@tincanofthesea thanks! I’m going test it next time I play. Whats your feedback? @GeneralHandGrenade
An Axis and Allies Global 1940 TripleA "puzzle" if you have a lot of time (or as I like to call it, Axis and Allies Jumbo)
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Okay.
You’re the Allies, the hard AI on TripleA is the Axis.
Unfortunately, Germany and Japan have a 720 IPC bid, and Italy has a 480 IPC bid.
The US and the Soviets get 240 IPC bids, and all other Allied economies (Europe Britain and Pacific Britain are treated sepereately) get 120 IPC bids.
There is still a 940 IPC bid gap between the Allies and the Axis in favour of the Axis.
Can you win?
Here’s a file of such a game (using low luck):
2023-7-9-World-War-II-Global-1940-2nd-Edition.tsvg
As you can see (or not if you don’t use TripleA), things are not looking good for the Allies.
Yes, the Soviets and British each caused a battle, that, while retreating, caused a significant TUV swing in favour of the Allies.
Yes, Egypt hasn’t fallen yet.
Yes, the US Navy is still intact.
Yes, ANZAC has taken quite a lot of islands and has built up a large army on the mainland.
But other than that, things are really bad. Germany, in particular, invested heavily in strategic bombers and wiped out the Allied fleets in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, despite using much of my European British and French bids towards building ships.
Italy has a free hand in the Mediterranean and the Japanese smashed the Soviet Far Eastern army, where I put a lot of the Soviet bid.
So yeah, the Allies had some successes, but the defeats seem insurmountable.
Let me know if you can figure out a way to carry the Allies to victory (you can always just play the file I put on this post and send me a revised file of an Allied victory).
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S SuperbattleshipYamato referenced this topic on
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@SuperbattleshipYamato Honestly the Pacific looks salvageable; those Japanese bombers look mean but their land units will still suffer on the offense, and that’s what you need. Europe… ouch. I struggle to see any way around the literally 50 Axis bombers there. Only suggestion would be to mass produce American and UK capital ships with destroyer screens after saving for a turn or two and combine fleets in SZ 109. While that takes precious time, the Germans also don’t have huge stacks of land units in Russia for now so you could just maybe afford it. That’s the silver bullet, as I see it. Their sloth could be your ticket out, though it is still ugly.
Perhaps spending the French bid on land units in Paris may have been a better use, as it would have diverted some bombers and forced the Germans to pay more dearly for a necessary objective instead of just trouncing you navy with manageable losses. Just a thought. Good luck!
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I was thinking of that, but I wanted to pair them with a 40 infantry UK Europe buy, but I wanted to buy ships following AndrewAAGamer’s advice… (despite the fact that advice for a 20 IPC bid is different from a bid of hundreds of IPCs).
I’m thinking of starting another game, less ambitious, where the Germany and Japan both have 84 IPC bids, Italy 72 IPCs, the Soviets and Americans 24 IPCs, and all other powers (UK Europe and UK Pacific treated separately) 12 IPC bids.
I’ve beaten the Axis with a 360 IPC bid before, but that was the Easy AI, where it stupidly invested in ground units in the capital (even with Japan, which only delayed Operation Downfall).
The hard AI using their bid to buy strategic bombers is a very different equation and very devastating as you can see.
Thanks for the advice!
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@SuperbattleshipYamato That lower bid sounds much more competitive and frankly just more fun. Maybe I’ll have to give it a try over the next week or so, too!
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It’s really fun, especially with the easy AI.
It’s predictable after some time, but sometimes it’s just fun to beat up a weak opponent, taking big risks, without any major challenges or negative consequences.
It’s also a good place to test out bid placements (I saw AndrewAAGamer’s recommendations for Allied bid placements in Global 1940 and I wanted to try them out).
Best to do it before they get better.
I would also like to add that (if you didn’t notice), the British only scored their victory against the Japanese by using edit mode to retroactively move the British bid.
