@barnee Thanks!
May I bounce in with my two cents… You get a hard time playing Allies OOB without bid. IMO they are even further handicapped more than Axis by playing it as physical multi-player boardgame because of the lack of a battle calculator (I assume so) needed for solid defense setup and because coordination is much more crucial for Allies. Thus my advices are
focus on fun and fellowship even more than victory
don’t let someone bore out by playing only Russia
Allies should keep it simple, do only overwhelming attacks and shift/seek their aggressiveness into/in smart strong positioning. Overall secure London, then Moscow, then India and Iraq - be both flexible and focused. Don’t lose Gibraltar or Egypt. Have Western Allies’ planes in Europe that can be also at Moscow in time. And going more into detail: Consider if it counters Axis’ moves and serves your purpose well when you go with planes defending on the route (a) London (b/c) Gib (d) sz99 [Crete] (e) Moscow. btw UK planes can fly to Moscow within two turns if they land on US carriers in sz92 (Western to Gibs) or sz97 which then move to sz99
Have transports with ground units with your fleets just for creating threats!!
I personally indeed found for playing the physical boardgame without usual bidding that a great but easy tweak is starting the game with French Turn Zero! Allowedly this severely impacts German opening and default strategies, but is adding a nice portion of balance in both odds and initiative.
Last but not least I like tech on when casually playing face to face. This is offering an interesting way to deal with different levels of skills, too: Agree on a number of free tech rolls granted to the supposedly weaker player(s)
@pacifiersboard said in Allied Playbook - G40 Collection of Essays - Compiled by jacobgeo24 Nov 18-19 2023:
I personally indeed found for playing the physical boardgame without usual bidding that a great but easy tweak is starting the game with French Turn Zero! Allowedly this severely impacts German opening and default strategies, but is adding a nice portion of balance in both odds and initiative.
Nice ! I think I’ll add it as a triplea option for those that play digitally. At least I think I can :)
@barnee
Cool.
@crockett36 had thought of it in [Global 1940] One rule to balance it?
Thank you for the mentions. That is a great thread and a lot of big names chimed in on my whattsapp. I believe I read that thread on my youtube channel. I have several games of France goes first on my channel as well. It is fun, though by the third time, the Axis players were ready for it and neutralized the advantage by turn 2. Still by that time, Japan had spent itself on a gambit and was on its way down down down.
I also have a Russia for dummies, which is a basic turtle. I believe you end up with around 93 to 100 troops in Moscow. I forget who the genius who said, “Don’t lose Moscow…cheaply!”
I really appreciate your comments to these young men on how to enjoy this game. Technology is definitely an undiscovered country for many here, and it does add soooooo much to the game from variety to historicity. But I digress into an old rant. As in life, we need new blood and this hobby is actually a “good” hobby, grounding the next generation in the courage of the greatest generation. I fear they may need it.
@crockett36 https://youtu.be/ctpBvxkps2k? si=gIZKutZ3J3rd77DU
I did a video and showed the videos mentioned above sans my technology videos.
So jealous! I don’t know anyone in my area to play face to face with.
Yes! Yes! Please do so! I’ve been hoping for it for so long (actually suggested that house rule a couple years back) (https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1547656)! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Agreed on tehcnology. Just played a low luck (no other house rules) game, and the US scoring heavy bombers early was quite a boon. They would’ve been half or even a quarter as effective in contrsting the Pacific without it.
@pacifiersboard Thank you for the advice, I will surely use some of it during our tournament and don’t worry about the Russia player, he will be commanding the USA as well! And of course we value the time we have together and our fellowship much more than who wins a board game!
@SuperbattleshipYamato Yes I know it has been tough to play the game with people and I have been so lucky to learn the game. My dad played Classic with his friends when it came out in '84 and in 2018, a friend sent him a copy of revised to get him back into the game. He then taught me and we played our first Axis and Allies game in June 2018. I then introduced my friend who loves history to the game and taught him how to play, and we would play against my dad together and then against each other for years until 2022 when he taught his friend how to play and it has been a chain reaction. All you have to do it just teach someone who has time and won’t immediately turn you down, maybe someone who is interested in history will be easier to hook on with. But, I am lucky that my dad had played before and taught me because otherwise I wouldn’t have found a way to introduce my friends to it and grow our community. Now I am so grateful that members like @AndrewAAGamer, @crockett36, and many more along with all the guys on youtube like GHG, Good Captain, all the guys who play G36, Hilltop Pillbox, Board Game Nation, and so many more are around to help grow the game and bring more knowledge to people like me and my friends. They are helping to create a new generation of young Axis and Allies players like myself.
