Strategy Advice

@Bunnies:

(And why am I always beating my favorite dead horse “look at the board, look at the board, look at the board”?)

Because it’s so unrelevant? Or maybe your horse is to slow? ;)

So, you say, you specified that a country was deadzoned and was being traded.  Ask yourself if that’s enough to formulate a grand strategy.  Of course it’s not.

Not? ;)
Don’t get me wrong, I know that my game will only some dilettantish moving of plastic figures as long I have no planning above the next three moves. Know yourself, know your enemy … all that stuff from all that books.
But I also must take a look on the little decisions I have to make, like that example above. If I make such little things wrong, no strategy can help me. And I think, an strategy must pay attention to the overall board situation (as you said; not a dead horse in my eyes), my own weakenings in gameplay and the player that sits on the other side of the table. To judge that situation right and create the adequate strategy is a thing that I have to do by myself, and all the postings on this board can only help a little. But for that little tactical decisions and tiny precious moves which the game have in store these boards are an eye opener for me. And that’s why I’m looking for such little, delimited solutions for a special problem and hope, I’ ll remember that solution in my next game.

Conclusion:  Germany has superior trading ability.  Germany may leave defense forces of 2 infantry or more per territory, particularly in Belorussia and Ukraine early (since UK/US probably can’t drop units into those territories early, unlike Karelia and Archangel).  However, Russia should avoid leaving infantry in territories if it can help it.

I’ll try to remember that.

Note leaving infantry behind is sometimes good re: Tim’s post.

Known, but noted again. :)

And: thank you for your post.

@Aretaku:

India Destroyer to Jap Transport
Aussie Sub to Jap Sub
2 Inf from Australia to New Guinea (which can be reached)
2 Inf, 1 Fig from India to Borneo (Carrier must accompany to allow fighter to land)

If all four attacks succeed, Japan is down two ships and five IPCs, and has to think long and hard about what to kill and what to potentially let slip away. It also helps in that it keeps mainland Asia relatively calm for a round or two while Japan deals with the situation.

There are many options for Britain in the Pacific in turn one, but when this one succeeds, it can really ruin Japans day.

In may playgroup there is often a SJF (Slow Japan first approach) similar to this moves. We are also used to  stack Buryatia with 6 infantries and sending Russian infantry in Sinkiang. This togheter with the UK opening move described by Aretaku can really ruin Japanes days!

I am trying to answer to this opening in the following way:

Buy: 1 AC, 1 TRN, 1 Tank, save 1 IPC; Ignore Pearl Harbour to wipe out all the UK fleets instead; Attack UK fleet in Borneo with 1 BB, 2 Fig, 1 BMB; Attack UK DD with 1 BB 1 fig (from Japan); attack UK Sub with DD and 1 fig (from AC at Caroline) if JAp sub is gone and UK sub is alive, this should give a good chance at killing it; Attack China with 5 inf (3 from Kwantung and 2 from FIC) and the remaining two fighters;

NCM:

transport 1 inf and 1 tank in FIC; leave 2 inf in Manchuria; leave 1 AC at Caroline and the other in East Indies Sea Zone, the British Transport still alive in New Guinea can not reach East Indies or Philipphine; the surviving fighters should be landed in FIC, in sz 60, in Caroline and in East Indies if possible;
Deploy the AC and TRN in sz 60.

Apart the BB in sz59, all the other surviving ships are able to strike in solomon islands seazone with the surviving fighters. The objective of such attack should be to kill the USA TRNs slowing down the island hopping. Meanwhile, Japan should attack India and starting to unload at least 2-3 trns of troops (emptying the islands) on the mainland, buying more fighter is the priority however.
If USA do not come to Solomon the fleet in south East may be used to attack Borneo, Australia and New Zealand.

What result am I having?
The counter move is composed of 4 distinct attacks and it is difficult that all of them went always good.
Sometimes happened and I wiped all the UK Fleet with minimal losses.
Sometimes losses has been more grievous leaving the Japan weak. But if the USA player do not strike immediately in USA1, Japan may still recover consuming his revenge on UK: India, Australia, New Zealand or Madagascar are objectives for turn 2, 3 and 4 together with recapture of Borneo.
Some other times the counterattack went very bad leaving the Japan open to USA attack but… it is better to die in a blaze of glory than dying slowly each turn…

Oh dear - a little off-topic…

To my mind, a major key to the game (and thus a good player) is unit count and IPC value. The player with the most land units at the end of the game wins. Units give you options, and the ability to limit your opponents’ options, the ability to control territory, and thus build more units.

Units at the front are more important than other units. Don’t lose these unless you are making the other side lose more of them.

So to my mind the keys are:

Not letting your front-line units get killed without taking more down in return Get more units to the front more quickly Build more units - this means infantry Enable your units to exert their influence in the maximum number of places. This means Transports, tanks, and don’t lose your air units, maybe even build a few, but that will interfere with #3

#1 is tactics
#2 is logistics
#3 is economics
#4 is force multiplication, and allows you to do more of #1 and #2 with your existing units. You can evacuate, attack, create kill zones, shift fronts, etc.

Actually, no one had superfortresses.  The only real NA ever used was Russian Winter and Fortress Europe…the rest were forgotten since no one ever played with them.

Meanwhile, if you can scare Japan into SZ 61 or destroy him, you have effectively contained the Jap fleet.  IF you can tkae SZ 60 even if Japan isn’t there, and hold it, you have contained Japan.  (At least you’ve removed their largest production facility.)

Japan is very flimsy.  Ask anyone who’s worked on a KJF strat.  One or two bad moves with Japan and Japan is neutrallized.  One or 20 bad moves with America and at worst Russia has fallen.

There are a few threads already posted on bidding and how to do it…

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=1146.0
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=5580.0

Those should get you started.

You can also read the essays on the subject at DAAK
http://www.daak.de/indexe.php?sprache=e
(click DAAK-club rules along the left side, bidding is the second topic that will come up in the main window)

That should get you up and running.

If you still have questions after reviewing those, please feel free to ask :-)

Right now all my expieience is coming from Xeno’s game, and the original MB game, but the principals are the same. Just need a little tinkering. I wish the Xeno game was still fun. I guess I’ll play you with the allies next time

And the danger is even grater if germany launches a rapid all out attack on Russia, while Japan musters up for the kill.