Axis Victories (what's the "magic" trick?)

Cornwallis- playing with a closed group of friends can be difficult. We experienced something similar in our group. What we found was that we were playing the Axis too conservatively, particularly the Japanese. An aggressive J1 attack, including against the US Pacific fleet, can significantly change your outcomes.

We found we were reluctant to bring the US into the war due to NO’s, and thus artificially limited Japan’s growth. Feel free to unleash the Japanese Navy.

Your mileage may vary, of course.  Happy hunting!

Consult the stickied threads on Japanese and German strategy.  Lots of good tips there.

Are you playing with national objectives?  In 2nd edition no bid axis has the advantage because the national objectives are so favorable to Axis.

I think it’s normal for the game to seem skewed to Allies at first because it takes skill to play Axis effectively enough to exploit the advantages.  Like chess, fundamentals and opening moves are key.  If Axis don’t expand rapidly in the first few rounds, then Allies retain their economic advantage throughout the game.

To piggyback on Navymule’s comments:

The Axis must be aggressive early. Move fast, hit hard. Don’t neglect economic warfare - strategic bombing of industrial complexes and convoy raiding should be an important part of your strategy. Every IPC spent on rebuilding factories or lost to convoy disruptions is an IPC they can’t spend against you. Simply put, if you can’t capture it, convoy it or bomb it.

Speaking of economics…The European Axis need to get into the Middle East as soon as possible. Iraq, Persia and NW Persia are only worth 4 IPCs to the Allies, but they’re worth 10 to the Axis. Holding those three territories alone doubles Italy’s starting income, while allowing them to threaten both the USSR’s southern flank and India. Likewise, Japan needs to secure the Dutch East Indies before focusing on anything else, as those 20 IPCs per turn are necessary to compete against America’s industrial might.

Good luck! --PM

You should check the playbooks for Germany and Japan (I believe both are stickied at the top of this forum) for some standard openers. They are solid, but no opener is flawless. If you start using these openers and playing through them, you’ll probably find that you win more consistently as the Axis than as the Allies (at least at the start, until your Allies play evolves to meet the openers).

Defensive thinking taking priority above offensive thinking is usually the cause of Axis losses. While the first question that needs to be addressed during each power’s build phase is, “Does my capital have sufficient defenses for the threats against it?” the second question should be, “Now that my capital is properly defended by my build and planned actions, what can I do to further my strategic goals?”

I don’t think you discussed whether or not you’re playing with a bid or other equalizer to counter the perceived imbalance towards the Axis?

Marsh

I’m sure numerous folks here, including me, would be willing to play with you via forum and help you look at your Axis play. PM me if interested and we’ll set something up.

Our group started playing AA Global slightly over a year ago and faced a similar learning curve. The first game Japan was just passive only chipping away at China, afraid to provoke US. Our second game was a more aggressive Japan but still to conservative. We simply didn’t have a clue how to play Japan really aggressive…

…until we found this forum and Young Grasshoppers Cliffside Bunker YouTube channel. The openings described in the playbooks already mentioned and visually explained on YouTube really helped speeding up our learning curve. But don’t be fooled by an opening strategy / move. It’s really up to you to live and play them through in consecutive turns. Next game was an all out victory of Japan, but the Allies play became better as well and after a few matches Japan wasn’t winning the game, and Germany neither.

The next struggle we faced was how to be at the doors of Moscow in 5 turns to do a successful Barbarossa. Again these answers were found here and for our group this was mainly achieved by using Italian can openers, but Russia is getting more creative in counter measures so it becomes less of an easy move for Germany.

Our current learning stage (around game #8 - 10) is ensuring US and UK can do a joined landing in Europe quick enough to prevent Germany to win the game while at the same time balance an aggressive Japan before it get’s out of control.

