Strategy guide?

@Argothair said in Reliable 1941 Axis Strategy:

@cheezhead1252 You’re welcome!

No, I think it is counterproductive to worry about attacking Egypt on G1 – especially with NOs off, it is just not that important, and you need every plane in the German air force to win 2 naval battles + 3 land battles on turn 1 at reasonable odds.

If you want to go heavy in the Med, you can get excellent odds on taking Egypt turn 2 by instead using the German med transport to shuffle another inf + tank to Libya on G1, where it will be protected by the Italian navy for a turn. Italy will do the same, shuffling another 2 units to Libya on I1. If you pre-position another 2 units in Italy / the Balkans on G1, then on G2 you can ferry them to Egypt with your transport, allowing you to attack with ~8 land units, plus the German bomber, which can now be spared from anti-British-navy duties, plus also a German fighter that should have landed in Morocco. This is far more than anything the Allies can bring to the region, and if you somehow roll poorly, the Italians are there to follow up with an equally hard punch (~7 units, 1 plane, and 2 naval bombards).

Italy can build any land units it wants for the eastern front; it’s just a style preference. Tanks allow you to threaten a ‘can opener’ for Germany in a larger number of territories, but they tend to be a one-and-done attack, since Italy doesn’t have enough cash to build many tanks; sooner or later Russia will call your bluff and force you to either attack with the Italian tanks into a stack of 2-3 Russian infantry, or else retreat. If you send in the tanks and Germany can’t take Moscow that turn or stack up with the survivors, then you’ll lose the surviving tanks next turn to a Russian counterattack, and you won’t be able to replace them anytime soon. But, if you build all infantry, then it takes longer to become relevant, and Russia can clearly see where it’s headed. There are pros and cons. I usually build a mix.

Good luck against your old man!

I took the advice from your first post and applied to a game of triple A hard AI before you posted this response. I ended up coming to the same conclusions as above, so it is good to confirm I’m on the right track haha.

I agree that the juice in Egypt isn’t really worth the squeeze. I strafed them in G1 to kill some units. And they end up running to Persia once you pressure India anyways. So the French tank and an Inf got shipped to the Eastern front via Med transport and I did the same with Italian units too.

Also, the tip for transports to pressure India was money, getting it a round earlier than I had been was huge. Was able to rush in some planes to help defend Germany on J2 or maybe it was J3.

Was the first time I beat the AI without No’s, it felt great crushing Russia, not going to lie hehe. It’s a slog on the eastern front and you have to be extremely careful and concentrate your forces at the right spot at the right time or you’re fooked.

Thanks again for the great advice and I look forward to kicking some allied booty, cheers!

I decided to write up my strategies for 1941 scenario.

Germany:
Buy 1 tank, 2 art, 6 inf

take Gibraltar with either two inf or 1 inf and 1tank, this allows Italy to get a National objective bonus by taking either Egypt or Syria on its turn. Don’t worry about losing the transport you won’t be using it to defend the Mediterranean that’s Italy’s job.
Attack UK destroyer with cruiser and sub in baltic. attack cruiser and destroyer with sub and fighters on nw europe and germany. attack BS w/ sub, bomber and fighter from norway.
take E Poland w 2tanks czech and 2 inf poland, Take Baltic w inf nwe, art ger, and everything left on poland, take Ukraine with everything in bugaria.

For purely defensive purposes, buying infantry cannot be beat. When you can swap in an offensive piece (artillery or tank) without decreasing the number of units you’re putting on the board, this is well-advised. The relative cost of units and their defending capability seems to be balanced such that quantity is quality.

For example, Russia starts the '41 version with 30 IPC. For that money you can buy 10 inf OR 8 inf and a tank, etc, etc… OR 3 fighters. If you benchmark every 30IPC purchasing combination against an attacking force of 4inf and 5 tanks (nearly a 50/50 battle with about a 2% chance of mutually assured destruction if you purchased 10 inf), the results are telling:

10 inf - 49% chance of winning [2 * 10 = 20 hit points or 20/6 = 3.3 average hits]
8 inf, 1 tank - 38% chance of winning [2 * 8 + 1 *3 = 19 hit points or 19/6 = 3.2 average hits]
5 inf, 1 tank, 1 fighter - 16% chance of winning [5 * 2 + 1 * 3 + 1 * 4 = 17 or 17/6 = 2.8 average hits]
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3 fighters - 0.02% chance of winning [3 * 4 = 12 points or 12/6 = 2 average hits]

No combination of possible purchases perform better than 10 inf in this scenario.

However, when playing against a German Goering that likes to over-extend poorly defended fighters or bombers to gain a couple of IPCs, it’s nice to have the offensive capability to wipe them off the board. I have found this is best accomplished by pushing infantry forward (protecting your offensive pieces from overwhelming counter-attack) and keeping a mix of infantry, artillery and tanks within striking distance of the front line.

For offensive purposes, the best mix of units for the same 30 IPCs, baselined to a 50/50 battle of your 10 infantry against a defending 6inf + 1 artillery (approximately 1% chance of a draw):

10 inf - 50% [10 * 1 = 10 points or 10/6 = 1.7 average hits]
8 inf, 1 tank - 60% [8 * 1 + 1 * 3 = 11 points or 11/6 = 1.8 average hits]
6 inf, 3 art - 81% [3 * 1 + (3 + 3) * 2 = 15 points or 15/6 = 2.5 average hits]
5 inf, 1 tank, 1 ftr - 42% [5 * 1 + 1 * 3 + 1 * 3 = 11 points or 11/6 = 1.8 average hits]
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3 ftr - 0% [3 * 3 = 9 points or 9/6 = 1.5 average hits]

For purely offensive considerations, the optimum combination of units in this scenario is 6 inf and 3 art at 81% chance of victory with 4 inf, 2 art and 2 tanks in close second at 80%. No combination of purchases which include a fighter score better than 53% (4 inf, 2 art and 1 fighter happens to be the specific combination in this case). Again, there appears to be a quality in quantity that supersedes just quality. It may go without stating, but if attacking a territory with an AA gun, the numbers will be even worse for the fighter purchases.

