Standard bid

@DoManMacgee Hi DMM & thanks for the response… Really appreciate that these forums have experienced players who weigh in on things. It was OOB with a 12 bid.
That’s pretty much what Japan did - eliminate the threats and take back the 2 islands as advantageously as possible while still consolidating the fleet. I was just surprised how long it then took for Japan to have any pressure westward. India, in spite of losing 2 men on the initial Kwangtung foray, stayed around for quite a while (minimal investment for a KGF).
What helped, no doubt, was that Russia traded unfavourably in the initial Caucasus strafe (dice game, lost 3 inf to Germany’s 2, and took W Russia at odds) and the Germans (rather than push hard back immediately), decided to save the Med fleet with a carrier. This made the Egypt / Africa game interesting, but maybe a different buy on G1 and the Germans win sooner. Always tough to say.
But, as many have pointed out here, the Axis have such a strong start in this game it was nice to have a hotly contested battle!

I still like the idea of the Russia bomber to help even things out.  It hasn’t helped me in my games however it does give Russia a chance to actually win in Ukraine and pose a threat to Japanese transports.

How do i start a game?

Thanks for the explanations everyone, I understand it now.  A good way to help novice players out a bit.  I’ve probably played a hundred or more games of the classic version and that would have been helpful at the beginning.  Unfortunately the two that taught us were more interested in winning than properly teaching the game.  Once I purchased the game myself things changed dramatically.

My teaching method for newbies is to basically get them up to my speed as quickly as possible.  This means that the first game or two I will point out things, even if it is detrimental to my own side, so that they learn for the future.  That way they have a fair chance and enjoy the game and want to play again.  After a game or two they’re normally doing well on their own and I can enjoy a good challenging game.

Did the same thing when I was teaching my son Starfleet Battles.  Now he more than gives me a tough fight and in fact wins quite a bit.  His Kzinti has beaten my Lyran five time in the last seven games!  So this bid idea will be of use if I need it for newbies in the future.  Good idea.  Thanks again.

The  rules for bidding  is whatever the two sides can agree upon. That said, most here would only allow one unit per territory or SZ and only where one of that nation already exists.
Of course you could have a Carrier, but it could be destroyed before you used it, of course.

My friends and I used to feel Axis is strongly favored but after a few games I no longer able to beat my friend  consistently using Axis… :x… perhaps I don’t know how to use Axis well enough…

My bad, its just 1 sub + 1 fig you can bring to attack the Aussie fleet. (sub + cruiser + trans + 2 inf)

Seems like a good trade (average 24 defender IPC losses in excess of attacker losses)

And, if you survive with the fighter and land it on a carrier next to New Zealand, the US will have to make a choice.
Either bring some of the Pacific fleet (Hawaii) down to New Zealand to kill the fig and carrier, and thus delay atlantic fleet build up. Or just ignore the carrier+fig.

We are currently in the process of doing a tournament and we are down to the last semi-final game, but we’ve had 13 completed games so far.  Here are the results:

Allied bid (winner)

16 (Allies)
12 (Axis)
10 (Axis)
9 (Axis)
21 (Axis)
9 (Allies)
11 (Allies)
5 (Axis)
9 (Axis)
15 (Allies)
22 (Axis)
12 (Axis)
20 (Allies)

So we’ve had 8 Axis winners and 5 Allied winners.  The Avg is 13.15.

Obviously, this is a small sample size, but it gives you an idea where bids are coming in for some competitive games.  The Allies have some wins at 9 and 11, but in the more competitive type games your probably going to want to go 13,14+ and get near or above 15 if you can.  The Allies scored 2 more wins at 15 and then 16.
Axis were 6-2 with bids 14 and under.  And then 2-3 with bids 15+.