Posts made by zanetheinsane

The sidebar on page 20 of the Second Edition European Rulebook states:

In a sea battle, if the defender has only transports remaining and the attacker still has units capable of attacking, the defending transports are all destroyed, along with their cargo. You don’t have to continue rolling dice until all the transports receive hits. This will speed up combats. This also occurs if the only combat units remaining can’t hit each other. For example, if the defender has only transports and submarines remaining, and the attacker has only air units remaining, the air units and submarines can’t hit each other, so the transports are defenseless.

The example is reversed but it still applies here.

You don’t have to fire for each transport because the outcome will be the same. It’s just a matter of time before you roll the required numbers to hit each transport. The only time it does matter is if the transports are with an attacking force, because the transports have the option of retreating.

Once you’re getting that sweet Russia money, 20-30 mechs and like 5-10 planes sitting in West Germany can crush pretty much any landing party anywhere. Makes it really hard for the allies to land because if they get wiped out they have to spend at minimum 2-3 turns getting more units over.

To be fair, this is why you never ever ever send carriers anywhere without a destroyer. The same problem happens if you send a carrier plus fighters to attack submarines. Since the carrier doesn’t roll attack dice and the fighters can’t hit the submarines, you just have infinite rounds of combat until the subs either sink the carrier or the units retreat.

This is also why it is recommend that when playing the pacific side as either Japan or the US, you purchase at least one sub for every carrier that the other side purchases.

You should also never tip your carriers on defense if you have no where for your planes to land, since the attacker will almost always retreat and watch your planes crash into the ocean for free.

The Russian ships are pretty much a speed bump for Germany. If Germany doesn’t feel like invading Russia through the Baltic Sea those two Russian ships will probably just sit there all game because Germany will just refuse to let them out of the strait.

As the US you don’t need a lot of transports and ground troops in the pacific. This automatically gives you an advantage over Japan as they have to balance naval and troop/transport purchases in order to hold all of their territory.

To beat Japan you simply have to sink or contain their navy. Easier said than done, but focus getting up to at least 3 carriers. Some players like to match battleships with the IJN as well. They main strategy is to have a large disposable stack of submarines as America. At least 10+ in the Pacific with about 5+ destroyers.

While you don’t have fleet superiority, never park your fleet in range of Japan’s. As a Japanese player as soon as I see the US muscle up a fleet to somewhere like the Carolines or Queensland and I know I can wipe them out I will not hesitate.

Peel off 5+ subs if Japan splits off their fleet at any time to cover transports for the DEIs. The more fractures for the fleet you cause the more they will feel the pressure to rebuild. You should have a steady stream of destroyers and submarines flowing from Hawaii. A large destroyer/sub purchase moved to Hawaii makes it hard for Japan to build new fleet out of SZ6 without risking a suicide strike. US Submarines are the worst because that means each new fleet purchase needs at least a destroyer.

ANZAC with 2-3 subs at any time is also a thorn for Japan since they can strike Japanese navy sitting near the DEI. I’ve seen some devastating hits on Japan with a US player suiciding subs/destroyers into a split fleet and ANZAC sending 5+ subs after to clean up and take out any tipped carriers/battleships.

Capital ships are nice, but once you have 3-4 carriers and 2 battleships, works on getting two solid stacks of destroyers and submarines for cover.

And lastly, remember that Japan’s hardest task is putting their fleet in an operable position while still defending SZ6 from US convoys. The nice thing about Japan being in SZ35 or SZ36 is that they aren’t close enough to hit Hawaii. That means if you send 10 submarines at whatever Japan buys in SZ6 they can’t exploit that by counterattacking your reduced Hawaii fleet, and reinforcements for you are only 1 turn away if they move up to try to counter-hit you.

Using SBR’s against Moscow when you’ve closed in on Russia can be devastating. As Japan, once UK Pacific is making somewhere around 7 IPCs a turn, SBRs will cripple any ability to produce even a single unit. Same thing against Italy.

Using Italian bombers to hit UK’s airbase the turn before Sealion prevents UK from scrambling.

American bombers from London hitting Western Germany can really help if you’re preparing an invasion force.

On that same note on the opposite end of the spectrum, never forget that UK or US can snake transports to land support troops behind the front lands if Russia is in dire need of assistance.

The strength of the Taranto attack as Britain is that you have to basically bring as many planes to the fight as Italy has eligible to scramble in order to ensure “mutual destruction” odds.

Assuming you always destroy the Italian transport off of Malta, you will leave Italy with only a handful of boats and one lone transport. With only one transport it is very unlikely that Italy can effectively take Greece and Gibraltar on the first turn, meaning that you can deny them a valuable objective early on. Sending one transport either way means it will take at least another two turns to get to the other side. (The solution to this for the Axis is Germany taking Gibraltar for Italy).

