Posts made by Uncle_Joe

We had an Allied win a few days ago.

I posted about it in another thread but I dont remember which one now. :/

But the long and short was that Japan was too conservative early on, tried to make up it for later in the game with a few gambles, and was defeated somewhat piecemeal as a result.

It’s very hard to discuss individual strategies as the Allies as so much depends on when Japan attacks. The game is RADICALLY different between J1 and J3 attacks.

I still feel that a J3 Japanese attack is the most effective, but that may change if the Brits spend all of their money on ground forces. J3 might be too late since it allows the Brits to collect 37 IPCs one turn and if it all go into the ground forces, Japan might run out of steam before taking India/Burma and finishing China completely.

So, FWIW, as the Allies I advocate Britain spending all of her money on ground troops while trying to occupy as much of the DEI as Japan allows. The US needs to concentrate down near Australia (if Japan allows) or else be prepared to move to the Solomons to start the war from there. If that is the case, the Aussies can support the US by building a naval base wherever the US needs for the mobility.

We learned some mistakes not to make with Japan in the last game and I think Japan will be very tough indeed if she presses her early advantage almost exclusively against the Brits and Chinese.

Yeah, but it seems that sharing strats and ideas around here gets your karma smited… ;p

I find it amusing that anyone who advances the opinion of Japan being too powerful has quite the negative karma by now.

yeah…it’s 7-0 japan in our games to date

We had our first Allied win yesterday. The Japanese player was too conservative early on and then split up his fleet later on and lost too much of it piecemeal. Allied play wasnt perfect either, but even with admitted Japanese mistakes it seemed VERY hard for the Allies.

Still, we learned some things as the Allies that we hope to exploit the next game when Japan doesnt make the same mistakes… :)

I think China is a trade off. Japan has the capacity to crush China with little trouble, but in order to do so she has to forgo hitting the rest of the Allies early in the game with her full power. On the other hand, if Japan wants to prevent the Brits from making all that extra money in the DEI, then China will likely be a bigger pain in the neck as Brit forces will be able to fight the Japanese simultaneously.

All in all, this makes me feel that there is no forgiveness for mistakes in AAP40.

Yep, this was exactly the observation one of my friends made: “It’s very hard to win this game in a single turn, but it sure is easy to lose it in single move”. :)

My guess is that that is mostly due to the immense cost of the forces involved. If you lost a handful of planes and expensive ships in a single battle there is no way you’ll be able to replace them in any reasonable amount of time.

Ok, great. Thanks for the answer!

So this situation had the possibility to come up in the game we were playing today:

The US controls Midway (with an Airbase) and has 2 Fighters present. There is a US sub present in the Midway sea zone as well.

Japan attacks the sea zone with 2 Fighters of her own and a DD in an attempt to kill the US sub. The US player ‘scrambles’ the Fighters into the sea zone to defend the sub.

The Japanese player hits once with a Fighter and the US player picks the sub for a casualty.

Ok, now for the question:

The US player fires back and scores one hit with a Fighter and one hit with the Sub.

In what order does the Japanese player have to take the hits? Can he apply the US Fighter ‘hit’ to his DD and then ignore the Sub’s hit (since the remaining planes cannot be hit by subs)? I can see the argument there because nothing says he cant apply the Fighter’s hit first which would leave no valid target for the Sub’s hit.

I would hope that the hits have to be applied so as to satisfy as many as possible, but I can see the ‘grey area’ in the rules concerning something like this.

Any official thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance!

on a related note, I certanly hope the UK is one territory in Europe 1940. So they can scramble to protect it just as japan does

That would mean that Britain could only touch one sea zone (unless they want to make an exception rule) and would almost completely rule out any possibility of a German naval attack or Sea Lion attack.

It would probably make it too easy to build up and invasion force to clobber Germany since the US can just stack up planes in England and they can defend the entire Brit fleet as well.

Not sure I’d like that…

I think they are completely worth it. It’s harder to get 4’s on the attack now in my experience. BBs are weaker than ever without the auto-healing and Bombers are extremely limited by range on that bigger map. This leaves CV-type aircraft and if you want those 4’s, it means Tac Air. We tend to keep our airgroups as 1 Fighter and 1 Tac unless we KNOW the CV is only intended for defensive work. Even there it’s handy to have Tac around to play the trade-off games with the CV and get maximum firepower.

Regardless, when attacking, Tac Air provides 33% more firepower than simply adding another Fighter. Sure, on defense it’s a bit weaker but I like to have more firepower when I am deciding on the combat more than when my opponent is calling the shots (ie, attack vs defense).

