Germany bunker/loading-up strategy

@andrewaagamer yeah ok
thanks

Yes i agree. Ive played this game on triple a as the axis vs allies on easy AI, and it took me awhile to subdue usa (the only allied power left). I eventually did, just for the fun of it, (i think around turn47)(probably never going to do that again!) :-D But it took a painstakingly annoying lot of time and build up, even though axis controlled almost everithing. The japanese built a factory in brazil and just kept bombing the us, while germany built up ,took eastern canada, built a factory there, and eventually took Washington. With 63 fighters , 27tanks and 21 infantry, and 12 bombers. Then planes flew to canada, and a german tank took West usa and west canada on next turn by blitzing. The one thing i dont like about playing this game against AI,(i dont know about other ones yet, havent tried playing them), i had to built up a HUGE force as germany cuz i wanted to be sure to take usa. Because it seems like to me the computer is trying to “hack” almost every single roll for his favor when he ends up in a predicament :-), and i end up losing battles as the axis that i should have won guaranteed, were it a normal table board game. Having the computer roll for you, and rolling dice yourself is not the same thing :-D

@Hunter:

Ah. So it depends on what the starting situation? So maybe round 1 is too early to choose which way to go or is that just enough time?

If you are deciding between KGF and KJF, you can wait. The exception may be with bidding units, if you specifically bid a sub or 2 to help with sz 37 so you can go KJF or if you get extra Russian units to help go after Germany, etc. There are also “generic” bids you can use that won’t show your focus either. Inf for Egy, any inf for Russia, dd to protect US trns in the Atlantic, etc.

So outside a specific bid for a specific purpose you can wait until after rd 1 to see how the board lays out. You’ll probably have to decide by US 2 though. Russia can be played the same in the early rds and so can UK (say 3 units Ind, 2 ftrs UK for the first 1-3 rds is fairly safe).

There are a few “conservative” openings for the Allies that won’t necessarily commit you to anything.

Russia 1, buy 8 inf, or 4 inf 3 rt. Attack Belo/Wrus.
Fortify heavy in Wrus and begin bringing eastern units to the west to defend against Ger. Send 1 inf to help protect US ftr. in Asia

UK 1, buy 3 units (ind), 2 ftrs (uk) - I’ll assume no Sz 37 attack.
Sink any vulnerable Ger ships and if you can land ftr(s) in Wrus do it, and get bom to Wrus/Rus if it will reach after any attacks.
Attack J dd/trn with ftr/Cru from Ind sz land ftr with US/Rus units in Asia to protect against attack. Send Aus troops East to Atlantic on Trn, Remaining India ships to sail around South Africa. (note: if you did bid a sub for Ind, you can attack J dd/trn wuth sub/ftr instead and save your Cru).
Consolidate troops from Afr and defend Trj (if safe), Per and Ind. If you defend Trj you may be able to trade Egy on UK 2 if you have units to spare.

US 1 can be highly variable but at least you’ve seen how the board plays out. Did J by a factory? more trans? Where are their ships/planes? etc.
It is fairly safe to buy a AC/DD for the Atlantic with 2 ftrs (or substitute in a trn and troops if you’ve already decided to go after Germany).
Pac fleet consolidates in Sz 56 (unless J left a real opening)

You can do a lot of things with the US but you never really show full on KGF. For example if you bought AC, dd, 2 ftrs and place in the Atlantic. They will ultimately be usefully against Japan if you go that route. The ftrs can be in sz 56 on US 2 and the surface ships by US 3. Or if you stay Atlantic it may be possible to be off of Afr on US 2 or 3 by the latest. Which is fairly typical anyway in a KGF game.

Uk is also versatile with the 2 ftrs from UK 1 buy. They can go to Wrus (on way to Ind) or land on an AC for the Atlantic.

The general design is, you’ve made no clear move toward J or G leaving you the ability to see how rd 1 shapes up. The one thing I wouldn’t do is buy a US transport on US 1 (if your intention is to go KJF) and you want to see if you can get Germany to make a purchase that assumes you are going after them. In all likely hood it won’t make a difference but if you get them to heavily defend France for another turn, that eliminates some troops that could have been on the Russian front a round or two earlier.