I have a strong feeling that if the British put their army in Kwangtung initially the Japanese wouldn’t have left their air fleet in Kwangsi.
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I just finished it. It was a very fun game.
I went on a KJF as the US and Japan’s navy was reeling after 5-7 so turns. On the Asian mainland the British and Chinese repulsed the Japanese and began a counteroffensive. I bought a tank in the ANZAC bid and put it in Egypt. This allowed the ANZAC to be a serious can-opener, and allowed ANZAC to eliminate Italian blockers as they retreated across North Africa westward, then on the British turn move into that territory, crucially, with their aircraft.
Unfortunately the Soviets couldn’t hold the Germans back and Moscow fell, Western Allied reinforcements (including a British North African army, built up using minor industrial complexes in Egypt and Union of South Africa, veterans of the smashing of the Italian North African army, turned east) coming too late.
At one point the European Axis controlled 7 victory cities.
However, a massive ANZAC and British army (ANZAC took over French Indochina and put down a minor industrial complex), coming from China (Japan in China was mostly defeated, with ground units relegated to islands, Korea, Mongolia and the occupied Soviet Far Eastern territories) and industrial complexes from Egypt, Union of South Africa, and a newly minted Iraq complex, held a German push into the Middle East (the Axis never took the Caucasus) and started slowly but surely pushing back the German army, liberating vast amounts of Soviet territory.
While the British-ANZAC army hammered the Axis in the occupied Soviet Union, the US turned their full fury, having dusted the IJN off the game and the Japanese withering on varied islands and fighting a losing war against existing ANZAC, British, Chinese, and American units, against Europe (fun fact, Japan never even attacked the Phillipines or the Dutch East Indies, obviously a massive mistake) against Europe, building innumerable amounts of ground units and transports to bring against Western Europe. While each attack was crushed by German and Italian counterattacks, they took a lot of Axis units with them, both in casualties and forces tied down guarding the coast.
The US also captured Norway and Finland, building minor industrial complexes in both territories and putting pressure on German held Novgorod.
By the time Moscow was liberated by the British, all of the Soviet Union was liberated up to their 1940 borders (or the start of the game’s borders).
After that it was only a matter of time before Germany and Italy were evaporated. Concurrently the US built up a transport fleet along with the necessary ground units to capture Tokyo.
The end of the war was very favourable to the West. The facists and communists annihilated each other, and the British liberation of the entire Soviet Union left the country deeply in debt (morally speaking) to them while the weakness of the Soviet government (along with discontent from Ukrainians, Chechens, you know, just all the non-Russian ethnic groups, but even anti-Soviet, weary Russians) and army along with the mass destruction wrought by the war allowed the Western Allies to include them Marshall Plan and transform the former Soviet Union into a Western style democracy.
The British control eastern Germany (including the symbolic Berlin), along with several countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, such as Slovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary. The Americans control western Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the rest of Eastern Europe and the Balkans (western Poland, Romania, Greece, and Yugoslavia). All of the Nordic countries (minus Sweden are under American control). ANZAC carved out a bit of land for themselves, controlling Austria, the Czech Republic, and Albania.
The contours of the war also meant that much of Europe was industrialised, bringing additional prosperity post-war, with industry already up and running.
So yes, it was very fun.
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Actually, I’m not too fond of continuing the game.
If you have extra time, would you be kind enough to play the game “for” me testing your strategy so I can see how it goes? Thank you!
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@SuperbattleshipYamato Do you mean from the save game or starting all over including placing bids?
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Saved game. If you want you can do one with the same starting bids as well (but please do the saved game first).
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@SuperbattleshipYamato You got it.
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@SuperbattleshipYamato Sorry; which save game? The one above you already won.
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The one in the original post. You know, the one where the Axis have a 900+ IPC advantage. Try to play and win that one.
