Need Strategy Help

[IbanezFire]

I hope this is the correct forum for this, so here it goes.

I’m playing on the old A&A board game. Oh, speaking of which where can I buy the revised? Would chain stores such as KB Toys, Toy’s R us, etc. carry it?

On to the situation….

I’m having a little bit of a problem in the pacific with Japan. Here’s the Run down on the layout of the map.

Japan - 24 IPC to buy stuff

Japan - 1 Bomber, 2 Tanks, 1 Infantry
Phillipine - 1 Battle ship
Borneo - 1 Infantry
Guinea - 1 Infantry
Solomon - 1 Infantry
Caroline - 1 Battleship
Midway - 1 sub (Control island)

The UK took a lot of the asia, but has no troops so I will be gaining back that terroritory with germany. I lost a lot of my fleet to his super bombers. But also in the process he loses his bombers too.

The US player was able to deplete a lot of my fleet because he has Long Range & Super Bomber tech development.

Here’s the US layout…

Western - 2 Infantry, 3 Transport
Alaska - 1 Infantry, 1 Transport
Hawaii - Nothing on but controls

He usually does nothing with Eastern. If he did it would probably be after I took over Western or something similar in that nature. I’m pretty sure he would buy 2 bombers and either 2 infantry or 1 tank with the money he owns.

Japans Move
So I was thinking about moving both my battleships into the sea next to hawaii and midway, blocking his transport. But I can’t decide what to buy with the 24. Should I get 2 transports and 2 infantry? Or should I get 1 transport, 1 sub, and 2 infantry? Should I take out the the transport at alaska with the bomber? Thoughts.

Help Appreciated.

[Guest]

If the UK took a lot of Asia but has no troops, but transports and land units to go back into Asia.

Best bang for the buck, and the hardest to have countered.

However, being down that far arelady, and with UK and USA both having Heavy Bombers (and USA having long range Heavy Bombers, you are pretty much toast.

If you think you can keep shooting bombers down, go for re-building and moving into Asia en masse with mostly INF, maybe an occasional ARM (or better yet, your own AF units to add combat punch to your INF as it marches across Asia…)

[IbanezFire]

Whoops. You misunderstood. Actually my sentence was crap. Only the US has long range and super bombers.

I also left out this. Germany took all of russia and I have enough tanks to get back two territories from asia, so I can get japan 3 and Germany 1 IPC with Germanys next move. The allies are very disorganized though. To clarify UK has no troops past finland norway & western europe. Could I buy fighters and take the unoccupied territory or does it have to be land units only? UK is trying to take over germany, however I have couple of infantry stationed in europe. The UK managed to get western, but with the purchases he made it will take at least a couple turns before he gets close to getting the capital.

[Guest]

If Russia is gone, and you can re-take your Asian territories…
Germany turns to kick UK out of Europe for the last time.

Grab those Asian territories as Japan

Get Australia and NZ (a TRN and your BB will do it… land 1 INF a round and the BB shot until you take Australia)

meanwhile, build up to 8 TRN’s, with 12 INF and 2 ARM in Japan.  Add in a loaded AC (will take some time).  Mix-up the build… AC and a TRN, then some INF and a FIG, then more TRN and INF, then another FIG and TRN…)

Then invade Alaska with 4 INF loads and the defense and attack value from teh FIGs.

Then, on the next round sned the OTEHR 4 TRN’s forward loaded, and bring the first 4 back.

That will give you 7 divisions (6 INF, 1 ARM) into Alaska every round, plus FIGs within range to assist on attack, and protect your TRNs from the US.

But get that Asian territory back first (you need the income) and grab Australia and NZ next (which will add to your income, and make Germany’s job easier crackign London).

[SSG Rock]

I agree with Switch.  Germany should be able to handle UK w/o aid handily.  Japan can build its IPC’s in Asia/Aus, then attack North America.  Germany should be able to land in ECanada about the time Japan is ready to attack Alaska.  With the two pronged attack, Axis should have little problem with US.

With Axis already in possession of Russia, you should be able to win hands down.  GL

[Guest]

Well, with US having Heavies, it will still be a slug fest for a while… IF the US can mass enough bombers.

AA’s may become one of hte most essential builds of teh Axis for a few turns, protecting ALL territories that have units in them with AA to increase the number of Heavies shot down.

