Axis Hail marry

[WindowWasher]

Has anyone ever tried to use all 3 Axis powers to win in one side of the map?

For example, Germany and Italy go all in on Russia with their entire economies, just rushing to take the 3 Russian cities, and Japan fakes an attack on India with transports staged in Malaya, and instead of landing in India, it continues to take Egypt giving the axis all the cities they need to win in Europe.

Or on the flip side, Germany and Italy do their best to invest as much as possible into the middle east to take India, and japan only focuses on ANZAC or Hawaii giving Japan the cities they need to win in the pacific.

Not sure if this has been thought of or tried very often, if it has please link something to an original thread.

[surfer]

I have never seen this tried. But if confronted with it. I would probably cheer as the Allies with one exception. Let’s focus on the Atlantic side win first:
a) Japan sweeping into Egypt with 2-3 CVs loaded, plus aux ships + 5 transports should be able to devastate Egypt.
For good measure they may try to invade the Far East as well–however, this may not be possible as the US might be interdicting any shipbuilding in Japan since the main fleet is gone.
b) Germany and Italy would be giving Russia more than they can stand, but it just takes time to take them down (6 rounds??)

If the Allies don’t adapt, they would be goners.

But India, and Queensland become fighter factories. Before turn 6 they can send 6+ fighters to Moscow for defense. +2-3 each round after. This will support the Russian war machine enough to remain in the game for a few more rounds. So no takedown of Moscow until G8-9. The Allies should realize on Turn 4 (when you pass up India for Egypt) that something is up, and the US will have 4 solid turns to build in the Atlantic only. They should be able to invade Africa (directly confronting Japanese), Europe, or Norway. The US supply lines are much shorter than the Japanese and regardless after the initial Japanese forces arrive, nothing else of consequence is coming for the Axis. And the consequences of ignoring India, DEI, China, and most likely convoying Japan add up to major economic advantage for the Allies, who can focus on manufacturing units to pour into the Russian and western fronts.

There is one caveat that would destroy all of this. If the Axis had set up for a Moscow crush on G5-6, and the Allies did not plan to send enough fighters to support Russia (either from India, Middle East (middle Earth plan), or via north route) , then not all of the fighters I mention above will arrive in time and Moscow can fall. If that happens, then the Japanese will descend upon Egypt and overwhelm it. Game over.

Regarding the Pacific side victory. Germany and Italy are too far away from India to be able to take it down before 8-9 turns assuming reasonable Allied defense. I’m not sure what that would look like. You have to defend against the Russians. The US will fight for Africa and make any troop transports through the Med to Middle East slow and painful. The alternative of going through the Caucasus takes a long time as well. 8 Turns is probably optimistic. Again, the Allies have time to react and fortress Hawaii is really hard for the Japanese to win in any game.

Perhaps you could try a version of Dark skies where the Germans and Italians shuck bombers to sites in China that the Japanese own. Then use the bombers to can-open, allowing the iJN to roll over enemy fleets. But you have released the Russian horde, and I don’t know that the game is recoverable for the Axis once that happens.

As usual , this tactic requires your opponent to not play optimally.

[WindowWasher]

For the European side victory, Japan would spend the first few turns taking DEI and China and normal Japan things. Italy would expend it’s Mediterranean resources into delaying allied control and invest mainly into its air force or can opening for Germany. Germany would literally only buy planes and tanks. If Germany sees that it can take Moscow say… G6, the Japanese player would do a J2 declaration and take the DEI with transports hopefully not loosing too many men. Then he’d stage his transports, and all carriers with a destroyer off of Malaya on J3. J4 the Japanese player would move his ships to SZ78/79, SZ76 on J5 and SZ 81 (egypt) on J6.

This would require the Japanese player to use his starting carriers and transports along with transports bought on J1, leaving all further Japanese purchases to go to defending the DEI and taking china.

If the Germans (and Italy in this case) are going all in on Moscow, from my experience the allies cant get a meaningful amount of air power to Moscow without making sacrifices elsewhere.

So I believe that the European victory idea is possible, but I have to agree with you for the pacific side victory, I don’t think thats possible after some thought and seeing your reasoning

[AndrewAAGamer]

@WindowWasher
I think this is doable however it is an all or nothing strategy; which personally I try to stay away from in case something goes wrong. If the Axis fails to win on the Europe side in a timely manner the Allies will easily win since Japan will be collecting next to nothing and that would allow the Allies to gang up on the Europe side of the board.

Might be viable in a face to face Tournament game where you want to win by say Turn 8 to make sure there is a clear winner or loser.

[WindowWasher]

I will try it, who knows it might work, if it does ill let you know. Its a once per opponent type of thing, if you know japan is going for Egypt, you can easily make it hell with blockers and whatnot.

[oysteilo]

If you want to help euro axis with japan a better plan (I think) is to secure India with japan and from there (or Malaya) go for South Africa. South Africa is usually less defended than Egypt and hence it is easier to capture with less resources, maybe a couple of transports are enough together with a loaded carrier and a destroyer. A yellow south africa is a pain to deal with for allies

[aequitas-et-veritas]

@oysteilo right on!
As soon as Africa is becoming more and more yella file for loss as Allies.

[WindowWasher]

@oysteilo I definitely agree in the long run, that’s the way to go. But this is meant to be a quick one and done t6 win with axis.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

I had an unusual game where the Axis captured Egypt early. The Americans focused heavily on the European operations and the Allies were steadily making progress on that side of the map. I built up the Japanese air force and sent it on a suicide attack into Moscow around turn 8. Stripping off 15 infantry Allied units in Moscow can change a battle from a 95% chance of losing into a 95% chance of winning when the Germans get their turn. It also means that Germany will keep their air force intact, allowing them to reclaim any European victory cities if necessary.

The best part of this strategy is that the extra Japanese planes can hold the Allies at bay for several turns, forcing India to cower and Anzac + USA to be more conservative with their fleets. All of the planes can raid Moscow from a base in Sichuan, meaning that only one turn is required to setup the pivot from Pacific to Europe.

Of course the Russian AA’s shot down half of my Japanese raiders and the German tanks had their turrets pointed backwards, leading to an abrupt and unhappy end to a genius strategy.