Germany and Factories

@Violent.copper:

To add on to Cmdr Jennifer, You are also leaving the Brittish Navy to Invade the Norway Round 1 or then Sz 5 R2 or R3 overall doing more harm than good to Germany I never want the Allies in SZ5 Personally.

You know, hitting Norway may not be the worst thing to happen to Germany…if you go Fleet Heavy like Functionetta and Emperor Mollari (and many others I am sure) on Germany 1.  Now their ships are in range of yours (you have to hit it from SZ 3).  Realistically speaking, you may have 2 destroyers, cruiser, submarine, carrier, 4 or 5 fighters and a bomber in range of SZ 3 at this time…depending what you did, what happened to you and how you are positioned at the end of G1.

The FIC IC is OK if the US goes 100% Pacific. As a matter of fact I think it is one of the best IC positions in this case. It is harder to lose than any of the island positions. Both of the seazones it serves may also give a safe build spot close to the action. Think putting planes on carriers to maximize those two slots. Also as axis_roll pointed to the FIC IC does not require any naval servicing. If it is not needed for ships it can be producing ground units for South West Asia. The Allies are thin here even with the cluster they start with in India, it will not take many troops to decide this area. This opens up the possibility of an IC in India and these can support themselves.

I do think that akreider2 is correct in that if the US does go 100% Pacific (keep in mind this is how I play Allies) that Japan does need to limit its IC building. I know as the US I love to see a Japanese IC go down in E. Indies on round 2. This is a fixed point that the Japanese navy will have to defend. While FIC is also a fixed point, it can be relived by land, and is more interior, so this reduces its drawbacks in a US PTO game. I think the Key to surviving these as Japan is to avoid having to defend multiple areas that one can not afford to lose. While the islands do matter for IPCs and NOs they can be left for a turn or two in enemy possession if the situation requires it. With an IC at that location it becomes a different consideration an MUST be defended and this is what allows the US to kill Japan.

One of the big questions is “How Easy is it to Hold France”?

Front:

I think by the middle of a typical game, Russia should have 3 fighters going because they’ll need to trade three territories pretty routinely.

I am always amazed when I see people say they built an Industrial Complex in India and don’t follow up with saying worst idea ever.  Who are these Japanese players NOT taking the complex on round 2, again on round 3, again on round 4, etc until the Allies give up or are unable to liberate it again?

You have the firepower!  Round 2 you should have no less than 5 ground units and 5 fighters in range of India (compare to 4 or 5 ground units and an AA Gun and you can see how you have a significant advantage!).  Round 3, KNOWING that England HAS a complex there, and forcing Russia to send tanks to India instead of against Germany, you should definitely have half a dozen ground units and the cruiser/battleship for a follow up (plus any fighters you have remaining.)  From there it’s a matter of shuttling 4 to 6 ground units a round into FIC and then over to India to keep it from building units.

This shuttling should be a simple matter.  You only need enough units in SZ 37 and SZ 62 to prevent America from killing your transports (assuming you don’t just put ICs in Burma and FIC like I do) so you can bring troops down.  So what if America goes Pacific?  Russia’s throwing away tanks keeping you from building in India!  By the time America builds up, with Russia diverting 33-67% or more of it’s new builds to India, Germany should be just about into Moscow and looking to start a Sea Lion invasion fleet!

Yea, ok, I have a tendency to summarize the next 10-20 rounds, but I hope you guys can see where I am going.  Normally, Japan has to worry about an American flotilla in the Pacific for financial sake.  Normally Japan can’t even get into Moscow before round 5 and that’s assuming there’s nothing in the way!  But in this case, Russia’s sending so much down into India to keep it from building Japanese units that Germany is virtually unopposed.  (I’d also advocate, for the first time in my life, that Germany go for a tank dash if Russia’s sending so much down to India.  May as well!)

I’d probably go for a surge into china while holding the line against Germany.  Never seen this before though so I don’t know for sure, usually Russia just gets beat on while US/UK try to get something going.  My usual Russian strat is kill as many German and Japanese units as possible.

@Subotai:

I would like to play against this strat in TripleA low luck game, but sadly AA50 is not finished yet for release in the stable version.

If I think a strat is vastly inferior, then I could possibly be interested in playing reg dice, eventually good dice rolls can only bring you so far.

There’s un anstable version, but it works perfect.

http://triplea.sourceforge.net/mywiki/Forum

The only thing I noticed so far are some error messages in History. But you can ignore them, and still look at it.
For the rest, it seems to work great.

I agree with putting down as many units as possible as Germany and even Italy because the UK and USA can easily muster a massive bomber force for cutting down your production in just a few rounds.  I personally hate to lose the Baltic fleet because you just opened the path for naval invasions with minimal counterattacks.  I know the airforce could strike those fleets but that means they are not attacking Russians.  I strongly favor a ship/land unit build first turn to protect your fleet from a turn 1 UK slaughter fest.  Heck if Italy saves 3 IPCs and meets their NOs while also taking Trans-Jordan, they could build a carrier and have one powerful fleet to contend with.

Actually the more I think about it I think if the UK has the boats they should move there entire navy to SZ 12 landing all available troops plus placing the 3 fighters in Gibraltar, purchasing 1 more trannie (or 2 if you lost 1), 1 more bomber, and then land units, what have you.  If you kept the BB this allows you to seriously threaten Italy on UK2, especially if you have 2 trannies left at the end of turn 1.  Now you have to ensure that Germany doesn’t have the planes in position to sink your fleet in SZ12, but if you take Algeria fighters can only reach from France/NW Europe, bombers are another story.  Granted Italy could attack Gibraltar, but then they will be exposing there fleet, same if they hit your fleet.  This allows you to bring a lot of gear to bear against Rome on turn 2 or turn 3 if you have to clear out there fleet first.  Can Germany stop you? Of course, if they leave off Russia for a bit.  You can even rely on the US to take back Africa for you with just there one transport.