Posts made by Thamor

@trihero:

Let’s assume the normal moves made by J1

• UK destroyer was destroyed by Indies navy
• Pearl Harbor made heavy everything there.
• Purchase 3 transports and 2inf
• Place them to sz60 where there is only 4 transports

You missed another normal move: take Buryatia. I don’t know about you, but most of the Allied players I play against don’t try to hold Buryatia on turn 1. Sure you can if you want with 6 inf, but it’s a temporary stay in any case and it makes it harder to defend against the central push by the Japanese since your inf are way out east.

Very simple:

-Move bomber to sz60, move hawaii fighter to sz60
-4trans vs 1fig 1bomb…will end with nice transports sunk to the bottom.

You can only do this if Japan doesn’t control Buryatia, otherwise there is no place to land. Most games Russia abandons Buryatia completely! Also, I usually don’t send the battleship to Pearl Harbor! It’s sitting in SZ60 to defend the transports.

UK1
-Bomber moved to sinkiang

Fine by me too. This means you’re not counterattacking Egypt at all since you sent your fighter to Harbor and your bomber to Sinkiang, which means German for a change gets a free hand in Egypt for a while. Thanks! Plus your bomber won’t do any damage since my battleship is guarding the transports.

It’s stupid for russia to leave buryatia on turn 1, because Japan can’t take it from you before turn 3 and on your turn 3 you retreat to Yakut.

Leaving the BB is good choice, but then you are commencing all Japan navy to death in Pearl Harbor for sure, USA counters with BB Trans 2figs 1 bomb. US planes land to bury still. Or you do that light attack for japan what you posted earlier 1dest 1sub 3figs 1bomb? And do you use the indies navy to destroy the british destroyer and carrier?

Huoh, it’s hard to say every single move you can make, I wanted to point out the weakness of leaving the transports unguarded. Egypt could still be taken with 3inf 1fig, or atleast damage the troops in egypt.

Russia should always sit with 6inf after 1st turn in buryatia, you can have manchuria for free. If Japan don’t guard their transports you sit in bury, but if they keep the battleship you flee to Yakut and US Bomber lands there or don’t come at all against japan and instead goes to UK.

Every move can be countered by another move. Axis&Allies is dice based game so you can’t prove some move is allmighty, you can’t beat it. But you can make the dice favor you with different moves, you just have to decide when to risk it and when to minimize the luck for dices…

Aah, but somehow well ncscswitch post implied that Germany could take Russia alone, which I think is impossible, if allies play well. Well with lucky dices everything is possible. :)

But back to talking this, I understand your point for the use of German navy. I usually have sitted and waited for allies to attack the fleet, it’s really hard for them to attack and decimate the fleet and you defend better than you attack. When you are sitting you can counter easily the allied troops pouring into norway and destroy them, which makes UK buy more land troops. Don’t let UK stack them and attack you troops that is the worst case scenario losing your eastern front troops to UK :/

As for slowing down japan, USA sinkiang factory isn’t bad choice if you can make Russia to boost it’s defence.

Then the german navy is sealed and UK is free to load troops to Norway.

If no attacks came, USA and UK would merge to sz6. The strafe you spoke, wouldn’t be so effective as you think, the UK and USA can sacrifice for hits their destroyers too, I would never lose every transport for 1round strafe which I would guess and after the strafe no more baltic fleet. UK could even move troops to Archangel freeing more troops for Russia to hold the front. You only need the 2 AC and BB you can always get planes from USA, if I play USA I always buy more planes and more planes. 1st turn 2figs, after that always 1fig per turn.

Even that strafe could go horribly wrong Germans losing 1-2 planes. German navy can take only 5hits, after that planes start crashing down. Basing on that I would never take UK transports as casualty for Allies, USA dies first, after that UK destroyer, After that maybe one USA fighter. Why would anyone take transports down, and lose one whole turn for nothing.

This is turn 3, and already some Allies troops are in norway.

It’s really hard decision and it isn’t so damn easy to push to russia. I just can’t understand your points how is it so easy to push the russians down with only germany fighting USA, UK, Russia. There shouldn’t be even Japan, if it’s so easy to push 4-5 turns to moscow. Your opponents are weak or they don’t play well as allies, combining their strength is the surest way to victory for them…

My playing group, it usually goes to Germany keeping itself strong on eastern front, but not making some stupid I go alone to take moscow move and die trying it. Germany waits for Japan and allies rush to reinforce Russia or slowdown japan or come straight at German coast.

