Game started… let’s see how the first few rounds proceed. I will post updates periodically.
The Japan Playbook
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@Uncrustable:
And honestly i hate the rule of victory on one board for the axis, this is an incredibly stupid rule in my opinion. You might as well just ask the Axis player which board he wants to play on then throw the other one away :P
If this rule didn’t exist, then the US could devote 100% of its income to one side and crush it before the other side can make a big enough impact. This rule is very necessary.
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Again I do not see how USA at war round 1 or 2 or 3 matters much.
I generally do the J2 DOW every game, because I can nab 3 isles, while killing an yunnan stack / pushing on china. The biggest issue is china and uk merging on yunnan with a J1 DOW… it is troublesome.
USA gets 23 but lost 19 on the first round. so it is a moot point, I am tired of repeating myself. usa is not in range to threaten anything yet either. on USA1 he goes to hawaii and then his japan threat is still minimal. 2 air 1 bomber 4 guys… usa 2 and beyond, maybe he can buy all naval for pacific or europe, one side suffers more than the other (usa can already do this, just with 23 extra bucks for 1 round, woopy do).
Yes russia can reinforce india along with the african air etc… but that’s stuff not being used on the other half of the board, germany should be making quick gains considering russia is already short on firepower to forgo 3 air units to india.
Also you get 3 more islands on j2 so your income goes up as well.
You guys talk about this usa advantage, but I just don’t see it. He loses stuff round 1 and they kill nothing. So for usa the DOW is a moot point.
This is very interesting and if I ever did this I’d threaten sealion and then go hard on USSR. Maybe G1 Barb? If you can take UK or push on USSR G1 then US has a choice. Try to save UK/USSR and build in atlantic or try and contain Japan? That’s a tough balance right there to maintain. Too little of US in either theater will likely doom the allies.
I appreciate this. Give it a try :D . you can also send all available units to do pearl harbor and all transports on philippines and the rest of the naval there. do the same transport buy and take hawaii the round after (unless usa buys strait subs or something that would cause you to leave the area).
Problem with this is not having anything to defend the transports in spice islands… you end up killing lots of hawaii stuff with no counter, but end up losing transports to take all the islands. It is still fun, if anzac is buying sub/dd combos, after hawaii you can move down and then blast off with your transports and drop australia and merge with the naval down under.
It is really funny to take out anzac players, anzac is very limited and it is difficult to predict japan moves with it (if japan is unpredictable or if you have not faced that player before).
Yes, on the europe side of the board, I assume everyone does sea lion bluff by now, as the carrier and boats you buy ease the novgorod situation and get infantry / art into the fight sooner (instead of mech / tanks which is more costly)… Also you can follow through with a UK takeover if UK sends out all his air.
`to those italy skeptics.
As far as italy / africa goes. germany has a ton of air that can hit usa should he come into the medit sea also usa can’t enter the medit sea and supply UK with naval at the same time, he has to do one before the other. generally speaking Italy 1 you can save up Italy 2 you can get naval Italy 3 you drop alexandria and pwn egypt no problem.
You can usually race and take egy/transjordan and when usa enters you can stay tucked away . At this point you stop buying naval and get ground forces, your extra income pays for it.
USA, can go many directions, but he has to put income on both sides of the board so I would be careful of saying USA solves everything, because in actual game play usa cannot win everywhere. USA is not charlie sheen…
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I think J2 DOW is standard play, because allies tend to grab dutch islands, and you have to take that cash away (or face even more infantry being placed in india and subs from anzac).
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haha questioneer my standard j1 and j2 dow is similar to yours. I browsed some games real fast.
the allies seem so discombobulated around here though.
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@Cow:
haha questioneer my standard j1 and j2 dow is similar to yours. I browsed some games real fast.
the allies seem so discombobulated around here though.
What games??? I don’t DOW on J1 or J2, though I’m warming up to J2 along with a G2- that can possibly be lethal. Interesting… :-)
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I guess I am mistaken, I saw someone do my setup give or take a few units. I dled a bunch of games to just pop up n look at.
From what I noticed players that DOW J3 tend to get shutdown in the long haul, but russia get pwned anyway. I don’t see too much iraq with russia though or mech infantry from uk pac coming in to help russia.
