After playing a few games of Anniversary Edition, I was convinced the Axis seem to have an advantage in this version, and after getting on these forums I realized it wasn’t just me!
Godzilla getting 10!!! planes, Russia getting 1 tank and no planes, England and US having 0 battleships after G1/J1……talk about crazy! I like the whole concept of Axis starting off with more power but less economy, but I think the issue is that because of Godzilla and Axis having better NO’s, the Allies can’t just hold out and survive and then let their economic advantage turn the balance - If they do that, they will LOSE the economic advantage before they know it. The Allies have to fight hard and make gains, or they will easily lose their economic advantage (Especially UK. Their NO’s are absurd.).
But, this post is not about the balance issues, but to discuss how to overcome them. Honestly, though the Allies have the disadvantage, I actually feel it’s much more balanced than Revised edition is. I also don’t want to play without NO’s, since I love the extra dynamic they add to the game.
Personally, it’s my opinion that going all out in Europe is the best strategy for the Allies, mostly because of Italy. My reason for thinking that, is because Italy’s NO’s seem to be by far the easiest to stop. Whereas if you don’t stop them, Italy goes from being a very small factor, to actually becoming a problem. The Pacific has a lot of NO’s to be gained/lost, but it seems to take a massive investment to accomplish anything.
Typically what I do with USA, is place my transports/navy on Sea Zone 12, and move my purchased ground units from Eastern US to Eastern Canada, where they can be transported to Algeria each turn, once you pay the 1 turn moving them. Pretty much the same thing I did in Revised. UK doesn’t change much either, from my old Revised strategy, and I build up 4 transports + navy.
But there’s more to it than just that, now. For example, what to do about the Italian navy? What ships do you purchase for UK/USA? From my calculations, destroyers are the best bang for their buck, but for UK I have also been buying cruisers for some bombardments (But even at the reduced cost, Battleships don’t seem worth it. Are they?), and sometimes a carrier. But the carrier requires me to keep planes there, which I don’t necessarily want to do.
Also, where to park the UK navy? I tend to keep it in range of Sea Zone 5 to keep a threat on the Eastern front, but I think next game I might try having them sit at Sea Zone 12 with USA, to threaten Italy/Balkans/France. One very large issue I’ve had, is that since Germany is filthy rich but can only produce 10 units (Unless they bought an IC, which my opponents never do.), they buy a lot of fighters/bombers, which forces me to buy even more navy. I think if I combine the US and UK navies, it will ease that burden a lot, as well as put them at a further range.
But what about sending troops to Africa and into Asia? Worth it? I’ve thought of trying to send US tanks, but infantry would be too slow to make a difference I think.
But what I am really unsure about, is what to do with Russia. My typical strategy has been to buy 2-3 bombers over the course of the first 3-5 turns, and the rest infantry and a tank or art depending on any extra change. Then I funnel 2-3 infantry every turn into Asia (Persia or China depending on the situation. The reason I like the bombers, is they can help in China, Siberia, India, and Eastern Europe, depending on the need, and they are not lost when capturing dead zones.). But they are costly, so I’m still on the fence about their value. Maybe tanks would be the better option, but I just hate not having planes for capturing dead zones, because then you have to lose tanks and/or artillery (I’m not a fan of artillery and only buy them when I have 4 IPC’s left over. I just find tanks to be a superior buy.). Once I have my 2-3 bombers, I usually buy mostly infantry with a few tanks (The amount of tanks vary depending on my losses. Usually 2 or 3, sometimes 4.).
But what about fighters? The one issue with bombers is they don’t help you hold key defensive positions. I’ve thought of maybe buying them instead of bombers, but then range becomes more of an issue.
Another thing I have been doing, is sending my Karelia units to take Finland turn 1. I find that stacking infantry on Karelia leads to their death without many hits in return, so I prefer to set up for a counterattack, and take some territory while I’m at it. Other than that, I don’t usually do any other attacks on R1.
Eventually, once Godzilla shows up, I basically have to focus 100% of my efforts to holding them back, and so hopefully the Allies were able to keep Germany and little brother at bay by that point.
I’ve read about some people purchasing navy in the Pacific as USA, and I’m wondering if it’s really worth the investment. It’s 22 IPC’s just to fill 4 transports with tanks/infantry every turn, so that leaves room for like 3 destroyers a turn if you choose to buy them. But at least for the first two turns, I need to buy navy in the Atlantic, so it seems like forever before you could put together any fleet of note in the Pacific. My mentality is that every American boot you put into Europe, is 1 more boot that Russia can put into Asia. When I play as Axis, my opponents have always bought fleet in the Pacific, and I always love it, because it takes them like 500 turns to put any real threat on me, and by then Little Brother is making 20+ IPC’s.