For Japan to leave 4 transports to sz60 is a real risk of losing all of them. I would never do it.

Let’s assume the normal moves made by J1

• UK destroyer was destroyed by Indies navy
• Pearl Harbor made heavy everything there.
• Purchase 3 transports and 2inf
• Place them to sz60 where there is only 4 transports

USA1

-Move bomber to sz60, move hawaii fighter to sz60
-4trans vs 1fig 1bomb…will end with nice transports sunk to the bottom.
-fighter and bomber lands to buryatia, where sits 6 soviet infranty. In our games soviets never retreats straight away to Yakut, because Japan don’t have the strength to dislocate them on J1 from bury and it serves as base for USA planes. J2 even then Japan might not have the power to dislocate 6inf 1fig 1bomb from bury.

I know what you will suggest next place them to sz61, but there is a risk too.

UK1
-Bomber moved to sinkiang

UK2
-Bomber attacks sz61, better chances for transports to win the battle, but with bad luck every 4 transports are sunk and japan sits idly in their big island. I would maybe move 1dest 1carrier to sz59 to destroy the transport, to force japan to commit more power to destroy the british fleet.

What do Japan then when it’s nice 4 transports have been sunken, it has happened before, and it’s really hard to leave something to protect them from USA or UK attack. So 1st turn buy should be 1dest 2trans and placed to sz61. Save 2IPC.

Comments?

Won’t work, too much transports is suicide for germans, easily destroyed and lots of IPC lost.

You must decide where you want to go, here is a very good strategy that gives you time to choose your options.

Use your start 12IPC for destroyer to baltic.

1st Round save 28IPC
-Buy only 1 Destroyer
-Make strafe attacks on soviets and keep yourself strong on the eastern front, but don’t try to start the drive to moscow yet.
-Destroy all UK navy w/subs and planes
-Land your planes to norway or France so that they are in range of london.
-Move Italian navy to gibraltar

2nd Round if the UK didn’t buy any land troops and bought only navy. You have now 2 choices try Operation Sea Lion or start your push to Russia. With 68+ IPC you have lot’s to choose your approach.

Operation Sea Lion (This can be tried if the allies don’t take moves to prevent Operation Sea Lion)

Buy 1BB 1Bomb 3trans 1art or land troops.

-Use your remaining subs and planes to wipe the UK navy or USA navy, if there is one.
-Position troops so you have balanced attack to UK on turn 3.
-Move Italian navy to position where they can attack UK
-Keep your eastern front strong, but keep forces in position to attack UK.
-Clear the soviet sub trying to block, so there will be no blockers to prevent you moving to english channel, same thing for the italian navy, destroy the USA navy if it has been moved to block your attack from there.

Turn 3

-Move your baltic fleet next to UK and load 3inf 3art 2arm to transports.
-Try moving the Italian fleet to attack the UK.
-Attack UK w/3(+1 italian)inf 3(+1)art 2arm and all fighters and 2bombers
-Move troops so that you can begin your next wave on turn 4
-If the attack succeeds you should get the UK plunder and have about 50+IPC and UK is totally wasted from the game, you only have to worry USA counter-attacking your position in UK, and they will maybe succeed once, but on Turn 4 your second wave wipes them out.

If the UK and USA reinforce the UK too much, turn 2 buy with 68+ IPC Land troops and start your drive to moscow. Nothing changed, but you used 1 turn to check your options.

I would like people to comment on Japan tactics, what to do if Allies try KJF? What is the optimal turn 1 for japan? How will you start the drive to moscow, best route? India, china, Bury? Industrial Complexes?

1. Your turn starts, you have lost your sub and transport (where sits UK destroyer), UK have reinforced the USA Carrier with their Indian fighter. How do you take China? How do you do Pearl Harbor? And what is the best buy for turn 1? Industrial Complex to Kwantung?