If you succeed, I will call you a better player than me. :grin:
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@SuperbattleshipYamato Lol, okay. I’ll go on you suicide mission.
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Oh boy. I can’t wait.
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I did the exact same IPC bid in a new game, but instead of the hard AI I did it with the easy AI.
I’ll tell you more tomorrow, but I’ll just say this (call it a sneak peek):
These are some of the categories I imagine would be in an awards ceremony for worst Axis and Allies play (inspired by the Oscars):
Worst Single Turn Purchase
Worst Move (combat or noncombat)
Worst Battle (as in, the most stupid battle someone decided to have)
Most Stupid Declaration of War
Worst Bid Placement
Worst Single Game
Worst Gameplay (most “prestigious”)I’ll add more when I think of them.
Based on the results of the game, let’s just say the easy AI won all those awards in this game.
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With their usual stupidity, the AI spammed the entire German bid in Berlin. This prevented what should’ve been an easy German victory in Paris due to the infantry and artillery unable to reach it (France bought 40 infantry with their bid and placed them in Paris, same with UK Europe). This would cause problems later.
Germany also inexplicably declared war on the Soviets on their first turn despite not attacking anywhere (not even the ships).
The Soviets dumped a lot of their bid in a massive infantry-artillery army in Eastern Poland.
So Germany moved their entire army (in Berlin) into Western Germany while leaving their meagre forces in Eastern Europe helpless against the massive Soviet forces.
On the first turn for the Soviets they smashed Finland, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia Hungary.
The French and British caused chaos in Western Europe, counterattacking and conquering Northern Italy (entire Italian bid was used on Rome), retaking Normandy Bordeaux, and liberating Holland Belgium.
What Germany should’ve done on turn 2 was obvious:
Use their infantry and artillery to shatter the British and French while using their tanks, mechanized infantry, and aircraft to break the Soviet army in Slovakia Hungary.
Instead they did what would probably be the worst move the could be possible in that situation.
Germany moved their entire army into Greater Southern Germany. What?
Berlin had very few defences and the Soviets pushed their entire army into Berlin. The loss of their capital at such a critical time in the game was painful.
Over the next few turns, a ridicolous German insistence on moving their entire army as one unit allowed the Soviets to retake Berlin again and hang around in Eastern Europe (collecting the massive IPC bonuses, of course) for longer than they really should’ve given the weakness of Soviet forces.
Japan was even worse. Japan placed their entire bid in ground units in Tokyo, preventing 90% of the Japanese army from seeing combat until the actual invasion of Japan, when things were long in the Allied favour.
Anyways, a Chinese bid in Anhwe along with the British Pacific bid in Kwangtung retook all of Japanese occupied China by turn 1, with amphibious Japanese incursions not lasting long.
Meanwhile, the Soviets put some of their bid in the Far East, taking Korea on the first turn. While the Japanese retook it, Soviet forces later retook it.
Then, a few turns later, Japan made a decision. I thought after the Greater Southern Germany move the easy AI couldn’t make a worse decision, it did. Japan declared war on the true neutrals and the US (again, Japan didn’t even attempt to attack any US territory or fleet despite Hawaii being more or less wide open).
This had a multitude of effects:
The US came into the war early, allowing it to use a bid-strengthened fleet and army to cause problems in Western Europe.
The US got a ton of extra income and troops from South America.
The US activated Spain and build an extra minor industrial complex.
The UK was able to activate Turkey, establishing a Balkans front. With Britain setting up minor industrial complexes in Egypt and the Middle East (along with the rather easy and quick dusting of Italian forces due to poor Italian play, with operations concluding just as the front was established), this was a big drain on German and Italian forces.
ANZAC also activated Saudi Arabia (using the forces from Egypt), setting up a minor industrial complex and allowing ANZAC to use the resources and excess income provided from the Dutch East Indies to make units that could easily aid into the war, as there wasn’t enough space in the single minor industrial complex in New South Wales. Britain wouldn’t have had enough income to build a minor industrial complex and have it run at full capacity anyway.