I think allies will come around to it. I don’t see why not take iraq and persia with russia for the +7 especially if italy is on home defense from Italy 1 (never going to threaten it basically).
I don’t know, I feel like the longer japan waits the more mech infantry russia gets from uk pac lol, it can end up delaying things. I hate it personally, because then I can’t hold volgograd, which is 3 less units that I could drop right next to russia. I did this to someone and someone spectating did this to me… I found it frustrating -.-
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I updated. a bit.
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What do you do as Japan when:
R1 DOW on Japan
NCM 3 Inf Sakha - > Bury
NCM 3 Inf, 2 AA Sakha - > Amur
NCM 1 Ftr/Tac Moscow -> Calcutta
NCM 1 Mech/Arm Stalingrad -> Sikang9 Inf are in Amur with 2 AA
9 Inf are in Bury
1 Ftr/Tac in Calcutta and 1 Mech/Arm are in Sikang poised for a R2 move to reclaim the Burma Road to allow a C2 purchase of Art. Those aircraft will be able to return to Calcutta to help defend a J3-J4 India Crush if it indeed occurs.An alternative move is to land those aircraft on Yunnan and potentially force Japan to lose aircraft trying to take Yunnan on J1. However, I don’t like risking the Russian aircraft for that purpose, but instead utilize them as in the prior paragraph.
Alternatively, if the Crush fails to happen, those 2 aircraft can still return to Moscow in a 1 turn move prior to Germany arriving on its doorstep.
Is J1 worried enough about 9 Inf in Amur to send aircraft against it? If so, there will be 12 Russian Inf - 3 from activating Mongolian Political Situation - countering on R2.
Thoughts?
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How is russia putting units on calcutta when russia is not at war? Being at war with japan only allows him to put stuff on china and jap territories. No +5 bonus for warring japan. No landing on UK territories.
For UK to be your ally, germany or italy has to war you, unless I am crazy.
~Ruskies in sikang poised to take burma road, aa guns in amur +3 inf as bait. I see what you are doing, but I am a little confused.
Ok normally russia keeps maybe 1 inf in amur, putting 3 inf and 2 aa guns means you are baiting japan to do some early russia play, to give you mongolian states.
Normally when russia does the sikang with his air there, he’s trying to assist china while germany gets his stuff together.
So you are pretty much just asking japan to do the heavy russia/china thing. OK, I’d do it instead of J1 DOW. You got me, axis double team russia! J3 DOW to take islands (because on J2 I won’t have boats ready from dealing with russia lol).
but like the sikang thing is fine, You can have the burma road, I am still cutting UK off from income. J2 the ground forces come into kwangsi.
transports should threaten india so he has to keep something back for india.the starting shangtung and kiangsu pieces will move into position as well.
But yes you can get a big stack going on. all I can have is at most 14-16 guys with all my air vs 17 chinese 1 fig 3 ruskie air 1 mech 1 tank plus whatever uk pac can give up. that’s still a landslide lose for china.
you are right I wouldn’t throw my air at a yunnan stack on round 2, I’d drop my boats off stack up with my air. unless UK pac can send a bunch of stuff in yunnan while holding india from. round 3 hold is not going to work out.
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I would have to buy a naval base and airbase on J2, because the 5 extra russians means with ukpacs starting pieces + china stack + 5 ruskies = yunnan could be a close battle…. but since ukpac only makes 10 and then 7… he can barely hold calcutta as it is.If your objective is to save calcutta by adding 5 russians, it’d be enough to deter me, because there would be like 30 guys there and not 25 or whatever (air inf aa mix) vs 20 air and 3 full boat 3 maybe full boat. yeah you would deter me.’
~funny thing is, j2 i am taking malaya and 2 more islands so j3 I take the last island and try to set up for calcutta by holding shan state for a landing from the airbase so j4 comes… battle is still favorable but i would be so screwed after that.
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but if germany wait 1 round to declar war on russia i can still get calcutta… but if uk is buyin bombers then germany has to buy naval to protect his transport shuck… boo.
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Russia can DOW on R1 on Japan if it chooses to, can it not? That enables them to move all around Asia.
