Need help defending as UK until USSR joins

[YUMYAM]

Hi all, me and my friends got together for a first time game of 1940 global this semester and we got nearly to the end of round two last night, Stop at Italy because the player was busy. Allies have had some horrible rolls and things haven’t been going great. As UK, I attacked the Italian fleet in sz 97 and failed to sink his battleship. Maybe I missed a eligible plane but at the end of the day just got really unlucky. Cleaned up the atlantic a good bit from subs, and Germany failed to defeat my english passage fleet on the first turn but destroy it on his second with heavy airforce losses. Germanies navy now is left to two battleships and two subs way up by iceland. I have a pretty strong suspion that they are planning sea lion, and bought 9 infantry last round to defend (Wish I bought a tank and mech and put it on South Africa, but oh well). I still have a small med fleet outside of egypt, but all likelihood seems as though the italians will sink it on their next turn. America has taken Brazil but has little other presence.

In the Pacific, Calcutta has been slammed but at fairly heavy losses to japans airforce and ground troops. I was also able to snipe two transports with my tac bomber. Basically slamming infantry in India, holding off. Sydney and Honolulu are safe at the moment, ansac has taken little attrition.

I have the most experience because me and my buddies would play 1942 in high school, and all of us but italy played 1941 to get the hang of things before we jumped into 1940 global. Were all super enthralled and enjoying the game but I need some extra guidance from experienced players to make this situation work. Should we send American boats to Iceland to threaten sea lion? Should we focus a pacific play and take Japan first and hope London holds out? I’ll attach images of the board to this post, please let me know what y’all thoughts are for the next play from the allies. (keep in mind we are all new to this version of the game hence not very good yet)

[shadowhawk]

Can we get a bit more information on what you did and what germany did.

What did germany buy? You mention 2 battleships??
What did you bring to taranto and what else did you do.
What did italy do with its extra BB and transport unit?

Also where are some of your starting forces in afrika? You appear to lack some UK units there or did you just forget to move them.
Same with russia why are they @ the border and split why not all stacked up.

UK looks pretty good actually, if germany buys transports just buy inf and stack londen and you be good. you already got 3 fighters available. Let germany try, if they win londen they lost europe the same round, if they lose @londen they will lose europe the next round as russia cannot attack :P

[MarshmallowofWar]

I think maybe he’s confused over the cruiser. It looks to me like there’s a German battleship and cruiser in sea zone 110, but it’s hard to tell if that second unit is a cruiser or a battleship.

Marsh

[MarshmallowofWar]

@YUMYAM I am unclear if Italy is about to move or has not yet moved but based on your message and the position of the units it looks like UK1 is complete but I1 is not yet complete. If that’s correct, you’ll have to wait until Italy and Germany have completed their turns for you to plan your next moves.

Your fleet in the Suez is safe because you control the canal, but if Italy marshals all available forces Egypt is lost.

Have a great game!

Marsh

[YUMYAM]

@shadowhawk I tried the taranto raid (Kill the battleship off southern Italy, right?) and even brought 2 planes but failed to sink the battleship. Sucks. Got everything else and consolidate Indian fleet by the suez. I should be able to hold off Germany until soviets join in turn 5, but I’m worried about Africa. I failed to build a factory on either of my first two turns and see Italy having a more powerful force, especially if they use transports to bring more men. My plan is to build 2 tanks and a plane in SA and start marching up. See if Germany build transports and stack more men on London. On Egypt I believe Italy will attack from libya at heavy losses, and if there’s one or two units left I’ll transport the two men with a plane and a cruiser shot to retake. Then march my tank and planes up. Thoughts?

[YUMYAM]

@YUMYAM I also need some advice on ansac because japan has a significant force and I failed to take the money islands. If I brought the us force to queensland I’d have a shot but it would leave Hawaii exposed to the mainland jap fleet. Additionally I want the US to spend their IPCs on a european fleet and would be spreading too thin if US went to reinforce both theaters.

