@Tamer-of-Beasts
With their usual stupidity, the AI spammed the entire German bid in Berlin. This prevented what should’ve been an easy German victory in Paris due to the infantry and artillery unable to reach it (France bought 40 infantry with their bid and placed them in Paris, same with UK Europe). This would cause problems later.
Germany also inexplicably declared war on the Soviets on their first turn despite not attacking anywhere (not even the ships).
The Soviets dumped a lot of their bid in a massive infantry-artillery army in Eastern Poland.
So Germany moved their entire army (in Berlin) into Western Germany while leaving their meagre forces in Eastern Europe helpless against the massive Soviet forces.
On the first turn for the Soviets they smashed Finland, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia Hungary.
The French and British caused chaos in Western Europe, counterattacking and conquering Northern Italy (entire Italian bid was used on Rome), retaking Normandy Bordeaux, and liberating Holland Belgium.
What Germany should’ve done on turn 2 was obvious:
Use their infantry and artillery to shatter the British and French while using their tanks, mechanized infantry, and aircraft to break the Soviet army in Slovakia Hungary.
Instead they did what would probably be the worst move the could be possible in that situation.
Germany moved their entire army into Greater Southern Germany. What?
Berlin had very few defences and the Soviets pushed their entire army into Berlin. The loss of their capital at such a critical time in the game was painful.
Over the next few turns, a ridicolous German insistence on moving their entire army as one unit allowed the Soviets to retake Berlin again and hang around in Eastern Europe (collecting the massive IPC bonuses, of course) for longer than they really should’ve given the weakness of Soviet forces.
Japan was even worse. Japan placed their entire bid in ground units in Tokyo, preventing 90% of the Japanese army from seeing combat until the actual invasion of Japan, when things were long in the Allied favour.
Anyways, a Chinese bid in Anhwe along with the British Pacific bid in Kwangtung retook all of Japanese occupied China by turn 1, with amphibious Japanese incursions not lasting long.
Meanwhile, the Soviets put some of their bid in the Far East, taking Korea on the first turn. While the Japanese retook it, Soviet forces later retook it.
Then, a few turns later, Japan made a decision. I thought after the Greater Southern Germany move the easy AI couldn’t make a worse decision, it did. Japan declared war on the true neutrals and the US (again, Japan didn’t even attempt to attack any US territory or fleet despite Hawaii being more or less wide open).
This had a multitude of effects:
The US came into the war early, allowing it to use a bid-strengthened fleet and army to cause problems in Western Europe.
The US got a ton of extra income and troops from South America.
The US activated Spain and build an extra minor industrial complex.
The UK was able to activate Turkey, establishing a Balkans front. With Britain setting up minor industrial complexes in Egypt and the Middle East (along with the rather easy and quick dusting of Italian forces due to poor Italian play, with operations concluding just as the front was established), this was a big drain on German and Italian forces.
ANZAC also activated Saudi Arabia (using the forces from Egypt), setting up a minor industrial complex and allowing ANZAC to use the resources and excess income provided from the Dutch East Indies to make units that could easily aid into the war, as there wasn’t enough space in the single minor industrial complex in New South Wales. Britain wouldn’t have had enough income to build a minor industrial complex and have it run at full capacity anyway.
Later on, Germany started their invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were barely holding them off as they thundered through Leningrad, Belarus and all of Ukraine. The Soviets still held Romania for an unreasonable amount of time given the force disparities, giving a boost to the Soviet economy.
As for the Western Front, Italy’s bid-improved army was steadily ground down by constant British and American attacks. By turn 2 the Italian fleet was smashed, and Britain had a lot of autonomy, particularly regarding the important movement of transports.
Stupidly, it seemed that Italy treated their capital like any other territory, leaving it deserted, seemingly trying to lure the British into the territory and be destroyed by a counterattack.
But Rome was no ordinary territory, leading Rome to be sacked multiple times. To say this was devastating to Italy was an understatement.
Meanwhile, Germany, tied up against the Soviets and Italy, tied up against British attacks on Rome and American attacks on France, were unable to seriously push against the British lodgement in the Balkans, only counterattacking when the British breached Yugoslavia or any original German territories.
Despite going very far into the Soviet Union, poor Germany play prevented them from seriously breaching the final line of Soviet defences in Bryansk.
Due to the loss of their capital so many times, Italy was unable to replace their eventual losses, despite initial success, expelling the Americans out of Spain and possibly even Portugal (can’t remember).
After Italy ran out of units, the Axis in Western Europe folded quickly. Again leaving a weak Berlin, the city fell soon after Rome did, despite the Germans still having a sizeable army in the Soviet Union, which over the following turns was steadily hunted down and exterminated.
And what was happening in the Pacific? Not much. Japan again stupidly never moved their fleet out of sea zone 6 (barely reinforcing it either), and never tried to attack the Phillipines or the Dutch East Indies.
America leisurely built up their fleet and smashed the Japanese navy. After the fall of Japanese forces on the mainland and the Allied capture of all islands with IPC value, Japan was reduced to having no units, completely blockaded.
After the fall of Germany and Italy, it was just Tokyo left.
Japan’s bid was extremely formidable (something like 60+ infantry, 48 artillery, 50 mechanised infantry, and 29 tanks) though, and a long, exhausting, and tedious buildup from ANZAC, Britain, and the Americans took up the rest of the game. The Western Allies built up transports to move their massive armies (created by their bids), while simautneoulsy moving troops from Europe (using the transports that were already present there) and building up aircraft, particularly long range strategic bombers that could get to bases quickly.
In three succeeding attacks, Japan was utterly annihilated, with the British having the honour of marching through Tokyo.
It still boggles the mind how the Axis, with such a massive advantage, a 940 IPC bid gap in addition to the advantage already given by out of box rules, could still lose so spectacularly in the hands of very weak players.