2. Pearl Harbor attack, There is two choices, a) heavy attack BB AC+2figs Bomb Dest (maybe 1 trans to take hits or 1 fighter)
b) Light attack Dest, trans, sub(if it is alive) 3-4fighters, bomber. BB and 2 AC merge to next to hawaii, and fighters land there. This tactic is to save your BB, AC and Fighters from retaliation from USA.

I sometimes if I only inflict damage enough so the carrier is chosen as casualty and 1 fighter is left in the battle retreat from hawaii seazone, to get out of retaliation from USA. They could hit you with 3 fight, 1 bomb, BB and trans. You would most likely have only BB and AC + 2fighters in the battle if you leave sitting in hawaii sz.

But give me your comments and strategy for Japan? How to come fast to Germanys help from the east.

Hehe, you are right, of course after that you would do it, but the tradeoff for germans to sacrifice their fleet so they take UK fleet isn’t so great, because UK just jumps straight back at you really fast and USA will protect their transports with their navy.

Ncscswitch, if you read carefully my post. You could see that if you moved your med fleet to sz12, it would be wasted by UK and USA. And you could only attack the UK fleet with 2 subs and planes. Why Submarines because sub/transport don’t block them from moving through the sz6.

Read my post, I want you to attack the UK navy, because I want to take a lot of German AF with me to the bottom.

I would rather strafe ukraine, that 3ipc more and lose 3inf 1art 2armor isn’t so big tradeoff, even when you can get 1 German fighter, it isn’t so big a loss as you think. And only having 2fighters for Russia is weak :/, you need fighters to trade off with germans with only infranty.

Strafe = Hit ukraine with 3inf 1art 2arm 2fighters, on round 1 you should inflict 3-5 hits. So you leave behind usually for germans 1art 1arm 1fighter, but you save 2arm 1art and maybe 1inf. That ukraine plane i usually take to Egypt, but if it is destroyed, 2inf 2arm 1bomb is enough to take it down close the canal. I don’t take chances with UK destroyer 1bb 1tran 1fig I use to take it down, so it sinks on round 1, very bad luck if goes to round 2 and the destroyer manages to hit, round 2 it always sinks and with very bad luck one german AF blown to pieces, but rather plane than my bb. I have lost sometimes when I attack only with bb and trans, that I lose the battle, don’t ever again want that to happen :/

General_D.Fox of course, only naval unit that can’t defend against a airplane is submarine. Everything else can defend…

That is one idea too, and really good one, very hard for germans to attack from baltic through the UK navy and still keep their navy alive.

If british will move their fleet to sz6, I would destroy it totally at the expense of baltic fleet, carrier and destroyer will move with the fleet. After destroying it, british are looking very weak. All their 1st turn purchases have been destroyed, no fleet around UK + 2 important UK fighters have been destroyed. And the german navy would sit with quite strong navy in sz6. Another thing is that the USA fleet would be wasted by 1sub 1trans 1bb 1bomb. I would try destroying both USA and UK fleets on G2, the tradeoff would be closing UK totally in fear of Operation Sea Lion, which I would start. Negative is that UK fleet is sitting in med in UK2.

Very costly operations for Germany and UK. But only try combining in sz7 if allies are going for KJF. To free india complex for Japan and end the game for German victory.

I would rather destroy the German mini fleet on Allies turn 1.

First UK 2fig 1bomb attack the fleet take out sub and trans, leaving their bomber alive if dices are rolling averagely. Then USA finishes the job with 2trans 1dest 1bomb, no more med fleet. USA should help with fighters to replace to UK AC around England.

Just have to point out this, You should only try merging if the Allies go KJF. The british will lose a lot of IPC to wrong places. Just wait one turn before revealing your plan to the allies, but the med fleet can’t survive with only 1bb 1trans 1sub, only choice is on turn 1 more  fleets, but that will really drain the forces in eastern front. And not taking africa, no transports in med, Africa will be firmly in UK hands and gaining 25-30ipc a turn. Too much, in my opinion.

Just wait and see what the allies will try to do, and gather more power to germans. If you don’t move to merge your fleets, UK will most likely buy 1IC on it’s first turn, so no carrier on turn 1.

