So I play this game lots with my friend, but I’ve lost an embarrassing amount of games in a row now (something like 8). I’m just depressed about it.
We play just the two of us, so we trade off doing Axis or Allies… so I have no real life allies to worry about.
This is generally what he does.
As Allies
Russia
UK
Industrial Complex in South Africa and India. 3 Tanks a turn into India (from what I gather his strategy is basically a KJF strategy)
3 tanks every turn into India, and some into South Africa if it needs to be reclaimed. Then when he doesn’t need to worry about Japan any more he builds transports and men to nail me in Germany.
USA
Supply Center in Sianking and bombers, every turn researching double bombers until he gets it.
Last game we played I was axis and Japan was a monster. I completely countered his stuff by sending in some transported men from germany into India and Japan was up to like 48 IPCs a turn with a complex in Kwangtung, Sianking, and India. But all of that didn’t matter, because I couldn’t shoot down any of his double bombers. Over the 5 or so turns that America did nothing but buy double bombers, I shot down one. What do I do in this situation? He had a stack of 5 double bombers in the UK… so I sent in a last ditch effort to kill them with my airfleet. He had 3 men and 3 tanks there with 5 bombers, and I sent in 7 fighters and a bomber. What a waste. He had 2 tanks left and all the bombers.
I just couldn’t compete. What do you do in a situation where you have 20 or less IPCs a turn, and very very quickly end up with 0 IPCs a go? I just resigned at that point. I ended up playing Japan way too fast and risky when that happened and lost India and Sianking back to the good guys.
Argh.
Anyways… I don’t know what to do against double bombers. If I just can’t manage to roll any 1s (literally 1 out of 35 or so attempts) I feel like I just have to roll over and die.
And his strategy as the Axis…
He builds loads of men with germany and advances into Russia to take moscow ASAP. Builds some transports with Japan and goes into Russia from there.
Personally I think I just get distracted. I don’t want to spend all of my stuff in Japan, but it seems like when I try to kill Germany first and worry about Japan afterwards I can’t manage to do it.
I’ve had bad luck, but I’m clearly doing something wrong.
We’re playing again soon with me as the Allies. Help a poor loser out.
I know he’s going to invade Egypt with the transport and kill the ships in the Med. I always feel like I leave a vulnerable spot with Russia. What’s the best thing to do with Russia’s first turn to keep getting at least 24 IPCs a turn?
Japan will build transports and then a supply center in Kwangtung to just ferry loads of men into Russia.
What should I be doing best to stop this? Is a supply center in India a good investment? How do I stop/slow Japan without a centre in Sianking and India?
I’m just having trouble setting up a decent system of the correct buys and transport chains to correctly invade places. Especially as UK and America. Last time I was Allies I united the UK and USA fleet into the sea zone near Algeria… but they all got destroyed. What do I do about that? I had 4 transports, a destroyed and a battleship and his airforce destroyed them all without losing a single plane. That has to be bad luck. Honestly, what are the odds?
I’m just rambling now… just sick of losing.
Cheers for any helpful responses.
read more of these threads, plenty of good strats.
And Good luck!
We’re playing again soon with me as the Allies. Help a poor loser out.
. . .
I’m just having trouble setting up a decent system of the correct buys and transport chains to correctly invade places. Especially as UK and America. Last time I was Allies I united the UK and USA fleet into the sea zone near Algeria… but they all got destroyed. What do I do about that? I had 4 transports, a destroyed and a battleship and his airforce destroyed them all without losing a single plane. That has to be bad luck. Honestly, what are the odds?
First thing, you might want to change the rules you play under. I’m assuming you are using the OOB (box) rules. Dont.
Heavy bombers are overpowered. So first change the rule system to LHTR (Larry Harris Tournament Rules). You can find a link in the threads above this one.
Second, 6 fighters and 1 bomber attack at 22. Your combined Algeria Fleet defends at 11. It should have been wiped, albiet with a loss of a couple of his planes. If he has subs for fodder, its even worse.
