West Coast Garrison

[JamesG]

@88:

My secret (don’t tell anyone) UK first turn move is 2 Transports/ 3 Infantry/ 1 Armor. It provides the UK the opportunity to deliver 8 land units on UK2, which is pretty devastating that early in the game.
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Take all Allied navy to Algeria on turn 1, build two Transports out of range of German aircraft.
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go wherever you desire on turn 2 and then build a Carrier, after your infrastructure is in place.

All the above is my basic early UK strategy as well.  But one thing I’ve found that can mess it up a bit: if Germany bought an AC on G1, they can move it out of the Baltic on G2 to SZ7.  This will block the Allied fleet off of Algeria from landing in Europe on turn 2 (unless they move into the Med and out of supply).  And each of the two allied fleets lack the punch separately to take on that German navy.  So I may buy one less TRN and one less INF on UK1 in order to purchase a 3rd Fighter, if faced with a G1 AC.  Then if Germany does move out on G2, UK can attack with 1 BB, 3 TRN, 3 FIG, 1 BMR (oP=17, cnt=9) vs 1 AC, 2 FIG, 1 DD, 2 SS, 1 TRN (dP=19, cnt=7).  Not a great battle for the UK, but they can retreat once the TRN fodder is gone and leave the remnants of the German fleet for the US to finish off.

[88 Millimeter]

Great point. I’m not used to the German players that I play against moving out of the Baltic- they usually stay put to hold the north as long as possible. We also don’t play with bids, so our German moves never include the German player trying to combine fleets- the Egypt move has to be done with navy.

The extra Fighter would be helpful though, especially the longer the game went. It might also be a deterrent to the German fleet moving out in the first place.

[JamesG]

@88:

We also don’t play with bids

Are you playing with 4-5 players at a time, so that there are at least two Allied players?  If playing with 3 or less, which leads to one player playing all three Allies, the Axis is at a slight disadvantage w/o a bid.  With 4-5 players, the Allies usually don’t coordinate as well so the Axis is back to even footing even w/o a bid.

[88 Millimeter]

I play FTF with just one player- we alternate sides. He happens to be the 7th ranked player on the Flames of Europe site, so I get good competition. We’re about 50/50 on wins- the game we’re in now will decide the balance but I’m in some trouble with the Axis.

Anyhow, we feel that the game is nearly balanced, but we use several house rules to try to give the Axis a nudge.

[JamesG]

@88:

Anyhow, we feel that the game is nearly balanced, but we use several house rules to try to give the Axis a nudge.

Yeah, house rules are another way to balance the sides w/o a bid.