Topics created by thespaceman

@Ichabod:

Max Moscow purchases until the Allies prove that it will be defended G6. Than at that point defend and go for the economic victory.

And if the Allies are dropping enough into Moscow to keep it, Japan should be absolutely owning the Pacific and bringing in 70+ ipcs.

Holding Yunnan prevents the war in China from being an endless whack-a-mole situation. Capturing Yunan also allows you to send fighter escort when strategic bombing the factory in India.

The design of the map makes Yunnan a territory that is easy to reach from many allied areas, the problem for the allies being that Japan has the initiative to prevent China from fortifying. Japan typically loses Yunan t1 but has the opportunity as already mentioned to take out the Chinese fighter and main stack the following turn

@simon33:

UK taking Norway if it doesn’t hold it for a turn doesn’t rob Germany of any income.

If Norway is empty and the British ships are safe and have nothing better to do, I’d still take it with 1 inf. It’s worth 3 which already pays for an inf that probably wasn’t doing much in the UK anyway and now has a 1 in 3 chance of killing an enemy unit when attacked. Also, Germany will want it back so they will send at least 2 ground units which won’t be going east, and they need to protect their transports in SZ 113 from UK-based Allied bombers, or maybe even tacs/fighters if the UK has a CV.
And once Germany has retaken it, why not try again and kill those units on the next UK turn and force them to invest again to keep Norway.

If you can convoy japan and take korea directly… that is always a good thing… but that rarely works out because of naval bases and airbases, usually it is best to attack the money islands (easier and more reliable) from ANZAC you can hit everything you need to. You start with two transports in the pacific, I recommend buying your naval pieces round 1 and maybe getting a transport round 2 (you start with infantry on the mainland so you don’t need to buy that until after 2 or 3 more boats).

I agree with Simon about the use of US transports in the Pacific. You wipe out the Japanese navy and take back the islands and the mainland. Shuck your troops to Europe and take out Germany and Italy. Japan will be forced to surrender. You know, just like WW2. Unless the Japanese player has been smoking crack you will spend all day assaulting Tokyo while Germany makes mincemeat out of Russia and the UK.

@WILD:

@weddingsinger:

I usually play as Axis, but in the past the worst problem for me is if the U.S. can gather its starting assets together, maybe a US1 buy, too, all of Japan’s starting isn’t enough to fend it off, so you either have to abandon SZ6, or overspend to keep up, which leaves the money islands vulnerable.

Its why, as Japan, I now prefer J1 and taking out Hawaii and Philippines.  At most you lose a sub, putting the U.S. behind for a change while your other assets shield your transports from the weak Anzac fleet.

I agree, but as discussed I generally do a hit and run on the Hawaiian fleet, and end up at Wake with about 1/2 the IJN. I typically lose a sub and dd in the sz26 battle, and also my dd blocker left in sz26 in the US counter attack for a total of 3 ships (1ss, and 2 dds). I still think it is well worth doing though. Hitting both sz26, and sz35 will kill off 47 IPCs worth of US navy, plus the Phil ftr making it 57 IPCs in navy/air. That is more then the spending allowance of the US in the first turn (52 IPCs). These are units that would get away in a J2 or later attack in most cases. Then add the Brit BB and territorial gains and yea it is a pretty damn strong opening move.

Sucker punching the US in the face causes some issues for them, and they will be torn on what side to build on. If they go Pac they are way behind so can’t challenge the Japanese for several turns. They would need to spend most of their income in the Pac for 2-3 turns just to get to even par w/Japan (and the Germans will love it). Yea they can probably send the home fleet up to Hawaii on the first turn as long as the Anz backs them up, but they really can’t do anything once they get there. Maybe move to the safety of Queensland and wait for their supply chain to catch up. The Japanese can just hop scotch to Caroline’s then probably to Philippines where they set up a defensive posture (maybe merging some more of the Imperial navy/air force).

I don’t see the US sending the home fleet over to Europe (something they do on occasion), because then there is no chance in the Pac. So if they want to go Europe they pretty much have to start from scratch because they only have a cruiser and transport. So going Europe means the Japanese don’t have to worry for a long time.

Oh BTW if you really want to F with the US have the Germans hit the US 101 mini fleet G1 with a sub (when you know there will be a J1 attack). If you get lucky the cruiser may not even get to fire, and the transport sinks too.

Very nice idea, will try it out as Axis this year

As Japan, I normally J2 DOW but take FIC J1. This generally is good enough to take down Calcutta and normally keep it down. I also mostly ignore China until I have India, except Anwhe, Kweichow, Hunan and Yunnan.

I totally agree about the mutual annihilation attack being bad for Japan. Then the ANZAC can keep a fleet alive.