The Baltic fleet is sacrifice fleet to slow down the british, when they try to move in force to block you to baltic, then you hit them with everything you got, rest of the turns you move powerfully towards russia and hold africa to gain those extra ipc and weaken UK. You are strong and gaining more turns with this tactic, and Japan will be so much closer when the time comes for Allies to trying to hammer on your coasts, and you are still in good shape if you have your med fleet intact. 'nuff said. This will be my last rambling of this point. I got good ideas from what everybody said, but most of them helped me to figure out the good moves for Allies more than Axis. The more I have played the more powerful I am with Allies and more closer to take the victory with them, than axis. And I    almost always get the Germans. They are the most hardest country to play and think what to do.

Yes, but only there where it was moved and only the IPC amount of the place. So if you moved to 2ipc place, you could only get 2 units  on that factory. I think you already know this, but no harm in repeating :)

It’s so strange how you easily take out Soviets alone with Germans, I don’t say that it’s not possible. But your group is playing really badly  if soviets can’t keep the Germans off, when Germans are even using their planes in naval battles.

Let’s make a summary of this strategy.

S1
-Soviet sub to block baltic fleet
G1
-AC purchased to Baltic, 2figs land there
-Med fleet move to merge with baltic fleet in sz7, it has 1bb 1trans 1sub
-Figs try to destroy soviet sub
-Bomber + 1fig help to take out anglo-egypt so 1inf 1arm 1fig 1bomb.
-Is the UK destroyer in med taken out with planes? And what planes? If 1fig is used in anglo-egypt, you can only attack it with 1fig, not so good odds. If 2figs used, you would take a high gamble in anglo-egypt, with 1inf 1arm 1bomb.

Egypt would look really bad, but anyway my point was how to counter the merging of those fleets.

UK1
-AC purchased, 1fig to land on AC purchased, 4ipc saved or 1art purchased.
-UK fleet form up in sz7, 1transport moves to replace soviet sub if it’s destroyed by the Germans
-UK indian fleet move to med if the route is open, or optional they open the route by attacking anglo-egypt with 3inf 1fig.
-UK airforce 2figs, 1bomber attack the German med fleet, 2 rounds of combat is enough, to destroy the transport and sub, after that  consolidate your bomber and with luck 1fighter back to england.

USA this is really optional, either buy something to try hold the Japan steamhorse or full KGF tactic. I will go with full KGF.

USA1
-Buy 1fig, 2trans, 1dest, 1art
-Attack the med fleet on the coast of algeria, 2trans, 1dest, 1bomb. Because the british have already destroyed at minimum 1sub/1trans or both of them. The lonely BB is easy prey. If there is only the BB, take 1inf with you to take algeria. After this attack the med fleet should be totally wasted, freeing africa for UK, and keeping the fleets from merging.
-Bomber moves to UK and 1fig is placed on UK AC, so on sz7 there will be 1-2trans, 1BB, 1AC + 2figs(UK&USA figs)
-USA Hawaii fighter moves to russia, West Coast fighter moves to East Coast or Alaska, where it will fly to russia.
-All Purchases to East Coast, leave Japan to ramble on it’s own, it will take a long time before it can do anything really bad, USA could  start moving it’s 1trans, 1BB to Atlantic sea, and panama destroyer is moved to Eastern coast

S2 I won’t do any land battle moves

G2 Now this is really hard for germans, what should they do. They have the option to waste british fleet, but with great loss of AF. Well what here has always been done, you sacrifice your planes heedlessly.

-1 fig is used to destroy the UK trans or soviet sub if it really survived G1
-2 Subs 4figs 1bomb attack the UK fleet. (1fig can’t move from Libya to sz7)

7hit attack force against 6hit UK fleet. Germans will waste this fleet on round 1, but the fighters survive or if the germans continue to round to destroy everything then most likely germany will be after this battle lost 2subs 2-3figs. The loss of this navy isn’t so bad to UK.

-Baltic fleet moves to sz7?? Or I don’t think so, what is the point anymore when the med fleet have been wasted by the allies.

UK2
-Buy AC, 1trans, 2inf placed to sz8, where USA fleet merges with this new UK fleet
-Bomber maybe SBR or moved to Russia to slow down Japan juggernaut, it can always come back from there to help take out the rest of German fleet when the time comes.

