Safest route/road to Moscow

Yeah, I noticed lots of players are having a difficult time deciding exactly how to ‘spendsplit’ the American income…

Back to Russia. Shaniana made a good point in that the Russians will kill half the German army if it is split at the wrong time at the wrong place.

The way I often see the eastern front develop is that Russia has way too much defense in Moscow for the Germans to attack it. Germany on the other hand also has way too much defense in its main stack for the Russians to attack. The Luftwaffe usually must be used in this defense as well.
Kind of a standoff and this is the point where the turning point comes OR Russia collapses. And this depends on how well the USA and UK can ‘arrest’ the German reinforcements from G4 and onwards. If they do it well, Germany cannot find enough forces to surround Moscow because this will weaken its main army so that Russia can destroy it (or strafe if that is more opportune). But on the other hand, if Germany can find a way to keep channeling enough reinforcements into Russia it becomes very difficult for the allies (but not Always impossible).

I found that it really helps if you can manage to keep at least 2-3 bombers to keep hitting the Russian IC. If you keep putting damage on Russia’s factory, they will have less to buy units with.
Of course, you are right, it also depends on how much you have to deal with the Western Allies as to whether you can keep adding reinforcements to your stack in Russia.
Also, if you start to lose bombers to AA fire or interceptors, it will be hard to replace them AND deal with the Western Allies AND keep adding units to your Russia stack.

AND I agree that indeed, a large amount of Spitfires often deters me from bombing Moscow. Sorry for parroting but tat ‘and’,
I just found that too funny to ignore :-). Seriously, Russia cannot survive a determined and focussed attack on Moscow without lots of units from the UK to help them out.
If I play the UK I always take into account Russia will need 8 of my FTR minimum UK5. More if it looks like a serious bombing campaign will hit Moscow. If Russia screws up by loosing too much troops in the opening turns of the war (for example by trying to defend Leningrad) and/or buying too few bodies to defend itself during the turns that it is still able to buy anything serious (at least 11 units per turn for the first 5 turns -on average-), it becomes very hard for the RAF to save them. If not impossile :cry:.

Okay, there is where we differ. In our games, UK almost never sends any planes to Russia. They keep their planes to try and do something against Germany themselves. Russia tends to be kind of left alone to fend for itself. That being said, there have been several games where Russia manages to defend Moscow well. There are so many factors involved: what Russia decides to buy, whether they try counter attacks or totally retreat, what they do with the guys in the east, how much Germany is able to bring to bear.

I have said several times that we need to play more like ALLIES, although I have been guilty of this myself when playing either side. We each tend to use our own units to advance our own objectives. Sometimes we will land planes to support Allied landings or do follow-up attacks.

@knp7765:

(…)I have said several times that we need to play more like ALLIES, although I have been guilty of this myself when playing either side. We each tend to use our own units to advance our own objectives. Sometimes we will land planes to support Allied landings or do follow-up attacks.

Very wise words!
Teamwork. IMHO this is 1 of the 2 problems the allies must overcome if they want to win the game. The other one being ‘intelligence’. The ability to see what the axis are trying to do and react properly. The more players in the team, the more difficult both problems become for the allies.
The Axis only need some sort of vague plan about what they are going to do. Japan waiting with its DOW till J3 or not being about the most detailed part of it ;-).

So much depends on how the Russian player retreats…

I have done Shins style once because the player allowed it…if a more polished player controlled it, I would be more hesitant to split forces…but certainly, if its allowable, I agree it is a great way…it works especially well in Axis and Allies Second Edition itself…

I have now played 3 games in a row where I took Moscow as Germany…One way was split as Shin suggested, one was STRAIGHT up the middle (the guy playing Russia left central territories wide open, didn’t even leave a single unit to slow me down, I blitzed right through), and the other time was through the south. I’ve NEVER gone through the North…I could be wrong but it always felt more opposed, not economically as beneficial, and perhaps a turn longer (I could be wrong though, I don’t have the board in front of me.)

I’d say just as much as how Russia retreats, Japan’s and Italy’s actions and progress.

For instance,
A)  if Italy is doing well and has the middle east AND Japan is pushing into Russia, then Germany can go the northern route.
B)  if Italy is doing well and has the middle east, but Japan is NOT pushing into Russia, then Germany may want to focuse on the southern route so that the two armies can work together.
C)  if Italy is doing poorly in the south, Germany might want to go the Northern route because it’s faster (transport trains) and secures their NO’s (Leningrad and Sweeden) at the same time.

These are just my opinions.  Feel free to disagree.

I think the point is, all three of my opinions infer that Germany is waiting until at least round 3 to declare war on Russia.  Personally, I see no good reason to declare war on them before then anyway and, personally, I prefer to have Italy declare war on Round 3 with Germany maybe not even declaring war on Round 4…that way Italy can take the road and Germany can reinforce it.  That allows Germany to collect the NO for Russia and move towards Moscow.