Dont go into Africa turn one. Try europe instead. Mix in a carrier, so he cant attack you without losing his whole airforce. Then move into Africa a few turns later.
Third, try joining a Yahoo Group called Caspian Sub. They have outlined several strategies for Revised A&A. I dont agree with all their stuff, but it should help you get a better grasp of the game, and how to KGF (Kill Germany First).
An even more legendary A&A standby: Don’s Axis and Allies Strategic Essays (http://donsessays.freeservers.com/). There is some argument that the new defends-at-a-3 tank has changed the infantry push mechanic, but Don’s tactic still mostly (if not completely) apply.
Don’t let yourself get frustrated. I used to be a rather horrible A&A player, but after playing on-and-off over the years (and reading forums like this one) I’ve become a much better player.
Others may disagree, but I say the artillery is basically crap. For attacking, you want lots of armor; for defending, lots of infantry. And for doing just about anything you also want lots of infantry. Artillery are somewhere in between. They have really bad “skew.” I only buy artillery if I have an extra IPC or I anticipate trading territory without the help of aircraft. With Russia, that usually means 1-2 artillery per turn. But if not, I don’t sweat it.
The easiest way to trip up an opponent is with your airforce, usually by unexpectedly blasting a fleet or transport(s). So keep your air in range of enemy ships (especially transports) and important landing areas whenever you can. Your opponent will either be somewhat slowed or have to be more committed to an area or maybe even slip up. For example: Japan puts transports outside of Japan without any cover. If Buryatia is still red, the US can scramble the Hawaii fighter and US bomber to hit those transports. One game my opponent made this mistake and lost 2trn 1des right off the bat. Those kinds of punches can be huge; you want to be making those punches.
That said, I wouldn’t buy much air. I hear strategies where the US/UK send over part land and part air, but I would warn against that. Maybe it can be a good idea for the US to build the occasional fighter, but the UK needs to be hitting Europe every turn (or the colonies, if it went KJF) with meat-and-potatoes land units. Germany can also benefit from some fighter builds, but those get expensive quick. Unless the US is adamant about pushing into the Med while the UK stays north, I wouldn’t build many fighters at all.
Don’t commit to risky battles unless you have a really good reason. One risky battle goes bad then you do another risky battle and maybe another and suddenly you are down many troops that would at least still be alive if you hadn’t gambled on those fights. Start conservative – but aggressive, I say always be aggressive – and be risky later if you need to be. The exception of course is if a big prize presents itself (trading a few US/UK air for some Axis transports, an Axis fighter is too lightly defended, etc).
In response to your opponent’s gameplay: I’ve never faced UK1 ICs in Ind and SAf, but I am confident that Japan can eventually crush them. Without a Sinkiang IC, the Indian IC will be feeling it. Japan’s navy heads towards Africa anyway, and after a few turns the entire Indian Ocean will be under threat of 2bb 6ftr 1bmb and 1-2trn of units. Don’t change a thing with Japan. Build some transports, take a few UK territories, then build up on the mainland and bring over the aforementioned fleet to terrorize Africa and anything else. Russia can stack in Ind for a while, but eventually they will have to pull out, especially once Germany puts the squeeze on them. Speaking of Germany, if faced with two UK ICs, I’d pull out of Africa really fast. Just use the Med fleet to take Ukr each turn or suicide against the Allied fleets. And by suicide I mean wait until you can throw at least the Med fleet and your German air at something. Make the battleship’s suicide count for something.
Switching sides: An R1 build of 3inf 3arm seems to be popular. I like to do 8inf and build the tanks later. That way those inf get to the line and on R3 Russia is uber-scary – might even be able to take Kar, Bel or Ukr in force. And actually, those two builds are basically Russia’s two building options overall. Either build almost all inf or spend up to half of your money on tanks, the rest on infantry. If you’re going half and half, your goal is probably to kill off German infantry so it takes longer for the Germans to march on you. Try and get Germany to throw his stack at yours. Go on the offensive for a few turns. Don’t do it just to do it. Make sure your stack is stronger before you commit. You’d be surprised how long it takes for the German stack to become stronger than the Russian one.