Ok Thanks for feedback,

So as far as German Fleet goes,

T1 Collect fleet in sz 112
T2 Hit Gibraltar (+ remaining subs for ablative wounds)
T3 Hit Frenchies
T4 Start shucking to NW Africa.

This means no BB for sz 110 battle T1, So will send in more planes.

Italian Fleet
T1 Hit Greece
T2 Hit Egypt/Syria or Shuck to Tobruk to reinforce
T3 Merge with German fleet.
T4 Shuck more to Tobruk or wherever

Turn 3-4 Germans/ Italians can start to build up a few more destroyers/Subs etc to protect.

The main idea is that with the majority of early purchases focusing on land units for Russia, the fleets will survive longer in the Med as a combined unit than separate targets. The extra support from the Germans will help to secure Italy’s NOs for longer (Unless UK/USA go all out )

This is just a distraction however while the ITA/GER blitz moves east to secure caucasus /persia. After that the Axis can start mobilising more troops/ships to defend the West.

This plan doesn’t ignore Japan, that’s a compete foolish move in my opinion. I just build bombers enough to keep Germany annoyed while maintaining a Pacific Fleet. As I said before, I build a 1:1 build against Japan and make sure Hawaii doesn’t get captured.

The axis can/should have Egypt G2.
Allies can/should build atlantic navy to land in Africa UK2/US2 (operation Torch)
marching east to threaten Egypt counter attack on UK4 (aggressive), more likely on UK5.

This gives some major IPCs to the European Axis and out of UK’s hands, with not too many resources to do so.  What happens round 5 will decide who ‘wins’ the African dollars.

Personally, I prefer to be in a better strategic position, forgoing some economic gains to ensuring that my units are achieving the game winning moves that are needed.

It is very hard for the allies to be everywhere, so they usually focus on Germany.  In this sense, both the Germanys and Italians need some quick and early money to help build up enough units to keep the Russians at bay, and the western allies from consuming units in France.  Japan will eventually get her IPCs and unit count up high enough that the Russians will most likely not be able to stop them.

Yes, having more money can be good, but not necessarily the main focus to win the game.

Japan, of all the countries, has the most opportunities, units to take advantage of these opportunities, and time to attempt them.  These moves might cost them some of their planes, but those are expendable(start with NINE!) to further expansion as well as most easily replaced due to their range and relative low cost.

By mentioning time, Japan is isolated enough to be able to recover if their opening round attacks go poorly.

J1 Buy = 2 tpt, inf = 17/17

Combat:
2 inf (sz61) via sz61 tpt > brn *MT

CA,BB (sz61) > sz50 (dd, tpt)

inf (car) inf(oki) via sz51 tpt
2 inf (jap) via sz 62 tpt

3 inf, art (sz61) via sz61 tpts > bur (inf)

2 ftr (sz61) > sz35 (dd,tpt)
2 ftr (sz57) > sz56 (dd,tpt)
2 ftr (sz57), dd (sz51) > sz53 (BB)

However you want to attack China on the ground.  This is not the strongest push, but also not the weakest.
3 inf (man), inf (kia) > Sui (inf)
2 inf (kia), ftr (jap) > fuk (inf)
3 inf (fic),  ftr (for), ftr (man) > yun (inf,ftr)

Fleetwood Dan: I absolutely agree, stacking Karelia on G1 can be a watershed moment for Germany, even a game-winner if it holds for the long run.  By the way, if suicidal British are a danger in the first round, you can always NCM a sub to SZ 3 to take that out of the equation.  In my mind, it’s well worth the loss of the sub and the reduced defense in SZ 5.  Long term is trickier, especially if you’re trying to hold it while also ramping up your defense in Western Europe; I’ve seen some very, very good players abandon Western Europe in order to hold onto the Karelia stack (and done it myself a few times).

In answer to the original post: It’s not too unusual to see the Axis equalizing the income by round 2-3, however, it’s often for a fleeting moment because the Allies can recapture Africa and may start to make gains in Europe.  Sometimes you can make a second income surge in round 5 or so, due to Japan hitting 50+ income while Germany holds the line at 35ish (assuming KGF, of course).

One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that comparing the incomes at any one point in time isn’t the best way to assess the economic balance, because any territories that are getting constantly traded will only be counted for whoever owns them at the moment.  (So if you compare after your team’s turn, things will look better than they are, and if you compare after an opponent’s turn they’ll look worse.)  A more accurate index is to compare the total amount of money collected on each side over the last 5 turns.  That may sound tedious to add up, but since people generally don’t save too much, you can get a good estimate by comparing the cash on hand (unless there are a lot of SBR’s going on).

I prefer a J1 build of trn / inf without an IC.  I think it actually allows you to get more onto asia sooner than a J1 IC does, as well as giving you more flexibility with what you can do with the build.  I think there are some old posts around here about this build…