Cow:
I employed a similar J1 attack yesterday. I played patiently with Japan, and realistically it took a lot longer than I expected to sack Calcutta (round 5 or 6). I had a hard time taking and holding Shan or Burma which delayed the use of all my air power. The one BIG mistake I made was not taking FIC on J1 (I just missed it it in all the action). This ended up hurting me because a J2 AB on FIC opened up Shan as a landing location instead of Burma (if you are coming out of Kwang) after you attack Calcutta.
I had some fun making the US chase me around the pacific. I sent two CV with complimentary aircraft, a CR, DD and a TT with 2 Inf to Carolines early. The US had moved up to Japan early and took Korea - but the potential of nothing on Hawaii and the US 2 moves away from it by staying off Japan forced them to retreat. I moved that fleet from the Carolines to Line and threatened taking the Panama Canal while the US staged 10 subs off W.USA and its Pacific fleet in Hawaii. Instead of suiciding in Panama, I took New Zealand instead, leaving a DD at Fiji to block the US fleet. I shot from NZ to Java after that because the allies didn’t block me in at NZ. The US cleared the way to Java (I left the CR at SZ54 thinking I could block the Anzac fleet off Sydney) and Allies got their first real battle to trade ships with Japan, leaving the Japanese fleet with just a tipped BB.
I didn’t win the game, and in fact Germany was pretty much made impotent with full US IPC purchases going to the atlantic for the majority of the rounds. I got lucky with a german attack on the allied flotilla being lightly guarded and sunk something along the lines of 8-10 allied TT sunk (but not after they unloaded them in N.Africa).
All in all, I think if you want to try to win the game with Japan it is possible. Even after trading ships with Anzac, I was 1 TT away from being able to hit Hawaii (US had just taken the Carolines). I utilized the 5-6 TT to great success, and even after Russia invaded Manchuria and continued to move south to make China bigger, I was able to swing TT around and reclaim Korea and Manchuria. I was able to utilize the Japanese aircraft after calcutta (who didn’t play defensively before it was too late) to reclaim the lost VC’s in China.
I wouldn’t suggest a J1 attack unless you really don’t like whoever is playing the German and Italian countries Europe sucked for the Axis. They are put WAY behind the 8-ball with US purchases going all atlantic while Japan runs rampant in the Pacific for a few turns.
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you need to be at war with germany to move into united kingdom territories right?
I thought you don’t pick up UK as an ally till germany declares war.
~Oh f–- you forgot to take FIC round 1, that’s brutal. I made that mistake too once. ><
So what exactly kept you from hitting calcutta? UK PAC mechanized infantry retaking shan state with china in burma road or soemthing?
I have made some small adjustments to my opener lately.
starting mech goes to anhwe
kiangsu goes to kiangsi. so 5 guys plus the 1 guy that survives kwangtung are in kwangsi come japan 2. the transports unload FIC.
the unloaded transport men march to shan state (you also unload all but 1 guy there). Then you should be able to hit from FIC or kwangsi airbase no problem on india with a spot to land.
~Also last question. G1 we sinking 110 / 111 right? 1-2 sub bship 110 + air. and 111 2 sub + air. Nothing fancy in europe, all ground units that can hit france hit france, powerslam yugoslavia, take finland and romania with 1 guy.
Even if USA goes full atlantic, USA 1 he would buy naval maybe some transports, USA 2 he moves out… but this is only like a 4 man drop you are threatened with on round 3…
So your germany situation does not change by much. Italy round 1 does not change. Round 2 you are still safe in SZ 97 as italy, but usually you are trying to take egypt round 2 (tobruk->alexandria g2 land a couple german fighters to guard it).
I mean that is how I roll.
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Russia does not have to be at war with Germany/Italy to move into UK territories.
If it is only at war with Japan, it can move into any Pacific-map UK territories, including West India and discluding British Columbia/Yukon.The situation is the same as China’s-
China is at war with Japan, and may move any units into Kwantung/Burma even if UK is not at war with Japan.