I think they are pretty much correct. It’s harder to get offensive firepower than defensive and that means you pay a tad more for the Tac.

I voted ‘dont know for sure yet’ but I definitely see how it is a radical change from earlier A&As and will take some time to adjust to. But even as powerful as it is, it certainly doesnt replace having a navy at all. You still need to get boots on the ground to win IMO. And that requires navy OR a string of ‘island hopping’ bases with airfields (which I have no problem with).

One thing I really like about the way it works now is that you can move smaller elements of ships around to islands which are protected by friendly land-based air. For example, if I want to reinforce Truk as Japan, I can often do it with just a TR or two and a small escort force (maybe a DD and/or a CA) and trust that my planes on Truk will protect against all but the most powerful attacks. To me that allows for more strategy and more freedom of movement.

I think the trick is simply going to be to threaten the enemy in more places than he can afford to heavily commit land-based air. Pick away at the edges and use subs to force enemy ships to come out to play.

The only place I’m not really caring for the airbases is the Japanese home waters. I dont like that a handful of planes on Japan can easily protect that entire giant seazone. It means that the Japanese player can effectively ignore defending that area since 4-6 planes laying around Japan (not a huge commitment for Japan by J3 or J4) can easily hop out to defend any new purchases. One of the dynamics I REALLY liked in AA50 was that you had to protect your home ports if you didnt want the enemy to be able to kill fresh builds piecemeal. For Japan, that quandry is largely gone and I think it is one of the things that is currently making Japan feel so powerful. She can safely mass up her fleet anywhere she wants without much thought given to defense.

The second thing I figured into the political rules is if Japan is going to attack on J3 anyway, there is no reason for the UK forces to wait past UK2 for their attack.  Just as Japan has nothing to lose attacking on J3, the UK forces have nothing to lose attacking on UK2.  The US will be “in the war” on the same timeline anyway, with or without a UK2 attack, so go ahead and take the initiative.  For this reason, some positions the UK take in UK1 may inspire the Japanese to move on J2 instead of J3.  This sort of turns history on its ear, but a game like this can’t force history to repeat or it wouldn’t be a game.

Not quite. I thought the same thing but there is one important difference. Japan can retaliate against the UK on J3 and the US still cannot do anything to Japan on US3. It’s an important distinction. It basically gives Japan one ‘free’ turn to pound the Brits without having to worry about the US attacking them anywhere.

I keep seeing folks mention the UK and ANZAC bonus earlier than I would expect.  The UK has to occupy four islands (Sumatra, Celebes, Borneo and Java) before getting this bonus, right?  They can’t do that with 4 infantry and two Trn in a single turn can they?  Or am I mistakenly applying rules from earlier editions of A&A that say Trns have to end their movement in a SZ when they unload?  This same thing goes for ANZAC.  They just don’t have enough stuff to earn their bonus in the first turn, right?

No, the Brits will only collect one bonus on UK1 (assuming no J1 attack). On UK2, they can have all the islands and get their 2nd bonus as well for a total of 37 I believe. Anzac will get their bonus on turn 2 assuming they arent attacked as well.

When first playing the Japanese I did not want either of those two to happen so I attacked on J2 to prevent it. In later games, we havent worried about the Allies collectiing those bonuses if it meant that Japan was in position to land a heavier blow and J3 and that the Chinese were all but extinct.

Regarding the US planes getting away …  Where are they going to go?  Guam?  They can only land in US controlled areas.  I was trying to solve the problem the other way.  Is there any way I can reinforce the PI before Japan jumps me?  I can’t find a way.

You can reinforce PI if you have the 2 turns of peace with Japan. I’m not sold on it being viable though. I am torn between an early Allied strat of making ‘toothbreakers’ in various places (say PI and maybe on of the DEI with Brit troops and planes) and simply massing up for a counter-attack instead.

In any case, you can’t reinforce PI if Japan jumps on J1, but my experience so far has been that a J1 attack is a much less lethal attack and Japan will be pretty spread out for some time trying to secure the proper territories. As Japan I’ll shoot for J3 unless I see too many opportunities on the board to be able to resist a J2 attack. As the US, I’m leaning towards having a fleet pre-positions of the Solomons or New Guinea, preferably with a Kiwi Naval Base present (unlikely, but possible).

but then UK gets + 8 (east indies) and bonus, battleship gets away, so does phillipine Bomber and fighter and US get bonus from it

In my experience, so what? Britain earns 37 IPCs for max’ing out and it still has yet to matter. Once Japan DOES declare war, that tends to drop to single-digits and from there it’s just a matter of time for the Brits. The Brit BB is meaningless. It can’t get anywhere that makes a difference from what I can see. And the US making 22 instead of 17 is hardly a matter of concern either.

