Allies strategy

@tasos General strategy is:

• Demand to play with National Objectives turned off. Otherwise Axis win basically every game. If your opponent insists on playing with National Objectives turned on then, in addition to the below points, do your best to trade France every turn with US/UK and be sure to snag at least one “originally Japanese” minor island. This gets the western allies a few bonuses they’ll need to keep up with Germany/Japan’s insane income. Also do your best to keep Japan and Italy’s NOs under control (there’s not much you can do about Germany’s, sadly).

• USSR - Buy 1-2 FTR round 1 (so you can trade land territories effectively by sending 1-2 INF + FTRs against enemy territories with 1-2 INF). After that buy all INF/ART (you can occasionally mix in . Fall back towards Belorussia and/or East Ukraine, depending on what direction the Germans are heading. In the early stages of the game, defending against Germany is key, but as time drags on and UK/US get situated (and put Germany on the back food), you’ll need to pivot to fending off Japan, as they’ll reach the territories adjacent to Moscow around turn 4/5.

• UK - Do not build an India Factory. At least not until you can tell with 100% certainty that Japan is not even going to make an attempt of grabbing India. In 99% of games, though, building an India Factory is just giving Japan a free Factory in India, as they simply have too much of an advantage in starting forces to possibly allow you to hold the territory. Instead, build up your fleet in Europe, and bump off the following “to do” tasks:

1. Take Scandinavia (this cuts off 3 IPCs/turn from Germany, which doesn’t seem like a lot but it adds up over time.

2. Build up your fleet to the point where you have 3-4 transports + enough surface vessels to not be threatened by Germany/Italy.

3. Start landing troops wherever Germany doesn’t have a significant presence in Europe (prioritize Karelia or France if possible, otherwise just snipe Northwest Europe, Poland or Baltic States). It’s okay if Germany can kill your guys on the counter-attack, the whole point is to wear them out so they have less guys to fight the Soviets with. If somehow no territory is a safe landing spot, then just build up a stack in Scandinavia and wait for an opportunity to attack Karelia. Getting Karelia under Soviet control is massively important because it denies Germany a factory deep in Soviet Territory (it also disables one of Germany’s 5 IPC objectives if you’re playing with NOs, until the Axis get Caucasus, anyway).

Additionally, depending on how the opening goes with Germany, you may be able to snipe the Italian fleet turn 1. If this opportunity presents itself to you, then go for it. Italy without its fleet is completely powerless, and it will secure Africa for the Allies (Which makes America’s job a lot easier).

As for India/the Pacific, once Japan starts actually threatening India just pull back to Persia and try trading India. You don’t want to be in India itself because then Japan is allowed to bring its massive Air Force to wipe your defenders out. If you pull back to Persia, Japan will only be able to defend with land units (probably just a few INF), which makes your odds for trading the territory back and forth for a few turns a little higher. Trading India for a bit before losing it is ideal because you slow down Japan’s economic growth and force them to focus their attention somewhere other than China/USSR.

• USA - Generally, most players spend almost 100% of their income in the Atlantic and go to such extremes as literally moving the entire US Pacific Fleet out of the Pacific and into the Atlantic to fight Germany. This is a viable strategy but I prefer keeping the Pacific Fleet where it is and doing a ~70:30 or 80:20 split in spending, giving the bulk of the money to the Atlantic side while at least throwing a SS/DD or two into the Pacific every round to slow Japan down and force them to keep buying boats to stay ahead of you. If you’re going to follow this style, round 1 you should buy 1-2 CV to land your initial FTRs on, and spend the rest of your money on TT/land units for the Atlantic. For each side of the board, your general objectives are:

Atlantic - First defeat Italy’s Navy using your air force + navy, then kick the Axis out of Africa completely, then stack Morocco/Algeria with several transports + surface vessels to simultaneously threaten Italy/France. If Germany leaves France undefended or under-defended, do not attack all-out, just send what you need to securely capture the territory and get your free 6 bucks for the turn. You don’t want to lose too many guys at once because the threat of attacking two territories at once from Morocco/Algeria forces the Axis to defend both territories, which puts a greater strain on their resources than if you all-out-attack one territory and they know to just counterattack. Your ultimate goal is to build up so much force in Morocco/Algeria that you can dive on Italy proper and knock them out of the game (which gets you their money + the Factory in Italy. As a bonus, all Germany retaking Italy does is revive Italy, Germany doesn’t even get to take the factory for themselves.). Once Italy goes down it’s just a matter of ferrying guys into Europe to finish off Germany (hopefully, if you’re doing well with USSR/UK, Germany will be in really bad shape overall). In the super-late game, Japan may get Moscow. If they do, you probably lose unless you get Berlin at around the same time. If you get Berlin + Rome and they get Moscow, play the game out. You’ll push Japan back and retake Moscow eventually, giving you the win.

