I will be playing the allies tonight against my friend who keeps on insisting that he be the axis. He has tried to crack Russia the past couple of games. Tonight I am pretty sure he is going to sea lion so I will have to prepare for that. I am also pretty sure he is going to try and pressure US with Japans starting Navy and Air Force.
It should be an interesting game. I am not 100% sure how to respond to an immediate attack on America on the west coast. Also I understand that if the dice go bad I may lose the UK to the Germans and it could be hard to liberate them with Japan pressuring US.
We might see an axis win tonight if I can’t repell Japan and liberate Britan in time. Then again I may be wrong and he may go into Russia again but I highly doubt it.
I will post results later.
I’ll be very interested to see your results. I think a J1 attack on the US sounds like suicide but I’ll be interested to see how it goes.
To increase your chances of surviving a sealion move UK ships into SZ’s 109 and 110 to stop any naval shore bombardment.
I’d be curious to hear how it goes as well. I’ve been toying with a J4 invasion of Alaska. I was thinking have 5-6 fully loaded transports in the Sea of Japan by J4, and a small stack of Subs as well. USA declares war the end of Turn 3. J4 move all the transports right to Alaska with the subs as well. USA will have to respond, but may not be able to mount a good attack till Turn 5 (it all depends on how the US builds in Turns 1-3), and IF ALK holds, build a Minor IC there top keep the US busy and distracted, it just might be enough.
Did your buddy end up invading alaska? How much did he bring and did he make or have to make the sacrifices to make sure america could not amphibiously land there to take it over or blitz in?
I am talking about destroyers blocking the inblound sea lanes and another landing in canada to slow any blitzing tanks
For 1, if Japan is to pressure the US, they need to attack on Turn 1. Japan simply can’t compete with the US at the start. It’s 26 vs. 52 first round spending, and after that, about 39ish (assuming no DEI gain as they’re pressuring the US) vs 80 or so on Round 2. While the US money never really goes up, Japan’s won’t increase by much if you’re not going for India and the DEI really fast.
The US just needs slow and steady Naval buys, using a good mix. Look at their transports and how much land units they can get to the WUS. If they have a bigger navy then you can plop down in a turn, then buy mostly planes first, then place them on carriers.
With Japan focusing on the US, India should be relatively free to take the DEI and grow in size. They can either build up their own navy, or help China. Either does well at slowing Japanese growth.
In the end, I think Japan will spend too much effort against the US for less gain than in other places. They won’t close the gap against the US’s 80ish income, and that starting fleet won’t last forever.
And I’m not sure what you mean by “liberate the UK”. You’re assuming they’ll lose. From UK1, buy 9 infantry. Turn 2, with NO money, buy 8 Inf 2 Tanks. If Germany goes all in for transports, it’s still a 50/50ish shot or less. Forget Africa until after sealion fails.
Russia should also buy mostly ground troops to prepare for an eventual German assault. The good news is that any Sea Lion is extra turns for Russia to prepare.
Also, if Japan is focusing on the US, they’re putting less on the Chinese mainland. It might be a good idea to consolidate your 18INf, and then on RUS 2, attack Manchuria and Korea. Put more pressure on Japan while they’re trying to do the impossible of attacking the US.
Okay this was the most intersting game we have had to date.
On German turn one my friend bought an air craft carrier and a transport and a sub as Germany. He rolled bad when he attacked with his battleship and cruiser on German turn one. His cruiser died and his battleship was wounded. Also one of my destroyers off the coast of Great Brittan survived a sub attack. So I felt pretty confident I could stop his Sea lion dead in its track. I decided to only buy 5 inf for Britan and a minor industrial complex in Egypt as I wanted to beat Italy there. This was a mistake I attacked his remaining fleet Britan1 with my aircraft carrier, tactical bomber, and destroyer from off the coast of Gibralter. I also brought in my destroyer that lived off the coast of Brittan and the 3 fighters I had staged in Brittan. I had the advantage in wounds and attack dice. Sadly I rolled bad and it was mutual annihilation but since I had nothing left and he had nothing left his 2 transports lived. His German2 he bought 9 transports and I countered with 9 inf and 1 tank but by then I was too late. Brittan fell with ease on German3 and things looked grim. For my opponent Operation Sea lion was a success.
Meanwhile in the Pacific Japan decided on a J2 attack and took Hawaii that turn. America built 3 air craft carriers on their turn one and turn 2 also built in the Pacific. When Great Brittan fell to the Germans I had no Choice but to send America into the Atlantic to use their military might to salvage the situation. The Germans up graded the minor industrial complex they now had in Great Brittan to a major as they were determined to hold it. This forced me to build up another turn as America to get a mixture of transports with tanks and inf. Meanwhile Pacific Brittan was reduced in points when Japan took the major islands in the Pacific and Australia suffered from convoy attacks from Japan. To make matters worse Italy attacked Brittan in Africa the same turn Germany had crossed the English channel. It was a bloody battle but Italy emerged with Egypt in it’s control as well as a cleared out Mediterranean, both of it’s National objectives had now been met.
