First game with a bid

[Degrasse]

I’m curious, are the Axis players following strategies similar to Cow’s in this thread?

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=26960.0

What attack strategies have you tried as Axis in your group?
1.  G1 Barbarossa?
2.  J1 DOW everyone per Cow’s theories
3.  Faking a Sea Lion opening and then going after Russia G3?
4.  G4/J4 DoWs to maximize Italy
5.  J3 India Crush
6.  G3/4 Sea Lion

[orania]

We have tried the J1 + G2 attack from Cow’s tread.

we have tried a G3 Sealion and a J2 + G3.

Around turn 4 or 5 the Allies are winning.

[Cow]

Bad luck opening? What are the allies doing?

It is a pretty balanced game, slightly favoring allies. Does not mean impossible for allies to win. From what I see, you played two games. That is fine.

Usually axis start making roughly the same income as the allies around turn 6-7.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=30447.960

Granted you will lose a few more air units compared to this game, but there is a good overall mixture of good play.
~
Trick to playing axis is knowing when to forget defense and just keep putting all your stuff toward Russia. When to buy a mix of defense and offense.

[boldfresh]

@Cow:

Bad luck opening? What are the allies doing?

It is a pretty balanced game, slightly favoring allies. Does not mean impossible for allies to win. From what I see, you played two games. That is fine.

Usually axis start making roughly the same income as the allies around turn 6-7.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=30447.960

Granted you will lose a few more air units compared to this game, but there is a good overall mixture of good play.
~
Trick to playing axis is knowing when to forget defense and just keep putting all your stuff toward Russia. When to buy a mix of defense and offense.

cow will you PLEASE play me a league game?  it’s so much better to show people what to do than to tell them….  professor cow.  :wink:

[Cow]

Sorry, but I am not interested in the league ladder. I do not have time or interest in playing 50 games, which is the pace some players will reach.

[boldfresh]

you don’t have to play 50 games… lol  that’s a silly excuse.

[ghr2]

play as allies with someone on here as axis via play by e-mail

[Cow]

Well it is possible to win as the allies with no bid. Just much harder.

[Cow]

Plus as long as you got to attack Russia with Germany and India with Japan… you really did not go wrong.

[ghr2]

@Cow:

Plus as long as you got to attack Russia with Germany and India with Japan… you really did not go wrong.

You could also hit ANZAC if the opportunity arises.

[Witt]

@orania:

We have a little group of around 4 players that are playing this game. The Axis side Always looses and we want to try the game with a small axis bid.

Lets assume it will be 6 or 7. Which unit(s) should i buy from this bid?

In which territory or Seazone would you place them on the European side and where on the Pacific side?

If you give Japan a Transport, that might help open things up for the Axis and help you grab the money islands.
If you fancy making the European side more fun and fancy going G1 Barbarossa, a Destroyer would mean you could pounce on the Russian fleet in the Baltic and make an early move on Leningrad.

[Cow]

What I notice often in other people’s games is that Japan players are giving up transports early on. There is no reason to lose a transport within the first 3 rounds. Japan has the superior naval early on so I am not sure why transport losses are occurring.

[knp7765]

@Cow:

What I notice often in other people’s games is that Japan players are giving up transports early on. There is no reason to lose a transport within the first 3 rounds. Japan has the superior naval early on so I am not sure why transport losses are occurring.

I would imagine that is due to leaving transports unprotected within range of Allied aircraft. I’ve seen that happen a lot. Japan spreads out to get all the DEI and perhaps Philippines and Malaya all in one fell swoop. Meanwhile all their warships are facing off against the US Navy or something else and simply don’t have enough to cover all the transports. Next thing you know, fighters from Australia or India end up picking some of them off. Sure it sucks to lose those transports, especially if you are planning on invading Australia. On the plus side though, you just gobbled up a lot of expensive territories to boost your income quite a bit and now you have garrisons on those islands so the Allies aren’t going to just walk in and take them back.

[Witt]

Good point Cow.
I am always throwing away my Japanese Transports, telling myself it is worth for the gain(a money island or whatever) and that they only cost 7IPCs, but usually regret it and cannot always find the funds to replace them anyway.
We all know Japan is useless without its navy or any transports.

[Cow]

On round 2 Japan DoW you only have to defend 3-4 spots. Japan 1 purchased transports -> phil usually. The other 3 boats usually you want to work whatever 3 islands (or 2 islands and malaya).

Then the next round you get the other 2. How people are losing transports is beyond me.

In my last 12 games I have not lost a transport early on. Sometimes spreading the naval to defend against back to back attacks can be tricky. Try to keep fighters on your carriers when this is happening.

Also try to be realistic like say you got a dd sub bship carrier 2 fighter, that should hold against 4 attackers and then 3… that is bare minimal, which is sometimes necessary.

Once you figure out the bare minimal to defend each location and then sprinkle the rest of the naval on it.

Also things like kwangsi or french indo china airbase help to defend against multiple attacks. So sz 36 is usually the safe spot. Usually Japan wants an airbase there because it covers the burma road completely including india, provides reach to critical seazones, and defends naval.
~

but yeah the allies can win games even without a bid. Just have to take some chances or get lucky early on.

[Witt]

Thank you for that Cow.

[atease]

Like when your ~90% Taranto doesn’t work, well tough luck winning that one.

[Jennifer]

Just spitballing here, but I’m seeing some pretty large bids for the allies.

Has anyone tried, and thus can tell me the merits and demerits of, the following bids:
(A)  Strategic Bomber for Russia.

• Thoughts:  Gives Russia the ability to fly back and forth as needed on the East, West and China fronts.
  (B)  Fighter for China (technically they start the game with 1, but it IS a valid unit for them, so you COULD bid another one.)
• Thoughts:  Sure would annoy the crud out of Japan as it seems, or at least used to be, a primary goal for Japan is to kill that pesky Chinese fighter.  Not to mention, with 2 fighters comes economy of infantry units since you can send 2 inf, fig against two places instead of sending 3 or 4 infantry after one and 2 infantry, fighter after another.
  © Submarines for SZ 98
• Thoughts:  More punch for Taranto attack + CRD against Italy for a while at least.  Double annoyance factors.
  (D) 4 or 5 infantry for France
• Thoughts:  Seriously, if I have to spell it out then maybe you need to go back to classic. lol.  More dead Germans, more dead important Germans, more live Frenchmen so less income for Germany, slowed down advance against Russia (cause they focus harder on Paris and thus not on Normandy/Vichy France for a round) but then, it’s a thrown away bid since it dies round 1.
  (E) 2 or 3 mechanized units in the Soviet Far East (1 or 2 armor, a mech infantry) etc.
• Thoughts:  Just again, to annoy and harass Japan some.  Slower the march back to Moscow, the more Russia earns, the more they earn, the harder it is for Italy/Germany.

Keep in mind, I’ve basically be out of the community for a few months, things change so…

[boldfresh]

not bad ideas jen.

[Jennifer]

@Boldfresh:

not bad ideas jen.Â

I’ve used the Russian bomber before against the Japanese transports in previous editions of the game.  Harder now that you can’t just fly out to the Sea of Japan and sink them because of scrambles, range, etc.  But I could see you still being able to do it near Kamtchka (the sea zone north of the Sea of Japan) and still being able to bring it back into attack range of the Germans by the end of the next round.