With only one transport, Italy cannot effectively threaten Egypt, which gives Britain much-needed time to fortify it with troops from either India or S. Africa.

Even though the UK’s navy in the med faces almost assured destruction (if the Italian counterattack doesn’t finish it off somehow, German planes will), you are banking on the fact that you make almost triple Italy’s economy. Italy’s paltry 10 IPCs mean that rebuilding transports will take a huge portion of their income. Until Italy achieves it’s NO’s, building anything larger than destroyers and submarines will be impossible without saving up IPCs for 1-2 turns.

The other advantage of this strategy is that by destroying most of Italy’s navy early the US does not have to build as large a navy in the Atlantic, which is a massive benefit given the task of facing Japan in the Pacific.

The other popular UK opener is to pull your navy back into SZ81 and possibly join with the India navy (that might be running away from Japan) and build up a force too great for even Italy’s combined navy to defend against. Then the US and UK both hit the med on turn 4 in a 1-2 punch.

In the 2E Europe rulebook on page 39, under global’s “Additional Rules” I notice the United States starts with three minor industrial complexes that get upgrade when the US enters the war.

This is the final version of that rule from Alpha, correct? I remember it being changed back and forth a couple of times.

Before when the Axis had to win on total VCs and not a win on either map I played America once and went full Atlantic.

Japan tried to crack the America shell hard, including a factory in Alaska and a full convoy on the west coast, but they couldn’t cope with the sheer amount of troops on the mainland as well as Anzac biting them in the ass constantly. The threat of a counterattack from the east coast fleet (which easily outproduced the Japanese one due to the distance Japan had to travel) eventually stalled them out and the Allies crushed Italy and swept Africa and France easily.

Fortress America should probably the least viable target for the Axis in any strategy =p

I would say that a decent Allied player should not fall for this, but on G2 you buy 10 transports for a Sealion feint. In order to distract America, Japan might hit Hawaii on J1 or J2 just to make the US purchase heavy navy in the Pacific. On G3 you hit Gibraltar and SZ91. This sets you up for a G4 Quebec hit or depending on how America purchased you could hit any number of zones.

When America was stuck with only minor ICs before they went to war this was actually a lot more viable. America can easily respond with 10-20 infantry in Central and Eastern United States when your G3 surprise hits.

It’s a very difficult strategy to make viable simple because of the sheer number of troops that the US can pump out turn after turn to destroy your invading force, of which you cannot really replenish.

Unless you can take Washington, don’t expect to hold your ground for more than 1-2 turns.

Unlike in sea battles, you cannot attack a land territory containing units of a power with which you are not at war, even if there are other powers’ units in that territory with which you are at war.

This usually only comes up with Italy/Germany because Italy can declare war on Russia and take a Russian territory, then Germany (who has not declared war on Russia) can non-combat move units into an Italian territory (because they are allies and because Germany is at war with the UK)

The problem you are describing should not be able to happen. When Russia is not at war on the Pacific map they may not move units into territories of other countries (because Russia is technically not “allied” with them).

From Page 21 of the rulebook, under Phase 4: Noncombat Move, sub section: Where Units Can Move:

"If your power isn’t at war, you can’t move your units into territories belonging to another friendly power or a friendly neutral.

That being said, there is literally no reason why Russia should not declare war on Japan on round 1 and vice versa. There is no “binding” rule-legal agreement on whether or not Japan and Russia can declare war on each other unless you create one specifically.

There is one specific situation where this can occur. If Russia has units on the European side of the map (and is at war with either Germany or Italy), I guess your Persia is a good example, then Japan somehow shuttles over there or drives through India, then once they reach past West India, a single Russian unit prevents them from attacking or moving through to the next territory (on the European side of the map).

In the European manual on the page 15 blue sidebar you will notice a section called “Powers That Begin the Game Neutral”, subsection “Combat:”

“A power can’t attack a territory controlled by or containing units belonging to a power with which is it not at war…”

Note there is a special exception for sea zones but not land territories.

@Sir_Cala:

additional question say you declare to use 3 kamikaze on 2 targets and you sink 2 targets before you used the 3rd kamikaze.Will you still be counted as using 3 kamikaze or still have that one left over for later.

You declare each kamikaze attack against certain targets. So if you were being attacked by a cruiser and a destroyer and you use three of your strikes, you could declare that you are using two kamikaze strikes against the cruiser and one against the destroyer. You would then roll two dice against the cruiser and one against the destroyer. Even if both dice strike against the cruiser, they are still both used.

You don’t get to declare an arbitrary number of kamikaze strikes, roll a bunch of dice, then assign the hits based on what the dice come up. Each one has to be assigned a target during the declaration phase.

