@ShadowHAwk:
Let him play russia or anzac next turn at least for russia you can remove all ships from the game besides if he still refuses to think and buy ships start playing online.
Anzac well he needs ships anyway so not that bad there.
Last time he played Russia, he purchased two Cruisers R1. With the mentality of “Since Russia is predictable and does the same thing always I will do this”. Anzac would probably work except it would be pretty boring to just play them. To give the UK as well is a bit sketchy if you are partnered with him as any repeated builds in the ocean will be sunk by German air.
@Wolfshanze:
@ShadowHAwk:
Let him play russia or anzac next turn at least for russia you can remove all ships from the game besides if he still refuses to think and buy ships start playing online.
There’s only two major powers that building a fleet is either questionable or insane, and that’s Germany and/or Russia…
Let this guy play the US, UK or Japan… and if he wants to build ships, that’s not really a bad thing with any of them.
As for letting him play Russia… well, even he should realize that ships aren’t really a thing for the Russians… or you’ll have one of the most entertaining games of A&A you’ve ever played with the “Soviet Fleet” strategy in-play before your eyes.
Just keep this guy away from playing Germany… any other power should be fine for him with his style of play.
Last game he was the entire axis powers, as is the usual in our games because we are a max of three players with him. As Japan he built all muscle ships. The starting three transports were is only TT that game on that side. Zero inland factory. With the UK helping China due to no threat on India, China was collecting 14 or 15 on the income tracker minus their Burma road objective so in the 20 IPC range when they collect. He did Pearl Harbour J4 I think… Not seeing that it was sandwiched between San Fran and Sydney. He was successful but the US counter wiped him out. So letting him play Japan is a no I think.
Playing the UK I mentioned the problem above and that hurts whoever his partner is. Giving him the States I think would be the scariest move of all. The allies need the States to be good. The US needs transports fully loaded on whatever side they go. He has yet to play the US/Anzac/China combination and I am dreading that day. He just doesn’t understand that the game is won on land in the end. Ships don’t capture IPCs they only destroy TUV.
@ShadowHAwk:
If he only builds cruisers and battleships with the US then you lose the war as allies pretty quickly, same if he does the same with japan.
Really if he spends 60ipcs on ships in the 2nd round and does not have any transports with that fleet for something usefull he is an idiot.
Building a few subs each round ( 1-3 ) to deter an US landing and to convoy the UK could be ok-ish but building 2 carriers and a cruiser and some other stuff with germany. That isnt even strange it is stupid.
You summed it up nicely.
Sadly, myself as well as my other playing partner are considering kicking him out of our games. Which is sad because he is a good friend and loves the game. This might seem drastic but from our point of view one of us has to be his partner as the Allies which is a disadvantage. Or we play together when he takes the axis and completely annihilate him which becomes boring. We do have the odd time when a fourth player plays and he is a very strong player but mostly we are three. He understands the game mechanics and certain basic strategies but does not plan well for his end game. As for myself I will enter every game with a plan on what I want to do and unless I have to react to something different I purchase and move accordingly. I think he purchases and moves based on what he is doing that turn. He realizes you do need TTs but he says those are later purchases. It’s too long of a wait. I might seem like a A-hole because of this but I’ve really tried to help. Sent him links to YG’s videos as well as pages on these forums about strategies and moves. He absolutely refuses to use “someone else’s strategy”. I do understand his point, axis and allies is about doing your strategy and trying to win with whatever you want to do. But you will never get better unless you learn from mistakes of your own as well as other people’s ideas. If he refuses to do both, we don’t have fun when he is in the game.