Which nation requires the most skill to play as?

Nice poll! I’ll be interested in the results of this poll! There is a lot you can say regarding this… I’ll just say that I voted Germany, and the (short) reason for that is that there is a much smaller room for errors when playing Germany , compared to , for example, United States.

I voted for UK because of:

• they got the most theatres to act in (potentially at least)
• they can do very little alone (sure, as with all allies, but russia can act quite alone at least for some time and US is somewhat stronger and really noone expects to kill it), therefore you need to know quite well, what you can assure on your own and where (and how) the other allies have to help you out
• your territories are prey to the axis and you can easily end up with an income that low that you can’t even take back africa without help. while playing axis, i like to rid UK of it’s income whereever possible, as US acting alone sure is a threat, but a lot smaller one without doubleteaming up with UK.
• comparative to the other allies you got alot of naval fighting, which i find more difficult than the war on ground
• in a KGF scenario, you got to think for UK AND US, as most often UK ends up protecting US ships and gives the lead in this theatre
• there is always the feeling of “the somehow helpless and vulnerable small brother of the US that needs protection everywhere, even Russian one”. but this may be quite subjective and anyhow sometimes it’s the most fun to play.
• and last but not least: your men wear shorts! :)

I think Britain is the hardest to play. Mostly because they’re getting attacked from everywhere and are spread so thin.

I think Japan is the most difficult nation to play. It’s more likely that Germany falls than Japan, but this doesn’t mean you need more skill to play them. You often just hold LEN and trade until close to the end.
Japan has to “carry” the game for the axis. They have to be very fast and aggressive, they can have a lot of open fronts and can’t just stand their ground as Germany can.
Even more difficult it is to counter a proper KJF with Japan. To defend all your territories in Asia and protect all your damn islands seems to be nearly impossible or at least it demands a lot of skill. My two cents.

Germany to me requires the most skill, as every purchase and every move is vital. It’s the one nation that can have three other powers hammering on it every turn. Balancing offense and defense, placement of pieces to put pressure on Russia, grabbing economy in Africa and knowing when to pull out, and using your navy and airforce to maximum efficiency is a skill- one which most of us are still trying to figure out.

The other thing about Germany is that it seems to have no margin for error at all- you have to be on top of every move and not make one stupid mistake.

So if you play Germany go slow on the beer and offer alot to your opponent.

If you’re talking about skill involved to play AND survive? Germany definitely. They may have an outstanding army to begin with, but I just think they have a horrible starting position. Maybe it’s partially because they start out owning West Russia, the tumor of EurAsia. (The Battle of the Bulge comes to mind…)

Answer is Germany and IMO it’s a no-brainer. They are the only nation that has to typically fight off the main attack of 3 other opponents. They have to protect their western front while advancing both east and south. They have to balance offense and defense. If they don’t go on the offensive in the east or south they will eventually lose. If they don’t go on the defensive enough in Western Europe they are also dead.

Another reason is that Germany is one of the few nations with a non-island capital. UK and Japan capitals are easy to defend since they are both islands. USA is basically an island since they are so far away from everyone else. Islands are much harder to capture, which is 1 reason why Germany and Russia are usually the first capitals to fall.

I vote Japan, with the UK second.

Japan is the axis hinge, if they are stimed on the Asian wall, Germany probably wont be able to overrun Russia in time to save itself.

I think what makes Japan so tough to play is that your fighting a mainland war when your main power is at sea…you have to project your sea power onto land to win; either by forcing the US out of the war and into a navy confrontation in the Pacific or by over running the Asian Wall and grinding Russia down, all why not loosing your Pacific front.

Tough nation.

Has to be Japan or Germany. Cm’on, it’s three on two!

I voted for Japan because they just don’t have enough of an economy to stand up to the American Navy and attack the Russian mainland unless they really know what they are doing.

I believe Germany is very much the hardest to play as, because it is very very easy to mess up and you’re surrounded by two countries.

You will find that if you try to rush Russia that you will get heavily delayed by his infantry tactics since your IC is far away, and then UK will come out of no where into the baltic, which borders 4 of your territories, with many transports and fighters. Your attack on Russia will stall and die, while he slowly pushes in, while you’re dealing with the UK invasion.

With Germany you have to make very very hard decisions on what to do. This is not nearly as true with UK for instance. UK is very easily defended and he has a great safety/mobility in where he attacks once he blows up German navy. Also not true with Russia, just as Russia just keep stalling on the west front and if Japan starts coming in you have an incredible amount of time to build up infantry to defend against it.

Japan is also difficult to play as. It’s not difficult at all to fend off the US fleet, but it is difficult to make big land grabs because how long it takes to really get into Russia and how you’ll never have a big enough attack force with infantry moving so slowly by the time you get there. Also a British IC in India can really put a thorn in your back if he starts island hopping while you’re fending off a US naval swarm.

I could be very wrong, but the Allies have generally really good defending positions and have very little to think about, just respond to what the Axis is trying to do.

I would like to hear good German strategies, but so far the one I’ve always been trying has failed massively (try to take out Russia first). Good Russian players can really defend well until the UK invades Norway and such. And if you can’t keep up pressure on Russia, your outlying territories will wither under growing numbers of Russian troops until Russia overcomes Germany IPC income.

For me, I’d say Japan. Second weakest economy. Japan can easily get spread too thin. And unlike Russia, Japan is in a race to span its empire while keeping the American navy at bay.

iam going to have to say japan… fighting reniforcements from russia, india’s britsh garrison, american land reniforcements from china, and the navy from the west, japan must utilive and think strategically out of the most nations, all germany must do is, pour troops into africa until taken, then just make attrition attacks on russia, until japan is strong enought to attack from the east

I might have said Japan if this were A&A but in Revised, Germany is by far the hardest to play as. Your Navys toast, and you got a The UK right next to you with its big bro the US bring in major hurt.

Id say Japan, due to the new developments in the KJF strategy that works quite well against Japan. Untill they are refuted then Japan is got some problems. Otherwise Germany is hardest if the Allies leave Japan alone.

What are the new developments in KJF? I’m not familiar with that strategy. I would imagine US would put major naval pressure on mainland Japan, while UK dumps IC in India to undercut Japan’s islands and US puts IC in China to capture the land areas, but I don’t know it. Can you share Imperious?

I have to agree with Duke that Germany is the hardest to play :D