USA2
-East Coast should have 2figs now if the West coast fig moved there, this figs move to UK carrier and all surviviving USA Navy consolidate on sz8, where plans for D-Day can begin.
-BB and trans moved to East coast
-Buy 2trans 2inf 2arm, 8ipc save or 1sub

What do you think of this? I have always thought the merging of med fleet and baltic is fools job, it the Allies know what they are doing. Egypt is in firm control of allies, because of India fleet and troops moving there, with those inf and 1fig they can take africa to UK, to replace loss of India to Japan. Germans have lost a lot of planes in taking out UK fleet, weakening their power greatly and the soviet front looks very good for allies who have after turn 2. 1UK trans and 2USA trans ready to sail where they want them, most likely to Norway where they will disrupt the german armies marching towards moscow. 1BB 2trans 1sub is ready to sail from east coast to threaten the Baltic fleet and 3-4 figs + 1-2 bombers will be the Force that takes it down and the Germans don’t have much choice in that.

I can explain this hand to hand if you don’t understand, but you should from this long post. Do you play with national advantages? We always play with 1random advantage, only rule that we have changed is that USA don’t get Super Bombers, if USA player rolls number 6, he can choose the advantage from the last 5.

My point was that you don’t move from baltic sea. I have always bought AC for germans, from my second time playing as germans when I noticed from Japan side how powerful tool it was. And I have played from the moment this game hit the stores  :-D

My whole game German Naval purchase if I am going for Moscow finish is
-AC
-1Dest
-1-2 Trans

Destroyer I buy because the mediterran fleet is very easy to sink with planes, if you only have BB to shield it.

If I were thinking from moving from baltic sea I would maybe do something like this. Turn 1 I would move to free Anglo-Egypt, with BB and 1trans and taking the UK destroyer down, after that I would move back. And on Turn 3 I would try linking the fleets, you can watch turn 1 what UK will do and USA, where they buy their first purchases and after that decide what to do + turn 2 you still have time to equip your baltic fleet with maybe 1sub/trans and destroyer to give it more survivability and if they make mistake on turn 2 transports + planes to attack UK you will have and after linking your fleet you would have 3 transports, which will make it Turn 3 UK must attack or fear of losing UK  :wink:

You must decide is it worth destroying one of those stacks totally and moving your army there, to take the hitting from german 2nd stack or you could again try doing hit and run and keeping your center really strong.

If the soviets manage to succeed really well in it’s first attack and destroys all inf + art and maybe some tanks. The soviet tactic really on inflicting a lot of damage on it’s first real test and that is when the germans decide to start their push to moscow. The belorussian stack tactic is really good, but soviets must gather offensive power in their first 2 rounds. So that they can attack, inf only is good for getting hits, but you really don’t do damage in defence that well and that is why the soviets must attack first.

Belorussia is the center where you always get the chance to attack first. If germans are building their own 1 stack army tactic, you must from the very first turns begin preparing for it. So offensive power, more and more for soviets. Inf only isn’t the only option for soviets, but you must play wisely and defensively. And USA and UK must help with moving more and more planes to your side, the germans will crack like a nut, when soviets starts to have 3 Bombers 6+ fighters. Their offensive power after that is almost equal to Germans + they have the advantage on defence keeping their fighters on offensive and in defence to maximum effect.

Nice rush for germans to decide the game, don’t know how well would work, but that would be very good idea to try to decide the game. Don’t sacrifice your planes on hitting the allied fleet, it’s not worth it if you are rushing for a win, you need all the aircraft you have left to defend germany and hit the russians more powerfully.

Optional choice.

1st turn UK destroyer buy, would slow germans or make them lose more material to go to sz7.

-Soviet Sub block baltic fleet in sz6
-UK dest block france coast sz9 or what was it’s number
-US transport or Dest block med fleet.
-Rest of US and UK navy sits in sz8

This setup don’t prevent them from linking, but it takes a lot more planes to accomplish the task to unite in g2 to sz7, with good luck you might take 1-2 german planes down. I would trade those any time, or if he uses his subs to take the hits. His fleet in sz7 is a lot smaller in how many hits it can take.

@88:

Ultimately, in my opinion, there’s a trade off for trying to unite Germany’s navy. In my experience, if I saw my opponent doing it, I’d feel pretty good about my chances, as the Allies will win the naval battle 99 out of 100 times.