UK is already at war, so it’s not under neutrality restrictions. -
ah so ruskies can land fighters on india.
interesting. yeah if russia is on turn 1 putting a mech and a tank in sikang. Don’t do japan 1 DOW. Because he’ll get that to yunnan then get that to india + park 3 fighters. Then when the time comes to do calcutta you’ll only have 70%
I am not so sure how USA is affecting the europe situation for you guys. It is just +23 1 round sooner, does not change the game for me.
It does screw the sea lion bluff up a little. Since USA could fly bombers into UK and the 1 starting fighter… In other words, UK round 1 can send out all his air if he knew usa compensation was coming.
USA 1 bomber buy is what would bother me the most (goes to UK round 2 then round 3 can hit your baltic fleet).
If you prefer to keep consistent with your sea lion bluff, buy this: carrier destroyer on round 1 or just save your income entirely.
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If I were usa and at war, I’d just bombers on round 1. Germany will have no hope at a baltic fleet. After that depends on how the board develops.
Anyway it does require you to modify a few things in europe. Germany should take yugoslavia on g1 as well as romania. Get a good push going. Germany may have to take greece with the 5 inf and some air (germany greece land italy or wherever).
USA at war only screws the possibility of a baltic fleet up and 5 fodder for sea lion means, sea lion is not happening anyway.
So I suggest G1 you buy your infantry stack push for russia.
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The Russians employed a successful counter attack strategy that stymied Germany in E.Poland, Baltics, Bessarabia and W.Ukraine. Germany just couldn’t punch through and had to be mindful of Allied aggression into Normandy and Holland.
I utilized an AB in Norway and staged aircraft there that kept the Allies at bay in SZ91 until they could defend themselves against the full German Air Force (Bought myself maybe 2 rounds).
I took Yugo, which was bad. I wanted to strafe Yugo and retreat to Romania to stage for a G2 attack on Russia. I got stuck taking Yugo and it set my German advance back a full two turns by the time I got them into position it was too late to advance - which played right into the Russian Counter Attack Strategy as Italy was not present to can-open.
Italy was screwed from the get-go as UK flew its aircraft to Jordan and I used the Italian tanks via TT to kill them off and close the Suez all at the same time. Italy actually took Egypt with ease, but it couldn’t hold it and the Allies were staged off Gib to make Italy go into a Defend Rome Strategy. Italy had one strong move to clear out an entire Allied Flotilla in SZ91 that was lightly protected by using its Bomber. That bought Germany some time.
Overall the counter to your J1 attack is the US to go strait after N.Africa to turn Italy from an aggressive posture. After that, Germany runs out of time with Allied landings getting bigger and bigger on Normandy and then being reinforced by the UK. Was the first game I played where the Allies liberated France and Germany made VERY little progress without can-opening from Italy in Russia.
Japan dominated the Pacific Map, it just took too long to get Calcutta because I forgot to nab FIC to give a J3 landing on Calcutta an opportunity to materialize. I ended up sacking Calcutta on J4 or J5, but it was too late to get Hawaii before J7 with France Liberated and a full US purchase materializing off of SF to block a suicide run after Hawaii for the VC win.
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The Russians employed a successful counter attack strategy that stymied Germany in E.Poland, Baltics, Bessarabia and W.Ukraine. Germany just couldn’t punch through and had to be mindful of Allied aggression into Normandy and Holland.
did you do sea lion and take UK or something? If you did, russia pushes germany as per usual. Does usa liberate it sooner with +23 bucks, maybe.
I seldom do sea lion honestly. I just push russia. I don’t do anything fancy. round 1 france and yugo that’s it. finns and that other spot for extra infs. g2 push everything up to russia. take normandy 2 guys and air. the rest push. then you push russia g3.
I don’t know why usa landings are scaring you from pushing into russia.
Only do sea lion if you KNOW you will take UK on G3. G4 sea lion= germany lose. g3 sea lion = germany ok. You should still expect the russians to get a foothold in europe especially if they are buying mech.
USA does not stop you from pushing russia. Units you produce are placed in germany/west germany.
~As far as italy goes. You have to rush it. take alexandria. use germany air to defend it from egypt. ethiopia under it (unless he kill that already). Then your last transport drops on egypt with bomber and whatever you bought (fighter).
should have enough to take it. But that’s it. that round you buyin ground forces in italy.
Do not hold normandy southern france or holland. you counter attack from france/west germany using italy.
