bid can work.

A DD in the channel is a bad idea, sure the first strike thing is annoying but it also allows germany to not send the BB and just use 2 subs as casualties for your scramble hits if you scramble.

@klykke89 said in Novgorod Amphibious Assault:

If you place your invasion fleet in seazone 112… Could´t you just attack Novogrod through seazone 127?

The Sub dosent block youor move as I read it.

You can, but if you stay in the baltic you can use the fleet to ferry inf +art from germany to novgorod the next turn as well. Making that 3 unit factory a 7 or 9 unit factory ( by moving from germany directly there each turn ) speeding up your attack and having more units available.

Inf + art is same attack as mech+tank but you save 3 ipcs.

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris said in Let's talk the Taranto raid.:

@shadowhawk it does take either good dice rolls, an Allied bid, and/or meticulous execution to pull of the alternatives to Taranto. Otherwise you find that you lose Egypt, Gibraltar, or London early in the game and it is almost impossible to recover.

I have to spend a long time battlecalcing every scenario if I decide to place my fleet next to Gibraltar. That certainly is the best option if you can avoid mistakes, but I wouldn’t do that in a face to face game.

Yea i agree there, taranto is the easier option to pull off.
But in the case or rare dice in 110, or just a weak attack there, sometimes you can pull it off.
Having a BB + 2 cruisers + destroyer + carrier + 3 fighters available will deter any attack on it from italy or germany and that fleet can easy defend sea lion or punish the italians for moving anywhere but stay put.

But just doing taranto is the easier and safer bet.

@Galendae said in Let's talk the Taranto raid.:

I get ecstatic when my opponent doesn’t do Taranato.
No idea what my win rate is when there is no Taranato, but I am sure it is higher than when I do get Taranto’d.

Well i guess it doesnt happen that often because taranto is just really good and easy opener. Not doing it is a lot more tricky to do as allies.

If for some reason that BB in 110 survives and your cruiser in the atlantic survives its a good tactic though. Combining everything + airbase in the med removes any ideas italy might have for any NO they might want to think about.
And any ideas of a sea-lion for germany are also scrapped.

You bring the carrier the axis has 2 options.

Scramble, sure you take 1 carrier and 2 fighters as losses.
They still lose the fleet and 3 extra fighters.

Dont scramble and basicaly give up the fleet for minimal losses on the allied side.

Take your pick really, it hardly mathers to the allies Italy is crippled, its 1 less front to bother with and basically you turn the game into a race to moscow for the axis. They either win the race and the game or have a few 2 many bad rolls and they lose the game.

Its also the only NO that the axis cant really prevent from happening and its big.

Afrika alone got 4 countries so with Iraq thats 15 ipcs each turn. It does count for 0 ipc countries as well.
The only way to counter is go have germany go all out against russia, and have good dice on the way there.

So that turns the game into a verry 1 dimensional game which is a shame because the game would be more fun if there was any viable other strategy.

@Tamer-of-Beasts

Nothing stops the russians from moving into iraq and then into afrika. UK will take care of most of the italian forces. And if they spread out to 1 inf-country even 2 tanks 2 mechs from russia will clear them. Or just UK air to kill and then 1 mech for the bonus.

Its not like italy has anything in the med after a few rounds.

Russia has an insane NO that gives 3ipcs for each pro axis country anywhere.

So if russia just moves to the middle east and into afrika the allies can verry easy have a bonus of 12-15ipcs each turn with the axis unable to ever take it away.

This does make the game really a race to moscow for the axis, no deviation possible a 1 trick pony for the axis and if you get a few bad dice you basically lose.

So how to deal with it?

@Classified_22

Axis can win on both sides they just have to put enough pressure so that the allies cannot form a unified front.

The problem for the allies is the vast distances, USA has a hard time getting into play either on pacific and europe. The axis have smaller internal lines easier to reinforce.

It takes time for the allies to shift between the 2 boards. And axis are favored because of this ( and the turn order ) you just need to learn to abuse your advantage and leverage it.