Later on, Germany started their invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were barely holding them off as they thundered through Leningrad, Belarus and all of Ukraine. The Soviets still held Romania for an unreasonable amount of time given the force disparities, giving a boost to the Soviet economy.
As for the Western Front, Italy’s bid-improved army was steadily ground down by constant British and American attacks. By turn 2 the Italian fleet was smashed, and Britain had a lot of autonomy, particularly regarding the important movement of transports.
Stupidly, it seemed that Italy treated their capital like any other territory, leaving it deserted, seemingly trying to lure the British into the territory and be destroyed by a counterattack.
But Rome was no ordinary territory, leading Rome to be sacked multiple times. To say this was devastating to Italy was an understatement.
Meanwhile, Germany, tied up against the Soviets and Italy, tied up against British attacks on Rome and American attacks on France, were unable to seriously push against the British lodgement in the Balkans, only counterattacking when the British breached Yugoslavia or any original German territories.
Despite going very far into the Soviet Union, poor Germany play prevented them from seriously breaching the final line of Soviet defences in Bryansk.
Due to the loss of their capital so many times, Italy was unable to replace their eventual losses, despite initial success, expelling the Americans out of Spain and possibly even Portugal (can’t remember).
After Italy ran out of units, the Axis in Western Europe folded quickly. Again leaving a weak Berlin, the city fell soon after Rome did, despite the Germans still having a sizeable army in the Soviet Union, which over the following turns was steadily hunted down and exterminated.
And what was happening in the Pacific? Not much. Japan again stupidly never moved their fleet out of sea zone 6 (barely reinforcing it either), and never tried to attack the Phillipines or the Dutch East Indies.
America leisurely built up their fleet and smashed the Japanese navy. After the fall of Japanese forces on the mainland and the Allied capture of all islands with IPC value, Japan was reduced to having no units, completely blockaded.
After the fall of Germany and Italy, it was just Tokyo left.
Japan’s bid was extremely formidable (something like 60+ infantry, 48 artillery, 50 mechanised infantry, and 29 tanks) though, and a long, exhausting, and tedious buildup from ANZAC, Britain, and the Americans took up the rest of the game. The Western Allies built up transports to move their massive armies (created by their bids), while simautneoulsy moving troops from Europe (using the transports that were already present there) and building up aircraft, particularly long range strategic bombers that could get to bases quickly.
In three succeeding attacks, Japan was utterly annihilated, with the British having the honour of marching through Tokyo.
It still boggles the mind how the Axis, with such a massive advantage, a 940 IPC bid gap in addition to the advantage already given by out of box rules, could still lose so spectacularly in the hands of very weak players.
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@SuperbattleshipYamato Impressively… unique of the AI. Thanks for the update. I have one for you!
I tried your hard AI challenge, and I wound up only making it through turn 4 until I decided it was a lost cause. The Pacific was still maybe salvageable, but while I still held Cairo, Africa was a huge mess. The 20 or so Italian bombers wouldn’t have let me keep it for long. I was hoping the Soviets would do better, but the German bomber fleet also did damage, not allowing me to stack any units without decimating them. Germany lost probably 20% of its ground forces while I lost 70% of mine to small stacks of infantry paired with 30 or so bombers. A fun proposal, but I cut my losses and bowed out early. Sorry to dissapoint. ;P
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Ah, well. It’s nigh impossible. Looked like a good try though. I probably couldn’t have done better myself.
It looked very fun though. I’ve never seen a game where a single battle had 30 strategic bombers or more (well, okay, in my last game the US sent 70 strategic bombers against Tokyo during Downfall, but that was a one-off thing). Wanna send me the file?
Here’s the one for my game:
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@SuperbattleshipYamato I would but I accidentally closed out the game tab before saving it, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. ;) Oops.
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