[YUMYAM]

@MarshmallowofWar Italy is up next for their turn 2. That’s where we had to stop because Italy wasn’t present at the moment

[YUMYAM]

@MarshmallowofWar Also, Germany currently has 3 battleships. The silver marker in the Baltic is a fresh battleship, and there two side by side in the English channel.

[MarshmallowofWar]

@YUMYAM said in Need help defending as UK until USSR joins:

@MarshmallowofWar Also, Germany currently has 3 battleships. The silver marker in the Baltic is a fresh battleship, and there two side by side in the English channel.

Uh, wow.

So, at this point Russia should consolidating forces to ATTACK Germany. Russia starts ahead of Germany on infantry and with Germany having spent 40 IPCs on battleships is not going catch up anytime soon. Have Russia press the attack on Germany as quickly as possible.

If you can muster five or more planes, kill the stack of two battleships before it becomes three battleships. You’re going to lose planes in this battle, so you need to build at least one replacement.

Start building ground forces in South Africa on your next turn. Since Italy has no factory, you’ll need to force him to either build one or keep building transports to keep expanding in the Med.

If Italy does not take Egypt this round, consider a retreat from Egypt so that you can prepare a proper counterattack there. I would go East to secure Trans-Jordan.

Consider activating Persia using your transport and on your next turn build a minor IC there. Between it and the South Africa factory, you’ll be outproducing Italy 2 to 1 in the immediate area and force Italy to spend its income defending Egypt instead of expanding into Africa and the Middle East.

In the Pacific, go totally defensive, reinforcing ANZAC and Hawaii so that Japan can’t win. Push hard against Japan with China. Build up your US Pacific fleet so that Japan can’t annihilate it. With the little spare funds you have, keep Italy from obtaining it’s NOs in Africa and keep Gibraltar from falling.

Marsh

[YUMYAM]

@MarshmallowofWar Germany will go next and I got to assume he’ll condense in the english channel with 3 battleships. I could scramble 3 planes on my next turn, which wouldn’t be enough .(Gibraltar plane can’t get to that space). Should I buy the plane in SA or England? Or my buy is 3 tanks in SA and a plane in England? Thanks for your help.

[YUMYAM]

@YUMYAM Also, I really like the persia idea. If italy takes Egypt I can’t get there this turn. But I could bring the southern transport with two men in two turns. I’ll probably go to Persia instead of trying to retake Egypt. Then use the two factories to mount a attack. As for US, buying a european fleet and controlling sz 91 will be my priority.

[GovZ]

@YUMYAM I’m not seeing the extra Allied units you get in the global setup. There should be 2 ANZAC guys that start in Egypt and 20 Soviet units that start in the far east.

[shadowhawk]

@YUMYAM
First off russia is going to be insane soon, they can attack round 4 and there is verry little germany can do against them. Make sure you spend some forces taking finland and then norway for the extra bonus for russia and take away german bonus.
But dont let it take away from your main drive mainland europe, once you can reasonably threathen berlin your golden. You spread your russian forces thin and also put your planes on the front line. There is no reason your planes should be on the front line. Also your infantry is spread out so it can be picked off piecemeal.

He spend 40ipcs just in battleships in the first 2 rounds, he wont be going anywhere anytime soon. Even london is quite safe as you would have spend at least 1 or 2 turns of units on there.
Dont bother with tanks in S-afrika, you got 2 transports in the area just buy 2 art + air, use your existing Inf. That would give you 2 inf 2 art to counter same as buying 2 mech + 2 tanks but for a fraction of the costs.

Since china is kinda dead make sure that India is safe, he didnt go for the money islands yet so thats good. Move the fleet to Queensland that would be a nice bother for Japan with their fleet spread out. What is he going to do take hawai with 2 transports while you got 3 fighters and 2 inf there. Not likely.

Stop buying BB really the US should have 2 or even 3 carriers ( loaded with fighters ) in the pacific by now not 3 battleships. Lucky germany is equally silly with its buys.