Pacific - If you’re playing in the Pacific at all, stack your fleet in the Solomon Islands Sea Zone. This threatens the “Money Islands” (Borneo, Dutch East Indies, Philippines), which forces Japan to either respond by moving its own fleet into the area, or aggressively posturing itself to attack you, lest they lose their whole navy. If you can get away with it, feel free to sacrifice a loaded transport (unaccompanied) to steal one of the Money Islands for a turn. Yes, Japan will get it back effortlessly, but the turn they waste doing that will delay their eventual capture of India and movement into Africa by a turn or two, giving you more time to defeat Germany/Italy. If it looks like Japan’s fleet + air force is too strong for you (either use a battle calculator if you’re playing online, or just count up their attack power Vs. your defense power if you’re playing face-to-face), then retreat your fleet to either West US or Hawaii SZ (just as long as you’re out-of-range of Japan’s fleet) and build more naval units until you’re ready to try again. Try to avoid losing your fleet in a major battle at all costs (unless you know with ~80% certainty that you’re either going to win the battle or at least knock out most of Japan’s fleet as well). If you lose the US Navy, don’t waste your time trying to rebuild it from scratch. Just spend a turn or two dropping 10 INF batches on West US to ensure that Japan can’t take the territory and start focusing 100% on the Atlantic.

Hope this wall of text helps somewhat. If you’re more of a visual learner @The_Good_Captain has a pretty extensive youtube video series on this game and scenario (you can probably just search his name + “Axis and Allies” to find his channel).

tl;dr to my wall of text:

USSR - buy all land units and try to survive.
UK - focus 100% on Europe. Build a navy then poke at Germany’s weak points. Try to help Russia.

USA - Either 100% focus on Europe or split it ~70:30 in Europe’s favor. Kill Italy first.

@tasos Japan doesn’t have a transport in range of West USA on the first turn in the 41 scenario. If they start moving transports + their entire navy towards you, just buy 10 INF and move all of your starting fighters into West USA. They shouldn’t be able to break that, meaning they’ll need to either withdraw or amass more transports (in which case you can just buy 10 more INF). Japan should never be able to actually take West USA. If your opponent is trying to do that, they’re not expanding in Asia like they need to, and it should be an easy win for the Allies.

@tasos What you said is true, but I think you may be misunderstanding how the Combat Move Phase works.

The transports in SZ51 (Caroline Islands Sea Zone) can’t move through SZ53 (Hawaii) because the US Battleship is a hostile enemy “Surface Vessel” (i.e. anything that isn’t a Submarine/Transport). Even if you send the Carrier Group and its Fighters to attack the Battleship, your transports can’t ignore the presence of the Battleship. They have to stop in SZ53 for the turn, and can’t move again until the following round, which gives USA a turn to buy 10 INF as I stated above.

I mention this because going from SZ51 -> 53 -> 56 is the only way to get from the Caroline Islands to West USA in one turn.

The fact remains that it is not possible for Japan to invade West USA on its first turn. America will always have a turn to buy 10 INF and ward off any attack.

@tasos

You would not be the first person to misunderstand that particular rule. I’ve come across many players that interpret the rules as I think you have. However the correct way to play is

1)Make all of your moves that result in combat before conducting any battles.
2)Resolve battles one at a time
3) Pieces that didn’t move or fight in steps 1 or 2 can now move, but they are limited to moves that will not result in combat.

As soon as the first die is rolled on a battle you are no longer allowed to make any moves that would result in combat of any kind, so while you can kill that US battleship and then move those transports through that sea zone after the battle, the transports can’t unload into hostile territory since that would require a battle and you’ve passed the point in your turn that you can have battles.

The best way to think about it is that your non-combat move is for units you’ve held in reserve to reinforce areas as needed based on how your battles turn out.

@tasos

An allied strategy… I’ll give the best advice from my experience from playing both versions of 41’ and 42’.

(as a quick side note, feel free to play with National Objectives, what many don’t realize is that the Allied national objectives are absolutely broken, Research and Tech is meh you can do whatever)

Let’s begin with Mother Russia.
30 IPC’s to work with. Typically a baseline for building each turn as the Soviets for me goes would be 3 infantry, 2 tanks, and 1 fighter each turn. That accounts to a total of exactly 29 IPC’s, leaving you with one leftover. HOWEVER, for the first round, you only have 1 tank at your disposal. already leaving you down by 5 tanks against the Germans. So for me, a first-round purchase as the Soviets would be to buy 3 tanks, 1 fighter, and 1 artillery. From then forward, you’re going to want to follow a very basic principle: However many tanks the Germans build on their turn, you outmatch that. If they build 1, you build 2. If they build 2 you build 3. etc. Obviously, there are going to be some units that take priority over tanks in certain instances but make those instances rare. All in all, if I gotta be honest, your only way of beating Germany back to Berlin is with tanks. Treat your tanks like you would a child and protect and preserve them until the time is right to use them.

