The australian navy and Russians in china

[dondoolee]

1. Can anybody use the Aussies effectivly on a consistant level?  Or are they kind of stuck there unless an opportunity presents itself.

2)How often do you send the Ruskies to china? Is it worth it or does it sap russia of much needed manpower

[a44bigdog]

1.) I think the Aussies so far are more of an as the situation presents itself type of thing. Unless things go sour in the Pacific for Japan on T1. Then Australia is gone T2. However sometimes the INF and ART that may have sailed east to Africa can arrive at the right time and the transport can be useful to shuck troops from a S> African IC to Congo saving a turn of movement.

2.) I send the 2 from Novosibirsk and the 2 from Kazakh unless Caucasus is threatened in every game. With some follow on Reinforcements these Russian forces can stall and slow Japan allowing some of those free infantry to accumulate. While this alone will not stop Japan it can be a big speed bump for them. If nothing else it will buy Russia some time and keep Japan from eliminating China with a mere token force. I am not a fan of massing the Siberian troops and then taking Manchuria in force on round 2. It is too easy for Japan to deal with this even if it does restrict their options on round 2. Because after those Siberian troops are gone the path is now clear to Moscow. Using a minimal force to take Manchuria can be a good thing. 2 or 3 INF may be enough to keep Japan from being able to attack deeper into China. The rest of the Siberian troops need to fall back towards Moscow.

[dondoolee]

I don’t even usually get the chance to send my transport east due to a Jap carrier in striking distance.  All I can do is send the transport west on the first turn which has little to no use thus far.  I’m wondering if there is a way the US can draw the Japanese navy out safely so the Aussies have time to maybe take back indonesia or head towrds Africa.

I usually try to get a small pipeline going with Russia, I think it is a marginal help in the long run as long as one does not over commit there. I can even manage to get a little Russian air support once in awhile.  Russia attacking MAN I think is a bad idea, sometimes I even try to draw the Russians into doing it to take that stack out turn 2, but I do like massing them all In BURY on T1 the japs can take it at heavy cost/ commitment but it hurts japan in the long run very badly.  After t1 I move them towards Moscow

[Blaarg]

In my current game, Australia held versus the J2 attack of 2 infantry, 1 artillery, 1 tank, 1 fighter.  The AA gun hit the Japanese fighter and the land units mopped the Japanese invaders.  Australia ended with an infantry and an artillery and Japan won’t achieve one of their national objectives for at least 2 turns.

[U-505]

@dondoolee:

I don’t even usually get the chance to send my transport east due to a Jap carrier in striking distance.  All I can do is send the transport west on the first turn which has little to no use thus far.  I’m wondering if there is a way the US can draw the Japanese navy out safely so the Aussies have time to maybe take back indonesia or head towrds Africa.

If sea zone 43 is threatened by Japanese fighters then you could always protect the UK units with the US carrier group for one turn to allow them to escape around South America.

[DarthMaximus]

@U-505:

@dondoolee:

I don’t even usually get the chance to send my transport east due to a Jap carrier in striking distance.  All I can do is send the transport west on the first turn which has little to no use thus far.  I’m wondering if there is a way the US can draw the Japanese navy out safely so the Aussies have time to maybe take back indonesia or head towrds Africa.

If sea zone 43 is threatened by Japanese fighters then you could always protect the UK units with the US carrier group for one turn to allow them to escape around South America.

I agree with U-505 here.  This is a pretty good move if you need the extra defense.  If you go Altantic after this you can still get to SZ 12 on US 3 or (assuming you go to Bra in round 2) you can land in multiple spots on Afr and the AC/dd provide some good defense against minor axis air threats.

I always pull 1 inf, 1 rt from Aus on UK 1.  I go to Sz 30 if safe from J air, but in most games I have to go east and occasionally I’ll need the US dd/ac/1-2 ftrs for extra defense.

[Gargantua]

I like to load the art into the trn, and offload in NZE. try to position it in range of a jap trty like CAR, or like the others suggest, move it out to protect it.

I believe keeping the trn in the area, to threaten against jap incursions, comes in handy, it slos japan down, and provides the UK with income options that they desperately need.  let america liberate afr.