We need an allied playbook.

@taamvan The longer i play this game, the more i’m convinced that the allies have the most chance of winning when they’re not defeated.
Explaination: when allies try to make a push or get diced in an attack at sea or air , they are doomed. When they lose a key city like Egypt, Moscow or India too cheap, they are doomed.
Taranto is a 80 or 90% win for allies but when you get diced things will look grimm. That’s why as Allies you must avoid those kind of battles and force the Axis player to take those risky moves on you.
In that perspective UK should primarily focus on defense of those key locations, especcially in the early game.

@cornwallis

This is how I put it.

#1 Dont rely on luck. You will need luck, but dont rely on it.

Making risky attacks is a losing move. You want your opponent to take those kinds of risks.

#2 Even if the TUV trade goes your way, or your odds in a certain battle look good–the Allies can easily “defeat themselves”.

The allies are tempted to take advantage of seemingly advantageous situations like grabbing a few dollars or defeating a few men or “softening up” the germans when all those things lead to a dissipation of power that favors a stronger team over a weaker one.

The $1 territories don’t really move the ball. Taking small money at the cost of position or units isn’t worth it. Many of the players better than me ignore the small things completely just to get 1-2 more units at the critical time and place.

@taamvan

That is exactly what i mean. First priority is defending. An early and easy victory is very rare and can backfire easily.
That’s why on UK1 i built all in London, except 01 Mec in SA and “occupy” Persia. A factory on UK2 (depending of course on what Ger and Japan do) and slow/fast movers combo from SA. I keep my Indian fighters in India and built all inf with India, trying to buy as much time as i can. The role of UK is not to defeat Axis but delaying the defeat of Moscow/India so US can become large.

@cornwallis

The allies cannot win the short game, even with a bid. They have to play for a long, cadgy game where every unit saved from destruction is a unit that comes back for revenge later down the road.

I don’t like Egypt Factory for this reason–you can’t build that until its safe or its a target for the Italians. And like we just said–if the Italians have 2 TT, Syria TJ and therefore Iraq and Persia are not safe and so you can’t just make your plan “buy factories everywhere” until you see what the opponent does.

@cornwallis

I dont see how Taranto is risky. If you bring in enough units to cover a scramble, Italy is left with a tough choice. Either scramble, in which case the odds are still against them, or dont scramble, in which case Taranto is a piece of cake.

There are many ways to ensure Taranto is a success. Including bringing another fighter or a med sub bid. If Italy scrambles and loses, they are in much worse shape than if they had just lost the fleet.

Axis won’t scramble against Toronto, unless Allies go in weak with like a 70 % battle after scramble. Even then it might not be worth it.

Taranto is costly for another reason, namely that the fleet and air stuck in z97 is toast one way or another. Either Italy can take it out immediately or Germany sweeps in with a crushing air-strike.

Taranto is not a losing move, but it does cripple UK for some time.

Can safely be assumed that Axis will never scramble against Toronto, but might against Taranto. ;)

@trulpen

A 70% win for allies (even after the scramble) isnt weak. It’s a ploy to see if Italy will risk losing its planes in a battle it likely wont win anyways. After you get enough hits on the surface fleet, you can even retreat out.

I suspect most players would not scramble and risk losing their fighters.

I typically do 1 fig, 2 inf in the UK and an MIC for Egypt on UK1. I do not do Taranto usually, so the Scotland fighters (one gets placed with the bid pretty much all the time) wind up in the UK. One fighter usually goes off with the sea zone 109 DD and the strat bomber to kill German subs in sea zone 106, but I’m still left with four fighters in the UK plus the augmented infantry force. The four fighters are enough to dissuade unescorted strat bombing, and Germany usually does not have fighters positioned for escorted strat bombing on G2.

This approach puts Italy in the position of having to spend money to try to save its fleet, which it cannot do for more than a three turns. During this time, it is spending money on fleet and not on European defenses or fast movers to help Germany in Russia.

Once the UK kills the Italian fleet, Italian income sinks rapidly due to convoy disruption. If Italy doesn’t try to keep its fleet alive, it loses income sooner and can’t contribute.

Either way, Italy is very weak.