@Young:

I can think of countless scenerios where I wouldn’t liberate Paris even if it was handed to the Allies on a silver platter.

If the US has Normandy, S.France, and North Africa, it’s a pretty huge advantage keeping that +8 IPCs, (+1 if Italy got French W. Africa and US took it back too).

So you have the US making tanks/planes out of two minor factories in Europe or you liberate Paris, drop US/UK by 8 IPCs, and now you basically “lose” two factories on the mainland and go back to transporting troops across the Atlantic.

The rules for Alpha 3+ are pretty consistent with the second edition rules.

http://harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=6149

Stacking Leningrad isn’t a bad strategy if Germany is severely lacking in transports (1 or none).

I prefer building early artillery balanced with some infantry so that by R4-5 you’re looking at almost an equal amount of artillery and infantry somewhere in the 20+ range. Building that fourth plane early can be amazing depending on what Germany buys on G1 and G2.

What you’re looking for as Russia is the opportunity to hit a split German force somewhere around the Pripyat line. If at any time Germany simply isn’t managing their slow/fast forces or they split off to try to take more territory or perform a poor feint, taking out a huge force of 20-30 infantry or their tank stack is a horrible setback for Germany.

This is because they’re only halfway their and when you build your infantry they’re already where they need to be but Germany has to march them back across Eastern Europe just to get to the fight. I have no problem sacrificing 40 Russians to take out 30 Germans if it’s close to Eastern Europe. Remember, when he hits you he’s bringing the might of all his planes with him. What you should be looking for is to hit his forces and bring your planes instead.

It’s a very delicate dance. While Germany certainly seems to have the advantage, one slip-up and Russia can make you pay for it dearly. That’s the reason just sitting in Moscow in your bunker waiting for the end of days is probably the worst idea.

If Germany is doing the “slow push” and keeping all of their units together there’s not much you can do as Russia except use that extra time to get help from UK / US. Extra planes from either in Moscow is really aggravating for Germany.

@knp7765:

Now I had all those infantry, artillery and tanks stuck in Morocco with no way to get anywhere important.

That’s why I always land in Gibraltar. It’s rare that something horrible happens, but when it does… Spain is always an option. Get with the UK player who can hopefully take on Turkey. Not the prettiest course of action, but sometimes you have to make hard decisions, and getting an Allied foothold in Spain isn’t the worst you can do.

When I was teaching one of my friends to play I told him a very important lesson when he was playing Japan: You don’t beat Japan by fighting it’s navy, you beat Japan by sinking it’s transports.

Of course as Japan you always want those two things to be the same thing but it doesn’t always work out this way. I did a UK2 DOW against Japan because he had four transports that weren’t guarded by enough navy. I ended up losing all of my boats but he ended up losing four transports. That gave India enough time to keep building up infantry and stalled him out against ANZAC and set him back getting money islands.

The opposite is also true for the US and for Japan. Having a huge navy doesn’t do anything for you if you don’t have transports. You can sail around looking for a fight with your 5 carriers and 3 battleships, but that doesn’t win you the game. It looks impressive as hell on the board, but it doesn’t win.

Not sure what the Allies are doing in this game, but UK can easily transport troops over from Egypt to India unless Japan is sitting Navy on it. If Japan is sitting Navy on it US could easily go 70%+ Pacific and just take Australia back.

How much are you sending to India? Because with a J2 DOW UK can at least make a grab at money islands. They could easily have 20-30 infantry waiting on India for you (I’m assuming you’re bringing Germany’s planes with you?)

If Germany is sending that much south what is Russia doing? If I saw a G1 factory buy in Romania that means I get to splurge a little bit as Russia. Maybe some mechs, maybe an extra plane. That’s 10 less German infantry I have to worry about. As Russia I generally tend to accumulate and posture so that I have a valid counter-attack against Germany, but if I see them heading south with that many forces I’d almost consider just marching my ass through eastern europe and maybe taking Italy (I have done this before).

People that underestimate Russia’s economy are often surprised when the 30+ dudewall with 30+ artillery comes marching up to their front door.

I mean, if you send everything at India you can’t stop Russia from holding Leningrad, probably taking Norway, Poland, Greece. If you split your forces are you sure you can hold out against the might of Russia and still wipe out the infantry stack that India will surely be building up?

We specifically ban battle calculators at the table. One, I feel it goes against the spirit of the game to sit there and plot out the computer simulations. Two, it adds a ton of time while people sit there and try to plot out the “optimal” attack running sim after sim until they get what they feel is the “perfect” outcome.

Either learn a little A&A napkin math probability or know some general probability (like what the difference between 3 and 4 planes is when you have 6-10 infantry, etc).

If you want to speed up G1, put a minor factory on France to start the game and set up all of France’s units on the battle board to start the game.