Starting Bids

@SAS:

Some problems I can see are that the rules (as far as I know) disallow us to place an officially Chinese AA gun for one thing; so we still would have the issue of China not having an AA gun until UK is at war anyway… :|

There is no point in the game rules where says that China cannot have aa guns. Simply, chinamen have jedi lightsabres that can destroy ICs for some odd reason, but ABs, NBs and aaguns are inmune to this jedi trick. As much, they cannot purchase aa guns, but the same could be said about the starting fighter. But bids are not covered by the rules so you could bid even bombers if you really want.

I’d suggest giving 1 free chinese aagun for Szechwan and then start bidding for chinese units as you would do for another power … China had some crappy old tank corps anyway so I don’t see any problem if someone wants risk money in such costly unit: China will need artillery and infantery, and 1 tank now costs the same as 2 infs

And ACME wall must be destroyed

What are you trying to accomplish with the bid?

Prevent loss of UK Transports J1 (you would need AC + fighter = 26 ipcs) Japan can bring 4 bombers + fighter = 18 pips or 3 hits. The 2 hit AC would be enough to dissuade me. After UK1 the AC would have 2 fighters on it going forward. DEI capture is within your grasp. This is only a short-term tactical victory for the allies, however. Has huge distraction potential, though. Basically Japan would have to commit most of their fleet to attack the Bay of Bengal. (Air base on Ceylon, anyone?)

Prevent capture of Phillipines (stack of infantry would do job, say about 9 = 27 ipcs. If you can get away with only 8 put a UK inf on Borneo) Japan needs to funnel infantry to mainland Asia. Leaving it alone means US gets +7 ipc for the balance of the game (plus they get to keep the bomber!). Allies can even add fighters if they see the Japanese buildup. DD and Transport are toast regardless.

Reinforce Burma Road for China. (aa gun + 8 inf in Yunnan = 29 ipcs) With the Japanese firepower(airforce) that can be brought to bear on a chinese defensive stack I don’t know how practical this is. If UK reinforces with fighters it is doable (maybe, I normally drool if I see UK fighters in Yunnan). The aa gun alone would NOT deter me. Japan has to concentrate ground forces before tackling this strong point. Extra 2inf a turn on the front lines for China as long as this strong point is held. Problem with this build is you force Japan into the correct strategy.

Would be nice if one inf can be split off from these builds for ANZAC in New Guinia so NO can be accomplished on first turn.

All this would have to be playtested, of course.

My personal preference is to ban J1 attacks.

What are you trying to accomplish with the bid?

A bid is meant to be part of your allied strategy.  If you want to save the fleet in sz37, then you would bid accordingly.  If you want to give China more punch, then the bid would reflect that etc… all of which you have already stated.  I have tried each of these so far, but the bid hasn’t passed $20, and that is not enough to accomplish these.

Heck, if you are playing someone that is better than you, your bid should reflect that.

@Funcioneta:

@SAS:

Some problems I can see are that the rules (as far as I know) disallow us to place an officially Chinese AA gun for one thing; so we still would have the issue of China not having an AA gun until UK is at war anyway… :|

There is no point in the game rules where says that China cannot have aa guns.

That’s a good point, the Chinese can capture and use Japanese AA, so why not have a Chinese AA bid?  But Van-Trump makes some good points about other bids possibly being more effective, so I don’t really know as I haven’t played more than 1 turn in Pac40 yet… :|

@kaufschtick:

@BadSpeller:

….or, some do a sealed bid.

Each person writes down a number and then reveals the bid. (The lower number plays the Allies and places units and/or cash as outlined by jim010)

This prevents auctioning the bid down because you know you can get your opponent to go lower. (even though you may not want to win the bid to play the Allies.)

Hey, that’s a good idea, I kinda like that.

I should also mention that because Japan plays first, (and the Allies after) that ‘The Bid’ should include were the units and/or IPCs should be placed before play starts.

This speeds things up a lot.

Now the person playing Japan may start right away with his/hers ABattleMap moves. (It also speeds up F2F games as well).

I have played bids before so I understand the mechanics.

My question was more along the vein of: Ok, you’ve got your extra IPC’s to spend before the game starts; where do you place the extra units to balance the game for the allies?

You really can’t calculate the bid unless you know what you are reinforcing.

I typically put more boats in Pearl Harbor. And more Infantry in Shan state