Thanks for confirming.
Does anyone else find this silly? Does anyone house-rule it to allow NCM walk-ons, like when taking control of a friendly neutral?
I think it’s silly too.
I don’t really think the UK gobbling up the French in Africa would really be a problem. It’s still a hassle for them.
Kriegsmarine is looking strong with 15 subs + a handful of surface ships.
What?! :-o Seems to me that if Germany bought that many subs…then she doesn’t have near enough land units to successfully take Russia. I’ve never played a game where anybody wasted that kind of income on subs. Curious indeed.
It was a sea denial strategy - deny the Atlantic to the US.
Russia fell to pretty much starting units, believe it or not. Got outflanked with half its army caught in Kiev.
A minor point but I’ve noticed that you (strategic planner) haven’t balanced your fighters and tac bombers properly on G1. 2 fighters go to SZ111 while 2 fighters and 4 TBs go to SZ110 IIRC. Should be even. Makes 1/6 of a hit per battle on the first round difference, possibly continuing to the second.
@strategic:
A J3 or even J4 is not bad for certain situations.
what are certain situations? can i preplan those situations or are they situations that are based off of what the allies do?
It’s based on what the axis do. As others have said, axis lead, allies react. Although you can’t be completely reactive as Allies.
If Japan doesn’t declare war J1 and the US goes full atlantic, staying at peace until J4 makes total sense. That way the US can’t help out Russia. And the UK has enough trouble just surviving.
Japan has a bit of bother to take down China though, even without the other allies helping out. Without UK help, you can generally get into Yunnan J3. UK generally needs to be at war UK2 to protect that or choose to abandon it, perhaps to help USSR against Germany.
Regarding winning in Germany/USSR, a G2 DOW with a strong assault on the weaker path generally nets a factory unless you really stuff up. If going via the Northern route you need pretty massive reinforcements from Germany. Southern path can net two factories and a territory worth 2IPC which can hold another factory. This is less reliant on reinforcements from Germany.
@strategic:
also what are the at war rules? i think i remember them as france, ussr, ukanzac, and us are all independently triggered?
so this makes sense…
Aren’t they in the manual? UK/France at war with Italy/Germany. UK/Anzac/US at peace with Japan. USSR also at peace with Japan but not influenced by other DOW. Similarly with USSR vs Italy/Germany.
@strategic:
Is there a reason why J1 is wisdom?
Simplistic short answer is that you can weaken India really quickly - UK1 they should be getting 10, UK2 they should be getting 5, thereafter 3, assuming maximum reasonable convoy disruption. Combined with strat bombing, they probably won’t be producing any units after a few turns and quickly fall.
You also get a factory and NO from taking down India. Note that this strategy hasn’t occurred much in our games, but I understand it and will probably try it aggressively next game.
@Baron:
Follow this link to Mr Roboto post:
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=37418.msg1507982#msg1507982YG idea is to weakened StB dogfight capacity.
I understand the idea, but I haven’t played with or against it. I just don’t see it becoming as devastating as what people are saying.
BTW, to threaten Gibraltar you have to start closer than WGermany don’t you?
Why is dark skies that devastating that we need to consider changing the rules to combat it?
On a slightly related note, there is a case to be made that interception is too weak and it would be fairer if fighters or all planes rolled at a two.
Perhaps you could summarise it for us? Regarding Allies Strategy, I’ve got a few thoughts here: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=37400.0
As for Axis strategy, pretty much the collective wisdom is J1 DOW, weaken then take down India via sea, G2/G3 DOW etc. Do those things not work for you?
In case anyone is interested, here’s my thoughts on where I lost this game:
Lots of German troops moved into Belarus, which weren’t enough on their own to take down the Ukraine force, but combined with air and mobile troops, did (in my judgement) cut off the direct via Bryansk route back to Moscow. This led to the first sack of Moscow. It would have lasted another turn otherwise, and another round of troop buys would have required a further pause from Germany. A schoolboy error, it seems.
Some mobile units would have returned to Ukraine to save it but they were 3 squares away in Northwest Persia when sitting in the Caucusus would have done just as well.
In general, I had an insufficient attack as Russia to threaten the German spearhead enough.
