How many ships do purchase as Germany in a typical game?

@jsp4563:

When I buy a carrier for the baltic the main purpose is secure the northern flank & prevent allied landings in E. Europe.  It also has the advantage of keeping any lightly defended allied fleets out of the English Channel & North sea.

But as the calculator points out, putting a carrier in the baltic isn’t going to stop anything.  England has plenty capability of destroying the fleet there with minimal losses and then having America follow up with an invasion force in pacified waters.

But not until T3 if you are plannign a USA follow-up.

Without the AC, the RAF can kill that fleet on UK1.

Well, on turn 2 you can destroy their fleet and have US forces landing in Fin/Nor.  Or you could have your transports go with on T2 and land them in E. Europe, just don’t use them as fodder.

The problem with a turn 2 UK attack on the Baltic fleet is that the UK won’t have enough navy built to prevent heavy casuatlies. And the secondary feature of the Baltic fleet is that if the UK gets within range of it on UK1 in preparation of a UK2 attack is that the UK navy is within range of not only the Baltic navy but also the entire German air force as well so a G2 preemptive strike is likely to occur.

You got it U-505 :-)

Just because I do not “normally” sail that fleet out of the Baltic does not mean that I will pass up a juicy little fleet to sink if it comes calling too close too soon :-)

@ncscswitch:

When I buy a carrier for the baltic the main purpose is secure the northern flank & prevent allied landings in E. Europe. It also has the advantage of keeping any lightly defended allied fleets out of the English Channel & North sea.

And that is usually enough to secure Berlin and Eastern from any attmpted amphibs until at least Turn 4 in most cases.

UK starts landing wherever it pelases in UK 2 if you do not reinforce the Baltic Fleet…

I can certainly attest to that. Or if you take the fleet out of the Baltic too soon. Dumb, Dumb knowed it was dumb but got myself talked into it anyway. Then there were the bad decisions turn two…

If we’re playing with Heavy Bombers and I’mGemany I’ll start off the game with 4 dice going for it.  If I get them I will buy bombers and transports.

With that mix you can destroy the British fleet and harry the Americans into having to drop their troops deep into Africa.  Or they have to spend a lot of cash on working up a defense.  Either way the bombers and transports are dual useful.and at 23 a turn I can still buy inf to keep Russia at bay.by turn 5 I will own most of Africa, will have sunk most of anything in the atlantic and will be holding my borders firm from Russia.

@Grimelark:

If we’re playing with Heavy Bombers and I’mGemany I’ll start off the game with 4 dice going for it.  If I get them I will buy bombers and transports.

With that mix you can destroy the British fleet and harry the Americans into having to drop their troops deep into Africa.  Or they have to spend a lot of cash on working up a defense.  Either way the bombers and transports are dual useful.and at 23 a turn I can still buy inf to keep Russia at bay.by turn 5 I will own most of Africa, will have sunk most of anything in the atlantic and will be holding my borders firm from Russia.

Think that’s why most games forbid technologies. :(

HB’s are also good for counter strikes against Russia.  2 or 3 of them plus a couple infantry will obliterate 6 defending units no problem, and you probably wont loose your bombers in the process….or SBR (12 from Russia; 8 from Brition)

AAR modified the “heavy bomber” problem so they don’t roll 3 dice anymore. Out of the box rules limits them to 2 dice and the LHTR limited them even further to 2 dice and pick the best result of the 2 rolls. Don’t get fooled into thinking heavy bombers are the game changers they were in Classic.

In addition to the non-reinforce and sail out of the Baltic fleet, you need to look at the Med Fleet too Frimmel.  An AC buy for the Med looks good… on paper.

Yes, it secured the Med… for a turn.

After that, US parked a fleet of an AC, FIG, 2 DSTs and TRN’s in SZ12 and blocked you in.  Added a BOM in Africa that would add serious punch to an attack on your fleet if you left it in range of that US fleet.  That left you with just Africa landings or RUssia support as the roll for that Med Fleet, and in either case, the fleet was too far east to shield Southern (run the sim on a Southern attack by USA in US3… 2 INF, 2 ART, 1 FIG, 1 BOM against 6 INF and an AA… 74% Allied win…)

That strat was not my first choice. Ezto was very behind it and I decided I would go along. Not that I made the best decisions on turn two and three. I thought  there was more room for error than there seems to be. I need more practice. I also have some things that work in my limited group of players that aren’t flying here. And a few bad habits I need to let go of. Live and learn eh?

@U-505:

AAR modified the “heavy bomber” problem so they don’t roll 3 dice anymore. Out of the box rules limits them to 2 dice and the LHTR limited them even further to 2 dice and pick the best result of the 2 rolls. Don’t get fooled into thinking heavy bombers are the game changers they were in Classic.

No, they don’t get 3 dice anymore, but in a NORMAL game of AAR, they can still be a game deciding technology.

It is a small shift under LHTR (usign the highest die of 2)

And to be honest, if you are using HB’s for SBR’s, they are NOT worth the investment.

BUT… using them to attack, when supporting land units, they ARE impressive… almost always hit.

In straight from the box rules Heavy Bombers still rule the battlefield. The only time I rolled for them and got to use them I hit with four of every six dice to hit the table over four rounds in a final assault on Germany. The LHTR puts 'em more in line. But there are few times when 3 bombers become 6 for less than 45 (I pumped 40 into the tech roll) and you get to use them right now when the playing field doesn’t change.

If you are going to play with Tech, and do not want the game to come down to pure luck, use LHTR with Tech.

I like the LHTR rules much better. I also like no tech better. Just end the chance that that stack of FTRs in WEU is going to be able to sink your “safe” TRNs in SZ2.

At least with tech in LHTR, you would still ahve 1 turn to reinforce or move those TRNs before the LRA would come into effect, since the tech is active at the END of a turn, instead of immediate…

@ncscswitch:

At least with tech in LHTR, you would still ahve 1 turn to reinforce or move those TRNs before the LRA would come into effect, since the tech is active at the END of a turn, instead of immediate…

Which is MUCH better.  After all, you spent that round researching it.  You didn’t wake up one morning and say “Eureka!”  Right?  You don’t get your purchased units at the start of the turn, why get your tech then?

I wonder if people would roll techs if we allowed it in Tournaments. I probably wouldn’t (especially with heavy bombers being extremely crappy with LHTR), but I wonder if some people would. Germany could get some great use out of rockets, and the Americans could roll for super subs the turn before a large naval attack to provide an extra 10+ attack points on their stack of subs. And Russia could get combined bombardment to shell out Southern Europe!!  :-D

Forget Rockets with Germany….get 'em for Japan! snickers  :-D