Best come from behind victories?

Global 42 is an official axis and allies game. Some might not be aware of it or the fact it was designed for tournament play. It’s been out for several years now. 7 full rounds at which point you count axis controlled IPCs (not counting NOs). If Axis have 125 IPCs on the board they win.

But the point of this thread is about the balance it provides. Granted, it’s almost a totally different game than G40. And many discussions have focused on the idea of balance. Interestingly, I think the turn order is the main reason. Plus it’s kind of nostalgic (when remembering the turn order of Classic/Revised):
Russia
Japan
America
China
Germany
British/UK Pacific
Italy
ANZAC
France

Japan: Starts with 14 planes as opposed to 21. Has the option to conduct a risky naval opener. It may achieve a head start for limited naval supremacy. It could also get India on round 3 if the UK player isn’t careful. However, Japan could easily fall apart due to having 7 less planes and risky opener battles.

Germany: No longer has the Italian can opener threat. This is huge and really changes the dynamics. Germany gets attacked by Russia first, and has to re-cock. German units are in N. Africa and in the Med is a destroyer n’ transport. However, Germany can’t easily go everywhere like it can in G40.

For 7 rounds, the Axis can rampage and win according to the tournament victory rules.

However, if playing according to the regular OOB rules for victory, I think this setup leans Allies but not as much as G40 leans Axis.
Is this a balanced setup as is or would the axis need a small bid, maybe 3-10 IPCs. I think a small bid would make the Global very balanced and probably more fun for both sides.

Going back to Italian can opening, I like to buy a mech or two It1 and send a tank with them w/bmr to open up some doors for the Germans. The Italians can take territories and have the Germans move in with land and air to stand next to the Russian stack (no Russian hit and run). Having the Italians take out Russian pickets can possibly let German units get to the Ukraine IC or oil territories quicker. Another form of Italian can opening I do is taking out the Russian cruiser blocker in the Baltic w/It air so the Germans can include an amp on Leningrad the turn they attack Russia. Having a small Italian force at the front lines can also head off a splintered UK force trying to come up from the south. If the Japanese are at Russia’s back door, or have managed to push the UK from the Middle East (USA going heavy Europe), then the Italians may be able to break into the Oil territories for income, leaving the Germans intact to push into Moscow. It seems like a waste for the Japanese to get all the oil territories when the Ger/Ital get a bonus, but having the Japanese get Caucasus works for the Euro axis. Also having the Japanese invading the Far East Pac territories to drain Russian income is a must IMO. Invade no later the J2, and don’t fear the Mongolians just have some ground units in place to to chase most of them down w/air power.

On a side note I generally build some combo of ships/tpt/bmrs G1/G2, or save most income G1 to keep the UK honest. By the end of G2 I’ll have at least 3 tpts, 4 bmrs along with some support ships to again make the UK pay attention (even when my intention is to use navy to drop units in Russia). I just don’t like to give the UK the freedom to do what she wants. I have been using SBR more on London/Moscow to force the allies to pay extra for their units. In some games you can force the Russians to build every other turn, but the RAF can make that difficult in both capitals though. I also like to add art to the early German buys to give the front lines a little more bite. Most allied opponents will get some air to Moscow, so the German stack will most likely get stalled allowing art built G2 to catch up as you use the Russian ICs to add more units.

@SubmersedElk:

To clarify, I was discussing the merits of buying a stack of 4 bombers and sending them to the Pacific.

Sure one bomber might get some targets to snipe at - but a full round buy doesn’t add much to what you already got with the starting bomber. Anything can be effective against an opponent making serious mistakes like leaving a transport stack naked and open to attack, and in a case like that, one bomber is as effective as four.

The issue is with the mechanics of movement over the oceans. A Japanese transport at a harbor can be in range to attack a bomber while the bomber is not in range to attack the transport, despite the vast difference in base movement - an airfield for the bomber makes no difference. Land units can effectively move 5 spaces to attack when using a transport at a harbor (one load, three move, one drop). The bomber would need 8 move total to attack that transport and return to base, and of course it only gets 7 with the airport and 6 without.

It’s totally counterintuitive when you look at base move 2 for ships and base move 6 for bombers, but in practice, that transport can attack from one space further away than the bomber can.

In order for this to work you obviously cannot takeoff and land at the same territory. The Pacific allows for many landing areas so this is not necessarily a problem. Some good bomber moves in the north are to bring bombers from Hawaii to attack SZ 6 and land in Midway, and to take bombers in Midway and attack Japan and land in Amur. That extra move is what really makes the difference.

Not to mention the capture of the Persian Gulf oil fields by the axis.

Of course, you as the attacker have the choice of which battles you want to roll first and what order you want to resolve all the battles. So while it may not help you in a mid-battle situation, you can decide if you have one battle that maybe kind of hinges on the outcome of another battle to do the other battle first and see the results.
What I usually like to do is resolve all sea battles first, from the smallest to the largest, then all small land battles and then the larger land battles.
For example: If I am Germany, a typical first round combat move would be to go after the Royal Navy in sea zones 91, 109, 110 and 111. On land I go after Normandy, France, Southern France and Yugoslavia. Sometimes I will also send a couple of planes after the French ships in SZ 93. That last one depends on how confident I am whether or not our UK player will scramble into SZ 110 and how confident I feel about the forces attacking Paris.
In order, I resolve the sea combats first: 2 subs vs. cruiser in SZ 91 – 2 subs vs. DD and Transport in SZ 106 – 1 sub, 1 BB, 1 ftr, 1 tac and 1 bomb vs. 1 BB, 1 CA, 1 DD and maybe 1 ftr (from Scotland) in SZ 111 – then I will resolve SZ 110 which will usually be the biggest sea battle.
If I don’t think UK will scramble, then I send 2 ftr, 2 tacs and 1 bomber against 1 BB and 2 CA. That is when I might send 1 ftr and 1 tac against the French CA and DD in SZ 93.
If I do think UK will scramble, then I leave the French ships alone in SZ 93 and send 3 ftr, 3 tacs and 1 bomber against 1 BB, 2 CA and 3 ftr. Of course, if UK decides to save his fighters for later, then it is kind of a waste of planes for me totally overpowering the ships and not getting to attack somewhere else. Then again, if I don’t send those extra 2 planes and UK does scramble, I could end up getting slaughtered.
After that, I move on to the land battles. First Normandy, then S France, then the big France battle and finally Yugoslavia. I do Yugoslavia last even though it is smaller than the France battle because it has no effect at all on any of the French battles and it is a neutral.
Also, I use the FMG Combat Dice so I like to resolve battles with one nation before switching to different dice for another nation.
Well, it looks like I just talked your ear off to make a simple point: small sea battles to large sea battles, small land battles to large land battles.

One UK global economy would be very cool, although I’d limit it like this:

London can spend money from both economy,
Calcutta can spend only the money from the pacific territory.

Otherwise Japan will be unplayable.

@Omega1759:

That’s what I would do, but his move was to bring the destroyer in 104 to block the German fleet and prevent boxing the med fleet in the Med.

Strategic Bomber from N. Italy to SZ 104.

85.49% chance of clearing the destroyer. (Slightly better than 50% chance to survive.)

you have to balance the Japan opening w/the European side of the board.    J1 attack was great in Pac40 as we all know, but do you really want to put the US to 80 IPCs on US1?  Ask the Nazi next to you if HE wants you to do that.