G1 Attack on Russia?

All done (very tiered).

Well this is my third attempt at a G1 attack on Russia, the first 2 try’s were “to close to judge effectiveness”, but I believed in its possibilitys to try again, and today was a “good if planed right” (very good if planned right). I will report later, but this strategy will get legs for sure.

Basically I took Leningrad turn 2, and took Africa with Japan (more later).

Cheers.

Grasshopper’s G1 attack on Russia

I purchased 1 destroyer, 6 infantry, and 1 artillery.

I sent 2 Strategic Bombers on Leningrad for a SBR. (took zero losses and bombed the IC for 6 damage)

I hit the Baltic States with 3 infantry and 1 tank from Poland, 1 tac bomber from Western Germany and 1 fighter from Slovakia, (lost 1 infantry)

I hit Eastern Poland with 2 infantry and 1 tank from Slovakia, and 3 tanks from Southern Germany, (took zero losses)

I hit Bessarabia with 2 infantry and 1 tank from Romania, and 1 tac bomber from Poland, (lost 1 infantry)

I hit #106 with 2 subs, (kept both)

I hit #91 with 2 subs, (lost one)

I hit #111 with 1 sub, 4 fighters, 3 tac bombers, and 1 battleship, UK scrambled their fighter, (lost sub and battleship, kept all planes)

I hit france with all land units on West Germany and Holland, (lost 6 infantry)

I walked on Finland with 3 infantry from Norway, and transported 2 from Germany to Norway from #113, I also moved my cruised into #113.

I moved all remaining infantry and artillery from Germany to Poland.

I moved all remaining infantry and artillery from Southern Germany to Slovakia.

I landed all air units from #111 back to Western Germany, and landed all air units fighting in Russia on Poland.

I placed all new units in Western Germany and #113.

I didn’t walk on Bulgaria, and I didn’t attack Yugoslavia, Normandy, or Southern France.

Why

I was very happy with my first round results, and although there will be plenty of opinion on how something like this should be executed, I wouldn’t change anything at this point in the experiment.

1. I would never send an air unit when attacking France, giving the enemy an opportunity to shot down a plane is not never necessary when there are enough land units to take it. However, if you want Normandy in turn #1 as well, than things will need to thin out a little.

2. I didn’t take Yugoslavia and its up for debate weather or not everything I did can happen if you want Yugo. I personally choose to get the odds I needed in Bessarabia, and follow it up with everything from Southern Germany for a strong counter later on. I found that taking the IC in the Ukraine takes a long time even with those units pulling up the rear…. if I lose them getting Yugo, I’m bare in the South. Essentially I left all the Balkan states to the Italians, especially the Bugaria walk on, they really needed it in order to take Greece and Yugo.

3. I took the Battleship into #111 in order to soak hits, I know a lot of you won’t like that move, but I put more value on air units than other players, it’s just preference.

4. Some of you may feel that I took in too many units when less could have done the job just as well, but what I have found over my last 3 G1 on Russia attempts is… first round sweeps are key as I took very few losses in Russia and took 7 infantry off his plate.

5. The NO situation will be debated for a long time, and will probably be the crutch that keep players from trying this, but if you think about it… You will replace your $5 peace NO with the Leningrad NO eventually anyway.

6. Of course Germany took Normandy and Southern France during round 2.

1st Round Summary

There’s no doubt that I surprised my opponent (not all players I play against go to these forums or know my handle) and to be honest, I have never seen him take so long to finish a turn as he did with his R1. Thats a sign to me that I was doing something good, I really forced him to make some hard choices, and after a counter attack on the baltic states went wrong for him (forcing a retreat) he decided to pull back from Leningrad. I’m not saying that he made the right choice, but obviously he didn’t want to spend $6 in repairs (I might have) and he didn’t take the Baltic States with what he brought in (not sure what I would have done there), and seeing the large amount of forces in Poland, Slovakia Eastern Poland and Finland (the result of no Yugo, or Sealion) ready to counter anything he brings to the line…. he may have felt wise to retreat Leningrad so early. Never the less, my $5 peace NO was replaced by the $5 Leningrad NO by the collect income phase of turn 2.

The rest of the game

In Russia I stuck to my plan, I never moved past Leningrad in the north and I just built up and waited until the Southern forces could take the Ukraine IC. I used that time to build a solid defensive line that connected Leningrad, Belarus, Western Ukraine and eventually Ukraine. Once I had all of them I built a 3rd IC in Western Ukraine and was pumping 6 units straight into the front. Now some of you might be saying that you would never let me do that if you were playing Russia, but other than trying to hold Leningrad for 1 more round, there wasn’t anything much that he could have done but continue to retreat to Moscow, which is what happens every game anyway…. I’m just doing it a lot sooner. In the end I was on the steps of Stalingrad & Moscow with superior numbers, but I was 2 rounds away from being comfortable about it and we had to pack it up and go. During our stand off along the battle line I created, Russia was making $28>$30 and Germany was making $60>$64. As for support, Germany finished to game with 22 air units which did a great job of concentrating in France to hit an allied fleet of ships, and than getting back the the eastern front to ward off any Russian ideas of moving forward.

