Posts made by Xayd74

@MaherC:

I’d really like to see how any of it matters.  I’ve never seen an allied victory, and once india falls, the japs can MATCH any buy the allies make.  on a long enough timeline, the japs win.  On a J1 attack, the US has one LC on the board that can make it to SZ6 on turn 3.  add turns for subsequent LCs.  the “starve the japs out” plan with subs works if the Japanese player doesn’t just buy destroyers and scramble fighters off japan.  you can’t nickle and dime them off the DEIs if he knows where to put his fleet.

you guys get all hung up on the carolines, I’ve never seen a Jap player KEEP them.   Airbase/navy in the Phils, Naval yard in Malaya.  All you need.

You must play exactly like I do Maher. I have made all the same observations. As Japan, I dont even attempt to keep the Carolines. I just grab the valuable infantry off it for my DEI assault. I also bring down more infantry from Japan for my phillipines assault, along with all my bombarding ships, which are all best served down south. There’s no point in leaving any transports in SZ6 because I never use them and the cant be used as fodder for an attack on SZ6, but they’re real valuable in the south seas, and for the eventual assault on Australia.

Even after pulling all those ships from Japan, including the ships in SZ19 and SZ33, and diverting 65% of my income to asian ground troops (only 35% for re-thickening the SZ6 fleet), I can still reliably repel a USA attack on the homeland via scrambling.

This is why I’m trying to come up with ideas for the allies. I noticed that stationing 10 bombers on Midway to assist a SZ6 assault helps a lot, but it still doesn’t win the day. An IMO, you get one shot if you taking that strategy. If you fail (and I always have), it’s over. So, it’s gonna have to be a USA invasion of Asia. And you have to assume that Brits wont have the DEI.

@Uncle_Joe:

ANZAC is there to pee in Japan’s pool IMO. They can build TRs and a few troops and launch raids on the DEI. If Japan leaves naval forces in the area, buy a sub or so and coordinate with your airpower to wear down those blockers. The TR(s) will not survive, but who cares? You are diverting Japanese TRs, escorts, and more importantly ground troops back to the islands. If Japan ignores them, that is substantial income hit every turn.

ANZAC is not as helpless as they first appear. You just have to ignore the temptation to try and build a navy to contend with Japan and concentrate on raiding forces and local power projection (subs and aircraft).

What I have been doing with ANZAC is building tanks an infantry. 1 Tank and Infantry for each of the islands, and the rest for maintaining control of Australia for at least two waves of japanese amphibious assaults. It occured to me that I wasnt using their planes for anything, and they cannot be used for scrambling, so I was thinking about sending them to support India. I never build any ships for ANZAC. Attempting to ferry troops to DEI seems pointless because the transport will get popped on the first offload, and then I wont be able to afford another.

Basically, I’d been making lots of ferry trips with it to get the 5 IPC bonus of the northern islands. Perhaps that’s an error, but their production is so small, I dont see how it could be.

But if I sent my planes that I’m not using to support India, that seems like a good idea.

I must be doing Anzac wrong then because the best I can ever produce with them is 15 with the Island bonus. They’re never really in a position to be going on an offensive. Far as I can tell, they’re just shoring up to slow Japan down, buying time for the US. Britain’s not much better off either. They’re in a position to retake the southern provinces, but not advance northward.

As japan, I never let Britain have the East Indies. They’re worth 20 to both Japan and Britain. That’s a 40 IPC difference that cannot be ignored by the japanese. It takes Britain two turns to make it happen. And by then, it’s too late.

@Krieghund:

This is really awsome work, Bob!  There is one small thing, however.  I noticed that you’re calling Dutch New Guinea, New Guinea, New Britain and the Solomons “Dutch West Indies” collectively.  The Dutch West Indies are actually in the Caribbean.  A more accurate name would be Melanesia, although Melanesia also includes New Hebrides and Fiji.  Perhaps “Western Melanesia” or “Greater Melanesia” would work?

That’s probably my fault. I called it DWI in my custom NPC because I needed a quickie acronym to fit in the graphic. Originally, I was just planning on using the chart myself, but then decided to upload it for other folks. I knew it made no sense to call it “west” indies since they’re east of the east indies, but originally I wasnt overly concerned about naming accuracy since it was just supposed to be for personal use.