I would counter it by uniting in SZ8, with no blockers. Just play defense until supremacy was gained. It wouldn’t be long. If Germany moved its united fleet back to the Baltic, it’s trapped, into the Med, it’s trapped as well. In the meantime Africa’s looking pretty beige, which means that the usual Allied effort to retake Africa was unnecessary, freeing up IPCs for shiphunting.

Anyhow- if you guys are using bids let me know, because I’ll take it all back. If an Infantry is placed in Libya, and an Armor in Algeria, then by all means consolidate your BB, Tranny, and sub. If you can unite your navy from there, it’s not a bad move. But without the bid I see it as a killer.

I agree with 88 Millimeter on this, you would almost 8/10 times sacrifice your whole german fleet to allies on turn 3 or 4? And what did that buy you? You don’t fight for africa so easily, you save norway for maybe 1-2 turns without having to counterattack it back.

The Allies would be breathing very hard on your neck from turn 3 or 4 and gaining strength every turn. I don’t see how letting the allies gain free reign on seas would help you, yes you might destroy a lot of material from allies, but because of no africa operation, UK would be still getting 25-27ipc.

This tactic involves so many risks, that is why I wouldn’t try this and strongly flame this tactic  8-), unless I were thinking of giving me option to try operation sea lion. Sitting in Baltic takes a lot of time from UK to destroy you and usually he will sacrifice his whole fleet to destroy you. And this will most likely happen in turn 4-5 and you would still be in med sea with your bb + tranny + if you really want to destroy soviets you would buy maybe 1dst 1tran. You would gain the ipc that you lose from norway in Africa and usually you can take norway back from the allies if you want.

One more thing why I don’t like this tactic. It only buys time for germans and most likely get’s them bottled up more quickly. And from reading ncscswitch post, this only gives little more time for germans to try steamrolling alone the soviets, which is doomed if the soviet player knows how to slow down germany… Japan would twiddle his thumbs while the germans make the decision to lose the game or with luck win the game :-D.

Last weekend we tried with my friends KJF tactic. UK IC in india, USA IC in sinkiang, this totally blocked the Japan expansion and secured the eastern flank for soviets. This is a really powerful option for Allies, but risky in the 2-3 turns when japans try either IC to take control of it.

I just have to point out 1 thing, that I just can’t understand how u can’t see it.

1. Baltic fleet will be bottled up, by soviet sub, so no rushing to sz7. Even if the germans destroy the soviet sub, U should place 1 uk trans to block them or put one destroyer to block.
2. Med fleet is bottled up by USA destroyer, so no rushing to sz7.
3. After saying these blockers, how in the hell do u think that german navy will survive to med to link up with 1BB 1Tran and them staying alive to link with baltic fleet?? Even if that is left alive.

If USA plays wisely it will buy Offensive fleet on it’s 1st turn. And places it to atlantic to prevent the combining german fleets move. Now if the germans hold them back, no problem. You have now very strong USA and UK navy to move out. USA moves in force to liberate med and Africa or alternately it can move it’s AC to Pacific to gather strength against Japan (Mostly slow down Japan).

Now if you really want to know why the German Aircraft Carrier is bought.

1. You will keep baltic movement on, so u can contest norway and move inf to karelia quickly and have very strong navy in position that is very expensive for UK to destroy and they will be limited in their movements. Why contest norway you ask? It slows the build up for UK, they buy navy expensive, they lose ground troops fighting for norway expensive for UK, after they start losing IPC, from SBR + their IPC countries for Japan and Germany + Fighting for Africa eats IPC.
2. You have AF now in position strike UK navy that moves reinforcements to karelia or archangel.
3. UK will be really limited in thinking of attacking to france, so you are free on your operations to Africa and against Russia. If UK navy  moves too closely to your navy, U strike with it + All Airfleets. With luck you will be left with strong navy to move back and UK will be very badly crippled.
4. Because of your ability to counter-attack them when they start D-Day, they must first gather strength to destroy your baltic fleet.
5. You have small chance of even making Operation Sealion (Attack on UK), if they play badly.

