How to stop Germany

[Guest]

Okay, so I’ve played AA Europe quite a few times. I switch sides every game to make it interesting- but almost every game goes the same. Germany goes after Russia and the Middle East, and usually Moscow falls by the 6th turn, 7th turn, depending on Russian counterattacks… I would appreciate any suggestions or comments on the strategies I’ve been using, as both sides. I’ve posted a short synopsis of the games as played.

Game setup. Russia places aircraft carrier and 2 battleships in Black Sea to fend off German amphibious assault. :) Usual bantering and empty insults, most involving the opponent’s mother(s) and something about last night.

Initial buy:
Germany, 3 artillery- one in Poland, two in Rumania
Allies: 3 artillery, Belorussia

Germany 1:
buys 13 infantry, artillery
attacks British navy in North Sea with 5 subs, two fighters.
Celtic Sea attacked with 4 subs, fighter.
British destroyer in Gibraltar attacked with destroyer from Med fleet and fighter from N. Italy.
Attacks British fighter on Malta with infantry/artillery from Italy, along with Battleship.
Strat bombs Leningrad.
takes both the British 5 IPC convoys.
Attacks E. Poland, Bessarabia and Ukraine with available forces, leaving most tanks/infantry behind in Poland to protect from potential Russian counterattack.
Non-combats nearly all units east through Europe, two infantry from Norway transported to Poland. All planes that can land in Germany.
Units placed in Germany.
collects 43 IPCS.

Russia 1: (after strat bombing losses- let’s say 3)
buys 3 artillery, 3 infantry
attacks Ukraine, German transport in Baltic. Fortifies west, most into Belorussia.
Units placed in Moscow.
collects 23 IPCs.

UK1:
buys destroyer, transport, saves 5
attacks German subs in Celtic Sea with fighter, bomber, destroyer. Moves into Libya with all Middle East units.
Destroyer/Transport attacks german sub in N. British 5 IPC convoy. Bomber flies to Leningrad, becomes Russian.
Units placed in Atlantic.
Collects 20 IPCs.

US1:
buys destroyer, 2 transports, 4 infantry
attacks remaining German subs in Celtic with destroyer and planes from US. non-combats all units to UK. Transport w/ infantry moves to Atlantic.
Units placed in East U.S.
Collects 40 IPCs.

On turn 2, Germany fortifies into E. Poland, moves into Libya, takes Russian convoy with two subs. Moves up most units to E. European front.
US and UK form up all ships in the Celtic. At this point, there are 2 UK transports, 4 US transports, and like 3-4 destroyers. All UK and US planes fly over to Russia through Leningrad.

By turn 4, Germany is in the Middle East, and the Allies are in France. Germany is also in either Belorussia, or soon to be attacking. Germany counterattacks into France to keep the Allies honest.

Moscow falls by turn 6 or 7.

I’m curious to see if there’s something major tactically or strategically that I’m missing, timing and placing of Russian attacks on the East front, or other alternatives to try with the Allies. Sorry for making this post so long.

Guest John
“Yeah, the French have an illustrious military history…they’re always surrendering to someone.”

[bossk]