And indeed where are the 18 russian in against japan and the 2 anzac inf in egypt.
Also what happened to the force you had in alexandria? They seem to have vanished.
Next time dont bring 2 planes to taranto bring at least 4 maby even 5 ( you figure out how but its possible )

Also what did the US buy? I see 1 BB and a destroyer in the pacific and nothing extra in the atlantic? Did stuff get destroyed? This is round 2 right so the US should have spend at least 104IPC’s.
Looks like there are some mistakes made with setup for global maby also for the income for some countries. As you spend about 28ipcs with the US in 2 turns. And its not like the US lacks things it needs to buy so saving is not really usefull.

[AndrewAAGamer]

Yeah, don’t buy battleships. Here is an article I wrote that will help you play the game better.

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/35286/warfare-principles-of-axis-allies-by-andrewaagamer

[shadowhawk]

@AndrewAAGamer said in Need help defending as UK until USSR joins:

Yeah, don’t buy battleships. Here is an article I wrote that will help you play the game better.

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/35286/warfare-principles-of-axis-allies-by-andrewaagamer

Yea good general rule, dont buy battleships.
There are situations where it could be better to buy a battleship but these are so rare.

Like you will be attacked and you need as much defence possible but only got 20ipcs and already 3 fighters @ the airbase. In that case you might consider a BB over a Cruiser + destroyer combo.

[shadowhawk]

Thinking about the post and the board pictures.
Its kinda unfair we now helping only 1 side of the board. As it looks like both players are new to the game our help will give 1 side a clear advantage over the other side.

[barnee]

@shadowhawk yea proxy war. Fascists need someone in there corner :)

[YUMYAM]

@YUMYAM Here’s turn 5. There’s a lot to go over and I’ll miss some things but here’s my synopsis. Yes, much of our setup was wrong. The pacific USSR troops were missing, most likely a few men in Egypt, and most importantly we were clueless on the global rules for war income regarding US, Japan, and USSR. USA was given 40 for the turn we missed that they were at war for, so that would somewhat explain USA weak presence in the last photos. I’ll have to ask for forgiveness from the community, we are learning as were going. Frankly, the Axis are looking set to win. We had Germany take their first turn, and the USSR is set to start next time we play. Germany only took one territory that was a bait with a few men defending. I had USSR buy all arty so they have 20+ on the board. We consolidated in the territory bordering Ukraine and I’m planning on attacking Slovakia and hope we can liberate Greece/Yugoslovia with a Mech. Longshot. USSR will hold for another turn or two, but the US is in too little too late. Italy is set to take all the money from Africa with the exception of SA/Sudan. Japan has taken calcutta at heavy aircraft losses but nevertheless own India. I moved my ANSAC fleet and took out a battleship/sub/cruiser and plan on being more aggressive in pacific now that US and ANSAC has built up and Japan has spread out. Here’s the kicker of the whole game, and easily my biggest blunder. Italy was threatening Persia but I had a few troops and Russian reinforcements coming. What I didn’t account for was Italys TAC bomber which totally threw the scales in their favor. So I build a maj factory (I learned yesterday I can’t do that on a 2 IPC territory so I may get some money back) but Italy came through and stole it. Shit. So now we need to make some moves, and quick, because Italian tanks funded by Africa will be coming for Moscow, forget Jap expansion from India. Allies will not have trouble owning the sea, but there’s no money from owning just the seas. Just taking this whole game as a learning experience, so if you all have any suggestions they would of course be appreciated. Thanks for analyzing!
`

[YUMYAM]

@YUMYAM Correction, Italy brought a strategic bomber, not a tactical one.

[shadowhawk]

@YUMYAM
To be fair, since you made a lot of mistakes at the start with the setup and the war economy and with the movement rules your are better off just calling this a practice round and start over with the proper rules.

Make sure you read the global rules to be sure you know them all and got the correct starting income and setup sorted. Since you got a bit of a grasp for the rules you might also go faster and make less mistakes.

Also a round by round picture would say a lot more then the text as you miss out on stuff like you mentioned and we can spot mistakes pretty easy on a picture. We are trained for that :P