What is your least-purchased unit?

[Charles de Gaulle]

Which unit do you find to be the least purchased?  Why?  Is it too expensive?  Replaceable by better units?  Not effective enough?  You should base your answer on your purchases.

I personally think the cruiser is not bought enough, but the tactical bomber and AA gun also get ignored.

[General 6 Stars]

@Charles:

Which unit do you find to be the least purchased?  Why?  Is it too expensive?  Replaceable by better units?  Not effective enough?  You should base your answer on your purchases.

I personally think the cruiser is not bought enough, but the tactical bomber and AA gun also get ignored.

Thats why you need to bring costs down for Cruiser, Battleships. Increase Tac values like I have in my game. Make the AAA gun get to attack and move on combat.

You dont have FF inf on list. You must buy a lot of thoses !  :-D

[Rebhot]

In all the games that I have played I will have to say that AA guns are the least purchased. I might be able to count the number I have seen purchased on one hand, it is that low. As SS said, AAA needs some form of buff to make it useful.

[Charles de Gaulle]

One day SS…one day I am going to hire a Vichy assassin using American IPCs for a bribe, send him on a British submarine commanded by Cunningham, have him make a hop over to Africa and kill Giraud with the help of a German spy, head up the boot to have Mussolini for lunch, play cards with Mannerheim in Helsinki, then contact the Romanian Iron Guards to help him stage a coup in Moscow and subdue Stalin, and then finally–finally he will find your hiding place and will do something terrible to you–he’ll place you under house arrest so I can come over and coerce you into playing 1 on 1 to end this outrage caused by your disrespect to the flame of the French Resistance!!   My blues are coming for you coward, and Vichy will fall with you!

Okay, being serious, I agree with you about the units.  A really easy fix is making  the IPCs
Cruiser: 10
Tac.: 10
AA gun: 4
Battleship: 18

[General 6 Stars]

@Charles:

One day SS…one day I am going to hire a Vichy assassin using American IPCs for a bribe, send him on a British submarine commanded by Cunningham, have him make a hop over to Africa and kill Giraud with the help of a German spy, head up the boot to have Mussolini for lunch, play cards with Mannerheim in Helsinki, then contact the Romanian Iron Guards to help him stage a coup in Moscow and subdue Stalin, and then finally–finally he will find your hiding place and will do something terrible to you–he’ll place you under house arrest so I can come over and coerce you into playing 1 on 1 to end this outrage caused by your disrespect to the flame of the French Resistance!!   My blues are coming for you coward, and Vichy will fall with you!

Awesome !  I love it !    :wink:

Okay, being serious, I agree with you about the units.  A really easy fix is making  the IPCs
Cruiser: 10            9 ?
Tac.: 10                 9 ?
AA gun: 4
Battleship: 18

[The Pripet Martian]

We came up with a house rule to make AAA purchases worthwhile without rendering artillery irrelevant: AAA functions per OOB rules if attacked by air units. If attacked by air + land, OOB rules apply for the first round of combat, then AAA defends @2 vs. land units from round two on. When enemy land units are eliminated and only air units remain, AAA ceases fire. All other OOB rules for this unit still apply.

With this rule, we’ve found AAA quite valuable for defense, but artillery units are still necessary for offensive operations.

Fun Fact: My grandfather commanded a AAA company in the war. In January 1945, they provided security for the first convoy to use the Ledo/Stilwell Road.

[Amalec]

I think AA guns are underrated. Basically, in any defensive battle where you’ll face at least 3 attacking aircraft an AA gun is a better IPC investment than infantry - and infantry was already the best IPC investment for a defensive battle. It becomes a better if you’re going to lose the battle, which you likely will, or you wouldn’t be attacked.

The problem with building AA isn’t the unit itself, but the game:

1. Everyone starts with pretty much ‘enough’ AA. There’s no need to build more.
2. Land battle TUV losses almost always heavily favor the attacker, so the optimal defensive strategy pretty much always ‘don’t get attacked’ - either through deterrence or movement.

Still, I’ve definitely built more AA guns than cruisers or battleships.

[Tjoek]

For us the Cruisers and Battleships are never build and the AA guns only rarely when the situation arises that you face heavy aircraft attacks such as Japan going heavy on Calcutta.
Then 1 AA gun might be better then 1 Inf as you get the possibility to kill up to three planes without them fighting against you at all.

[thespaceman]

Problem with aa guns is that opponent can see them and do the math. They will most likely send planes to alternative destination.

So unless you have aa guns everywhere there effectiveness is reduced.

Also only get one round of combat

Also number of shots capped by available targets

Also only hiys on a one.

Cant attack move.

So too many restrictions.

[MeinHerr]

1. Cruiser
2. Battleship
3. AAA gun

[Caesar-Seriona]

I can say without a doubt that the poll will reflect AA guns as the clear winner, they are so handicapped compared to other games, the only pro is that you can take hits on it however the fact the AA gun doesn’t fire per turn and doesn’t fire at aircraft flying over makes it pointless.

[Zhukov44]

@ShadowHAwk:

@Caesar:

I can say without a doubt that the poll will reflect AA guns as the clear winner, they are so handicapped compared to other games, the only pro is that you can take hits on it however the fact the AA gun doesn’t fire per turn and doesn’t fire at aircraft flying over makes it pointless.