One more thing and I’ll stop: Check out the Caspian Sub policy paper on punch, count and skew. Count is how many units are in a fight. Skew is how quickly one side will lose it’s power. (If you have only tanks in a battle, they are gonna skew like mad.) And punch is the total power per round of your units. One infantry on offense has a punch of 1. Sixty tanks would have a punch of 180. I don’t mess around too much with count and skew, but know the count of the major stacks (or even minor stacks – really for anything you throw into a battle) before you commit yours.
Ok, I’m done lecturing. Read Don’s essays. Infantry push. Dead zones. Picketing. They will save your life.
Hyo + 1 Karma Don’s essays are the best place to start.
LT
An even more legendary A&A standby: Don’s Axis and Allies Strategic Essays (http://donsessays.freeservers.com/). There is some argument that the new defends-at-a-3 tank has changed the infantry push mechanic, but Don’s tactic still mostly (if not completely) apply.
Don’t let yourself get frustrated. I used to be a rather horrible A&A player, but after playing on-and-off over the years (and reading forums like this one) I’ve become a much better player.
Others may disagree, but I say the artillery is basically crap. For attacking, you want lots of armor; for defending, lots of infantry. And for doing just about anything you also want lots of infantry. Artillery are somewhere in between. They have really bad “skew.” I only buy artillery if I have an extra IPC or I anticipate trading territory without the help of aircraft. With Russia, that usually means 1-2 artillery per turn. But if not, I don’t sweat it.
The easiest way to trip up an opponent is with your airforce, usually by unexpectedly blasting a fleet or transport(s). So keep your air in range of enemy ships (especially transports) and important landing areas whenever you can. Your opponent will either be somewhat slowed or have to be more committed to an area or maybe even slip up. For example: Japan puts transports outside of Japan without any cover. If Buryatia is still red, the US can scramble the Hawaii fighter and US bomber to hit those transports. One game my opponent made this mistake and lost 2trn 1des right off the bat. Those kinds of punches can be huge; you want to be making those punches.
That said, I wouldn’t buy much air. I hear strategies where the US/UK send over part land and part air, but I would warn against that. Maybe it can be a good idea for the US to build the occasional fighter, but the UK needs to be hitting Europe every turn (or the colonies, if it went KJF) with meat-and-potatoes land units. Germany can also benefit from some fighter builds, but those get expensive quick. Unless the US is adamant about pushing into the Med while the UK stays north, I wouldn’t build many fighters at all.
Don’t commit to risky battles unless you have a really good reason. One risky battle goes bad then you do another risky battle and maybe another and suddenly you are down many troops that would at least still be alive if you hadn’t gambled on those fights. Start conservative – but aggressive, I say always be aggressive – and be risky later if you need to be. The exception of course is if a big prize presents itself (trading a few US/UK air for some Axis transports, an Axis fighter is too lightly defended, etc).
In response to your opponent’s gameplay: I’ve never faced UK1 ICs in Ind and SAf, but I am confident that Japan can eventually crush them. Without a Sinkiang IC, the Indian IC will be feeling it. Japan’s navy heads towards Africa anyway, and after a few turns the entire Indian Ocean will be under threat of 2bb 6ftr 1bmb and 1-2trn of units. Don’t change a thing with Japan. Build some transports, take a few UK territories, then build up on the mainland and bring over the aforementioned fleet to terrorize Africa and anything else. Russia can stack in Ind for a while, but eventually they will have to pull out, especially once Germany puts the squeeze on them. Speaking of Germany, if faced with two UK ICs, I’d pull out of Africa really fast. Just use the Med fleet to take Ukr each turn or suicide against the Allied fleets. And by suicide I mean wait until you can throw at least the Med fleet and your German air at something. Make the battleship’s suicide count for something.