Next, the United Kingdom.
43 IPC’s to start. Again, this will be on of the only times in the game that you have this much money so spend it wisely. The first thing first is to look at India, if Japan isn’t set up to take it then absolutely build a complex on India, as it will be crucial in the later parts of the game. (I typically play with a house rule that Japan isn’t permitted to wipe India T2 as I believe this to be a crucial error on the Devs’ part in making this game). Should Japan not be setup to take India… place a complex there. With 28 IPCs left over I would HIGHLY recommend placing an Aircraft Carrier in the Atlantic, and finish off with either 2 transports or a transport and infantry + Artillery. An aircraft carrier with 2 fighters on it in the Atlantic with atleast 1 destroyer will dissuade the Germans from making any pot shots at your navy.

In the Atlantic, your job as the UK is to first and foremost, destroy the German navy by any means necessary. After you’ve done this, you’re going to liberate Norway and Finland from the Germans. I cannot stress to you how crucial this step is as you’re taking away an entire 5 IPCs from the Germans which adds up to one whole tank. That’s one more tank that they could have used on the Eastern Front, so liberating these 2 territories is providing more help than any sizeable army you could dream of. Next, you will also presumably liberate Leningrad which has been taken by the Germans. This will be crucial in halting the German N.O as well as providing some breathing room for the Soviets to counterattack the Germans in Ukraine.

In the Pacific, assuming you successfully placed a complex on India, your initial task will be to build up a task force in the Indian Ocean, if you can get it to 1 - 2 aircraft carriers and a battleship. This will dissuade the Japanese from fully committing their navy to go and fight you. (I have tried this and yes, it does work.) After you’ve built up a taskforce, you’re going to want to be placing atleast 1 tank down every turn on India, you’re next job will be to take Siam and Indochina and seize that national objective from Japan as well as give yourself one as well. And most importantly, support China. I already hate that China starts with only 4 infantry on the board so it’s up to you to keep them a float as the British.

And finally we have Uncle Sam.
Now, fortunately for you you’re not going to lose that money like the UK will. To start your turn, you’re going to want to build a cruiser and 2 transports to place in the Atlantic ocean. On top of that, you’re going to want to build 3 infantry and a tank to place on Eastern United States. The rest of your spendings you should balance it Pacific 35% and Atlantic 65%. However, once Japan starts building up the High Seas fleet and threatening command in Hawaii as well as India thats when you want to swap it around after you’ve built a chain of transports into the Mediterranean and destroyed the Italian fleet.

In the Atlantic, your goal is to build and obliterate the Italian fleet and Axis troops in Africa and make continuous ongoing naval invasions with the intent to capture and take Rome as well as bomb the hell out of Berlin and Rome and even Paris if there is an IC there. That’s pretty much it. The British can take care of the rest up North.

In the Pacific, since it’s 1941 you’re going to have a long wait before Japan really starts to rumble in the Pacific and prove a challenge to you. It’s highly likely that you’re going to lose your Battleship so spend accordingly to slowly build your fleet back up in the Pacific. One absolutely crucial thing that lot’s of players miss though, is you need to prioritize Aircraft carriers over Battleships. One fully outfitted aircraft carrier with 2 fighters on it is only matched by 2 battleships. Don’t get sucked into this race to get more battleships then Japan as aircraft carriers are where the money is at. Now you’re not just going to sit there with a big navy either. I would recommend having atleast 2 transports in the Pacific to carry 3 infantry and 1 tank or artillery because what you’re going to be doing is good ol’ fashioned island hopping starting in the Solomon Islands, a strategic island that Japan needs for their N.O as well as an island you need for your N.O. From the Solomon Islands you’re going to want to then liberate New Guinea and the Caroline Islands, linking back up with the British fleet in the Indian Ocean and liberating the East Indies and Borneo. After this is done, you’re then going to move North and liberate the Philippines and take Formosa and Okinawa from the Japanese where you will engage their navy with the combined fleet of the American and British ships.

This right here is ultimately how you need to play the Allies. To talk about each individual purchase and move would be an absolute headache and nightmare to discuss but it’s less about the individual moves you make and moreover the consistent tactics that you utilize and the principles that you stick with that will ultimately enable you to beat the Axis powers.

@domanmacgee

Also if you don’t mind me touching on a point you made that caught my eye, it was the first round purchase you spoke of for the USSR. Seeing as you said to buy upwards of 2 fighters for the purposes of counter attacking wouldn’t it be more cost-efficient to buy 4 tanks for the same price that can do the same thing?