This secures the Med, allowing the UK to focus on the Middle East starting about turn 4 and shipping fighters to Moscow on turn three. It keeps Italy from helping Germany significantly with defense or offense.

Starting about turn 3, I try to add one infantry per turn on average to the UK to build for the eventual possibility of a late Sea Lion attempt.

@squirecam said in We need an allied playbook.:

A 70% win for allies (even after the scramble) isnt weak. It’s a ploy to see if Italy will risk losing its planes in a battle it likely wont win anyways. After you get enough hits on the surface fleet, you can even retreat out.

Relatively speaking it’s weak and risky. Unnecessarily so. Going from an expected TUV-swing of about 30 to 10-15. And as we all know dice easily fizzle, so you always want substantial over-force if possible to make up for possible bad rolls.

A retreat is a clear failure, since then atleast the tr survives, but likely also the bs.

@trulpen I assume your reply was meant for the post prior to mine.

@marshmallowofwar said in We need an allied playbook.:

@trulpen I assume your reply was meant for the post prior to mine.

Correct. Edited the post to include the quote.

@trulpen

You can send in additional units. Which is why Taranto isnt risky unless you want it to be.

@squirecam My friends and i play OOB, so without the bid. it’s 85% i think but that means in 15% you’ll get diced which is not a whole lot and it should probably be done, but if possible battles like these should be avoided.

@cornwallis

My partner has the same issue in AA50. I think the UK battleship must be taken out G1 but the odds are only 80% or so. Certain round one attacks are unavoidable in my opinion. You just have to live with the consequences or bid a unit to change the odds.

@squirecam Losing a fighter to the BB has less far reaching consequences than losing your UK fleet and thus the Med.
Yes off course going for Taranto can be the best choice, but you have to be prepared for a failure. And in the case of 10% diced battle (loss) the game is practicly over before it even begun.

@cornwallis

A bid sub makes the odds 94%. That’s a very rational attack. Even in the worst case, you wipe out the IT fleet and 2 axis fighters. There are no guarantees in life but that attack has really really good odds.

Bring over 2 fighters from UK and the odds are 99%.

If you lose the fighter and bomber to the UK BB, it’s very painful. If that BB survives on top of that, Germany is probably going to lose.

@crockett36 do you have the links to these strategy videos?

@squirecam @crockett36 @Argothair

Lately we do this:

Asume the lose of the cruiser at Gibraltar and DD and tpt at Canada by subs.

Don´’t scramble G1 unless he really gives you the chance to kill fighters.

Attack the sub at Canada with the DD and Bomber land bomber on iceland.

Kill tpt and DD at tobruk. With fighter from Gibr and TacBomb and cruiser

Tobruk strafe is possible without the tpt (and add the tac bomb).

In NCM take persia.
All fighters from UK go to Africa (territory under Sahara).

Take Persia. With Med Tpt .withdraw all what can to Egypt. Put the DD as blokker under Greece. Evac Czrrier to Red Sea and add fighter/tacBomb from India. Now Egypt is Safe from landings. On UK you can have all your fighters there.
Buy 1 Bomb, fighter and 2 men.

Pacific: buy men and take Java.

US needs to prepare for the London Calling to desuade Ger from Sealion.

@cornwallis Some interesting ideas in there. I appreciate in particular bombing the sub off Quebec and then landing in Iceland; I hadn’t thought of that, and it’s good to return the bomber as far east as you can as quickly as you can.

I think against your proposed opening I would do a Sea Lion most games, regardless of whether the US looked prepared. Once the British fighters land in west Africa, they can’t make it back to defend London, because there is no airbase there. Likewise the fighter from Gibraltar appears committed to the Tobruk strafe and then presumably lands in Egypt, where it can’t reach London. The new bomber in London is not going to contribute much to defense, so the proposed defensive buy for London is really only 3 units, which in my opinion is not enough after you’ve permanently sent all the fighters away to Africa. Also we’re assuming the Canadian transport was sunk, so no reinforcements arrive from Canada.

Egypt is relatively well-defended for now, but if Britain loses the capital or even if just Britain has to spend its UK2 income on max defense for London, then Italy will have a chance to catch up.

Can you say more about the purpose of strafing Tobruk? What are you trying to accomplish there, exactly?