There are couple of very bad moves from German and Allies.
1. Germany never allows UK to move their fleet to med from india and never allows them to have a fully decked carrier there.
2. Allies never allow Germany to link their baltic and med fleet together, if germany rushes trying it, Turn 2 or Turn 3 is the day that fleet will sink to the bottom of the ocean from full UK navy and USA navy + AF’s attacks.
3. If Allies combine their efforts to bring germany down, Germany must go to full defence and keep harassing soviets and wait for Japan.

Ps. Really think about it, German navy will never combine, if the allies just think what they are doing. And trying to combine the navy with Germany is sure suicide, 1st no operation in Africa, UK navy shows up in med - very bad for germany.

Hmm very strange tactic you have there, very strange.

I don’t know what u think with russia 1st turn buy. But I have always thought that russia 1st turn buy is when you equip yourself for counterattack on german advance. Let me show u what i would do on my 1st turn.

Purchase
1fig
2arm
1art

Combat moves
6 inf 1art 2fig 1arm to west russia (Optional boost with 2 from karelia)
3inf 1art 3arm to ukraine (You don’t want to conquer it, you just hit those infranty and maybe with luck 1art away from there, I have seen sometimes that only 1fig is left on ukraine. So hit-and-run tactic)
Optional Combat move
Karelia 3inf 1fig to belorussia (This is really risking, but if this succeeds and u knock out 3 german inf, you are in very good options then)

The main points are taking west russia strongly and weakening ukraine stack. Optional pushing your 1st turn german inf kill tactic is to try to take belorussia.

Non-Combat

2inf to caucasus
2inf to moscow
1 is left to karelia to prevent bliz

New troops
Everything is placed to caucasus, so there should be 2-5 inf(How many u lost on attacking ukraine)2art 5arm 3fig, very strong defence if the germans think they will try to push, they will be really hard pressing trying to take caucasus down and it will cost them as much as you.

West Russia u should have 6-8 (how many u lose taking it) 1art 1arm, quite strong, but this team might get attacked by germany, but with the amount of inf they have lost they will most likely get 3-4 inf 1art 3arm + planes they think they can spare. Ok they can kill you, but they will lose a lot of material on this attack + Germany always have better options for their planes and if they take planes against your stack they lose something from elsewhere.  Next turn u counterattack west russia very strongly and ukraine (with 1-2 inf  depending how many there are german troops + 1-2 planes)
Now many think that u are pushing the soviets too hard with this, but this really buys 1 turn more, now germany is very weak in the amount of inf it has. It has options to attack caucasus or west russia, but at really great risk of failing their game. Germany can’t rush things.

Next turn all inf or little balancing 1art or 1arm if u can.

If u do these things i don’t know how with ncscswitch tactic would work. His 1st turn would decide his fate, try to end the game early by using his planes on russia and if it goes wrong germany would fall or do the normal plane moves and leave russia alone and consolidate his power on eastern front. Anyway these tactic usually leaves soviets in a very strong situation.

Tip of the day. Try to keep frontier defence, on soviet turn 2, u should be able to take ukraine with same amount of inf as the germany has there and 2 planes if 1-2 only german inf there. Same is belorussia, but karelia is left to the germans, if he pushes far and takes archangel with a tank, 1-2 inf + 1 plane should take care of it.

I don’t see any problems with soviets, but the first turn what you do is really important, that really decides the game. Don’t leave any german inf alive and u will have to worry about real german push from turn 3 at most.

As for UK. Game end move if that tactic is used by the germans. 1AC+2figs 1Tran 1Dest move to mediterranean. This will gain u really strong navy there and if the germans don’t move back to block u, have the soft underbelly of germany to harass very freely. If I play germany I really won’t leave that option to UK. And Trans-Jordania would have the counterattack troops ready so 5inf 1arm. And turn 1 purchase for UK IS ALWAYS IC!!! To Africa, and if u really want to risk it, buying it to anglo-egypt might really make it hard for germany. 5inf 1arm 2fig defending it, will be really hard to take out, but with this tactic u won’t move your navy to mediterraen on 1st turn and because of that i really don’t recommend this germany would come 3inf 1art 2arm + planes to take u out.