For the two scenarios above, the most balanced purchase (averaging the %won for each purchase in its offensive capacity and defensive capacity) is 7 inf, 1 art and 1 tank. This particular purchase is the second best defensive purchase (next to 10 inf) and only 4% less potent than the best offensive purchase (6 inf and 3 art).

I’m not against fighters or bombers, they certainly have their place I just haven’t found justification for purchasing them when playing as Russia (or Germany for that matter) - especially in the early rounds.

Similar conclusion are drawn with respect to naval units - more cost-effective units (subs and especially destroyers) are typically better than fewer high-powered units (battleships and especially cruisers).

Excepting special circumstances (such as no time to get infantry to a developing hot-spot on the map or needing to sandbag funds for a massive naval build against enemies squatting in your sea-zone) a good rule of thumb seems to be to maximize the number of attack/defend points your are bringing to the board, first, and spread over as many units as possible, second.

Persia is the true center.  When it falls, allies are usually screwed.  If held, Berlin typically falls.

@TimTheEnchanter:

@Frontovik:

i prefer 42 for KJF
cause then you can put IC on those 4 IPC islands
and there, japan is actually beateble
Russia is also in offense first round, so germans have to withdraw a bit, which gives russia a bit more breath.

You can’t place US ICs in the pacific (except phi) in '42.  per the official FAQ, the “original controller” of those islands is still UK, even though japan starts the scenario with them.  If us takes them, they are liberated for the british.

sorry, my mistake :-)
but i still prefer '42

a good Russian strategy depends on what the Allies are doing overall. everything i post is assuming Dice because dice allows the probablity factor unlike Low Luck.
Also it is important that the Brittsh will kill the Itlian fleet R2 or R3
KGF
Buy 4 tanks 1 fighter you have enough inf for turn one not to buy any.
A basic strategy I like is to give up Karelia leaving one man behind and regroup in Arch(with AA gun from Kar) then R2 counter
As well as take back the Ukriane R1.
my buy round two varies but if i can one figther that  being the last one i will buy for Russia heres how i would get the money if going for a fighter buy R2, on R1 i attack Finland with Kar if doable and take ukraine. leaving baltic states and East Poland to the Germans + getting your bouns  for no allies in your country which is a given R1, giving Russia 35 Ipcs on hand. then buy my 4inf 2 art 1 tank 1 fighter giving me two fighters to swap territories with. Fighters act as permanent tanks and don’t die when the territory you just took is recaptured, From R3 out i buy twice as many inf as i do art or tanks and i try not to buy more than two tanks that way i get the most units down so i can hold my capital and still have enough boots to swap with, when The Japs arrive on scene i pick my battles wisely. now at this point the Brittish and the US should be set and start destroying Germany by round 4 which means less pressure against Russia,R5 should be the last German push then you focus mostly on the Japs. russia’s goal now is to swap persia and kill the intial Jap force that will be coming north which won’t be there in force until Round 6. All they have to do by R7 is survive swap novo, persia, Kazak, and Evenki there shouldn’t be any German/ Italian Offense at this point and if there is your done for.

KJF
I do the bury stack and along with a India IC (KJF) is going to be built by the Britts I would go with 4tanks and a fighter(or 2inf 1 art) 3 tanks in Caucus R1 then R2 back the inda IC with those three tanks, so India has 4 britt inf 1 britt art and AA gun and 3 rus tanks. versus 4 jap planes and 4 inf Defender wins 73% with 2.78 units left (three tanks). If at all possible I bring those three tanks back R3 by then jap should be buying navy to fight the  U.S.  A KJF means to me three tanks a turn by the britts in India and the Britts killing the Itlian fleet, along with the Britts fighting for Karelia via SZ 4. I then try to back chinghai with one inf a turn from russia.
My Russia KJF then starts to look more like my KGF but now there is no Japs and all you have to do is just swap one teritory away.

In all Russian Strategies it is Key that all of your offensive battles take place at least three teritories away from Germany that way you don’t get your guys killed by a spawning tank/German airforce combo.

Also, Reading this I see alittle bit about a navy and I know for a fact that no surface ships that Russia builds will stand to a german airforce. and subs seem like a waste to me.

I have yet to try to the bomber strat because I like the fighter defence over the bombers because russian offense isn’t always an option especially if the Italians try a one two punch with the germans and stop the Russian one man blitz blockades.

If you do try this I wonder if Russia would be better off sending units to China due to its unique way of sprouting INF.  No reason that both Russia and China get taken out the production race.

UK must build a fleet on UK 1… something to start the ball rolling and shuck men to Russia. Bombers attacking Italian fleets or bombing 10 IPC wont have an effect on 7+ tanks coming into Russia each turn, plus a few men. UK needs to land men directly in Karelia to beat the threat.

Bombers on UK 1 would be good for a type of game where Germany is not very aggressive and builds a fleet or builds mostly normal land purchases.

The Panzer roller is a race to Moscow and bombers are a strategic… ( long term strategy) solution for a longer game IMO.