Switching sides: An R1 build of 3inf 3arm seems to be popular. I like to do 8inf and build the tanks later. That way those inf get to the line and on R3 Russia is uber-scary – might even be able to take Kar, Bel or Ukr in force. And actually, those two builds are basically Russia’s two building options overall. Either build almost all inf or spend up to half of your money on tanks, the rest on infantry. If you’re going half and half, your goal is probably to kill off German infantry so it takes longer for the Germans to march on you. Try and get Germany to throw his stack at yours. Go on the offensive for a few turns. Don’t do it just to do it. Make sure your stack is stronger before you commit. You’d be surprised how long it takes for the German stack to become stronger than the Russian one.
One more thing and I’ll stop: Check out the Caspian Sub policy paper on punch, count and skew. Count is how many units are in a fight. Skew is how quickly one side will lose it’s power. (If you have only tanks in a battle, they are gonna skew like mad.) And punch is the total power per round of your units. One infantry on offense has a punch of 1. Sixty tanks would have a punch of 180. I don’t mess around too much with count and skew, but know the count of the major stacks (or even minor stacks – really for anything you throw into a battle) before you commit yours.
Ok, I’m done lecturing. Read Don’s essays. Infantry push. Dead zones. Picketing. They will save your life.
Nice post
Cheers. How important is it do you think to introduce LHTR? We are definitely playing out of the box rules right now, but I am honestly a bit sick of being reduced so quickly to 0 IPCs. It makes the game possibly get to a have to give up point by turn 6, and that’s just crap. And maybe I’m wrong, but I’m not big on risking the whole game on the fact that I’ll be able to reduce his IPCs. I want to buy lots of units and kill lots of stuff. That’s just my personality I guess =P.
Anyways, so this is my general strategy for the next game we play, me as Allies. Tell me if this checks out. (sorry if I’m asking so many dumb questions… the replies I’ve gotten have been awesome!)
Russia - Do everything I can to not lose any starting tanks/fighters/artillery. Pretty obvious, really. Build infantry and infantry and infantry each turn, and a tank with any bonus money I might have. Stack up and then hit and run to reduce Germany’s infantry to deter attacks, and if a tank stack is available to attack/destroy go for it. The thing I’m not sure how to do is reduce Germany’s airforce. They can just cause lots of problems.
Russia is pretty straightforward really. Stack up and try to not die.
UK - The thing I worry about is losing India. I don’t want to build a complex there because I just don’t want to give them it if I lose it and I don’t want to commit 15 a turn to it. Keep my fleet back in SZ2 for a while until it can be big enough to look ‘don’t mess with me’ and then bombard Western or Eastern Europe, or Norway with infantry until the cows come home. I figure the best thing to do with the Indian fleet is to use the destroyer to kill the Japan transport and send the rest around Africa and then use it as basically a free transport/AC build on turn 4 or so.
Let’s say I build 3 fighters first turn and then use them on UK2 to kill the german fleet in the baltic. Is it dangerous to send these fighters into Russia to help defend? I’m pretty sure that’s a good idea, but I just don’t want to accidentally lose them.
If India/Australia/Africa get taken over and UK gets reduced income, is it basically Russia (India) or USA (Africa/Pacific) 's job to take em back?
USA
I’m a bit lost. I don’t want to just double-bomb him in Germany until I win. That seems lame. But I always lose the plot with America and don’t focus my resources well. Send all my men into Eastern Canada and then get enough transports to send like 6 inf and 2 tanks a turn into UK and then load them into Germany? And save Africa if it gets taken?
Looking up into this strategy, it looks like Japan will by turn 4 be destroying the world, and I’ll still be not quite there enough to really hurt Germany? Just stay the course and trust that by turn 5 or 6 I’ll be storming D-Day so hard the game will swing my way? I just don’t want to half-commit to stopping Japan. That just means that eventually Japan will be so so strong with the Sianking and India supply centre.
I guess what I’m asking is how do I slow Japan enough to not die? I’d love some responses, but I’ll also check out some SJF (that’s what it is, right?) strats.
Sorry for all the text. I’m a neurotic guy who hates losing. =P
THANKS!
Cheers. How important is it do you think to introduce LHTR? We are definitely playing out of the box rules right now, but I am honestly a bit sick of being reduced so quickly to 0 IPCs. It makes the game possibly get to a have to give up point by turn 6, and that’s just crap. And maybe I’m wrong, but I’m not big on risking the whole game on the fact that I’ll be able to reduce his IPCs. I want to buy lots of units and kill lots of stuff. That’s just my personality I guess =P.
