Opening w/japan…

@Frontovik:

I TRY allot of KJF’s, but then i again, i TRY.
What i always notice is: no IC in India, and perhaps none in Sinkiang
if you build one, it’ll die, makin KJF much harder than easier
i always see japan with KJF reach 40, i guess this is normal (They go india full power, china, SFE). but then you need to come up with US and pacific fleet and try to stop them
all troops on EUS should go to africa aswell
problem is, germany gets + 50, but perhapd with some SBR from US and UK, and UK landing north…

what’s everybodys opinion?

I just on a very nifty game with the Axis (no bids btw).
And what you describes is what exactly happened.

On J1, I didn’t do Pearl Harbor, luring the Allied player into the pacific. Offcourse, the USA needs to invest a whole lot more in the Pacific if he wants to reign those seas opposed to Japan.
So, while Japan was going 50-50 on land and sea units, taking territories here and there, Germany was having a field day now that the USA was putting 100% of it’s IPC’s into the Pacific.

By turn 6, the initial USA fleet was vapourized, having taken only 1 Japanese island (and Japanese income at +40), Germany was at +50, Britain pretty much locked into London, and Russia stacking INF in their only territory, Moscow.
At that point USA was unable to stop me from invading Brazil with Germany in the next turn, the 2nd USA fleet would be at leats deminished to 50%, and UK was about to lose their last transporters against a strong German BB, stacked AC, some subs and a destroyer.
Japanese transports would have been ready to head for Alaska aswell, but the Allied resigned.

Agreed, there were some lucky rolls, but I think all in all….the USA needs to invest way too much in the Pacific to make much of a difference there, whilst leaving Germany with 1 opponent less.

Correct.  However there is a good debate on whether or not England should leave 1 infantry as a picket in India.  If you leave 1 guy, then Japan has to dedicate 2 infantry and maybe some air power to take India, which means less forces in China.  If you pull the guy Japan can just walk in.

On the other hand, a full retreat might entice Japan to go hard into China leaving only one guy in India and thus allowing England to have two rounds of owning India (one round reclaiming it, one round before Japan can attack it again.)

You’d still want an IC in W. Europe for England so that you can move the British fleet into the Med to pincer the Japanese fleet then.

Anyway, most players will just surrender after Moscow or Berlin falls. (Assuming a normal situation, which is to say, massive Axis armies, pitiful Allied armies or badly positioned Allied armies.  (switch if axis falls not allies.))

@AJ:

What is FIDA?

http://aamc.net/bunker/forumsql/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=68

All AARevised games played in AAMC use FIDA bidding unless the players agree to another bid system prior to the game starting.  FIDA stands for Flames of Europe, IAAPA, DAAK and AAMC, the four clubs that developed the bidding system.  Under FIDA bidding, each player submits a number of IPCs for a bid.  The lower bid plays Axis.  Up to half of the value of those IPCs can be placed on the mapboard prior to the start of the game in new units.  Germany can place units in territories and sea zones that already contain German units.  Japan can place units in territories and sea zones that already contain Japanese units.  Neither Axis player can place units in territories or sea zones where it does not already have units.  The remaining balance of IPCs from the bid can be given to either Germany or Japan or split in whatever manner the Axis player chooses.

Example of a bid:  15, 1 Inf in Ukraine, 1 Rtl in Libya, 6 IPC Germany, 2 IPC Japan.

@Craig:

Krieghund- Your sooooo smooth!!! :-D :-D

Get a room!  :wink:

Seriously, though, Kreighund is gettin it on with those answers.

@Novosibirsk:

Anyways, the Allies can consolidate to the sea zone southwest of UK

Just thinking out of the box, but if they consolidate where you are saying, doesn’t that give the opportunity to consolidate the german fleet on the second turn? Right in front of WE? Isn’t this the goal of every German player to get his fleet together as early as possible to throw it at the Allied fleet. If you can get the fleet together, and attack the allied fleet early enough, it can set the UK back three turns and/or take them right out of the European Campaign. Makes sense. Any US fleet that is over there consists of two trannies and a DD. That would get swallowed up.

This whole post had an underlying meaning that I wanted us to sort of stumble on. If the Allied fleet does not consolidate off the coast of Algeria, then it opens the door for a consolidated German fleet on G2. Almost everytime I have managed to consolidate the fleet, It always gives the allies a hard time in the European waters. Without a European allied fleet, Germany Is free to focus on Russia. So the next question for you all would be, how does Germany deter the allies from blocking Algerian waters? Or better yet, what can Germany do to consolidate it’s fleet as early as possible?

(its) fleet.

Germany can play with an African bid and send its Med fleet west.  Why do you need an African bid?  I’ve explained it before a few times; I ought to put up a website or something with the explanation.