As for combining the german navy? WTF? Why would Allies allow that? UK 1IC 1Dest 1inf, IC is placed to South Africa to hold germany and japan away from there and keeping their income alive. U keep your navy alive beside Greenland so 1bb 1dest 2trans.
Soviet sub will block the baltic german navy, and USA 2 options block with 1 dest, the mediterraenan navy to bottle it up. (Trans are too important to lose at this time) USA Purchase 1AC 2Dest and place them to USA Coast, this navy will be enough to hold the germany at bay. The most important thing for allies, NEVER EVER ALLOW THE GERMAN FLEET TO COMBINE, that is the most idiotic thing that u can do, use all your power to no let them combine on turn 2 and on turn 2 of UK and USA u destroy one or the other navy, leave baltic navy alone if it stays put, but if tries to break away Hit it with everything u got, German fleet 1tran, 2sub, 1dest, 1AC 2figs 7 HITS, U will attack with 1BB 1Dest 2Trans 2figs 1Bomb. 8 HITS (Count the BB soaking ability) u have the advantage on better dices, but less amount max HITS u can inflict, but u must check the first round if it goes badly or u inflict very bad damage, don’t necessarily lose your BB or figs, bomber isn’t that important to UK fighters are. Retreat and boost the navy with new fleets. Now if the German navy is totally crippled try finishing it with USA 1fig 1Bomb from UK, should do the trick, but if it really is crippled only then sacrifice USA planes, USA Turn 2 will see 1AC+2figs 2Dest 2trans sitting on sea zone 8 and with the UK navy, germany don’t have any chance of taking it out. And they will have lost their navy totally now. This tactic is the easiest and sure win for allies against germany, if they will try to combine their navy. But 1 thing is sure, Germany can never combine their fleet on turn 2, allies have to play really badly if they let it happen.

Ps. Sorry for long post, sometimes i just can’t understand these posts, when they are so easily blocked and in my gaming group that tactic is sure loss for germany. Germany needs to keep it strong and wait for japanese to push forward on soviets. U keep russia a neutral fighting for ukraine, west russia, archangel. Keep him losing losing inf and u move forward your meat wall and keep you going elsewhere. But for germany never ever allow UK to move to mediterraen and leaving it with 1AC+2figs, 1tran, 1dest. This fleet is living hell to take out with 1BB 1trans and planes. It will be death of german fleet on mediterraen and u might even lose important planes too. Never allow this to happen. 'Nuff said. -WW2 Tactician from Finland

That tactic can work, but if the soviet player knows what he is doing and the dices are rolling at least averagely for him. He should win that contest.

First retreat all to belorussia, but the frontier infranty 1 on each to stop bliz and prevent him from stacking his army + planes on same location. You should buy on your 1-2 turns 1-2 tanks, 1arty and inf to gather offence power. On the 3rd turn only infranty. When the german player moves to baltic states/east poland. You hit him with everything you got. You should atleast have in this attack already 4 fighters and 2-3 bombers (British air force and usa air force) + if you bought in those first 2 turns 4 tanks you had 9 tanks atleast and some artillery + hell of a lot of infranty.

But you must attack the german stack, the germans attack is so much more powerful than they defend and that is your salvation, you don’t have to win the baltic/east poland territory back, just kill at least all of his inf and artillery away + some tanks, then retreat back to belorussia.

If things go as they usually should you should at least have destroyed his tank fodder away (inf/art). From moscow or where you bought the new reserve infranty should move down to reinforce your belorussia stack. And with 4 fighters your defence isn’t bad at all after the attack.

Hit and run tactics for russia will make it really hard for german to conquer it. But as usually if people play with these only 1 huge stack of troops and move forward style, it comes to those 1-2 great battles where the amount of dice rolled comes to decide. If one rolls very badly below average hits and one makes on that turn very lucky roll, it decides the game :)

My opinion if you really look at the game, russia is very powerful. Gaining 30 ipc a turn, because of oil money + gaining new airplanes from allied troops, russia has usually the amount it can take hits 2x or more than germans and that means it can take more hits + it has the advantage of being able to attack first to make use of it’s offensive equipment tanks + planes.

Back to this strategy, it comes down to those 1-2 big battles and the rolling of dices, but playing wisely with russia, they usually has the advantage on that. I at least haven’t got much luck with this strategy. It’s better to try 2 or 3* front assault one being from finland (norway + fin troops + additional troops with that one transport). I usually if the dices favor little me, win with these tactic divide and conquer tactic. :)