On a scale of 1-10, playing by LHTR is an 11.
Only the US can benefit from the lame Heavy Bomber “strategy”. It is overpowered. Thus, it has to go.
TRakes, your Russia and UK sound very good. Yes, Germany’s airforce can be a pain, but you have to dance around it. If German air isn’t putting pressure on Allied landing zones, then don’t invest in any unnecessary naval cover but do invest in some Russian artillery. And if the air is putting pressure on transports, do what you can with Russia to push forward. This gets really tough once you’re trading EEu/Bal (because fighters in WEu can hit those territories and still make it back to WEu), but if you’ve moved the line up that far, that’s a huge swing for Russia anyway.
Back in the day, players would often leave the Baltic fleet in the Baltic – or maybe buy an ac for it. But if there wasn’t an ac, players would send 1bmb 2ftr to clean up the Baltic. Usually you lose 0-2ftrs. And the remaining fly to WRus or land on an ac. You could invest in some extra fighters (especially if Germany does build the Baltic aircraft carrier), but normally I focus on transports and any necessary fleet cover they need.
Sending UK fighters toward Russia – especially early on – is often a great way to bolster WRus/Cau defenses. But you’re right: Make sure they going to a safe place that Russia intends to stay at. It’s no good having to retreat the Russians and lose the fighters just because the Germans move again before they do.
I don’t think it’s anyone’s job to retake Ind/Aus/NZ. Once they go yellow, they never go back. It’s just not worth it. Try fun things like leaving 3inf on Aus or taking 2inf off, running the transport east, and then running it back when Japan only brings, say, 1inf 1arm 1bmb to take Aus. Africa should definitely be retaken, but that’s almost exclusively a job for the US.
A good US1 purchase for accomplishing this (and really just in general) is 3trn 3arm 1inf. This is assuming that sz12 is safe for landing in on US2. It used to be that was something of a given, but now with UnBaltic and fleet unification and all that jazz, sometimes you need to invest in something like an ac. Just make sure you do it early: probably US1. Don’t let Germany slow you down. It’s worth plopping down the money for a capital ship in order to maintain tempo. And later on it could possibly be used to cover landings in WEu/SEu/Bal/Ukr or even to ferry troops into Cau/TJ.
With the US, yes, it’s easy to feel disconnected. But you’ve gotta make smart purchases. It’s not that complicated. Just make sure that your transport movements will be guarded (hence why I’d say most players tend to cluster the UK/US landing fleets together so you aren’t spending too much on non-transport ships). And map out what you will need to transport. For the first few turns you probably wanna drop units from EUS into Alg, but keep in mind that at some point you’re gonna have a turn where you go heavy on land units because you want to set up a flow that takes units from EUS and lands them in London (or Alg) and then gets them to mainland Europe. So at some point, your tempo is basically gonna take a one-turn hit.
Back to the board: Let’s say on US1 you dumped the EUS troops in Alg and bought 3trn 3arm 1inf – and the WUS troops went along with the bb/trn to Panama. For US2: 3trn going to Alg. 2trn coming back. 1trn moving 2inf out of Pan. No other land units, except for the AA guns. You probably have 40 IPCs. 2trn will need filled. So 2inf 2arm, that’s 16 IPCs. 24 left. 1trn/inf/arm is 16. 8 left. Another inf/arm? Final build: 1trn 4inf/arm. If you want to get, say, the EUS AA gun over to Africa, then instead of an extra inf/arm buy 3inf – or just buy the units and march them up to ECan early.
Two transports will be coming back from Alg on US2. So on US3 3inf/arm will go straight back to Alg and 1inf/arm can go to ECan. Or you could instead build 5inf/arm on US2 and march 2inf/arm to ECan on US3. But as you can see, the US quickly runs into the point where it needs it’s units to be in ECan so it can set up two fleets of 3-5 transports to ferry units around.
