"Magellans"

If the Germans have a fleet, they can attack up north from SZ 112 (threatening Karelia, Novo, Arch, Nemestia), there has to be a specific LZ for the fighters to cross which you can threaten or deny as long as you have attacked them on G2 or G1.    Fighters crossing the med have a slow time of it.    Maybe some help can come in the form of making it more inconvenient for the UK fighters to get into Russia in the first place?

I also dislike blowing the Russian NO by having allies hanging out in Russia before its abs necessary, but that could be pretty early in the game.

“Sea Lion”  if the USSR has a fleet and Novogrod, they can keep this threat alive for a long time.  No matter what I want to do with UK, I usually end up buying 6+1 and bringing as many Canadians across as I can.  If I lose any significant ## of fighters, UK has to continue to worry that Germany can bring wave after wave of attackers, which keeps me conservative.  This is why the Gibraltar air base or crossing to Russia early would be difficult;  I don’t have enough fighters to protect UK and project threat.  Once they cross to Russia, they cant cross back…

“Get Cairo”  That sounds awesome but with a UK bid of 10, its not going to happen.  If Germany and Italy build/rebuild navy and try to control the Med, that’s a subtle win for the Allies.  Navy is resource intensive and takes away the armor punch described by the other posters.  Without an added commit, I just don’t see how the Axis can take Egypt at all, there are just too many UK pieces around there.  Germany can fly or bring ships down there but its a 1 way trip, into a dead end trap, and its away from the critical path (Russia)

“Tan Skies”  you are on the right track;  if UK has 6+ fighters it is kicking butt, if not, it feels cornered and powerless.  The key for the axis is to do the strongest opener that doesn’t invite any scrambles, then the UK navy is dead and Germany has most of its air left.  The UK also doesn’t need to lose any (many) fighters during its opener, other stuff can take the casualties.  Its especially good if the airforce from Taranto lives to fight another day (by avoiding the Italian counterstrike, we hope 1 sb 1 French inf 1 tac 1 fighter on Syria?)

In G40, attacking bombers and defending fighters roll for 1’s.

Say you have x bombers and y defending fighters. The attacker will lose y/6 bombers on average, for an IPC loss of 2y. The defender will lose x/6 fighters, an IPC loss of (5/3)x.

The remaining x-y/6 bombers will be fired on by the AAA’s. These will kill (x-y/6)/6 of them, a further 2x-y/3 of IPC loss for the attacker.

(In both of the above cases, I’m assuming neither side outnumbers the other by a factor of 6 or more, else all planes on the weaker side will die).

The remaining (5/6)(x-y/6) bombers will do damage to facilities. Each will do 3.5 IPC’s of damage on average.

Therefore, the attacker lost 2y+2x-y/3=(5/3)y+2x IPC’s. Meanwhile, the defender lost (5/3)x+(7/2)*(5/6)(x-y/6)=(55/12)x-(35/72)y IPC’s.

For these to be equal, we need (55/12-2)x=(5/3+35/72)y, which becomes (31/12)x=(155/72)y. This simplifies to y=(6*31/155)x, which becomes y=(6/5)*x. Therefore, 5 bombers against 6 fighters, or 50 bombers against 60 fighters will cause the same IPC loss on both sides (assuming facility damage isn’t maxed out).

Thx guys. Problem solved.  :-D

Thanks. I definitely focused on the Industrial Complex and Japan/China Sections in the rulebook.

Buy mech/armor at a 1-1 ratio, simple as that from g2 onward. You pretty much should get russia G5 6 or 7

Agree on a fair bid (9 is quite standard)
Roll dice for desiding countries.
Change countries with one another as you please.

@sargon:

IS IT TRUE THAT IF JAPAN ATTACKS THE DEI’S ON TURN’S ONE OR TWO THE USA AUTOMATICALLY ENTERS THE WAR?

IF SO, THEN IS NOT JAPAN’S BEST OPTION TO JUST BUILD TRANSPORTS AND NAVAL UNITS AND POSITION ITSELF UNTIL TURN 3 OR 4 BEFORE IT UNLAODS AGAINST DEI, UK, AND AMERICA?

It is not true that the USA “automatically” enters the war.

It is true that it ALLOWS the USA to declare war on the following US turn, which it WILL do in order to collect its income bonuses.  But it’s not automatic.

Unless the UK or Anzac declared war on Japan first, or in case they moved a unit into china (which requires a declaration of war against Japan as well).

As for best option, that depends ENTIRELY on the board conditions: If the UK leaves vital naval assets vulnerable or spreads itself thin, then, no, it might actually be better to attack early.  Also, J3 is really the last chance to declare war as the US will collect income on US3 regardless, so there’s usually absolutely no reason not to declare war on the US on J3 unless the US is positioning naval assets, depending on Japan to declare war on the US and therefore be blocked by US units.  Otherwise, J4 is usually too late.

@JamesAleman:

I’ve brought the Bell-Fey expression into my gaming group. Soon the Midwest will know the term and you can look for it on local news channels…for instance, weathermen might say, I guess that it is not going to snow after all, I guess I Bell-Feyed that forecast. :)

Excellent expansion of the word.  I can see powerful forces are already at working taking this expression (a “Belfay”) and expanding it to other fields.

I would propose that it could be used in sports also.  Such as the Chicago Bears pulling a “Belfay” in the NFC Championship game by not really showing up to play Green Bay.

We’ve done weather and sports, who else can help to embed the term “pulled a Belfay” into pop culture?  Anyone have ins with Lady Gaga?

Dave