The forum policeman

[Kriegsmarine]

I just want to say that I have posted here several times in the past only to be harassed by a guy named AgentSmith.  He was undoubtedly a good A&A player (as are many of us that post here), but he would argue about every one’s posts whether valid or not.  I don’t know what happened to him, but I know that he was banned from a different A&A forum site for his abrasive nature.  It was sooo bad that I found many contradictions in his posts.  He would make a point that was good about someones post being somewhat flawed…but then if you were to read some of his other posts from previous discussions, he would validate that same person’s reasoning.  It really made me sick.  I stopped posting here because he was such a pain in the arse.  I haven’t seen any posts from him lately, so I was just wondering if anyone knows what happened to him, or maybe he just got tired of trying to sound like the smartest person here.  No matter what game or forum you are posting in, there is always one guy that has to try and spoil everyone else’s mood.  Anyway, I am not trying to stir up anything, just hoping that there is little or no discontent on this forum site anymore.

I play regular A&A 2nd edition, and I don’t really know how the whole bidding thing works.  All I know is that it is an attempt to balance the Allied advantage by placing extra IPCs (or IPC values via units to an armies starting power).  I’ll play as any country, but I’ve found that it is possible to win with the Axis without having extra troops.  I don’t know if it is because of the lack of experience from my opponents or what, but it seems to be universally accepted as a common practice nowadays.  Could someone enlighten me as to how the bidding process begins and where the bids take place if agreed upon?  I personally think that the Axis start with enough military might at the beginning of the game to take over terrs and sway the tide if you strike quickly and often.  It’s all about the Luftwaffe and a decent Jap fleet.

[Jennifer]

Agent Smith isn’t with us any longer.

[Guest]

Agent Smith (in all of his various ID’s) has been removed from the forums, and his IP address blocked.

[Bashir]

Kriegsmarine. The bidding works like this: both teams write down a number, this number is the extra IPC’s they want to play as the axis. In 2nd ed. no RR the bids vary from 21-25 ICP’s or something like that. With RR the bids are lower and vary around 12-15 IPC’s. So both teams write down a number for wich they will play the axis, you can’t see the other teams figure until you both reveal your bids. So for example you write down 22 IPC’s and your opponent bids 23 IPC’s, this means you get the Axis with 22 IPC’s extra.

The reasons for the bids:

1. In non-RR the Axis is gonna get crushed on 2 sides. Japan will lose Manch and Kwang in round one, Germany will get smashed in Ukraine or EEU, Africa will be lost very soon.
2. The Axis can’t expand without bids. They will lose their grip on Africa pretty soon, round 2-3.
3. Japan will be enormously delayed.
   There are more reasons why there must be bids, but I can’t think of them right now.

Common bids:
Power europe: Just place your whole bid in Europe.
Power africa: Place around 4 and maybe a tank extra in Libya and 2 inf on Manch

Other bids like an All Asian bid will not work, because Japan is too slow for the bid to be useful, your bid must be something like 32-35 to be useful.

This should get you started, if you have any questions just shoot :P

[Guest]

Just to clarify, a Power Asia bid would need to be that large.  PE and PAfr are in the low to mid 20’s on average (I think 22 is pretty common).

[thespaceman]

Could you clarify this point for me?

When you talk about Power Europe and Power Asia etc, are these official terms or just game players jarge.

Eg Do you have to place the units in specific locations? or is the axis player basically free to put them wherever they like.

[Bashir]

It is just game players jarge.

You can place them whereever you want, but the PA and PE are just the most optimal places to place your bids.

[Hamar]

can’t say i’d write off the power asia bid that quickly.  i’ve been using it a lot lately with considerable success.  for a bid of 23 you can get some good power asia combinations:

2inf man
2inf bur
1arm kwa
2inf lib

or:

2inf man
2inf bur
1arm kwa
1inf lib
1inf eeu

the armour could also be placed in bur, but i find that it is more useful in kwangtung to deter the russians from stacking yak.  the main benefit of a power asia is that you should be able to completely remove the usa and uk from asia on turn one:  the indian forces counterattack egypt (or else the germans run free in africa) while the japanese take out sinkiang and china, plus whatever other asian territories are easily available (usually two out of soviet far east, yakutsk and india).  on round two the germans retake egypt with 2inf + air that they noncommed into libya, and japan takes whatever it can get its hands on (yak, sfe, nov, kaz, ind, per, syr in asia + aus, haw, nz, mad).  by round three the axis can have a real threat of m84 (since there are no americans in asia to make the game saving liberation).  generally the allies have to be very careful to avoid m84, and often are forced into making suboptimal moves with russia until the first americans arrive in asia about turn 5.  by that time the axis can have the upper hand.

[Guest]

If M84 is what you are after, PAfr with a unit or 2 to manch will get you there REALLY quickly.

[Bashir]

Look at the game switch played against DM. He tried PAsia and failed… PA is better to go for M84.

[Guest]

The problem with Power Asia (for anyone who does not want to go try to read that game) is a catch 22.

Japan has to drive as fast as possible on Moscow in order to up the pressure on the Russians to try to break the Allied crush of Germany.
But if Japan drives fast on Moscow, they outrun their INF and reach the front lines in 3 turns with only a small number of troops, and thin supply lines behind.

In that situation, Russia can send even a modest attack force, punch through the Japan front, and then race around in the rear areas, or just shove the entire column back to the Pacific.  Even a 1 territory set back is 2+ turns more that Germany has to fend off all 3 powers.

