Help Needed For Allied Strategy - Updated thoughts on Bid?

What is a standard bid?

Exactly…  Each round of combat occurs at the same time.  So, surprise strikes happen on the same turn.  Attacking/Defending rolls are a single turn.  Surprise attack/defend are simultaneous.  Unless there is a destroyer present which negates the surprise for the opposite side.  Note that the destroyer must be on the attacking side to make a difference.  A defending destroyer can be any allied ownership.  The defender gets the benefit of the doubt in this situation.  As the rules state for attackers, only those units owned by the attacker participate in the battle however all defending units participate regardless of ownership unless explicitly stated and this only applies to submarines that can submerge.

@Hunter:

Ah. So it depends on what the starting situation? So maybe round 1 is too early to choose which way to go or is that just enough time?

If you are deciding between KGF and KJF, you can wait. The exception may be with bidding units, if you specifically bid a sub or 2 to help with sz 37 so you can go KJF or if you get extra Russian units to help go after Germany, etc. There are also “generic” bids you can use that won’t show your focus either. Inf for Egy, any inf for Russia, dd to protect US trns in the Atlantic, etc.

So outside a specific bid for a specific purpose you can wait until after rd 1 to see how the board lays out. You’ll probably have to decide by US 2 though. Russia can be played the same in the early rds and so can UK (say 3 units Ind, 2 ftrs UK for the first 1-3 rds is fairly safe).

There are a few “conservative” openings for the Allies that won’t necessarily commit you to anything.

Russia 1, buy 8 inf, or 4 inf 3 rt. Attack Belo/Wrus.
Fortify heavy in Wrus and begin bringing eastern units to the west to defend against Ger. Send 1 inf to help protect US ftr. in Asia

UK 1, buy 3 units (ind), 2 ftrs (uk) - I’ll assume no Sz 37 attack.
Sink any vulnerable Ger ships and if you can land ftr(s) in Wrus do it, and get bom to Wrus/Rus if it will reach after any attacks.
Attack J dd/trn with ftr/Cru from Ind sz land ftr with US/Rus units in Asia to protect against attack. Send Aus troops East to Atlantic on Trn, Remaining India ships to sail around South Africa. (note: if you did bid a sub for Ind, you can attack J dd/trn wuth sub/ftr instead and save your Cru).
Consolidate troops from Afr and defend Trj (if safe), Per and Ind. If you defend Trj you may be able to trade Egy on UK 2 if you have units to spare.

US 1 can be highly variable but at least you’ve seen how the board plays out. Did J by a factory? more trans? Where are their ships/planes? etc.
It is fairly safe to buy a AC/DD for the Atlantic with 2 ftrs (or substitute in a trn and troops if you’ve already decided to go after Germany).
Pac fleet consolidates in Sz 56 (unless J left a real opening)

You can do a lot of things with the US but you never really show full on KGF. For example if you bought AC, dd, 2 ftrs and place in the Atlantic. They will ultimately be usefully against Japan if you go that route. The ftrs can be in sz 56 on US 2 and the surface ships by US 3. Or if you stay Atlantic it may be possible to be off of Afr on US 2 or 3 by the latest. Which is fairly typical anyway in a KGF game.

Uk is also versatile with the 2 ftrs from UK 1 buy. They can go to Wrus (on way to Ind) or land on an AC for the Atlantic.

The general design is, you’ve made no clear move toward J or G leaving you the ability to see how rd 1 shapes up. The one thing I wouldn’t do is buy a US transport on US 1 (if your intention is to go KJF) and you want to see if you can get Germany to make a purchase that assumes you are going after them. In all likely hood it won’t make a difference but if you get them to heavily defend France for another turn, that eliminates some troops that could have been on the Russian front a round or two earlier.

A final caveat is, if Germany buys any ships for sz 5 or even the Med on G1, you are probably going to have to focus on the Atlantic and Germany. You are not going to want to have a German fleet parked in sz 5 indefinitely or the threat of a united fleet meeting up off the coast of Fra or Afr. You can still do the 3 units Ind 2 ftr Uk buy, but US will have to consider how it wants to take down the G ships. 1 AC, 1 dd, 2 ftrs isn’t bad in that case, but your follow up turns will probably be air heavy with ftrs/boms to ultimately go after those ships. And the time it takes rds 1-3 to get into position is probably enough to for J to get set up in the Pac, meaning it is going to be too late to swing your ships back into the Pac. In this case you’ll want to do the bare minimum to keep J off of Hi/Ala with the bulk of your focus being sink the G ships, get to Afr then Europe. Hopefully you can hold Ind for 4-5 rds and hope your stacks hold in Wrus/Cauc/Per area with US either coming through Fin/Nor/Kar or North Africa. At that point it just depends on how you set up your Atlantic shuck.

9 battleships would kill on average 6 infantry. By buying 5 infantry, you’d be a man down compared to buying 2 destroyers, however you’d have 5 more infantry shooting in the first round, so your opponent would likely be 2 men down himself by round 2. So even against 9 battleships, you’re better off buying infantry.

I haven’t played Germany much but it seems to me buying a Aircraft Carrier at the 1st turn is also a good idea.  This way I can land my fighters there and generate a threat to British or Africa (depending on where you place)

Am setting it up now and we should get 4 hours play tomorrow morning before my parents bring Maddy back to us. She will probably want it packed away soon after!
Will give her a DD, not Sub, as I will refrain from attacking US fleet that way, 2 Inf for Russia and one in India and Egypt. That ought to do it.
Have fun on AAA, eating Japan dry of Twinkies. I have never had one.

No plastic ics is at the limit ok
but no paper money is like selling monopoly with no money and asking to count it on a separate piece of paper
Also they miscounted the value of the territories on the map (germany should be 41 and uk 31) it’s kinda lame

Me two I had only revised and 2nd ed was my first upgrade. I like the bigger map and the new sculpt and the new unit cruisers
And has you said
@Sean.C:

All in all it seems like a good “upgrade”, but if i didn’t have stuff from an older version of the game, i would likely be really upset.

But I bought it for 40$ so I’m not disappointed
Still a great game

Don’t think I’ve played to a 9 VC win. Agreed that Hawaii being a VC makes it almost impossible for allies to win, or at the very least it forces America to go pacific or give up a free VC, and then all the axis need to do is hold onto easy to take VC’s.