So long story short:

• The information on this forum and the YouTube channels of multiple members is very rich

• Remember that this game is not about opening moves only, but it’s important how the game after turn 1 is played

• As soon as one strategy works it’s often hard to find a new counter for it within the same group

• Try to play a game with a different group to get new experiences and insights, this really boosted our level of game play a few times

Maybe you can elaborate a bit more on how you typically win in your games. What are you as Allies doing vs the Axis and why does it work. That might give us some more input to help you further and give other players the opportunity to learn from you.

I have to admit I thought you were playing the game for 2 years (I misread it somehow)

Hi Cornwallis,

what are the Axis doing?

A pattern in your games could cause the whole Group to act and react to the same pattern in favor of the Allies.

@Cornwallis:

So you bomb London and later in the game Moscow and India.
Do you usually built with germany in order to attack and take Moscow or do you built units to withstand an attack from moscow so you can bypass and take middle east NO’s?

As Germany, I bomb every Soviet IC my bombers will reach. Hit Novgorod and Ukraine on the turn I declare war, then Moscow and Volgograd as I get within bombing range. Don’t let up until the turn you capture them. On the Western Front, I keep 2 bombers busy hitting London every turn.

Rather than Italian can openers, I prefer the Germans initially handle the USSR on their own, while I focus on getting the Italians into the Middle East as fast as possible (An I1 amphibious assault into Syria or Trans-Jordan while advancing on Egypt from Tobruk is key). Once Italy has secured the M.E., they can build a minor IC in Iraq or Persia, assault through the Caucasus and meet the Germans in Volgograd.

For the Germans, I build 1-2 strategic bombers per turn, maintaining a minimum of 5 (2 Western Front/3 Eastern Front) at all times. Beyond that, I build mostly armor and mech infantry until I capture Novgorod and/or Ukraine, then build regular infantry and artillery at those ICs. I find the early armor/mech inf build the fastest way to get ground forces from Germany into Russia, which allows me to rapidly gain territory before the Soviets can build up much of a defense force.

If things are going well for Japan in China, their bombers can reach Moscow, too, from Western China.

So, Cornwallis… If UK does Taranto, consider doing Sealion.  Without those fighters, UK can’t stop you.  G3 your buy is for Russia since they’ll be able to attack.  Your transports can start bringing tanks/art back to Europe and Leningrad immediately, bring more inf to London, if you want.

You don’t need to take India.  At least not for a while.  J1 you reduce their income to 10 (taking Hong Kong and Borneo).  J2 you bomb them.  J3+ you should be trying to get 2-4 subs off their coast(s) to convoy them, and take/keep Malaya so UKPac is down to 7 or less income.  Bomb again if needed.  They’re functionally dead while you focus on the Money Islands and finishing off China.

If you do J1 and the Allies still take two money islands, its almost a gift.  You get to sink their transports they can’t afford to replace on J2 and all they got an extra 4 ipc for it.

From your description of the Allied strategies, Cornwallis, it looks like the weak point in the Allied defense is the land war in Africa. Britain is not attacking Tobruk, not attacking Ethiopia, not buying a turn 1 Egypt factory, not buying any ships or mechs for South Africa turn 1, and attacking Iran (!) on round 1, which will cost a couple of casualties…which means that you now outnumber them in the African theater, at least for the first couple of turns. And it sounds like America is not building enough of an Atlantic fleet to be able to help with Africa anytime soon.

So, if the Taranto raid went relatively well for Italy (it usually should, with no Allied bid), then build the Italian fleet back up and take Egypt.

If you got unlucky, you can still take Egypt, but with air power instead of sea power. Fly the entire Italian air force to Tobruk, march your Ethiopian forces north through Sudan, buy a fighter on Italy’s first turn and a strategic bomber on Italy’s second turn, and beat the stuffing out of Egypt. Keep buying Italian planes, and reinforce them with a Japanese task force of roughly 1 loaded carrier, 1 destroyer, and 1 sub. The combined pressure should force the British fleet out of the Red Sea area and allow your Italian Egyptian factory to crank out enough units to secure the region and start pushing toward Persia and South Africa, even if the Italian fleet is down.