At this point America was in bind and way behind as Germany just bought ten more inf in Britan as they were determined to hold London from the Americans. I saw an opening though because the Germans had invested so heavily to take London and now to hold it I took a risk. I did not have enough power yet to land in Italy as America as I was now off the coast of Africa at Gibraltar. Norway was not where I wanted to land because Russia had taken it from Germany as on turn 4 they went to war. My goal was to get a factory up and running in Europe and Crush Germany at it’s capital as they had spent so many points on sea lion and so little on defense. I decided to turn the World against me when I activated Spain and attacked it as a landing point. On the downside I gave my opponent many IPCs and free inf throughout the world by turning true neutrals hostile to the allies. But the advantage it provided was great. I now had a launching pad in Europe and was able to build a minor industrial complex there next turn, finally American transports were able to shuck American reinforcements to Spain each turn. The Russians had been building inf and art mix since turn one and moving a huge stack together. At this point they fell forward towards Germany as they had been under no pressure from Japan or Germany. I reinforced the stack on the way to Berlin with tanks and plane buys from behind.
Back in the Pacific Japan tried hard to mess with America. They took Alaska and finally moved there whole navy off the coast of San Francisco costing me a 12 point convoy disruption each turn which did hurt. This point drain did not last long as America began gaining expensive point provinces in Europe. They flew about 12 planes to Alaska to try and pressure the west coast but I started spending part of my points each turn as American building inf and a couple of tanks to defend my coasts and Japan had no counter. They had slowed America a bit but at the cost of not putting any pressure on Russia and they had still not finished off Australia and Pacific Brittan which now had a stack of 25 inf.
Meanwhile the Russians reached Berlin and as the Americans were attacking and eating points off of Germany in French provinces. It was a crazy battle as he still did have about 50 inf in Berlin but the Russians attacked with 32 inf, 16 art, 5 tanks, and 1 of each plane. This time I rolled pretty well and Berlin fell to the Russians while America was closing in on Rome. At this point my opponent conceded and was baffled that he could still not pull off the axis victory even though London had been in German control since turn 3 and that Italy had accomplished both its national objectives.
Two lessons I learned this game,
1- A successful Axis Sea lion is by no means the end of the game for the allies.
2-Never underestimate the power America can bring to the table. Some might Argue Japan can eventually bring as much but they have a hard time getting the strategic positions and factories that America can build in Europe.
All and all it was a fun game but my friend and I are starting to wonder why we have played 8 games and not seen an axis win. It does not matter who plays what county because he has beaten me when I played the axis. Is this game truly balanced.
Thanks for any Replies
Take care.
Thank you for the report, I’ll be playing some other people for another game very soon and as I’m probably going to be an axis power I’m going to take into account what you reported.
Love the ‘screw the neutral-neutrals and lets take Spain anyway’ plan. :-D
This was a profoundly frustrating game for me. I had GB practically handed to me on a silver platter on my third German turn (went in w/ 11 inf 4 art 7 tanks and 5 planes on his 17 inf 1 tank), had a 45 point Italy at one point, and a Japan that actually surpassed the US in IPC’s by turn 4. His ANZAC was gaining 3 IPC’s a turn due to sub convoy disruption and losing NZ, Pacific GB was spending 4 a turn (i held its Canadian territory w/ Japan), China was dead turn 5, and the 18 R inf on Japan’s side were gradually being whittled down. Even with ALL this going my way as well as an invasion of Alaska, the taking of Hawaii, and my fleet convoy disrupting the US for 12 IPC’s a turn I still couldn’t stop the US from taking out Europe while simultaneously using their outrageous ability to produce 20-30 units a turn on the mainland when needed to check my invading Japs.
I felt I needed to do something as Japan to peel US attention away from Europe but ultimately in retrospect I should’ve just finished off the remaining pacific countries (who’d stacked inf the entire game) and then went to grab 1 of the Russian cities to complete the Axis VC. Doing this while managing to keep the cities I already controlled in Europe as Germany though seems close to impossible as the investment I made to take GB and hold it against US counterattacks left me totally unprepared to fight off the massive Russian inf/art stack that came my way turn 5. Even if I’d managed to beat that stack (it took Berlin R7 effectively ending the game) it would’ve been close to mutual annihilation which would’ve left only Italy to contend with the Americans for a turn or two, a task it’s completely inadequate for (even at 45 IPC’s!). Sooooo, back to Germany turtling up and preparing to fight the US and maybe grabbing Leningrad, while Japan does the heavy lifting for the Axis side. Sea lion just did not seem to pay off its investment even when it worked.
I will be playing the allies tonight
Let us know how the game went???