Don’t overbuild your transports. Just build smartly and at some point go into a temporary lull so your units are jumping from ECan instead right out of EUS. This “lull” is a good time to throw one or two transports down into Africa for even faster retaking of those territories. Just make sure they’re back in range when they need to be. Unless Africa is really really hurting (and it shouldn’t be because you dumped 2 or 3 turns of US troops into Alg) don’t do anything that significantly mucks up your transport flow.
If for some reason you are dead set on marching through Africa, then you only need 5trn. The US won’t be making much more than 40 IPCs, which is 5inf/arm per turn. But marching through Africa only works if the Axis are seriously slowed. It doesn’t take much to do this: Last game with Japan I did not react strongly enough against a very aggressive UK and ended up getting basically kicked off the mainland and then being stalled by India and Sinkiang ICs. The US had plenty of time to just one-step through Africa. But as little as it takes to slow down the Axis enough, it is rare. I was stupid.
You can also march units through Africa and then transport them from Lib to Cau. For infantry, this saves them from going through AE>TJ>Per. Absolutely huge. The downside is that the US needs a lot of cover in order to pull this off. If you can get Germany to leave WEu, the sz12 transports are safe. But the Med fleet ferrying units into Cau will be under huge pressure from Germany (and possibly even Japan).
Also, there is a way to establish troop flow through WUS/WCan/ECan that defends against Japanese landings, but someone else will have to explain it to you. I never do that and really don’t know how it’s run. I’m also not very familiar with SJF. I kinda like the idea of a SAf IC, but I’ve never done it. But if Japan doesn’t respond very well to UK ships all over the Pacific and a British Borneo (and then loses it’s J1 transports to the UK bomber hitting the inner sea zone and then landing in a Russian Manchuria!!!), then take a serious look at factories in Ind and Sin. Otherwise, have faith in the Americans. Berlin will burn first!
Trakes,
UK’s biggest problem is it only has one location to dispence troops. In both the revised and LHTR rule sets you are limited to only build the number of troops that, that territory is worth. So if the UK does very well at soemmpoint you are going to be sitting on a very big piggy bank and unable to spend it.
You don’t have to put an IC in India some players like to put one in South Africa or Austrilia.
I am not saying you have to build an IC I’m saying that you have a good chance of cripeling the UK’s options by limiting their ability to produce in both volume and location.
LT
Doing well with the allies is relatively simple. The heavy bomber thing can work for you but it’s much easier if you keep it simple. Your number one objective is to get boots in Europe. To do this you need to optimize your builds so that you fill all your transports and you have enough transports for your troops. Look at the map and see how many transports you can load next turn and build to fill them. Then, build transports and men in equal proportion. This is the strategy for America and UK.
Russia is a bit more complicated. I generally start by building Infantry. Too conservative is better than too aggressive. I generally take west Russia back and try to kill the infantry in Ukraine. This is done by hitting for one round and pulling out. Then see what Germany does and how successful his first round is. If Germany goes aggressive and gets some bad dice, it may be time to put some heavy pressure on him. If he does well, you’ll have to try to hold him back for 2 or 3 turns until the other allies can start hitting land.
Next axis.
The axis is more complicated because there are so many more variables. If you are looking for a good KGF strategy then to start with Japan should utilize a plan similar to US/UK in my last post. Then at some point when you have too much money, build the IC. I find the best place to move troops into to begin with is Buratia (sp). From the east coast of Japan your transport options are great. You need at least 5 transports and I generally end up with more.
Japan needs to push into Russia quickly and steadily. I generally try to take at least one or two Russian lands per turn, along with China. By the fourth turn you need to be threatening Moscow and if possible Caucuses.
Germany is simple. Sink transports when ever possible and push into Russia. If you aren’t threatening Moscow by turn four you’re in a lot of trouble. Don’t waste resources in Africa. Kill the fleet and take Egypt, but Africa is a distraction. If you manage to keep the German Med fleet past round 2 use it to attack Caucuses. Always attack Russian offensive units when the opportunity presents.
Experience will tell you what works from there.