First of all, I’m not sure what you mean about the Battleships and AC in the Baltic, so I’ll just ignore it. It sounds like you’re going offensive with the Russians a little too early; you don’t need to retake every territory the Germans have, that’s the beauty of playing the Soviet Union. So, instead of buying artillery I would stockpile my infantry for a bit (just to have a greater number of units); that includes spending your cash advance on infantry. I like to give 2 to the British to put in Malta (in hopes of saving the fighter) or in Egypt, and 2 for the Russians, usually placing them in Ukraine; but of course, this is all a matter of personal preferance. Also, I can’t see how the Germans are taking Ukraine on the first turn; 3 infantry, 2 artillery and 2 armor versus a potential 6 infantry and an artillery don’t seem like wonderful odds to me.
The nice thing about the attacker is that they have the ability to retreat, allowing the Russians to hit the Germans and do significant damage without spending themselves completely. This is especially useful in the first two turns, or so, as the Germans will still have fairly weak front lines from their initial assualt.
It also seems that the German player is choosing to ignore Finland and Norway, allowing the Russians to send some infantry and maybe a tank to go grab some income. I’d also recomend you place your freshly purchased units in Leningrad, it’s quite close to the front lines and useful for puting pressure on the Germans.
With the little amount of attention the western allies fleets are giving it should be very easy to kill whatever is left of the German fleet and begin building large numbers of transports. As for Egypt, let your forces sit tight there for a couple of turns as you get your infantry scattered around the whole Middle East consolidated; this is were the transport comes in very handy. It sounds as though the Germans are not transporting much in the way of reenforcements to the Afrika Korp, so the British should now have a superior force (especially if the Maltese fighter made it through the amphibious assault).
That’s all that imediately somes to mind as far a tips are concerned, I hope you enjoy crushing Germany. :wink:

[Guest]

The battleship and the aircraft carrier thing was a joke…it was kind of a carryover from the original where we always put a Russian carrier in the Caspian…anyway, so you’re saying wait til like turn 3 for the Russian counterattacks on the E. Front? As Russia I usually attack on turn 2, but it depends on how much of the German force is gone from the first turns…another point is that Russian artillery or infantry has almost always gone in Belorussia- maybe we’ll try putting it in the Ukraine instead…2 artillery 2 infantry 2 armored against 4 infantry and artillery (I think) in the original setup. As Germany I always attacked Ukraine to prevent the tank from Caucasus from ganging up on E. Poland and put pressure on Stalingrad.
The infantry on Malta thing is interesting- I’ll try that next time…
The Allied Atlantic fleets don’t usually get too much attention, you’re right on that…but it’s still hard to get into Germany before the Wahrmacht gets into Moscow, since the German player can build up more offensive firepower than the Russkies…
Thanks for the ideas, though-

Guest John
“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bstrd die for his.”
–George Patton–

[Guest]

Thats well put. If you continue to win or lose as the allies or germans either you suck or the person your playing sucks. The germans are strong, but they face an allied force. My first game I played my cousin (whose first game it was also) and I won as the allies. Had I played as a germany I most probably still would have won. Its not hard learn from your mistakes and capitalize on the enemys.

[SEI]

I would say at first that Germany was much stronger because of the amount of tanks and the lack of UK and USA support for the Soviets :cry: . Now I think is it even :D . Last two times I played the Allies I invoked the “Shell Germany back to the stone age method”. All the Allies (USA and UK) need to do is build all destroyers and a few transports that will carry one tank each. I would just beach land on Germany with one just one transport carrying just one tank and bombard with as many destroyers as possible. By round 5 I had UK shelling the Germans with 7 destroyers and just one tank. I did the same with the USA. The reason why this works is in a bombard your destroyers will shoot only once at a 2 for cover support and the one tank that costs only 5 ipcs will fire at a 3. Now this is where Germany gets screwed :D because they can only kill the tank. So in that battle the Allies will only loose one tank while the Germans will lose more (simple economics). This is a good tactic for two reasons one being the simple number losses for the Germans and two and equally as important is that is forces Germany to buy infantry to defend Germany rather then the speedy tanks that attack at a 3 and can be used to aid the down fall of the Soviets. Keep doing this and keep adding destroyers to the attacking group. USA will need at least 3 transports and the UK will need two transports to provide a constant stream of one transport carrying one tank to the German coast.

Now the Soviets can’t run and hide they must attack the German tanks at the right time. Which is when they are defending at a 2 and don’t have allot of infantry that can used for fodder. This is a common tactic with A&A. So the battle between the Soviets and the Germans boils down to who can kill whose tank force first.

The only thing else I can think of is use your 12 ipc at the beginning to match what ever the Germans do. Just to play it safe.

Ultimately its the random rolls of the dice that decides who wins the battle. All you can do is play the percentages.

Hope this helps :D

SEI