Still Broken?

I am in your same situation, getting back to the game after a while.

One thing I notice about Italy (which seems to be the country that you are having most trouble with) is that if they are not dealt with early in the game, they can be a huge help to the Axis powers.

I see a lot of discussions about doing or not doing the Taranto raid. For me it is a must. Otherwise the Italians can get a very comfortable position in the Mediterranean and be a headache for the rest of the game. It happened in the last two games I played.

Specially if the get their hands in Gibraltar and Cairo. Then they effectively block the Allies from getting in the mediterranean and get a lot of IPCs from their national objectives.

What I could not find yet was a solution if I am the Italian player and I get “tarantoed”. It basically keeps me off for the rest of the game.

Thanks for the welcome Variance!

You are guessing correctly ^.^:
If the UK (in our group) sees that Germany is going ‘full bore’ (I guess that means throwing everything at Moscow to defeat it G6 or G7), then it starts channeling its fighters from wherever it must build them (Britain, Canada, South Africa and India) into Russia and finally into Moscow. All this happens Either via the northern route or via Persia/Africa (building a key AB here and/or there).
  UK is OK to sacrifice its ships in the med. to keep every plane alive, annihilate the Italian Navy first and to prevent any new axis ships to appear there.
Subsequently the aircraft help to destroy the Italian presence in Africa (from set-up plus maybe 1 turn of reinforcements) and then the aircraft flies into the Middle east, ready to go into Russia whilst trying not to disrupt Russia’s NO of having Archangelsk-route. But the UK fighters in russia are more important than the Russian NO if the threat is high enough.

This is why our UK is always strong while at the same time being able to be in Russia with their FTRs on time, giving Germany (statistically) no chance on Moscow, not even if it goes full bore. If it doesnt go in full bore than all those UK FTR can go elsewhere as a very flexible force. For example, fly into the areas in Europe that the US captures, stay in the med, fly to India to recapture Calcutta or prevent it from being taken… you name it).

So perhaps we don’t play Germany as optimally as possible ;-).
The best I have ever come up with myself is hitting Moscow with around 230 attack factors G6 (buying 4 STR G5, 4 TAC/STR G4, ARM+MECH G3&G2, ART+INF G1) while Russia alone I believe cannot have more than around 195 defense factors, their AAA still excluded. Combined with the UK FTR however, this can easily be too much over the 230 German attack factors. This combined with sufficiently enough more allied units, a full bore axis attack on Moscow is in our group a statistical fail.

Anyway, a quick calculation shows me that an all STR German build can reach to approx. 200 Attack factors and has way less defense factors so my guess is it will fail to deliver the message to Moscow.

I am looking for Axis strategies to counter the allied dominance (in my eyes) but Perhaps I should then move on to another thread or start one myself  8-).

I will definately look into the tripleA program if I have the time, thanks!

@knp7765:

@kcdzim:

And Allied units that enter original USSR territories should be “interned” - removed from the board with infantry (and infantry only) showing up back in their home capitals a couple rounds later in equal numbers to the units interned   :wink:

In the original Europe game, they had a rule if UK or US planes landed in a Soviet territory with an IC, on the Russian Mobilize Units phase, they could be turned into Russian planes.

I always wondered about something like this.  Considering the equipment lend lease that USA had with USSR I would of thought “gifting” units to Russia should be acheived in someway.  Of course who knows what that would do to balance.  I guess the the Archangel NO is their to represent the Lend-lease activities.

@hardyworld:

Please tell me that it is actually happening for both games this year!  I’m getting anxious.

See: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=26719.0

thanks

Yes, we have yet to run out of the blue pieces for Italy.  Italy might run out of aircraft if you bought lots of them, but otherwise one set is fine.

I have been thinking about adding the Japanese from A&AP for the Russians(they’re red) but there’s no mech/CA/or Tac bombers.

I also have been thinking of using the Russians from A&AE, they are more red then the new ones.  Still no mechs or Tac bombers:(

Very true, those fighters are very needed in Defense, as they are stronger in that regard.

Also, I did once have a sucessfull Dunkirk evacuation of my French Fighter from the French battle.  I am pretty sure its a house rule, but the way we usually play is that if there are no attacking air units, then the defending air unit can retreat to a safe territory within its range if it survives the first round of combat.

Of course it did, and my opponent forgot to throw a Stuka at France, so the Dewontine came in very useful for a possible sealion defense and also to land on a carrier later on as a defender.

I am not a big fan of J1 attack - I think alot of that money starts heading towards Germany/Italy…and if I am an axis player I want Germany/Italy to not see a green pc of plastic rolling dice against me until US4-5 at the earliest…not US2!!!