So far, it’s a Japan victory every time, with J1 attack or not. The cause is because the US cannot break the SZ6 fleet, so I’ve come up with some ideas to help the Allies, primarily involving bypassing a Japanese invasion.

1/ Japan is almost certainly going to build a MIC in Kwangtung or Kiangsu. The US could build a growing fleet that parks itself in Hawaii, a fleet that includes 6 or 7 transports with 1 tank and infantry each & 4 bombard capable craft. The japs will think that force is meant for Japan. But it’s actually meant for an Asian invasion, with eyes on the MIC.

After the fleet is sizable enough, the US examines the Asian landscape to verify it’s pretty well thinned and appropriate for an invasion. At that point, the fleet moves to Marianas. If it waited until Britain fell, It could take over the MIC in Kwangtung, only giving it back to the brits after the US is secure in Korea with another MIC. If the MIC was in Kiangsu, that wont help the Allies, but Japan would think that Kiangsu is the intended target (and divert forces or IPC’s accordingly). In reality, the US could do many things with this fleet, even though it takes two turns from Hawaii to make it happen. It could still attack Japan while the transports invade a less important Asian province, or the transports could turn back entirely if it doesnt look right, or so could the whole fleet. Or the phillipines could be easily retaken.

The point is, with 9 provinces in range of the Marianas fleet, the japs wont know what the US is planning, creating confusion. The best parts about this plan is that it doesnt have to be executed quickly, and even with no Fog of War, the japs cant tell what the US is doing.

This fleet would have to be fairly large to avoid the possibility of Japan attacking it at Marianas. Japan is less likely to want to attack because the fighters and tacky’s stationed on Japan cannot help, and neither can the AC’s attack. If they did attack, the advantage would be to the US, although losing all the transports would blow. Without the US midway bombers assisting (because the US is not on the offensive this time), Japan would win, but it would be very costly to the japs, more so than if the US just attacked them from Hawaii, at least in my experience.

2/ I’ve been toying with the idea of sending the 4 ANZAC planes to support the British. The japs are unlikely to go after Australia before Britain.

Awesome work Bob! Thanks again.

Ok so, no sooner did I think of it than I decided to do it. This is Bob’s NPC with a hack & slash mixed with a little slap & tickle. I take no credit, which is why I’m placing this in Bob’s thread. Hopefully he’ll do a revision of his own to usurp this one for a wide version comprising 96 IPCs of production.

Again, I recommend having Kinko’s print this out on legal size paper and then use the associated sized lamination pouch (10ml) for a rigid result).

Indeed he did. In fact, I’ve just asked him for a larger one similar to my larger one.

Bob, this looks really good. Very similar to the one I put together. I recently just made a larger one to encompass more IPCs, meant for a printout at kinko’s on legal size paper. Further, they have lamination pouches to fit that size. I was hoping you would create a larger one similar to my larger one?

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=16643.msg552263#msg552263

I have to say I like yours better than mine, but I need those additional IPCs. If Im asking for a bit much, that’s cool. But I have to warn ya, I’m gonna swipe yours and perform a little chop and re-arrange :)

I added a new 96 slot legal sized NPC for the occasional japanese player that just cant get enough.

If I’m reading this correctly, one can “sneak attack” with a sub (against an undefended transport) during someone else’s combat or noncombat movement turn, subsequently affording the attack value of “2”. However, if you are not in a state of war with the Transport’s faction, you may not perform this attack, because you cannot perform an action that results in a state of war, except on your turn (as per the errata).

Additionally, the book’s description of this transport engagement states that surviving transports may then continue along their path for their remaining movement points. This leads me to believe that the sub sneak attack is only valid for one round, else all transports should just be removed immediately.

In my request to WOTC, I asked for two new box lid stickers. Didnt really need the boxes.

@MaherC:

use lead :)

And hey, if the dog eats one of your pieces, no need to punish him  :evil:

@Mino1124:

I was just curious as to why there is an ANZAC infantry in Malaya which is controlled by the UK. Is this just to try to entice ANZAC to declare war on Japan, or some historical reason? Not that it bothers me it’s just really interesting.

