Here is KNP’s report from his Delta play test…
Here is the progress on our game. We are just about to begin Round 10. So far it is an overwhelming Axis victory. Japan has all of Asia east of Moscow. Germany has most of western Russia and all of Europe + England. Italy has the Middle East, 3 south Russia territories and most of Africa. Italy is currently duking it out with the Commonwealth at the doorstep of South Africa.
Japan also rules the Pacific. The US Navy has been vanquished. The Commonwealth has tried sending a few subs out of Sydney, but Japan keeps sending more destroyers to deal with them.
It’s actually already an Axis victory on both boards but we are playing it out a bit longer just to try and take advantage of the new weapons. Japan used “Banzai Attack” in their attack on Hawaii and due to their increased power, they wiped out the US troops (1 tank, 1 artillery, 4 infantry) in the first combat round.
Even though the UK, Russia, France are pretty much out of the game, we went ahead and let them choose between the Round 10 Advantages.
As for the Progressive Advantages, Germany got their Jet Fighters.
Russia got the Russian Winter just before losing Moscow and killed all German infantry in Russia (only 5). Germany had mostly mechs and artillery due to Blitzkrieg.
Japan got the Kamikaze Honor but it is useless to them because they have done so well in the Pacific. They hadn’t even used the first stack of Kamikaze.
The US got the Manhattan Project and A-Bombed Japan. It cost Japan 13 damage points on their IC, 3 IPCs direct cost and 3 AA guns in unit cost. Japan had no other units on Japan itself. By the way, it is ONLY for the territory of Japan, not including Sea Zone 6, right? Anyway, at this point it really won’t matter much. Japan is making over 100 IPCs per turn with their Strategic Objectives and City points.
China got up to 21 points before losing their last territory. Russia tried to send a tank running around liberating territories, but Japan had too many tanks and mechs around China. They hunted down the Russian tank and blitzed the liberated Chinese territories. So China was stymied again.
UK lost London with 16 Progress points and pretty much stayed there.
Italy got a lot of 1s and 2s in their rolls. They are at 18 points now.
Poor France lost their last territory with 24 progress points. The French are extinct now (no units, no territories).
I think the Allies just made bad strategy decisions. Germany went Sealion and was barely successful at it (1 tank left). However, Japan attacked round 1 so the US was in the war and decided to go all after Japan. I think the US only put a couple of destroyers in the Atlantic to keep German U-Boats at bay. The US should have been able to trounce Japan, but I think they took too long trying to build up a huge attack fleet plus transports and troops instead of taking what they had and going after what Japanese navy they could have killed. Sure you get your ships killed, but you also kill Japanese ships and if US is going 100% Pacific, for the first few rounds they can out build Japan.
However, with Sealion accomplished, Calcutta was no longer a factor so Japan kind of dealt with China and the remnants of UK India fairly quickly and were able to spread out deeper into China, up into Russia and even down through India.
Also, on a couple of occasions, the US led amphibious assaults and while they were successful, they exposed their transports leaving men stuck on an island. Hawaii was one and the US currently has a large force stuck on New Guinea. I think our US player might have played too cautiously against the Japanese Navy and perhaps when he did take chances it was the wrong time and he got burned. Our Japan player is pretty good though and pretty keen to take advantage of oversights.
With Germany taking London, Russia rolled over the border. However, Germany had a LOT of money to spend and did so well. Russia was actually over extended deep into Europe and Germany was able to snuff out their advancing forces and push them out of Europe. Russia decided to play aggressively and kept trying to go on the offensive. Even with cheaper tanks, Germany just kept pushing into Russia. Finally it got to the point where Japan had all of eastern Russia, Italy had a small force coming up through the Caucasus and Germany had lots of tanks, mechs and artillery all through western Russia. Also, being offensive minded, Russia really didn’t have a lot to defend Moscow. I think in the final battle it was something like 2 AA, 4 Infantry, 1 artillery, 2 mechs, 2 tanks, 2 fighters and 1 tactical bomber. Really different from the 50+ infantry stacks you usually see on Moscow.
Of course, another reason Germany was able to finish off Moscow was because the UK was pretty much out of the picture and the US was all in the Atlantic. At present, all 3 Axis are starting to close in on the US and Canada.
Germany is building an invasion fleet and already sending a few U-Boats to harass what’s left of the US Navy and try to do a little convoy raiding. Italy is still fighting the Commonwealth in South Africa, but they can afford to send a few subs as well. Japan is building more subs to send to the undefended US west coast while also building transports and troops. Although they still need to deal with ANZAC and their occasional subs.
Well, that is how my game has gone so far. Kind of a blow out but trying out your Delta deck was fun. The majority of the advantages really don’t require any alternate units, which I was hoping to get to use, but it was still fun. I am getting to use HBG’s neat little Me262s. We will probably wrap this up in a couple of more rounds or so. Then again, we may carry it out to total domination.