G3 buy infantry/art mix if USA is beginning to be a threat. you can push germany east and west germany can stay.
All you need is enough to defend germany from UK. you don’t need to defend northern italy, just defend Rome, guys placed in northern italy move into france/west germany.
you should be fine.
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you could just give up on italy and buy ground forces for it…. you still have to clear out the navy down there.
avoid taking the french spots in N africa. move libya east to tobruk.
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Here was the G1/I1 Plan:
G1: 1 CV, 2 TT
Take Paris, Normandy, Strafe Yugo - Retreat to Romania.
Hit SZ111 and SZ110 with Aircraft and SS (BB hits SZ111). Hit SZ106 with 1 SS.
Fly 1 Ftr from Eastern Europe to S.Italy to scramble against UK hitting Italian ships in SZ97.
Take Finland via TT from PolandI1: Buy Nothing
Finish off and take Yugo with Arm from Albania and N.Italy, plus TT across 4 Inf from Rome.
Take S.France, Tunisia, Sudan, Kenya.
Hit UK ships in the Med, else clear French ships if they retreated.Here’s what happened: (Realize US1 was able to DOW due to the J1 attack)
G1/I1 Purchases were the same.
G1 got lucky rolls from Inf and ended up having to take Yugo - 3 Arm, lots of German Inf stuck in Yugo.
G1 cleared the North Atlantic of ships, losing 2 Ftr and 1 Tac.
Paris fell, Arm and Art survived.
Normandy fell, no losses.US1 was a full atlantic purchase that was primarily TT with units to fill them as able. Flew its Bomber to London, Ftr to Iceland. Used its starting TT to open up Brazil.
UK1 moved a Ftr/Tac from Calcutta to Jordan
UK staged its Med fleet in SZ96 taking out the Italian DD and TT there.
UK took Greece with 1 Inf, 1 Arm from Alexandria, left its TT exposed.
With US in the war, UK bought Ftr for London - probably should have Sea Lioned.I1 took everything it planned to, sunk the UK fleet with tough losses. Except instead of TTing 4 Inf across to Yugo, it sent 2 Arm/Inf down to Jordan to remove the UK aircraft and shut off the Suez (which ended up saving the TT). Egypt fell on I3, but was lost to the Allies on I4.
G2 included 10 Inf purchase, 1 AB (Norway - because I wanted to test its effectiveness and UK went aggressive), and the rest went to two Tac (to support Arm moving to strike Russia on G3). Staged units in Romania from Yugo, but left behind 2 Inf, 1 Art to assist Italy in removing the 6 Inf, 1 Arm that was likely going to take Albania on UK2. Moved 2 Inf, 2 Art from Poland to Finland to bring Finland up to 10 Inf, 3 Art and 3 Tac staged on an AB in Norway.
US2 sent its first TT landing to Morocco, with only 1 CR for defense. It was able to also bring units in from Brazil that it opened on US1. The US Ftr landed in London.
UK2 took out the Italian Arm from Egypt and left only the Anzac Inf there. It had the Canadian units on Morocco from UK1 move to support Algeria and the Italian advance was stopped dead in its tracks. UK2 included a CV amongst other things, and the UK has the beginnings of TT units staged in SZ91 supporting a threat against N.Italy if N.Italy didn’t buy Inf on I2. UK also moved its units from Greece to Albania. UK2 also took an empty Holland with a TT supported by a CV plus 5 total possible scrambling Ftr (1 US).
I2 had something along the lines of 24 IPC to spend, so it bought a CV and DD. Italy was going to have a hard time stopping the Allies from advancing on Rome by I4 (US1 purchase was full Atlantic TT + units to fill them). Italy moved to Greece and took Egypt from Alexandria and Egypt. This activated a NO for Italy. With Algeria blocked from any Italian advance, it sat tight there. The 2 TT off Egypt had no units to move, so it went back to Rome. S.France had 2 Art, so they went to N.Italy. Italy was able to send its Bomber to SZ91 and take out the DD and CR that defended the UK/US TT’s. This bought the Axis at least another 1-2 rounds. Not much else Italy could do, so it placed its units and collected IPC.
