18 ipc allied bid

@ShadowHAwk Those units are essential to defend your capital, as well as France’s capital. There is no way around having a substantial defensive force if you want to win the game as the axis. Ideally all of those units could attack Moscow, but that is literally not an option. Germany can lose its capital turn 4 if you don’t have enough units to defend, and Paris can be lost to the allies turn 5 if you aren’t deploying enough units to prevent that.

I’d agree with everyting said.

I believe that any 2player game should be played with a bid or a handicap based on skill (in a broad sense of the word). We have had players here who believe the axis can’t win, and need a bid of 20. That is probably correct for the way they play the game. That being said, it is an interesting exercise to figure out what the bid would be on an expert level.

One thing that has not been mentioned is the game LL or not?
a LL game has to have a higher bid than a luck game. LL attacks can be optimized a lot better, an a smaller force in needed to ensure a win. Just try to calculate how much you need to be 99 % certain of paris falling in a LL game vs a regular game

@Arthur:

You might as well issue an R1 DoW against Japan; at our gaming group we generally assume that Russia is at war unless stated otherwise.  So far I haven’t seen any reason in non-BM games to not opt for immediate war.

This makes perfect sense with experienced players, but I do remember a game where I, playing Russia, managed to delay a Japanese attack for quite a few turns by claiming that we had always been on good terms and that I had never done anything at all to damage Japan’s interests.  :-D

@Marshmallow:

I use black chips for 25 units. It helps with the swaying red chip stack!

Marsh

lol

@teslas:

This is not a houserule board, but I can’t help it.

“Does not help Moscow.”

Yes it god damn does. The first time you SBR Mosocw you’re taking off from Eastern Poland. Maybe the second time, too.

“Does help Calcutta.”

Not really. Bombers are probably coming from a Kwangsi air base after J2. The only time it’d help them is on J2 itself.

Speaking of which, I usually don’t bomb Calcutta. The potential loss of a strat bomber sucks, and they’re not building more than 2-4 units a turn anyway after UK1, so the first six damage doesn’t matter at all. And then just a couple turns later, their income is so low (2-7/turn) that they’re not building anything that matters much anyway. This is only a very minor influence, but it might matter: if you bomb it, you’re bombing what will be your own factory.

To comment on this part that you added to your original post… once captured, the Major IC with max damage will immediately downgrade to a Minor IC with max damage, so if I really want to use it… it will only cost me 6 IPCs.

@Karl7:

@Talleyrand19:

Been following this thread as best as possible so sorry if this was already mentioned and I missed it…

But what happens if Allies spend most of their money on the Atlantic with only a few capital ships in the Pacific to join up with Anzac. The Atlantic money goes to transports and capital ships and then tanks and infantry. With England’s help, you hit Spain and Gibraltar  (for the naval base). Then every single turn the US can land more stuff and set up a nonstop funnel. If Russia does its job then axis should not be able to keep up on both fronts. If Germany sent its Dark Skies bombers to try to stop the funnel, then fine you can wipe each other out and still land more US troops the next turn.

My friends and I have done this to each other and the Spain landing always overwhelms the Axis eventually. …

What have you all experienced when trying this?

Yes, this is a good strategy.  The weak point is then the Germans blitz into the middle east, ignoring Moscow.  They can get an economic advantage and then just sit back and outbuild the allies.

Perhaps have Iraq and the Persian territories be treated as True Neutral, just give the UK and USSR extra units to make up the potential difference.

@AxisMan:

@Anzac:

You can buy the historical board gaming 1939 global map, from what ive heard/seen its huge!! Its 4 x 8!.

Is it the exact same as the 1940 map?

No, and it’s a more complexed variant.

NO’s aren’t collected before the game; otherwise, UK Europe would start with 34 ipcs, not 29.

UK is splt because is Empire was stretched around the globe. Money from Canada and UK and Africa more easily reach UK than India. On the other hand, the US in contingent and well connected by railways