A final caveat is, if Germany buys any ships for sz 5 or even the Med on G1, you are probably going to have to focus on the Atlantic and Germany. You are not going to want to have a German fleet parked in sz 5 indefinitely or the threat of a united fleet meeting up off the coast of Fra or Afr. You can still do the 3 units Ind 2 ftr Uk buy, but US will have to consider how it wants to take down the G ships. 1 AC, 1 dd, 2 ftrs isn’t bad in that case, but your follow up turns will probably be air heavy with ftrs/boms to ultimately go after those ships. And the time it takes rds 1-3 to get into position is probably enough to for J to get set up in the Pac, meaning it is going to be too late to swing your ships back into the Pac. In this case you’ll want to do the bare minimum to keep J off of Hi/Ala with the bulk of your focus being sink the G ships, get to Afr then Europe. Hopefully you can hold Ind for 4-5 rds and hope your stacks hold in Wrus/Cauc/Per area with US either coming through Fin/Nor/Kar or North Africa. At that point it just depends on how you set up your Atlantic shuck.

I wanted to compile a list so we could see at a glance how frequently and by how much the value of specific territories has been changing. I want to highlight some of the more significant changes that have occurred, based on a comparison with the nearest older world map boards (Revised and AA50).

The following territories or regions have seen changes in their total IPC value, which in my mind demonstrates that IPC values are abstract and should be considered flexible. The territories discussed here reflect the same basic space on the map, but different IPCs values depending on which board you look at.

Game: Territories and IPC value

Revised: Southern Europe 6 ipcs, split into two territories afterwards
AA50: Italy 6 ipcs and Balkans 3 ipcs, (for a regional total of 9 ipcs)
1942.2: Italy 3 ipcs and Southern Europe 2 ipcs, (for a regional total of 5 ipcs)

Revised: Norway 3 ipcs, split into two territories afterwards
AA50: Norway 3 and Finland 2 (for a total of 5 ipcs)
1942.2 Norway 2 and Finland 1 (for a total of 3 ipcs)

Revised: Balkans 3 ipcs, replaced with
AA50: Bulgaria-Romania 2 ipcs, and Czech-Hungary 2 ipcs (for a total of 4 ipcs)
1942.2:  Bulgaria-Romania 2 ipcs (for a total of 2 ipcs)

Revised: Eastern Europe 3 ipcs, split into
AA50: Poland 3, Eastern Poland 1, Baltic States 1 (for a total of 5 ipcs)
1942.2: Poland 2, Baltic states 2 (for a total of 4 ipcs)

Revised: Western Europe 6 ipcs, split into
AA50 and 1942.2: France 6 and NW Europe 2 (for a total of 8 ipcs)

Revised and AA50: Algeria 1 ipc, split into
1942.2: Morocco 1 and Algeria 1 (for a total of 2 ipcs)

Revised: Ukraine 3 ipcs, split into
AA50: Ukraine 2, and Eastern Ukraine 1 (for a total of 3)
1942.2: Ukraine 2 (for a total of 2)

Revised: Moscow 8
AA50: Moscow 6
1942.2: Moscow 8

Revised: W. Russia 2, Belorussia 2 (for a total of 4 ipcs)
AA50: W. Russia N/A replaced by Belorussia 1 (for a total of 1 ipc)
1942.2 W. Russia 2, Belorussia 2 (back to a total of 4 ipcs)

Revised: Archangel 2 and Novosibirsk 2 (for a total of 4 ipcs)
AA50: Archangel 1, Novosibirsk 1, and Urals 1 (for a total of 3 ipcs)
1942.2: Archangel 2, Novosibirsk 1, and Vologda 2 (for a total of 5 ipcs)

Revised: French Indo China 3 ipcs, split into
AA50: French Indo China 2, Burma 2 and Yunnan 1 (for a total of 5)
1942.2: French Indo China 2, Malaya 1, Burma 1 and Yunnan 1 (for a total of 5)