Japan’s role was simple, take India and continue on to take Egypt. The UK built an IC in Egypt first turn as expected, because the UK was clear from a sealion attempt. As Japan I sent everything south, and I mean everything. I captured India on Round 4 with great ease and I than continued west landing in the middle east, and eventually took the IC in Egypt (which was a little harder than taking India). Japan lost all of its coastal territories to a powerfull China (didn’t jump into that meat grinder) and seeing as I was going to lose all gains in Russia anyway, I didn’t bother helping Germany by taking $5 in Russian territories, and losing tons of infantry doing it. I decided instead to help Italy, who could in turn help Germany. By the end of the game Japan had 8 ICs… 1 owned, 4 purchased, and 3 captured, in Tokyo, FIC, India, West India, Persia, Iraq, Egypt, and South Africa. America was hitting my convoy zone for $11, and my home factory was bombed to the max, but I had built up to 35 infantry on Tokyo over the course of the game, so I kept my Capital without much threat of lossing it. America was now spending heavy in the Atlantic instead of enough transports in the Pacific, so I had enough money and factories to make a difference.

Italy held on for dear life and even managed to take Gibraltar for a few rounds, but for them it was about collecting all the money the Germans left them in the Balkans and avoiding all the British elements trying to destroy them. The best thing Italy did was land in Trans Jordan twice, which cut off some Brit boats from entering the Med. but in the end all Italy could do is to try and reach the $20+ income bracket and protect its Capital (which they did all of the above). After Japan was in Africa and ready to take it 100% all Italy had to do was send troops to France to absorb some of the hits that were soon to land, but never did because we ended the game.

Game Summary

1. Germany is safe to attack Russia turn one.

2. Italy needs Help.

3. Japan’s presents is more felt in the middle east than in far east Russia.

End Result

The axis only need 2 more victory cities, the very 2 that Germany were right next door to, but even though Japan was 3 territories away from taking all of Africa and Germany had almost double the numbers as Russia, my opponent wouldn’t give up as he cited his massive American navies as a balancer. I reluctantly ended the game as a draw, but as far as my experiment with a G1 attack on Russia…… I’m a winner.

@Field:

Knowing your Japan builds the first several turns would be helpful as well.  For example, did you build more transports initially to take with you on the war path to India/Africa?  I imagine you took the DEI on your way, but did the U.S. attempt to retake it with any success?  The DEI is such a cash cow for Japan.  Thank you for your game report - very interesting read and strategy.

Round 1 = 3 transports, 1 infantry, and $2 back
Round 2 = 4 transports, 4 infantry
Round 3=  1 air base, 1 naval base (FIC)
Round 4 = 10 infantry on Japan

I didn’t take any Russian territories, I didn’t take any Islands, and I didn’t take the Philippines. I just went straight for India’s throat and didn’t stop on my way to Egypt and all those British tanks on that factory (the key to success was Japan’s fleet in the Suez). I’m not sure the axis can get a victory condition on the Pacific board anymore.

Early in the game Japan was making $30+ the bonus, later in the game Japan was making $45, and the US was making $80.

Perhaps I could have taken more territories like the islands and the Philippines with all the transports I had, but I just felt that anything I left behind was going to get destroyed and wasted. Honestly, after America convoyed and bombed Tokyo to oblivion, all those expensive units couldn’t do much without a bunch of loaded transports.

@Omega1759:

What did UK / Anzac do in this game?

How much money was Japan making?

In fact, how much were all the nations making and was the allied Navy able to te-take one victory city in Europe?

ANZAC was played poorly as my opponent purchased destroyers and cruisers instead of transports and planes. Japan had already sailed past India and down to South Africa via Egypt before ANZACs units could prove effective.

UK and the US had a large fleet off Gibraltar, Italy sneaked in and took Morocco giving 12 German aircraft stationed in France a place to land. Germany lost 8 planes which were replaced in future purchases, and the UK spent much of the second half re building their losses. When we quite, there was a strong threat for a landing in order to take Paris, but at that time Japan had secured Africa and Italy was free to send units west to protect France.

As for money America was first on the income tracker with Germany a very close second and Japan 3rd. Uk was $25>$30 but dropped to $20 and under by the end of the game.

I didn’t lose a single Jap boat all game, they clashed with a small Brit fleet in the suez during my amphib attack, but I damaged 4 capital ships and repaired them next turn with my new naval base in Egypt.

As for the surprise factor, after Japan takes India, they have the option of going west, back east, or a little in both… So there is still options, but taking India is key for Japan IMO.

If I were to counter this with the allies, I would buy a lot of transports and men for ANZAC (opperating in the FIC area) and some American mussle to protect them, and I might buy a lot of UK ships with my 2 factories in Egypt.

The G1 attack on Russia is tough because you can’t prevent it and I would challenge anyone to set their board up to look like my blueprint after G1 and tell us what they would have done during Russia’s turn.

The only thing more I could have done in France, was to bring in planes (which I would never do) and bring in the tanks from Southern Germany (which I used in Russia), other than that, I brought in everything else possible, so not much different I would do there.

As for the UK counter, Britian is going to move their fleet to the Med, build a factory in Egypt, buy air units in London, and Transports in Ottawa weather or not Germany attacks Russia 1st round or 3rd. That’s why it’s enevitable that Italy gets crushed unless they get significant help.