Do you mean Malaya is controlled by the UK, or that the ANZAC infantry is controlled by the UK? I just checked the book and dont see any evidence of the latter. I just want make sure there isnt another detail that I’ve overlooked.

@MaherC:

REALLY wish the pac40 triplea map was finished.

U and me both. Running solo simulations by hand is taxing. Unfortunately, my regular players keep not being able to show up in the 11th hour and I dont want to wait for their arrival to develop strategy. With the frequence of rules changes, I wasnt overly upset about it, but the errata has been stable for the past week or so, so I’d really like to get a game going.

@Uncle_Joe:

But the goal is to prevent the Allies in Asia from increasing their econ. By attacking on J1, you can kill both Brit TRs and 2 of the 3 US TRs starting out as well as deny the Brits their bonus income from control of their 2 starting major ports. So in essence you are trading that US income boost for a reduced Brit income (and the ability to kill the BB and TRs while they are vulnerable alone).

Ok, this is what I was missing. I didnt realize that attacking the britons brought the US into the war. The britons can attack japan and bring ANZAC into the war, but not the US. In my two simulations, I conquered Kwangtung on J1, but did not move the US production marker. This changes things significantly, as you can imagine. It takes at least 6 rounds to wipe out the british without their Kwangtung support. Giving them 3 rounds of an additional 8 IPC (3 for Kwangtung and 5 for the bonus) doesnt sit well with me. I think I’d rather attack them and bring the US into it. I’ll have to see.

Good catch. It sure does.

Thanks Mino for confirming my suspicions. I didnt mention the soviet territories since you cant build there. It didnt occur to me to use a scramble to defeat a bombardment. I guess you’d have to go through at least one round attacks to make that work out. However, lets say you opponent has 5 ships with which to bombard, and commits only a cruiser to repel the scramble. Cruiser goes down for sure, but the other ships never engaged, and are then free to bombard.

Unless youre saying the entire fleet is engaged by a single plane, in which the defender would have the plane stashed just to prevent all bombardment.

Hey guys, I dont mean to sound like a neophyte here, but I assume when you say J1, you mean Japan attacks the US on the 1st turn, presumably in the Phillipines. My own experience says this is not sound judgment. Let say you commit forces to grab the phillipines. You just dropped US production by 7 and increased yours by 7. That’s a 14 IPC difference in favor of the empire. Now of course you just increased US production by 40 two rounds early. By my count, that’s 28 vs 80 over those two rounds. Economically speaking, it’s not sound, so let’s talk about strategic value…

The phillipines cannot produce. They have to be reinforced by ships that take 3 rounds to arrive. During those first 3 rounds, the allies use peacetime to send the biggest fleet possible down to support the phillipines while rebuilding Western US fleet for the eventual assault on Japan (supported by at least 4 bombers on Midway, three of which were grabbed from the phillipines, hawaii and west-usa). Once all that is done, you have a noteworthy fleet in the phillipines and some nice IPC (7) to support the war effort). That sounds nice, but…

If that fleet ever leaves the phillipines, the phillipines are vulnerable. So they are stuck there, providing only IPC protection and the threat of a sneak attack deterrent. They certainly dont have the units to perform some kind of an asian invasion. Since the phillipines cant produce, I’m not even sure what the value of the island actually is, other than the 7 IPC. The usa cant trickle more ships down there after peacetime ends, so their effectively cut off from reinforcements as well. Unless you later decide to send down a big protected fleet, but that will take 3 turns, ruin your offensive, and give away your plans long before they come to fruition.

Based on all of that, if I was japan, I would not attack the phillipines until round 4. And if the US had a sizable fleet down there, then I’d just let em sit there the whole game until they decided to foolishly attack my fleet and leave the tasty IPC production of the phillipines unprotected.

When you create the mold, you’ll have to perform a cross section to get the original out. The cross section cut will remove some of the plaster, but hopefully not enough to thin the final product too much.

Won’t the epoxy glue your mold together? If it does, you’ll lose the mold.

Nevertheless, I’d be interested to see your finished product.