[IbanezFire]

Yeah, I won, it was actually pretty easy. The US pretty much didn’t help the UK at all, so the UK had to handle Germany and every turn I took more and more of his land reducing his IPC. When I wiped out his navy it was pretty much over. The US also left the eastern side open and Germany got that too. The US was too bomber happy and spent too much time loading up with bombers and I just loaded Japan with infantry and bought transports and took more territory from the UK.

Just got the Revised edition today too and look forwarding to testing it out.

[Jennifer]

BTW, if bombers are a huge threat, and you arnt relying too heavily on air force yourself, maybe get an AA for your front line territories.  They cost the same as a tank and dissuade the use of aircraft in combat.  Besides, it only takes 1 bomber kill with an AA gun to justify the cost of 3 AA guns.

[madscientist]

I agree. If he has heavy bombers then put AA guns all over as much as you can.

[DethSkwad]

I disagree with the last two AA guns are a total waste of money and at best only delay the inevitable.  If he has Heavy bombers he probably has already got several bombers with which to take advantage of that and thus only really has to risk 3-4 a turn to reduce Berlin to rubble, so for that reason there isn’t really much to risk by going over AA guns.  Especially because he can probably build enough a turn to replace whatever he loses and still build up to more in the long run.  If he’s got Heavy bombers don’t waste your money on AA guns build a bomber or two and start rolling yourself as this is your only hope.  Look at it like this 3 AA guns are equivalent to 1 bomber, and or 3 tech rolls which could alter the balance of the game.  AA guns never will and are nothing but a stalling measure, and for that to work you have to be stalling for something.

[Jennifer]

Actually, I only said on the front lines.  If you have 11 infantry in a territory you want to keep, put an AA gun there.  At the least, it’ll start to dissuade a bomber attack of the land.

Basically, you’re screwed.  All the UK and USA have to do is build bombers and nuke you into oblivion.  They can take over the whole dang world with 1 infantry and 1 transport if they bomb all your units into oblivion, which is easy enough to do with enough HBs.

[DethSkwad]

Yeah but I would never buy an AA gun no matter how tempting it might be.  Even 1 tech roll can concievably change the game.  I think to roll Heavies with 1 roll is around a 4% chance whereas to get enough bombers with 1 AA gun to swing the game is much lower in odds.  You’d need to hit a lot for it to start to change things.

[DarthMaximus]

That’s a pretty good point.

I generally don’t play with tech, but in the case of HB, I think the best counter is to probably just start teching yourself as DS suggests.

[Jennifer]

But you’d need an average of 6 rolls (30 IPCs) to get Heavy Bombers.  Whereas you only need 5 IPCs and 6 shots to kill a HB with an AA gun.  So if he attacks with 3 HBs you have a 50% chance of hitting one.  Not bad.

Though, you could just take an AA from Japan and bring it along with you, I suppose.  Not like it’s doing Japan much good.

[DethSkwad]

Right but look at it like this if you built an AA gun you are bombing yourself for 5ipcs, and a 50/50 at a bomber is actually only costing your opponent 7.5 ipcs.  So just at that level you are only gaining 2-3 ipcs, and when you consider that the remaining bombers should hit you for about 20-22ipcs you’re actually not coming out ahead.  If an opponent has HBs they can afford massive losses of them so long as they are getting to your production.  If Britain has 24ipcs they can build 1.5 bombers a turn, and can lose this much every turn so long as they are taking out Japanese production.  If Britain is trading 24ipcs of theirs a turn for 42+ of Japan who is coming out ahead?  This is why this guy should be building to tech.  I would agree with other that there is some advantage to picking up as many ipcs now as you can, but DO NOT over extend yourself, and he should be building a bomber a turn to prepare.  If Russia is out there is a chance he could win, but it will require him to get Heavy bombers at some point, probably sooner rather than later.  Guys aren’t going to make as much of a difference.

[Jennifer]

Exactly Skwad.  If UK/USA have HBs the game’s pretty much over.  The only way to compensate is to mitigate their damage and that would be to use your current AA guns to maximum efficiency.  That probably means protecting your front lines as much as possible instead of protecting your factories.  If he’s hitting your ICs it’s already over.

[DethSkwad]

It doesn’t matter either way if he’s got them and you don’t you’re going to lose.  Therefore the purchase of AA guns is irrelevent.  Obviously if you’ve developed Heavies and have some extra cash then AA’s can be bought, but remember that someone with Heavies is likely going to target your factories so that you cannot develop this tech yourself.  Once he can eliminate that threat the game is over.  In other words you need to develop tech while you still can.