The Axis vs. The Allies

@squirecam @argothair @Arthur-Bomber-Harris

Howdy friends, been a while.

The OP seems to finally have found the unlock–there is indeed a way for the allies to win! Fancy that…it only took us a decade.

Those, including myself, who argue that the game is imbalanced can attempt to find innumerable workarounds (being forced to play both teams, bidding, reverse bidding, modding etc.) A static and unchanging game with a fixed setup will always have critical paths and good better best moves at each juncture.

J1JDOW is a good move. It leaves Japan weaker against the USA though, and allows the early usa cross that stops the gibraltar block.

In BBR, there is no reason at all IMO to declare war early because it gives the allies bonuses–so tweaking other aspects of the game will affect which strategy is optimal and when it is optimal.

At this point, I think the G40 META is to wait for war to keep the USA contained. That changes because our discussions and opinions keep changing. That’s why we keep working on them.

G42 has no diplomacy, and while the diplomacy was novel and rich when it was introduced, I would favor removing it from all 1 day formats (mods and tournments). Its too easy to game conditions that place articfical limits on the allies movements, the allies are already weaker and more constrained in the early/short game, and it makes the game much slower as you spend 3 hours buidling up and then 3 hours fighting. I’d favor just dumping it and reducing USA income or making its NO easier to interfere with.

G42 is a timed game, I will likely see you all in person at Gencon or another travel tournament later this year. It does require that you build ships with Germany to complete the opener. BBR uses team time and chess clocks, but its not necessary in G42Gencon because those of us who play that tourney are pretty focused on the game and come with a full game plan and contingencies in mind.

As far as ABHs point–I don’t like computer aids. They are an unfair crutch. However, our in-the-head or thumbnail glance odds calculations are often totally incorrect and as intuitions, must be taken as such. I do not rely on either calculators OR my intuitions.

good point.  There are reasons why you might want to fight–-say the Germans attack the Russian Cruiser and Sub with 1-2 ships, you might have the sub stay to prolong the battle or have it flee its all situational.  I’ve seen situations where people rush Novogrod Harbor ignoring the sub there and then getting scrambled against so its like 1-3 ships vs 1 sub and 2-3 planes…

But once the a sub decides to submerge, they’re out and they can’t come back into the fight that battle, and you can decide for some to flee and some to stay…

Thank you again for all the helpful advice. You were right on my misstep with Germany building 10 units on Paris instead of 3. You also have good ideas about buying artillery, which I was thinking because you can combine them with infantry to get attack or defense at 2. And the United States targeting Norway/Denmark/Western Germany combined with bombers is helpful. Thanks again for all the great advice from such nice players; you guys are awesome.
AxisandAlliesGeneral

Ok there is some merit to building an AB for Gib UK1, and merging all available ships to sz92. The ability to send the UK Med navy to the Atlantic will most likely table a German Sea Lion buy for G2 w/o dropping a bunch of inf on London. As others pointed out an AB at Gib is also very helpful in staging allied fleet in sz91 as the game goes on. You would defiantly need to take into account what Germany bought G1 though. A loaded carrier, cruiser, damaged BB (that will auto fix on Germany’s turn) and a couple transports sitting in sz112 is a real threat to your new Gib base with only air. In this scenario you should be looking at using the Med transport to bring over an inf and the Malta AAA gun to protect your ftrs, but that weakens Egypt.

Many people are in the camp of forgoing Taranto, to spare the UK Med fleet. Sometimes they pull back into the Red Sea (sz81), or make a stand in sz92 (as AldoRaine posted) and bringing in the India fleet in is also an option. The point is that the Italian navy will eventually come out to play and it is easier to kill it when they don’t have the support of the Rome AB. Plus as others pointed out the Italians might add to their toy boats which means fewer units heading to Russia.

The thing is that if you do merge all available UK ships to sz92, and build an AB for Gib you really don’t want to get double hit by the Italians then the Germans play mop-up w/o taking heavy losses. eames57 took the words right out of my mouth, you have to block out the Italian navy by placing a dd in sz94 (the French in sz93 completes the block).

You still run the risk of getting hit by the Luftwaffe, but that would also cripple the German air force so IMO it would be worth it. It’s better to take out German planes over Italian navy especially early in the game. At some point (maybe later when the US comes over) the Italian navy will be at the bottom of the Med, where the Luftwaffe is essential on all fronts through out the game. So in retrospect it isn’t in Germany’s best long term interest to attack you in sz92, so there is a good chance they won’t.

Thanks, ColonelCarter!

Those comments make a lot of sense to me.

I can’t remember exactly why I didn’t attack that German fleet that was left without aircover, but I do remember I looked at the possibility. Probably was scared about the axis combination: IT3 take Egypt->GE4 has a NB and can reach Gibraltar from there. Any FTR that attacked that little fleet would be unable to defend Gibraltar. I must admit though, loosing Gibraltar to GE4 would have been perfectly acceptable in this situation (I could have left it completely empty). My bad ;-). Glad I can comfort myself this was not a very crucial mistake of some sorts :-D. Same for the Rhodesian INF.

I guess it all boils down to: put more pressure onto the Japanese First (a lot of people give this advice). And by the way I LOVE your tips about how to do so in the Pac. That will alter the way the Japanese can execute their plans. It’s so easy to forget USN is not ‘glued to their coast’ and Queensland is a valid staging point even when not at war.

The only thing I don’t like is that this will (again!) force the allies into a Pacific Focus. I suspect this must be some ‘revenge’ of the developers for all those years (in the 1st edition) the allies were able to execute their historic plans of ‘Europe First’  :|.

Guys,

––Just to add to your answer a bit. ‘Kreighund’, the rules guy, basically said that in order to CONQUER an Allied teritory, there must be a ‘COMBAT’. What that in essence means is that the teritory must have been previously conquered by an Axis power.
----If the Allied territory still has the same ownership after having it’s Capital subjugated,…you are simply ‘Re-inforcing’ the territory for the current owner.

Tall Paul"

J3/J4 dow is only if you are industrial bombing russia with japan. Allies have to take as much ground as possible, because russia will fall come G5 or G6, afterwhich usa/uk have to put enough to defend london and egypt.

Japan’s best window is J1 if he wants to attempt a pacific victory.

As allies, there are only a handful of strategies. You can race pacific against europe and go full KJF. You can prepare a massive d day landing off gibraltar, basically build up to take italy / liberate france (you pretty much sit there till your one big attack is good to go). Or you can attempt to turtle up russia/calcutta.

A J3/J4 dow pretty much makes KJF the best bet for allies.

i would also rather fight on his turf where i get income generating for as long as possible. once you have to back down that’s when you are basically saying, “I lose moscow sooner or later.”