@DoManMacgee Hi DMM & thanks for the response… Really appreciate that these forums have experienced players who weigh in on things. It was OOB with a 12 bid.
That’s pretty much what Japan did - eliminate the threats and take back the 2 islands as advantageously as possible while still consolidating the fleet. I was just surprised how long it then took for Japan to have any pressure westward. India, in spite of losing 2 men on the initial Kwangtung foray, stayed around for quite a while (minimal investment for a KGF).
What helped, no doubt, was that Russia traded unfavourably in the initial Caucasus strafe (dice game, lost 3 inf to Germany’s 2, and took W Russia at odds) and the Germans (rather than push hard back immediately), decided to save the Med fleet with a carrier. This made the Egypt / Africa game interesting, but maybe a different buy on G1 and the Germans win sooner. Always tough to say.
But, as many have pointed out here, the Axis have such a strong start in this game it was nice to have a hotly contested battle!
Allied Bombers
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Hey everyone,
I wanted to get your perspectives of what to do with the starting UK and US bomber on T1 to T4.
Obviously the UK bomber is quite useful in UK1 to dispatch the remains of German ships from the Baltic, but after that the UK is not terribly offensive.
The US seems to have no real use for the bomber before T4-5 as they have no readily available destroyers in the Atlantic (because it will be sunk G1), so sub hunting is not possible. You could send it to the pacific, but without taking any of the J islands, it is really hard to stage a naval fight. Maybe you could send it to China? But you only have a couple Inf after J1 to do anything with. I have not tried, but considered just staging it in HI or Western US just to keep Japan from getting any funny ideas.
I have resorted to using both bombers for SBR on Berlin until they get blown out of the sky. I realize that SBR is not really cost effective on the average, but bombers sitting on the ground are not cost effective either, and they lose value over time as massive stacks begin to form.
Using the bomber is a defensive pip seems nuts to me, but I guess if it was to keep Egypt I would accept the sacrifice.
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SBRs are cost effective but not marvellously so. Trying to remember the calculation:
Each bomber hits 5/6 of the time at an average roll of 3.5 = 2.92 avg hit less a cost of 12 ipc cost x 1/6 chance of being hit = 0.92 avg gain per bomber per SBR provided you do not hit max damage on the factory.
If playing with intercepts the calculation changes. But if your bomber force is comparable to the defending fighter force the net benefit actually improves. I have posted that calculation before but this device does not make it easy for he to find it.
Committing a USA bomber build per turn to SBR Germany can be an effective way to help R against G.
But when you throw a couple of ones it can be difficult to believe it!
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You’ve mostly got the right ideas. Sometimes Allied bombers can can-open for Russian tanks if Germany trades territories too lightly on the eastern front. E.g. if only one German inf is in Ukraine and Belorussia is empty, then you can attack the inf with an American bomber and if you win or the, a Russian tank in Caucasus can Hoover up 4 IPCs. It’s a kind of indirect lend lease!
Same thing in Africa…if all the boats are dead and Africa is down to one British inf vs. 1 German tank, then bomb the tank! Big ipc swing over time if you win or tie.
One bomber may be useless but one bomber plus two fighters or one bomber plus two subs can dead zone an area. Sometimes you have to use the bomber as the core of a new task group instead of sending it on a solo mission.
Finally, the British bomber should also be used to kill the German med fleet as soon as practicable. So there are two naval bombing missions: one in baltic, one in med.
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The Uk bomber can fly to Persia, and join that stuff, give it some punch. This is best if some UK navy survives.
Watch out, though. I’ve had Japan hit that stuff when I had 2 inf 1 AAA 2 fig 1 bomber and kill it all.
The USA is especially ineffective in this version. The bomber would be by itself over in London, in most early games. If you put it on hono/midway/iwo etc it could be a threat of flyover bombing on Japan. the more you get, the more cautious Japan has to be, though unless the US owns an island, they’d have to find a LZ on the continent and that’s usually all Japan’s playground.
SBR is not very effective in this version, because the Allies have less money than the Axis, and also the max damage done is 16 or so, which the Axis can handle. You cant lose the bombers, but using them is almost as hard.
If the USA buys more bombers, that’s flexible and great but they wont have enough $$ to do that AND build a real sea-defensible fleet against Japan its one or the other.
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I usually take the US bomber to the Pacific and keep adding to the Air Fleet just to mop up large battles.
The UK bomber is mostly used for SBR’s on Germany but can be brought down to N. Africa or into the Pacific.
Mostly use them for clean up duty, just to mop up messes that are left after large battles.
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If the USA buys more bombers, that’s flexible and great but they wont have enough $$ to do that AND build a real sea-defensible fleet against Japan its one or the other.
Bombers themselves are pretty defensible from a deadzone perspective. So long as you keep your US fleet just outside the clutches of the Japan fleet then any aggressive move towards the west coast can be met with a bomber counter. Grabbing a battleship and a couple subs/destroyers would also round out this force. If Japan rolls in with a larger stack, you can strafe the navy with your bombers and smaller fleet, soak some hits on the BB and lose the subs as fodder.
You should likely then gain defender’s advantage making a counter from Japan quite risky. I have not played against a heavy naval Japan strat, but against a combined initial fleet, you can do pretty good with +1BB, +1 bomber, and +sub chaff.
Just to confirm in the rules. When you are the defender and the enemy brings a destroyer, then at that point you can elect to take sub losses from planes instead of anything else, right? In this case, it almost behooves you to have the enemy bring the destroyers as the subs are cheap fodder, and garbage on defense anyways.
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Bombers add counterattack but they don’t sit on the seazone and so they don’t defend you (except in the sense that they threaten whatever japan has left once its your turn).
In 42.2 (and 42.3) unless you kill Japan’s Java Fleet or it makes some serious money mistakes, it can build against you 1:1. This means that if you buy subs or bombers (or other junk like transports that do nothing to protect your fleet in place) japan will have more hits on both offense and defense (its usually about 14 Japan Naval hits to 16-17 USA and allied hits if the allies play super-optimally) when we are talking about a face to face confrontation in a classic naval battle.
The USA is just really hampered here; in 42.3 they need to spend 100% atlantic to even try the KGF. In 42.2, they can buy optimally (bbs, dd, carriers and every fighter) and still only match, not beat Japan.
Many times whether the USA steps up on defense or it uses the bombers etc to attack, they lose it all during that fairly even battle and then Japan can do whatever it likes. this makes KJF even more suspect, in these editions.
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