Personally I think Japan’s best move it to wait until J3 for the ‘big attack’ and spend the first 2 turns killing the Chinese with minimal losses (ie, commit obscene amounts of airpower) as well as getting all the pieces in place for a devastating first assault on the Allies. That means you need a few more TRs and probably some additional ground forces as well. Get the TRs in position to take at least 3 of the DEI islands and PI on J3. Everything else you have set up will depend on the Allied response and build but my experience has been that Aussies wont be a threat even with 15/turn and if the Brits build anything but ground forces they will lose it all to little gain in the face of overwhelming Japanese firepower.

Yep, I agree that’s too early to tell. The first step would be to identify IF a problem actually exists before it would be possible to start to define a solution.

That said, my initial inclination would be to limit the number of aircraft that can ‘scramble’ to 3 minus 1 per damage. But even that I would not want to implement until I feel we’ve exhausted Allied options to winning.

Yep, that is the same basic Japanese strategy we are executing at the moment. But you said that taking one of those last 3 VCs is a tall order but there I’ll disagree. Yes, it might take some turns of just sitting and building up, but the issue should not be in doubt by that point. Once Japan has secured Asia she will be making 75 IPCs or so a turn. The US will likely be making 55 and Anzac 10-15. That, coupled with the better positioning and coordination for Japan (and likely more surviving forces on the board) mean that the game is probably effectively over once China is dead and India falls.

A few answers that I’ve seen already:

1. The set-up says Palau for Japan, is this the same as Paulau Island? I assumed it was one and the same.

Yes, the same.

3. If the UK attacks Japan before the USA and Japan are at war, can Japan retaliate against the UK without provoking a war with USA?

Yep, and note that the FAQ disallows the USA to enter territories of other Allied (but neutral) powers. So the US cant be sitting in Australia or Hong Kong etc.

@Uncle Joe:

This is supposed to be a stand alone game.  So waiting for Europe to come out in 6 months to make this game work is BS.  This could be someone’s first AA game and like it or not if we want games to keep coming out in this genre we need new blood.  If this is their first, it could very well be their last due to the broken nature of the game.  $90.  $90 dollars for a board game it should work.  There shouldn’t be pages of omissions from the rule book, “wrong inserts” included, TYPOS galore, and boxes half full of plastic pieces to put on a shoddy quality board.

Oh trust me, I’m with ya 100% on that. But in playing I just couldnt help but notice all of the things that would be different in the global game. I’m just not sure how it’s all going to work…

Maybe I should hurry up and paint the tails of some of my spare Japanese fighters red now, so we have enough Japanese TAC air (we used the Italian fighters last game day).

We are using spare Russian fighters from an A&AE edition. Our convention is Russian fighters are Tac Air for the IJA and we use the Vals for the Tac Air for the IJN. It works out pretty well. :)

Yep, I’m with Vareel on this. Any smart Japanese player is not going to come out to play without overwhelming force unless you are doing something to threaten significant damage to his econ. The only place where I think that is a possibility is the DEI. And it will require TRs and troops or else the Japanese player just wont care.

I think CVs are definitely a necessity for defending your fleets though. There really isnt another combo that is as versatile for the money. 36 IPCs buys you 4 hits and 2 4s and a 2 on defensive rolls. It also allows you to support land targets and to play games with the aircraft ranges from bases to magnify offensive firepower.

why waith as japan?
everybody in the lobby wants to waith, nobody sees that a J1 attack does allot more damage than waithing can do?

Currently, I think it makes sense to wait with Japan. Spend all of your initial time and combat power and annihilate the Chinese while setting up to land a deathblow to Britain when you kick off the war. Even giving Britain all of her money for those initial turns will likely do nothing but provide a higher kill total for Japanese forces later on. The exception MIGHT be if Britain spends all of that money on ground forces and just hunkers down. That is our next strategy to explore but regardless there is no way the Brits can survive a few turns of the Japanese expending maximum effort.

So, the primary reason to wait is to pick apart the Allies piecemeal. Waiting lets you kill the Chinese while setting up to kill the Brits. China should in her death throes just in time to switch focus to the Brits. With any luck the Brits should dying just about the time the US is becoming a threat so that gives Japan time to redeploy to meet that threat. By that time Japan’s econ should be well in hand the game should just be a matter of time.

How did you get NSW on J1? I dont have the game in front of me but I dont think anything can even get there in one turn let alone be able to attack effectively. IIRC, Japan has only 1 Inf in the Carolines and clearly nothing else could be in range.

Are you playing an an alternate set up or something or am I just mis-remembering the map/set up?