Revised: Kwangtung 3 ipcs
AA50:  Kiangsu 2, Fukien 1, Kwangtung 1 (for a total of 4)
Revised: Kwangtung 2, Kiangsu 2 (for a total of 4)

Revised: Philippines 3
AA50: Philippines 2
1942.2: Philippines back to 3

Revised and AA50: Okinawa 1
1942.2: Okinawa 0

Those are the main ones that jump out at me, there are probably more, and if you look back to Classic there are yet other differences in IPC value. But the point to stress is that there is a degree of variation (especially in the range of 1 ipc plus or minus to a specific region.) To me this indicates that A&A is willing to tolerate a margin of flexibility between 1 and 2 ipcs on several areas of the map board. I would suggest going forward that an additional 1 ipc should be added to area/territories of the map that do not see much action. Clearly you know where I’d like to see them (in the Pacific islands!) At least as far as every other area of the map goes, A&A has already proved itself less rigid and inflexible regarding IPC value than it seems to be with the Pacific. Why? Can anyone explain this to me? I find it odd, since on every board the Pacific vs JTDTM dynamic persists without resolution, even after several editions.

I say stop trying to create new territories out of existing ones, or shuffling numbers around, and instead focus on changing the values of those territories which currently have little to no in game value (IPCs). Give them an additional value of 1 ipc the same way all those other territories mentioned above have seen adjustments at 1 ipc. I find the decision to remove yet more ipcs from the Pacific islands in 1942.2 totally baffling. Clearly the gameplay in previous editions (and yet again in the current one) would have recommended doing the exact opposite, if the goal was to make that region of the board more active. Does anyone else see that?

First off you need a bid. I know this might be discouraging because you will be adding pieces to the Out of Box set up, but without a bid the allies are in very poor shape. I recomend a 9 bid for allies. Look at the bid thread for this edition on what you should do with your bid purchase and place.

The allies can do a lot of different strategies, but the important thing to remember is that you should go all out for that strategy. For instance if you are trying to go KJF, and UK killed Japans AC BB and 2 figs, then don’t spend 50% of US’s money in both theaters. Spend all 100% of your money in the pacific against Japan. The same works the other way when going KGF. The two key important areas for the allies through out the first 3-6 turns will be India and West Russia. Make sure you can hold West Russia as long as possible. What I mean by hold is that you have a giant stack of units that Germany can’t attack and defeat. Holding India really depends on what strategy you are going for. If you are going all out against Japan you should be able to hold India for 4 turns at least, unless Japan made a mistake and spent too much of his income on transports and ground forces. You should pull out of India when

1. Moscow will fall in 3 more German turns. Example would be it is UK turn 4 and on Germany’s turn 7 you see that Moscow has no chance to hold, but with the 10+ units from India reinforcing Moscow the turn before Germany will be able to attack should swing the battle greatly in your favor.

2. India will fall to Japan on Japans next turn. This will likely happen on T4 or T5. An agressive Japan might be able to take it on T3, but that is very unlikely.

3. Lastly, if there is a more favorable place for your fighters to be at the end of your turn, then give up India to Japan.

Get the UK fighters to Moscow to add extra defense. Buy mostly infantry and 1 tank a go. Launch attacks along the front at places where you are even in strength, but where there are no enemy fighters. Use your fighters to inflict losses in the attack

If it looks like you have killed 3 infantry, and he only killed 2, take that as a success and retreat. He will be down one more infantry than you and will have a harder time attacking your territory in the next go. USE RETREAT! Remember he has to reinforce from a greater distance. The more losses he takes at the front, the better, as long as your forces are a little ahead.

That’s how I always beat Germany, getting grunts on the the ground secure karelia acouple turns have to get immediate navy to bring grunts to karelia then u can defend with tons of grunts,  fighters are money " because they defend at 4 …. with Uk, Usa, n Russia all them 4 's add up big time when the big rolls go down …then you have good attack capability don’t waste your tanks…good luck on your 2’s…(rolling defends).