But if Japan moves too slowly, Germany will be down to 1-3 territories, and Russia can just let the US and UK finish off Germany and turn her entire might on those Japan forces.

If you can get UK’s income crippled (power Africa) and get Russia encircled (Germans in the west, Germans and Japs in the south, Japs in the east), then you have a chance of doing some damage because UK is weak, Germany can hold against the US for quite a while, and Russia is mostly cut off from Allied support while being hit from 3 sides.

[Hamar]

only problem is that russia can’t defend against m84 - if japan can take eve, nov, kaz it doesn’t matter if russia can mount a strong counter attack, since the game could be over before they get a chance to react.

[Guest]

The US should ahve countered Africa to prevent that income long before Japan can reach Novo.

[Bashir]

Yeah just take Nov as Japan… rolls eyes

[Hamar]

of course russia could hold nov by putting lots of units there, but then that lets germany hold eeu.  and if the americans are diverted into africa, then germany can spread to ukr (maybe even cau) in an m84 lunge.  is it worth holding nov just lose eeu and ukraine?  either way the allies have tough decisions to make.

in a well played game (and with decent dice - can’t win without those no matter what) i see the game going in either one of two directions by turn 3-4:

scenario 1:

germany controls:
ger, weu, seu, eeu, ukr, aes, iea, ken, saf, syr = 35
japan controls:
all japanese original territories, aus, nz, haw, ind, per, sin, chi, sfe, yak, and let’s say three of cau, nov, eve, kaz = 47

scenario 2:

virtually the same, but here the allies choose to keep germany from holding eeu.  the only power that can do this so early is russia, and the only way that they can do it is by letting japan have a good shot at getting all four of cau, nov, kaz, eve (and maybe having an amphib opportunity on ukr from the red sz).  and it doesn’t necessarily matter if russia can do it - if you time it right they’ll never get the chance because the game will be over.

all of these can be held completely safe from american liberation.  and this total (82) doesn’t include the marginal territories, which the allies have to be sure they can liberate just to save the game: con, lib, fea, ala, pan/mex.  when the allies are forced to liberate these areas it takes them out of position, for example they may have to move a transport (or an entire navy) to con sz to liberate congo which means they can’t get land units to europe on the next turn, or they may have to land ftrs in wca after liberating ala, which only weakens karelia.  this is a game of inches, and any small advantage is another increment towards victory.

i’m not saying power asia bids always work, just that i have beaten two high and mighty iaapa generals lately, and i believe power asia to be an equally valid bid to any other, provided it is used properly.  just use those extra japanese units to eliminate the western allies from asia.  then push russia back, and calculate the M84 lunge for the turn where the allies can’t counter you in nov, kaz, eve, cau, ukr, africa, ala, pan all at the same time.  sacrifice your air units, especially with japan, to make sure you take with enough ground units to hold.  and on the last japanese turn throw all tech dice - you won’t be needing any more ground units and it is a wonder what HB, JP, and especially LR can do to bolster an M84 lunge.

i will continue to bid power asia (of course with other bids mixed in for variety).  i think it’s a winner, and also it’s tons of fun to have stacks of japanese troops swarming asia after round one!

[Hamar]

oh yeah, one more thing.  i recently got m84 on round two against a good opponent with a big asia bid (1inf man, 1arm kwa, 2inf bur, 2inf lib, 1inf eeu).  rus 1 was terrible, meaning the germans were able to take karelia and hold weu.  still might not have been a done deal, though, without the extra units in asia.  if it had been a power africa, then i think the british and americans in asia might have been able to hold off the japanese long enough to help russia, or maybe even force the germans back to eeu.  seems like when russia 1 goes bad (and most of the time that will happen in europe) then extra units to lock up asia early really helps.

[cyan]

did you try to Delate all of his posts(agentsmith) i tried finding him but could only one post out of the several that has quotes about him. he seemed really y popular. but your like the government;surprised if you don’t delete this  :-) what did he do so bad to get all his posts  deleted and and would scare people of the site?

[Guest]

I know I did not, I was not a moderator when he left.

His posts should still be out there, but may not be searchable now by user ID because his accounts are deleted, which changed all of his posts to “guest”

Most of his posts were in the Classic thread, and probably are only a couple of pages back in the history.

[Imperious Leader]

Wait:  you actually want to read his posts? LOL

I don’t think you will find any… but you can just make one by adding any disrespectfull comment after every win or loss you incurred. Then add a few against people you never even played before and you too can be agent smith… its easy!

[DarthMaximus]

@cyan:

did you try to Delate all of his posts(agentsmith) i tried finding him but could only one post out of the several that has quotes about him. he seemed really y popular. but your like the government;surprised if you don’t delete this :-) what did he do so bad to get all his posts deleted and and would scare people of the site?

He deleted all (or most) of his own posts. 
He then deleted his own accounts, which is why, if you do find some of his posts he is listed as “guest”.

He also posted as SexualHarrassmentPanda (or SHP).

It’s kind of ashame, while I did have my run-ins with him at times, he did post some good stuff on bids, LL and LL tactics and some other things.

Oh yeah, as a website we also lost about 1-2 years of posts due to a hack.  So I think many posts (if not all) regardless of user from the years 2004-2005 are gone.

Edit:

We lost all threads (and posts within those threads) that were not created as “polls”.