The key to (killing) Russia's heart is in Nenetsia, 2.0

@SalothSar:

@Daedelus:

Also, a counter to Russia building surface ships is very simple.  Wouldn’t using all those Japanese planes to sink Russia ship do the trick?  Hell, if Germany doesn’t know what to build on G3 why not an Airbase for his Japanese allies!

Build it where?

Nenestsia on turn 4.

@deadbunny:

I say go for the “gimick” win.  The first time I tried something along the lines of building German Aircraft Carriers was back in Revised.  I built two (and a transport), landed four planes and went on my Merry way attacking the med coast and I took stalingrad on turn two.

This was not a gimmick, it protected the German fleet and allowed it the same range as if staying in France in revised. Global is a different game and what you would call a “gimmick” strategy in this case is null and void in Global.

I didn’t mean gimmick win in a bad way.  That’s why it was in quotes.  For the future we will call this a non-conventional strategy.  Though this game is so new and unplayed who knows what the “conventional” moves will end up being.

calvin just conceded a game where he tried this out. I believe he executed it correctly, but I don’t really see any way it could work. Even if the Russian player doesn’t see it coming, he’s got 2 full rounds to react and that’s plenty of time to consolidate and buy more cheap units. Three when you see the air base being built and see where it can reach. The German tank purchase also made me wary. As usual though, I huddled when I saw the naval buy, expecting at least an attack at Novgorod.

The tanks would have been an irritant blitzing around, but my next purchase would be 4 tanks and 4 mechs to chase them down. At this point with my Russian hordes vastly outpipping both the Germans and Japanese, I can easily afford to go with the pricier and more mobile units and begin pushing out in all directions. This also gave the UK a chance to start buying ships again, along with units in Africa. Japan is in no position to hurt India or ANZAC, and the US is coming to Europe shortly.

I’ve attached a map so you can see what the Axis are up against. This is the end of Russia in round 3. Japan should be landing planes, then Germany has to advance. If they come closer to those stacks, they are going to get creamed. They could survive a round by going to Archangel or the Urals, but then that’s missing the point of reaching Moscow. Russia even has enough troops to deal with the southern forces at the same time. Japan could put a decent dent in the Russian stack, but it’s not going to be nearly enough and they’ll lose everything doing it.

Japan planes clearing a path or as part of a final push for Moscow has always been a sound strategy, but this is quite different. It’s less than dicey because you’ll never get close to landing enough Germans to push all the way to Moscow, and your normal front will be very soft.

calvinvkobu03bR.AAM

Yeah, I saw no point in continuing.

I tried your strat out too (well, SOME kind of iteration of it) against Tyzoq, and, well… not much luck in getting it to work.  Here’s the thread:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=21041.0

If you want to download the maps as you scroll through to see what’s going on sequentially, here’s the thread for Func’s Battlemap module.  Pretty good directions on installation and configuration are included:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=20043.0

Germany ran into some problems right from the get-go in Russia on G3, my first stack in E Poland crumpled rather quickly right in the first counterattack (4 hits on the first defensive roll from 20+ units!!!  :roll:)  I also pretty much screwed up by NOT building the major IC in Norway on G2 and NOT having an extra 8 tanks available in Nenetsia for a G5 push on Moscow.  Germany did take Leningrad handily and was coming up with a decent sized stack on Moscow by G6, but was losing gas quickly at the end with a giant UK/US stack in W. France and SZ 110 fleet.  It was doing the best out of all the Axis sides, however, almost reaching the 60s in income a round.

With Japan I did a bid for the money islands (since I knew the mainland’s planes were going to be sent into Russia for awhile) while building a gigantic naval stack to sock the US at Pearl Harbor.  Japan rolled really well all game, crushing the US fleet at Hawaii, and destroying a large Russian stack in Volgogada, and it didn’t even matter, as China, India, and Russia’s Amur forces became major annoyances without those planes to keep them whittled down.  I couldn’t even spare any more land units past the first few rounds into Russia.  Also, attacking on J1 with the OOB setup let me grab the money islands fairly easily, but it also let the US have some SBmrs in the UK by Round 3, which screwed up my plans for attacking the capital on G4.

Italy was a terrible clusterfuck the whole game as the UK’s Taranto raid ensured they would be crippled the entire game (plus the counterattacks on I1 were simply pitiful…)  Basically all they did was turtle, and they did so very badly.

Realistically, I could only spare the 15 planes in Russia for only one or two rounds before running them right back to China as fast as I could.  If the US has SBmrs on the UK or somewhere in Russia by US 3-4 they can block in Vologda so the Germans can’t blitz through, so it might be a good idea to put a few Italian units on some of the German transports in SZ 112 on I2 so that they can take Vologda after Japan strafes it clear.  That was about the only hole I could see to the strat.

Oh, ABattlemap’s link.

http://www.axisandallies.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=67

@gsh34:

Guys,

Thanks for trying this out.  Calvin, did you also have Japan shuttling troops across northern China so that a constant supply of Japanese troops would be arriving at J5?  Would six to eight Japanese troops a turn even matter against Russia in this scenario?  Did you see any thing that showed promise about this strategy?  Do you think this could be something possible to do after a successful Sealion so the transports are utilized?

I wish I knew how to view your map download.  Can you explain that please?

I think after a Sealion you’re going to be using those transports to reinforce England or Germany first before you get a chance to worry about Russia.  But, if you can keep them alive long enough, sure.

@gsh34:

Guys,

Thanks for trying this out.  Calvin, did you also have Japan shuttling troops across northern China so that a constant supply of Japanese troops would be arriving at J5?  Would six to eight Japanese troops a turn even matter against Russia in this scenario?  Did you see any thing that showed promise about this strategy?  Do you think this could be something possible to do after a successful Sealion so the transports are utilized?

I wish I knew how to view your map download.  Can you explain that please?

I think the map is pretty self-explanatory. How are you planning on streaming in that many Japanese troops when your planes aren’t available for dealing with China and UK? With no pressure on Russia’s western front, I don’t think they have to worry about the Japanese much.