OOB Allies Strategy and Chances for World Domination

[Flying Tigerz]

Hey guys,

So the common advice regarding the OOB setup is that the Axis have a huge advantage over the Allies, and this has mostly been my experience. However, does this rule hold up when we require that the Axis get complete domination, and not just a win via victory cities.

If this rule change does swing victory in favour of the Allies, how would you wager the Allies should play? I know it’s near impossible to strategize for the Allies, as their actions tend to mostly be reactionary. However, I’d love to hear of any general strategies, tactics, or advice one would have if you were playing the game as the Allies in this way. I personally think that, if the Axis can’t win through victory cities, then it becomes increasingly difficult for them to win (production value is just so much higher for the Allies, even if nations like UK Pacific and Russia are lost).

What is the community’s thoughts? I will be playing against someone who is much better than me at the game (in person), and he has reiterated that he can smash the Allies in world domination as the Axis. Do you agree?

[Cornwallis]

Hey, I’ve been asking myself the same question, why do axis have a huge advantage. My friends and I don’t have that feeling (rather 55-45 for axis). But we never play with victory cities. Our games usually ends with axis victory when:

1. Axis take moscow with a huge amount of troops remaining and Allies have no solid ground in Europe and with japan still going wild)
2. Axis have a huge advantage in total IPC revenue per round per player (for exemple when germany and italy have a decent revenue and Japan is still controlling money islands).

I think in the long run (10-15 turns) the allied will gain an advantag (if they gain more IPC per round than axis), so i think most people play with victory cities on the short-middle run (7-8 turns).

But yet again, this is my experience (playing for 14 years for 2 games a month) on the board, i don’t play on triple A.

[Flying Tigerz]

Thanks for the reply, Cornwallis!

That’s exactly my thoughts. I’m going up against a couple guys who are objectively my superiors in the game. They want to play Axis and have stated that they can thrash us unequivocally, even in a world domination scenario.

I’m just not sure that’s entirely true, though. I would agree if we played with the traditional victory city conditions, but I think world domination for the Axis is much more ambiguous (though definitely possible).

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

@ShadowHAwk not sure that I would want to play a 40+ round world domination game with stalemates in so many portions of the world. I assume that bombers would become the meta, being able to project power into so many theaters and preventing your opponent’s fleet from splitting to two forces.

OOB is just fine if you are relatively new to the game and playing face-to-face with no battle calculators. Eventually someone will make a mistake or two, and the game will be quickly over. The issue is with PBEM games where you can battle calc every possible option and figure out how many fighters will be required in Moscow to shift the odds from 50% up to 90%. That gives the Axis such a big advantage as they are the aggressor during the critical first 8 turns.