They are nice when the opponent attacks with 3 aircraft per gun though and most of his attacking power comes from air. Taking out 2-4 fighters before the fight can be deadly for any attack.

I sometimes buy them for this reason.  I might be wrong about this and buying infantry or tanks is better, but they pay for themselves in tight defensive situations IF battle is inevitable and each one fires a full 3 shots at attacking aircraft.  That’s a rare set of conditions that doen’t occur every game, but every so often.

On the other hand, cruisers and bbs are overpriced and I’ve never bought them.  Perhaps this is meant to reflect the history of them becoming more obsolete compared to carriers and aircraft and submarines during that time period.

[Caesar-Seriona]

I don’t see the justification for buying unit that has a 3/18 chance of hitting aircraft when I can spend more for infantry and get better results.

[Omega1759]

@Caesar:

I don’t see the justification for buying unit that has a 3/18 chance of hitting aircraft when I can spend more for infantry and get better results.

Generally agree, + there are usually enough starting AA guns on the board. There are situations where increasing variability of outcomes can pay off. Say you hit 2 aircraft out of 3 at the beginning of a battle, it can wreck the battle whereas the extra 1.66 infantry cannot do that.

Battleships can be decent because of their ability to soak hits in repeated small battles, but again there are starting units that can play this role.

[KGrimB]

Even though Battleships are expensive I find that I almost always buy at least 1 for the US. Just gives additional firepower for landings or in an offensive naval conflict with Japan. Cruisers on the other hand are largely a waste of money.

[Karl7]

In some 300+ G40 games, I’ve never bought a battleship unless the game was already won I could do whatever I wanted.

2ftrs, 1 cv= cost 36, 6 attack, 10 defense, 4 hit points.

2 Battleships = cost 40, 8 attack, 8 defense, 4 hit points.

Pretty clear, building a fleet around battleships maybe slightly be better on attack, but otherwise are blown away on defense. And defense is mostly what matters with fleets, since if you are attacking you usually can and should use land based air to bolster your attack.

Plus if you are going all attack with ships, subs are the way to go: 36Ipcs = 6 subs, 12 attack, 6 hit points.

I rarely buy cruisers, but I sometimes buy tac bombers if I’ve got a leftover 1 IPC at the end of purchase and convert a fight in the cue.

I agree, tacbs should be 10.  They aren’t really any better than Ftrs, or maybe even worse since their 4 attack is only achieved through matching.

[Adam514]

Battleships are useful buys if you need to max defense with limited production slots (minor IC) and you don’t have any leftover air for extra carriers.

[Caesar-Seriona]

@Karl7:

In some 300+ G40 games, I’ve never bought a battleship unless the game was already won I could do whatever I wanted.

2ftrs, 1 cv= cost 36, 6 attack, 10 defense, 4 hit points.

2 Battleships = cost 40, 8 attack, 8 defense, 4 hit points.

Pretty clear, building a fleet around battleships maybe slightly be better on attack, but otherwise are blown away on defense. And defense is mostly what matters with fleets, since if you are attacking you usually can and should use land based air to bolster your attack.�

Plus if you are going all attack with ships, subs are the way to go: 36Ipcs = 6 subs, 12 attack, 6 hit points.

I rarely buy cruisers, but I sometimes buy tac bombers if I’ve got a leftover 1 IPC at the end of purchase and convert a fight in the cue.

I agree, tacbs should be 10.� They aren’t really any better than Ftrs, or maybe even worse since their 4 attack is only achieved through matching.

I think about tact. bombers I don’t like is the fact that they can’t bomb factories which would make them more useful but the issue I have is with their combined arms with tanks, if you par it with a tank, it gets boosted 1 more attack but logically, you’d think the tank, not the tact. bomber would get boosted, it makes more sense that way.

[Karl7]

@Adam514:

Battleships are useful buys if you need to max defense with limited production slots (minor IC) and you don’t have any leftover air for extra carriers.

Yeah, good point.  I guess if you are US and you are holding sz6 and Korea w/mic, and Japan is brining the hammer down, a BB buy out of Korea could be good if no spare planes.

[Amalec]

@Caesar:

I don’t see the justification for buying unit that has a 3/18 chance of hitting aircraft when I can spend more for infantry and get better results.

1. It’s not a 3/18 chance of hitting. It’s a 43% chance of hitting with a smaller possibility of two or even three hits. That’s nearly 30% more likely to hit than an infantry unit.
2. AA hits are much more valuable than infantry hits. They immediately kill 10-12IPC units, rather than 3IPC infantry, and they kill it before it can fire - which is a 3/6 or 4/6th chance of saving one of your own units outright.
3. They don’t fire after the first round of combat - but neither do dead infantry. Just take a AA loss first and save an infantry.

There is basically no situation where infantry are a better defensive investment than AA when you’re sure they’ll make use of all three shots. More interestingly, the AA performs cost effectively no matter how badly you lose a battle - unlike, say, a fighter who lands a hit taken on an infantry and is then killed. An AA costs 5IPC and averages a fighter kill half the time. If you’re going to lose a battle badly and can’t avoid it, AA are the best way of burning as much of your opponents IPC as possible.