Season 2 Rant

Hello!

I have yet to see Russia stand a chance against Germany without UK and/or USA support. Even with some support, it is not always a guarantee to save Russia from collapse. Typically moving German units into Karelia, trading on W Russia (usually just 1-2 infantry per turn, backed by fighters) seems to be a winning strategy. Mostly infantry purchases with about 2:1 ratio of infantry to artillery, plus an occasional tank or fighter seems to be the best strategy in my opinion.

At the same time, Japan typically wants to “deadline” Burma by keeping a decent stack in Yunnan, and also deadzone the Siberian region unless Russia makes a huge mistake such as pulling all units out of Siberia, stacking the coastline with units, or never reinforces. Last thing Japan wants to do is move the bulk of their army into and through China, and eventually stack Kazahk.

From that point, a decision might have to be made. You can choose which nation will get Moscow, which might mean the other nation has to perform some type of suicide attack on Moscow, or strafe. Just depends on the numbers at that point.

There is also a discord and we discuss strategy quite in depth. Check it out: https://discord.gg/45Cxbcg

@Brian-Cannon I disagree, Axis have clear advantage and if you look at the numbers of good players they support that. Good players win at about 70-75% as axis and 55% as allies. I personally have won ~ 10 straight as axis and I am by no means a perfect player - I’ve made plenty of mistakes.

@Brian-Cannon interesting to see a discussion on the factory in Alaska. A lot of players think it’s a bad idea. I’m not 100% sure of this but you can certainly avoid buying it. If you are planning to send units to Siberia long-term then they can just walk up from W US or you can invest in a few more transports and ship them over. I haven’t tried this strategy myself yet in a game against a skilled player but I’m starting to think it may be more viable than the usual USA camp-out at the Solomons. You give up threatening the money islands but are pressuring Manchuria. And if you go south the Japanese at SZ 61 can do a stand-off with Allied forces in India and the Solomons, but if they send anything to attack in the north these units will be out of position to respond to India for 2 turns. This should help the British a lot, especially if they kept any of their starting fleet alive hiding out near Australia. The going north plan also gives immediate relief to Russia and stops the annoyance of Japanese raids on Alaska and Canada.

Focus on things you can control like your purchases, unit movement, and choice of battles. Germany should buy almost all infantry and maybe a couple art for the first 10-15 rounds. Prioritize shifting units to karelia. Germany has a very strong round 3 stack of karelia if you up 10 inf in Germany round 1. Avoid losing a stack of units. It is totally fine to give income to allies. Many intermediate players spread their units over many territories that get picked off. Focus on 2, maybe 3 stacks of units leaving nearly all others empty or with 1 inf (I prefer empty)

Luck is definitely a factor. I am currently 20 wins and zero losses this season, so skill is the major factor in the outcome

@Boston_NWO Agreed. But skill is not just strategy it’s also skill using the software. I’ve lost 3 games in part to bad dice but more importantly some move that I messed up and didn’t see until too late. For instance, I moved a sub and transport (instead of a cruiser) into SZ 10. :face_palm: I try to be careful but I keep messing up like this. The games where I’m doing well, are either mistake free or the mistakes were minor.

In real life, this doesn’t happen as often for me. You can change your combat moves until the dice start rolling. You can change your NCM after you set down one unit, I’ve never faced an opponent, even in a tournament, that cared whether you did a forgotten NCM after you produced a unit.

But, still having fun playing 1942 Online!

@djensen I agree, familiarizing with the interface takes experience but that seems inherent to any game physical or virtual. The lack of undo is IMO the largest difference currently compared to the physical board. I have spoken to the devs and it is mainly that the current game architecture doesn’t store much historical game state information. This is necessary for an undo.

I know its an online game with “Online” in the name, but I still think not having really any focus on the single player experience is a bit of a missed opportunity. Its the lowest barrier to entry, low-pressure first introduction, that A&A really needs from a product like this. like at least as much as it needs solid online matchmaking. I know I probably played a hundred solitaires or games against goofy computer opponents with the old Hasbro CD before I ever put up an even remotely decent game in a head-to-head match.

Axis and Allies is a kinda wonky game to learn how to play, and one that would be well served by a robust computer tutorial. Even a middling computer opponent would be great to have for learning the basic mechanics of A&A, to say nothing of learning the UI. I think this one is serviceable for people who already know what they’re doing, and just want an official way to play, but I worry its not the most spectacular thing ever if what you’re using it for is just getting your head around the nuts and bolts. Or if the way you’re trying to learn how to play A&A is by running through the tutorial and then playing against the computer, before into a pvp match lol. The Hasbro CD attempt even with the limits of mid 90s gameplay still managed to find ways to engage the Single Player, with like AI generals, splashy stats/graphs/newsflashes stuff of that sort, and a lot of game mode options to mess about with.

This one really does need an editor though or at least a time machine.
Would be cool if there were more built-in communication features too and a way to share histories and gamesaves and such.

I wish I had more time to play lately. I missed the second season entirely. Might check it out again in the third. Things tend to open up for me in the Fall for A&A time sinks heheh. Hope all’s been well!