G3 was now in position to advance on Russia. G3 was 10 more Inf, plus the remaining IPC spent on Art in W.Germany. With Bessarabia sitting with a strong 50-50 split of Inf and Art (something like 5 of each), the German units in Romania struck there and took tough losses, although the Arm survived with 4 or so Inf. E.Poland was hit with tanks from Berlin and the 11 Inf from Poland. Russia had 4-5 Inf there and Germany took as many losses as it inflicted. Aircraft was split between the two battles, with Tac aircraft landing on Romania and Bombers landing in Poland. The 10 Inf from G2 moved into Poland on NCM to deter Russia from advancing there. Finland units took Kariela, and a token small contingent of 2-3 Inf supported with aircraft took Vyborg’s 2 Inf. The Tac from that battle landed back on Norway to provide scrambles. G3 also removed the UK presence in Holland with the remaining units that had staged in France as well as the units in W.Germany. Lastly, G3 hit the UK units in Albania with 2 Inf, 1 Art, taking out 3 Inf. This made it manageable for Italy to remove the UK threat on I3.
R3, now at war, counter attacked all German advances. The Southern front was cleared out and Bessarabia was reclaimed. E.Poland Armor from German survived, but not before Russia had removed all the Inf there before withdrawing.
US3 included 9 more TT purchased, UK3 included a second CV and now there were 4 Ftr on CV, 3 to scramble. US3 removed the Italian bomber that landed in S.France and there was no more threat to TT in SZ91 unless Germany flew its bombers to Paris, so the US reinforced its ground units in Morocco and landed a larger contingent than the first wave.
UkK3 - With a second CV and aircraft to support it, UK added TT and Arm to begin landing every turn on Normandy, Holland, or Norway. It also took back Egypt.
I3 was in a tough spot. There were plenty of TT that could shoot straight into S.France or N.Italy. Italy did have a DD and TT, so it took Gib (to replace Egypt for the NO) to block some movement into the Med. It staged its CV in SZ95 and bought full Inf so it could get units into Rome to defend it. The remaining Inf from taking out the UK units in Albania were NCM across to Rome as reinforcements (All 2 of them).
As you can see, by turn 4 the Allies were going to be landing in full force on Normandy. With the US landing first, the British could land to reinforce it with multiple Ftr and ground units of their own. There was no kicking the Allies out of Europe at this point.
What I’m trying to illustrate, is that with a J1 attack (and no lucky Italian Bomber run in SZ91 that I had) gets the Allies landing on Normandy by round 3, and even if kicked out, will land a bigger force there on round 4. There is no way Germany can take Russia in that timeframe, meaning a J1 attack on the Allies creates a situation where even Germany gains minimal advancement in Russia before Paris is setup to fall. More importantly, Italy is setup to fail. The only legitimate situation I can think of is for the Axis to play full defensive in Europe while you hope the Japanese player rocks the Pacific hard and goes for a VC victory there. Of course, you negate two of the three axis powers by doing so. Of course if Germany Sea Lions, its possible to take the UK out of Europe.
I am supposing the pairing of J1 attack plus G3 Sea Lion is a legitimate option, but I don’t know how effective Germany can be at fighting Russia in the East, pushing it back while fending off US liberation attempts in Paris or shutting down Rome.
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I still don’t see why russia is a problem and why you can’t advance there.
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I have come around to japan 1 declaration of war.
The games themselves seem to progress a bit more quickly. It is much more fun of an experience, I can’t say that it is better than Japan DOW round 2, but it has merits and a few distinct advantages and flaws. Where as Japan 2 declaration of war is much more conservative. Japan 3 dow is just horrible.
The one distinct flaw of Japan 1 DOW. Is axis as a whole has to be aggressive and has to fully commit to a strategy early on.
You either do sea lion and take UK or you go for russia. there is no sea lion bluff. you either buy 10 infantry r1 and follow up round 2 with lots of mech/armor and push (or if UK buys naval and no men then buy full naval and take uk, but that never happens).
I actually like the japan 1 DOW more and more. I had to modify a few things. sequential rounds I had to modify a few things there as well.
Overall I like it, for when I want a clear cut game, clear victor and clear winner, games tend to be quicker as well.