Largest troop levels?

@Imperious-Leader

Its a good balance of realism and gameplay. Larry Harris addresses this in his new interview with Gary Blevins/Board Game Nation.

That’s what i’d try to avoid messing up. I really like Conflict of Heroes but there are dynamics in it like VC, command cards, facing, terrain that are too much for this game. I think GW/WaW look interesting but they also seem like a giant collectible, a mess of complex rules, and way to much detail for a game that people are actually intended to play.

I’m in an avalon hill (old school) group and they’re all like “why doesn’t anyone play with me” and its because the games are too complex, ugly, boring, imbalanced, and riddled with eratta and problems–only 30,000 people in the entire country acutally want to sit down and play them rather than get nostalgic about how great (awful) most of them are.

@Ichabod:

@KGrimB:

In your experience against the J1 DOW, do you move Chinese forces North or do you try to contest the Burma road as long as possible?

What do you do?

Normally retake Burma with existing forces and place new units in the North starting T2

That is true. Early on, the USA can’t get a big enough navy to do much in the Med.

Victory in the Pacific is essentially impossible if you lose China.  You need the cash from those territories to be able to to outspend India + ANZAC + US in the theater.  Still, I find if China is making 15 PUs, ANZAC is at 20, and India can get up to 10, it is difficult to make much progress anyway.  There will be more Allied ground units made each round in Asia than you can pump out from 2 factories.  It is possible to build a third Japanese factory on the mainland, but then you are spending almost your entire budget on ground units and can’t compete in the naval battles.

When Yunnan is held strongly, I transition to helping Germany out by forcing the US to keep spending in the Pacific.  It is a huge help if you can hold the Philippines, threaten Hawaii, sometimes take the Aleutians or an ANZAC territory, and prevent India from sending troops West. You can still make 40 PUs without much of China, convoy raid India to keep their economy slow, and force the US to spend 20 PUs a round in the Pacific to prevent things from getting too out of hand.

@General:

Right, the UK should take full advantage of the Commonwealth and have Ottawa operate as the backup European capital. At that point the UK player could help the US mount a liberation campaign from Canada or put all its resources in South Africa to help out Egypt.

I like the general idea, but it could upset the balance of the game. Sea Lion would become less of a threat and may not be good option at all because it requires a substantial investment on the part of Germany. And with Sea Lion out of the way, the UK may not need to focus on home defense so much, and may be able to send more planes south towards the Mediterranean.

On a side note, I prefer to give Persia to Russia. The 2 inf are very convenient for taking Iraq next.

@Spendo02:

Explain how the Allies stop a G6 attack on Moscow.

Threatening a counterattack (ie artillery in Bryansk) makes them stop for a turn to bring up reinforcements.

Pull them all back and see what happens.  If Germany buys transports for a sea lion attack on London, then go back to Amur and then down into China and help them take and hold Kiangsu and maybe even Hongkong.  You might prevent a Pacific VC win if you are lucky.  Don’t forget you can mobilize new Chinese infantry on top of your Russians.

If Germany does not buy transports and masses troops along the Russian border for a G3 attack, then you better start marching them all West.

However, if Germany launches Barbarossa on G2 they may be too little too late anyway.  A German attack could start out as a mass of tactical bombers, armor, artillery and infantry in Hungary that moves East 1 territory per turn.  Meanwhile 10 mechanized infantry are built each turn in Germany to replace infantry losses.  The mechs also protect the tactical bombers in East Poland.  The schedule is East Poland G2, Belarus G3, Bryansk G4, then Moscow G5 onward.  Ukraine probably  evacuates.

So Germany is attacking Moscow G5, but there are 6 Far East troops in Samara and another 14 units in Novosibersk.  Those replacements make it possible for Russia to hold on as Germany batters Moscow G6, G7, G8, and just maybe the Germans will finally run out of infantry and die.

Hey Jen, I know what you mean about those fluky AA Gun successes.  I once had a Sealion go very bad for me because of that.  I went in with 2 fighters, 3 tacs and 1 bomber.  The dang British AA Gun killed 1 fighter, 2 tacs and the bomber.  2/3 of my airforce whacked out just like that.

So the way you guys play Japan is more or less as fodder for the Allies so less pressure is on Germany/Italy so that they might win in Europe?  You don’t try to have Japan win on the Pacific side?  Some people have said that if USA goes mostly for Europe, then it is somewhat easy for Japan to get their 6 victory cities and win the game for the Axis.  If USA goes all Pacific, then Japan is probably doomed anyway and best choice would probably be to try and tie up US forces as long as possible so Germany can take down Russia.  However, if you see US going heavy in the Atlantic, don’t you want to try to win with Japan?