@thedesertfox From a purely mathematical standpoint, you’re correct. 4 TANK (or even 4 INF+2 ART) is a better combination than 2 FTR. However, the purpose of buying the air units is because they don’t have to stay in the territory they attack. This is an important point because most of the action on the Eastern Front is going to involve you sending 1-2 INF + 1-2 FTR against Germany territories containing 1-2 INF. In the 41 scenario specifically, the USSR starts with zero air units, so buying them on turn 1 (while you still can reasonably afford to) is a good idea. After Turn 1, you should stick to purely INF/ART (with maybe the occasional TANK if things are going extremely well for you).

@domanmacgee

Alright, that makes sense. Also, just as a side note, a tank that used one space of its movement to engage in combat (assuming it survives the battle) can use this unused piece of movement to move elsewhere to another friendly territory or am I wrong about this assessment?

@thedesertfox said in Allies strategy:

Alright, that makes sense. Also, just as a side note, a tank that used one space of its movement to engage in combat (assuming it survives the battle) can use this unused piece of movement to move elsewhere to another friendly territory or am I wrong about this assessment?

You are incorrect. Once a unit moves in the combat phase it may not move again in the non-combat phase with two exceptions: 1) planes heading for a landing zone after a battle and 2) cargo on a transport that did not load during the combat phase (they were already on the transport when the Turn began). Technically it is the transport that moved during combat and the cargo may debark in the non-combat phase however since the cargo moved from its original spot it appears that it moved in both phases so really only planes may “move” in both phases.

Interesting points by @DoManMacgee and @TheDesertFox. I agree with some of them and disagree with others. Just to confuse things more I will throw in my two cents.

National Objectives: I think, while the game plays differently, with or without NOs both versions are balanced the same. I would want a minimum $6 bid as the Allies with or without NOs. $9 is perfect.

USSR: I disagree with buying fighters ever and armor early on. Infantry, and lots of it, is what saves Moscow. Later, once Germany has exhausted themselves, is time to start buying armor to threaten Japan. While armor is only a bit worse than infantry in this version infantry is still the better defensive buy and early on Russia is on the defense.

India Factory: NEVER build an Indian factory. It cannot be held by a competent and determined Japanese Player. Since there is no factory in the Pacific there would be no ships built in the Pacific.

UK Europe: Clear the German Navy. Take Norway and, if Russia did not take it, Finland. Get a safe fleet with 4 transports into the Baltic and assist Russia in holding Karelia and make limited landings in NW Europe and Poland unless you can hit France than do that.

USA: Ignore the Pacific. Go 100% in the Atlantic. Mission 1, take back Africa. Mission 2, sink the Italian fleet. Mission 3, threaten France and Rome forcing the Axis to defend both heavily.

Easy Peasy

@andrewaagamer

The barebones format of winning the war as the Allies as you stated is pretty much how I go about winning as the Allies in either 41’ or 42’ just with a few noticeable differences.

Since I haven’t touched on the bid yet, just to put it shortly, yes, I think a bid is fine for the Allies, especially in 1941 but this bid can and should be used on the Pacific side for either the UK or China.

As for the USSR, this ultimately comes down to playstyle, but for me, I’ve experienced that tanks are what win you the game, not infantry, and not fighters or bombers. ultimately, while a stack of infantry was a suitable form of defense at first glance, any group of 5 or more German tanks including some fighters and bombers could slice and dice through any number of infantry you have.

You’re pretty much right with both India and Europe for the UK in how you should go about playing that.

As for the United States, I would highly disagree with ignoring the Pacific. When it comes to the 3 objectives you stated that America should strive to achieve, they at most want a suitable navy in the Atlantic, made up of an aircraft carrier, battleship, and 3 transports with some destroyers and a cruiser or two. They won’t have anything special, just enough to kill the Italian fleet. And along with that, some land units, enough to fill up 3 transports, to take into Africa. That right there is not a lot of money spent within the time length of 3 turns especially considering you already start off with some of those pieces I mentioned. Now granted, you will be prioritizing the Atlantic more than you will the Pacific but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continue to strive to beat Japan in the carrier race either.

So assuming the Japanese are going to haul hog for the Pacific islands all the way to the Solomons and Wake Island, it’s going to be up to you as the U.S play to take back each island one at a time to slowly start dissolving the Japanese economy. You’ll ultimately be leaving Japan with that choice of whether to focus on the land or focus on the sea. Granted, it’s easy at first glance to take over China and take over India and take over the Money islands and all that junk as Japan only if the Americans don’t get involved. So they need to get involved.

@andrewaagamer

And yeah, I thought this was the case, I just wanted it to be confirmed that I was wrong or missing something about that. I can definitely understand that for ships since each ship gets a movement of two spaces but I feel like that rule maybe a little too stretched to apply to tanks. I feel like part of what makes tanks so important is their maneuverability and efficiency at getting from one place to another and if their movement stops even with one space left that just feels like a setup for which very few will look highly upon the unit as a whole.