@jacobgeo24 said in Allied Playbook - G40 Collection of Essays - Compiled by jacobgeo24 Nov 18-19 2023:
and won’t immediately turn you down,
Sounds like how I met my ex wife lol
Sorry. Good action here. Keep Rocking. In the future, after you’ve enjoyed OOB, this is a fun house rule mod https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/36945/axis-allies-global-1940-house-rules-expansion
@barnee Thanks
Hello, I have recently gone over the PDF again and I have realized that there have been many conflicting UK strategies, I know we have addressed the issue of the Taranto raid, but beyond that there is a lot of debate on what should be done as the UK in Europe specifically.
I see UK pacific as much easier to understand, their job is to halt the Japanese and not loose Calcutta at all costs and possibly get support from UK Europe from the Middle East if the UK goes down that route and Anzac Planes. Other than that, try to be a thorn in Japan’s side, slow them down and stifle their progress. But for UK Europe, I’ve found it more challenging.
GHG’s Middle Earth strategy is one of the most popular strategies on the forums and he has constantly backed it up for years now, but people have pointed out that it is not the best UK strategy, and that against a competent player, the UK would not be as successful with Middle Earth. And especially the, “I don’t care about losing Egypt,” line he said in his video brought up some controversy too.
Some folks like to put the pressure on Italy, while the others lets Italy mind it’s business and go for landings in France or Norway, and I am not sure which one is the way to go. More commonly than not, there seems to be a commonality in games that the UK puts effort into the Middle East or North Africa and sometimes sub-Saharan Africa, but there is a lot of variability in the strategies of people games. Some advocate for factories in Egypt, in Iraq, in Persia, building out of SA and shucking, and some are completely against Persia and want only Egypt and Iraq to have factories. And then there are others who are skeptical and generally more apprehensive when it comes to Middle East factories, I have seen this point brought up by @crockett36 before.
And what is the proper first turn buy, because I know for many it is the standard 6 Infantry 1 Fighter build to deter Sealion, but I have seen it varied now with the airbase on Gib for Gibastion, Uk1 Factory in Egypt, and such. Is this enough to deter a sealion, should I be defending London UK1, or can I spend money elsewhere?
I’m just not sure, when I have played before, I don’t really have a coherent Uk strategy, mainly because I haven’t played Allies in a while, and I find myself struggling to find a way to use Uk effectively unlike how I can use USA and Russia well. I know that many regard Uk as the most dynamic and most challenging Ally to play, and I was hoping to see what consensus was now on UK strategies and how I should be playing them.
Thanks!
I don’t have any solutions, but I agree UK Europe is hard. I handle the US pretty well against both Europe and Japan, and I just need to refrain from attacking too much as the Soviets.
With UK Europe though it feels aimless at times. I don’t usually build industrial complexes in Egypt (never really thought about it), so a Mediterranean strategy is sometimes difficult to adequately reinforce. Additionally the lower income compared to the US makes it hard to build enough ships and create a stable shuck of ground troops the way the US can choose to do.
In almost every game of Global 1940 I’ve played, the Allies always lose, but that’s more to mid and late game mistakes than deficient openers and/or grand strategy.
If you have not read my Essay, I suggest you do. You can find it here.
I think he was looking for more specific suggestions like exact first turn buys and Middle Eastern/African industrial complexes, not just that (very well written) paragraph about UK grand strategy.
I don’t think you can reasonably reply with a definitive answer. It depends on so much. What did the Allies buy with the Bid? Where did they place it? What did Germany do on G1? What did Japan do on J1?
UK Europe should keep in mind the guiding principles. On UK1 your main focus should be A) Defend your capitol (London) and B) Hose Italy. How you do that depends on what you lost on G1 and if you want to do Taranto or Gibastion.
@SuperbattleshipYamato No it’s fine, what Andrew sent is good, also I do have a printed out version of the Essay out that I found a while back online and I make sure to keep that with my G40 game. I know it is tough to always get into the specifics of each nation because of circumstances but the advice that @AndrewAAGamer gives in his paper is helpful. It lists the responsibilities of UK and how they should approach their general strategies well. Also we generally play OOB with no bids, yes I know it is hard for the Allies to win but we appreciate the challenge and it makes winning with them all the more rewarding. I have found ways to consistently win as both the allies and the axis in OOB G40, but of course I and my usual opponent aren’t perfect.
Glad it helped. I learned so much from that as well.