Dont spread your forces, just make a single point attack on both boards, the allies are spread thin and cannot reinforce every part fast enough just make sure that you focus your resources and if the allies leave a gap in their defences abuse it.
Germany/Italy can switch from russia to afrika or from london to russia in 1 turn. UK takes several turns to switch from sealion defence to helping russia.

@LewisClark
Nice, still requires manual updating ofcourse same as the ipc tracker.

But its less error prone i guess as you cant accidentally shift a roundel on the tracker.

@barnee

TripleA also has various versions and setup of the the game.
So you could start the 1942scenario or balance mod, or tournament rules.
Or even classic or revised.

@ampdrive said in A&A 1940 Global: Japanese invasion of Russia and Expeditionary Fleet to Europe:

@shadowhawk OK,I see this is turning into a sealion discussion which is fine enough.We should get back to what this thread was about initially.
Classified_22
8 days ago

What are you guy’s opinion on the following turn sequence for Axis powers

G1: build CV, DD, and SS–Germany takes France and prepares for Sea Lion + Russian invasion.
Many of us would read that as Germany has to prepare to BE INVADED by Russia .I’d suggest that Classied_22 does not buy naval G1 and plans to with Japans help take out Russia 1st and maybe sealion later if the opportunity is there.Otherwise go for Cairo for the win.

It wasnt a sea-lion discussion but i pointed out that germany cant just take london and expect not to have issues with it. The idea of ill just take london and next turn ill use those units and fleet and go attack russia just doesnt work. You have to take account for what the allies can do.
I just pointed out that his fleet isnt safe in 110 without extra investments which will take away pressure from moscow.

I think i would tweak the Japan into europe a bit. Make a full move against india and take it. That forces the US to react on the pacific side ( you take money islands for good measure ) and then you can move those forces into the middle east the next turn. The naval base would allow you to be next to egypt in 1 move.
It might take more then 3 turns to reach europe but since you force the US to also be present in the pacific more ( else they lose there ) your help is much stronger in europe.

The axis cannot win without a credible threat on both sides, if the US can focus on just 1 side of the board their buying power alone will easy overrun 1 of the axis.

@allister

What i normaly do is using the roundels of the countries and updating it at the end of the turn.
So each new country you capture you place the roundel upside down. Then when you did all your non-combat moves you have an update board phase where you flip the roundels and update the tracker.
This way you dont forget a country and you keep it updated so no need to count all countries individualy.

@ampdrive

Why would i not take Ireland? The mech doesnt have anything better to do so consider that a landing spot. So now you have to land troops in 3 different places thats 4 less land units attacking london. Thats a lot of odds less, it also means your not in SZ110 with your fleet.

You got 1 loaded carrier + 2 fighters, 1 cruiser 1 dd in SZ110 unless you invest even more but that means you cant stop russia anymore.

Assuming i dont know what happening i got 1cruiser + 1DD + loaded carrier available for the US as well as 4 strat bombers. Because im spending my income about 50/50 in both zones.
The fleet portion cannot help out so thats 4 strats 1 tactical 1 fighters VS 2 fighters 1 cruiser 1 dd and 1 carrier. Thats about 80% chance of winning. Sure i lose all but 1 strat but you lose all your transports.

You dont have your battleship anymore because, if you dont use it in 110 i just scramble and nuke your airforce. IF you do send it i dont scramble and i got a damaged BB sitting there all alone against 4 fighters and a strat bomber.

@porkchop212

Well china will have an income of 0 if it doesnt have any territories. So at that point it doesnt really make a difference if it gets 0 or doesnt get 0.

@ampdrive
Well with a sea-lion threat the US could also get some bombers and airforces in the atlantic side. If you do sea-lion that would destroy your fleet making russia a giant bear.

If you dont well those units can fly over and have a chat with the japs, strat bombers have insane range. Well all air has way to much range in this game but strats with airbases can cover half the planet.