@nooob:
Hey Guys, a couple of comments…
1. Yes,russia will be down a fighter. But if you build a fighter on R1 then you have recoved the lost fighter that has to land in Karelia.
a R1 buy of fig, arm, 3 inf will allow for 2 spaces to be traded. (Karelia,Ukraine/Bellorussia) Im not sure Russia can afford to be trading more than 2 zones anyways. NP your points about it being much easier for 2inf 1fig are correct. I hate having to attack 1inf with 1inf,1art(see it fail too many times)
2. Norway can easily be defended against 2 trns let alone 1. With a defense in Norway of: 3figs(1from WE, 1from EE, 1from NOR), 2arm(1bridged, 1 from EE), 4 INF(3 starting, 1bridged). That makes a G1 attack of Norway a very uphil battle.
I love holding Norway for as long as its feasible. Keeps 3 IPCs out of UKs pocket. Puts pressure on the SZ to the north west of UK. And also lets you stage just as close to most of Russias holdings as EE would.
1. You haven’t “recovered” the lost fighter. You just built a new fighter, which cost you 10 IPC. Russia cannot afford to buy tons of fighters, even one fighter is pressing it, and two is right out. Russia needs cost-effective infantry and tanks, with a late all-artillery buy when Germany or Japan presses on Moscow.
2. You want to trade 3 zones. No question. Why trade? Because 1) if you hold the territory, you can get IPCs from it. 2) Germany has to counterattack because Germany can’t just let you hold on to IPCs at no cost. 3) When Germany counterattacks, if it attacks with a light force, you can COUNTER-counter attack and wipe out the German forces. 4) When you wipe out German forces, it depletes their forces for when they DO attack you.
Let’s say that you attack 1 infantry with 2 infantry and 1 fighter. If you get lucky, you keep BOTH infantry, if you have moderate luck, you keep one infantry, if your luck is not so hot, you lose both infantry.
Now what happens if you keep BOTH infantry? Say Germany counters with overwhelming air plus two infantry. That means Germany moved its fighters out of position (good for the US/UK fleet), and that you killed 2 IPC expected of units (say each of your infantry has a 1/3 chance of killing a 3 IPC infantry). SO - you killed 3 German IPC (an infantry) to take the territory, plus you got 2 IPC from the territory itself, plus you got 2 more IPC from the expected kills that your surviving infantry got. Of course, you lost 6 IPC of units (your infantry). So you got SEVEN IPC worth of units and IPCs, while losing SIX. And since all YOU have to do is defend, you have a considerable positional advantage.
Same thing if you only have 1 infantry surviving, but now you get six IPCs for your six IPCs. Still quite good, considering that positional advantage - you sapped Germany of one of its forward placed infantry, while not losing any.
What if you lose both infantry and don’t take the territory? That’s unlikely, but even then, if you kill the German infantry, a single UK infantry can march in and take the territory.
Germany COULD attack with mass ground early in the game, but that usually gets wiped out by the Russian counter, so the Germans won’t do it in the first place.
3. Holding Norway prevents early infantry pressure on USSR.