I delayed strat bombing on Germany/West Germany to take down Africa, buying a 3 mobile units in South Africa instead of another strat bomber… I think this was a mistake. The Ex-taranto bomber focused on bombing North Italy. This effort was largely wasteful. Could have landed in Tunisia/Algeria UK2 and bombed Normanby, returning to London UK3.
Dubious decisions from Axis:
EDIT: A few things I’ll change up next time:
Things which I liked:
Great clarification here. I don’t think this has ever happened for me though.
It’s pretty hard to find something not already considered in the rules!
Indeed, it has been mentioned that is only supposed to be done for inadvertent over purchasing.
My game as Allies is underway.
Interesting move was no DOW by Japan. With my full Atlantic move, which I stupidly persisted with US2, the Allies were significantly weakened.
Moscow has been re-captured but is unlikely to hold on. USSR troops made no difference in China - had to run back to defend the capital. Stretched a little too far in the Finish peninsular but it’s a good base for strategic bombing of Germany.
Japan is quite weak but has 3/4 money islands and a decent income. Looks like they’ll struggle to hold on in China, most of which is in Chinese hands. Sumatra has 6inf 3Ftr (ANZAC) on it! Isn’t going down any time soon.
Paris is looking like being liberated. Italy is looking like it will be isolated and have no production from convoy disruption with the US in the Med. Will no doubt ultimately fall.
Kriegsmarine is looking strong with 15 subs + a handful of surface ships.
Brazillian was executed ANZAC2, landing ANZAC3. With no Japanese DOW, that extra transport wasn’t needed for income producing reasons.
I would say that the Axis are ahead, 0 bid.
Other interesting deviation from standard was a J1 big attack on Amur which trapped the 18 starting eastern inf in Sakha - 19 inf + 2AAA could not defend in Buryatia.
Not in my games - they’re normally called before that happens.
I was referring to the scenario of a capital-less nation conquering someone else’s capital which I doubt was contemplated. Or if it was, they thought it required no special handling.
Side note:
What happens if your capital is lost and you sack someone else’s? Do you collect their IPC but are unable to spend it until liberated or does it all just go into the bank?
On black letter law: yes, you keep it but can’t spend it unless I’m missing something.
I don’t think this scenario was contemplated under the rules.
What happens if UK conquers a capital? Do they get to chose which economy to send the income to or is it governed by the map they take it on?
Interesting possibility. You need to thin out other attacks and use up some mobile troops to get into S France on turn one.
I’ve never thought all that was worthwhile before but it might be if you can smash some forces off Gibraltar. Although you can still do so by building subs in SZ112. This relies on making a contribution to clearing the Med which I’ve never found to be a problem for Italy. With an allied bid adding sub(s) to the Med seems to be the reason for this one.
Thinking some more about all this with the calculator, it’s inconceivable that an invasion force could survive in SZ123 off Iceland G2 with a J1 DOW if there was a sizeable naval buy G1. Unless there are a huge number of survivors from the Royal Navy UK1. Which tends to suggest the option of going full Atlantic - San Francisco navy can take down Gibraltar US2. With a US3 invasion of Norway. Given that allows the US to take responsibility for attacking the Kriegsmarine, I’m thinking if a UK(Eur) buy of 2-3SB. By UK4 you can be attacking West Germany with 2-4 SBs and therefore weakening it fairly significantly.
I would presume that it is only changing it to what was intended in the rules. I play it as a local rule/interpretation. I cannot comprehend why the idea that you can can open then move through on non combat was intentional.
I think there needs to be a rule clarification that sea units can’t move through a space which was hostile at the start of the turn on the non combat movement. Moving into that space is fair enough. I guess the same should apply to land units but it is difficult to envisage a situation which it would occur.
And what about if combat occurred with subs/transports, should you be able to move through that space on non combat movement? In fact, I can’t see in the rules if anything stops you moving through the space on combat movement. And shouldn’t subs make a sea space hostile to an unescorted transport?
You must have misread what I wrote - I’m expecting USSR to evacuate Amur R1. If they don’t, they can certainly be taken down. My point is that with the turn order, USSR moves first and can and should evacuate most of their units out, unless they’re intentionally inviting an attack.
