Axis strategy that took me down hard this weekend.

[44thIronman]

Ok, so it’s been years since I last played A&A and my friend invited to play a 4 person game this weekend which I was more than happy to accept. The first problem was this. My friend and his roomate decided to join forces at the last minute and paired me up with the 4th player who was someone who never played this game before. You can imagine how I was pissed at this, but regardless I decided to give myself a real challenge. The game begins with my friend playing as Germany and his roomate as Japan. Player 4 begins as UK and I start as Russia while we split responsability of USA.

I have to assume that Axis want to sandwich Russia and win that way. I also have to try and devise a last minute strategy on how to play since player 4 doesn’t know how to play. Well to make a long excruciating game short. Germany builds massive amounts of planes and subs to attack UK’s navy. Uk’s navy is obliterated and UK becomes a neutralized country and eventually only makes 10ipc a round due to Germany and Japan rampaging through Africa and the Orient. Meanwhile Japan amasses a large navy in the SW pacific. Instead of causing Axis to play in reaction to the Allies, Axis forces me to react to their moves and so Allies are always one step behind. In the end the Axis strategy was to assault the UK and win that way which they succeded in doing but only with one tank remaining to win the assault and take London. The US was basically misused the whole time as I didnt know what to do with them and ended up having a massive battle with the Japan fleet which I ended up taking out. As Russia I did best by breaking out of Russian territory, taking back land in SW Asia and even winning a preemptive strike against Germany resulting in Germany losing almost all of its tanks and putting Axis on it’s heels for a couple of rounds.

In hindsight I should of realized what Axis was doing as a strategy early on in the game but I never really had a strategy in place except defend Russia at all cost and use UK to supply Russia. This was a huge mistake. UK was always the main target. Being that the game was massively slanted towards Axis winning I am still happy with what I was able to do and learned what my major mistakes were, however I refuse to play a game slanted as badly as this again as it was essentially 2 experienced players with good cooperation vs. one player that hasnt played in years that had to teach his teammate how to play during the game.  :x

[DarthMaximus]

Usually when I play multiplayer in person, we have a rule of 5-10 minute discussion period at the end of each round.  Each side gets about 5 minutes took look over the board and discuss strat, then the other side.  It allows for a bit more cooperation.

Fairer sides may have helped too, but this Axis strat should never work.

As Russia, you can afford to be aggressive.

Personally, I’ll focus on Germany and hit Ukr and Baltic sz, while falling back in the East.  If possible I’ll never engage the Japanese until they approach Novo  (about rd 3-4).

But in those first 3-4 rds you should be able to cripple Germany.

If Germany is building ships and planes, you should be able to hold EE as Russia very early (by rd 2-3).

My guess is they went after UK, because that guy was new to the game.  Seems kinda cheap to me, but you guys should ask for a rematch and then beat the snot out of them.

If you give some specific examples of the Axis early moves I’ll give you counters so you can beat them.

Here is a brutal Russia 1 to get started

Buy 8 inf

Attack Ukr with 8 inf, 3 arm
If it goes badly retreat to Kar (while trying to reduce Ger to only a ftr), if it goes well take it with 4-5 inf and 3 arm
Attack Baltic sz with 2 ftrs (the G sub cannot shoot at your ftrs)

Attack W sp sz with your sub  (sub vs sub)
most likely his sub has to retreat

Non-Combat All troops to Kar and place there (if Ukr was taken), Kar will have 12 inf, 2 ftrs
and fortify Yak with 7 inf and move arm to Novo.
and move your trn to the UK sz

if you only strafed Ukr, Kar will have about 15-16 inf, 3 arm, 2 ftrs.

This moves takes out all German Navy and gives Russia a strong opening position.