1.  The German battleship and transport must move together.  The transport is an extra hit that has to be taken down, so it protects the battleship.  The battleship obviously escorts the transport.

2.  The transport should be used to take Gibraltar.  If this is not done, the Allies can attack from London with 2 fighters 1 bomber to sink the Med fleet.

3.  You must take Anglo-Egypt.  If you do not, UK can use that fighter to reinforce the UK Pacific fleet, and the ground units to reinforce Africa - alternatively, they can consolidate to Africa, move the Indian fleet into the Mediterranean, retreat the Mediterranean destroyer to the Indian Ocean to make a serious fleet, all sorts of nasty stuff.

4.  If the Med fleet goes west, you MUST have African units.  Assuming Ukraine is taken, all you can attack Anglo-Egypt with will be 1 infantry, 1 tank, 1 fighter, and 1 bomber against 1 infantry, 1 tank, and 1 fighter.  That is horribly risky for the Germans, and there is a good chance that Germany will be forced to choose between keeping a fighter and keeping a tank to take Anglo-Egypt - and that’s the “GOOD” scenario for Germany; the bad scenario is that the attack fails and Germany loses air.  Regardless, UK takes back Anglo-Egypt next turn.  So it’s really not “good” scenario or “bad” scenario depending on luck.  It’s more like “extremely bad” and “total disaster”.  What Germany can do to help is have an extra infantry and artillery or tank that can hit Anglo-Egypt.  Now Germany can take Anglo-Egypt comfortably; even if UK takes back (still likely), Germany will almost certainly not be at risk of losing air.

–

If you consolidate off France with the German fleet, I build up air and light navy to counter.  Now the Germans have to reinforce their navy; if they stay where they are, the Allies pull two attacks; one hit and run, and one killing attack that destroys the German navy.  If the Germans attack the Allied navy, any surviving German navy will be destroyed by Allied air.

So there are five or six choices for Germany; the main ideas are that Germany must reinforce or retreat.

1.  W. Europe IC for instant reinforcement of Germany’s navy.  Allows Germany to mostly empty W. Europe of ground to be used on the eastern front.  However, Germany is racing the UK and the US for navy while fighting off the Russians.  Very difficult.

2.  Germany builds reinforcement in Baltic.  Probably impossible because if the German main fleet is at W. Europe, any Baltic build can be instantly be destroyed by UK and/or US air.

3.  Germany builds reinforcement at Southern Europe.  Impractical because it takes two turns to reach W. Europe.

4.  Germany retreats to Baltic.  Allies set up transport chain from East Canada to Algeria.  (ground units are produced at Eastern US and moved to Eastern Canada next turn.  On the turn after that, US transports pick up the East Canada units and move them to Algeria.  Once this starts going, it keeps going).  Now Germany is faced with hit and runs in Western and Southern Europe.  (Both Western and Southern Europe have to be protected.  If a medium amount of forces are used, that is a LOT less on the eastern front.  If only a few infantry hold the country, the UK and US can take both territories and keep trading with Germany.

5.  Germany retreats to the Mediterranean.  The Germans will probably control Africa for most of the rest of the game, but now the Allies go for the Norway / Archangel / Karelia / Eastern Europe attack.  If Moscow is being pressured, the Allies can transport masses of infantry to Archangel that can reach Moscow on the next turn.  If Moscow is not being immediately pressured, the Allies can take Norway, then start transporting in mass ground units to hold Karelia, Eastern Europe, etc.  The Allies will probably have to pull back to Norway at some point, but a massive force in northern Europe is something that Germany will have to deal with.

Naval consolidation is a good move if you can do it with Germany, but it’s hard to stop the Allied counter.

I vote for tokyo express + bombardment. The sub combo is nice but Germany has very little need for subs because he has to prosecute a land war against Russia as well, so the interdiction would be better if you want to play the economic shutdown with subs, but interdiction doesn’t really combine well with super subs since the subs you’re building aren’t necessarily attacking anything (in fact they’re probably getting hunted by planes).

Tokyo express and bombardment turns destroyers into a hybrid transport/battleship, which I think it very helpful for prosecuting island wars and such. For the price of one battleship you can get 2 bomabrdments with 2 destroyers, and they can carry 1 inf apiece too! That would be great to take back islands or invade US with all those bomardments and you could easily reinforce manchuria and the like.

Bombers are ok but still they’re expensive and you need to build stuff to shield them with as US; all you’re doing with heavy bombers is nearly guaranteeing a hit per bomber and/or getting high IPC damage rolls. Although this possibly could be very strong against germany if you land bombers in UK, getting the max 10 out of his territory every turn.