Strategies for Larry Harris 1942?

Yeah, the Allied strategy is hard to prescribe as the Axis decide the direction the game goes, best way is to just get some games under the belt. I have some sugestions, based on the few games I’ve played, which are hopefully are easy to follow. I’m not very experienced though, so these tips may be sub-optimal.

Russia:
1 Avoid losing units, focus on gradually pulling back and defending Moscow.
2 Build defensively (infantry, maybe mechanised infantry in Leningrad so they can get back to Moscow when needed).
3 Pull infantry back from the far east and try to keep Moscow until they arrive.

US:
1 Put most of your IPCs into the Europe side.
2 Get transports shuttling troops across to Morocco and have enough navy to protect them. Push the Italians out of North Africa.
3 Threaten landings on mainland Europe to force Germany to spend defensively and ease the pressure on Russia.

China:
1 Be careful of leaving units in range of Japan’s air units, and be sure to protect your one fighter.
2 Take out any Japanese land units you reasonably can, they are hard for Japan to replace initially, but focus on staying alive for as long as you can.

UK:
1 Try to deny Italy income. Attack Italy’s African territories where reasonable (e.g. Ethiopia), and stop it from getting objectives.
2 Concentrate whatever navy remains after German and Japanese attacks, try to get control of the Atlantic and Med to help move troops.
3 Keep hold of key territories (e.g. Egypt and India) and if you push out from these be wary of being outflanked by transports and losing them.

ANZAC:
1 Your income is limited, if possible grab an objective or one of the Dutch East Indies to boost it.
2 If Japan comes after you early then defend as long as you can as it keeps their ships and planes out of position.
3 Otherwise annoy them as much as possible, keep grabbing Dutch East Indies islands and forcing them to invest units in takling them back.

France:
1 Stay out of the way and enjoy the ride!

If you are playing a VC game then keep an eye on the VC count, if Moscow falls make sure to hold Egypt, if India falls make sure to hold Sydney and Hawaii.

Very interesting. I’d agree that Japan usually wants at least one factory in China no later than turn 3, even if you’re primarily playing a naval game. It’s rare to see a board where you’d want zero factories, although I believe it is a possibility. You can use up your limited 10 production slots pretty easily when you’re building serious naval units. Even if you’re pulling in 80 IPCs a turn, that can usefully go to something like 1 BB, 1 CV, 1 DD, 1 SS, 2 trans, 2 inf, 1 art, 1 tnk.

The USA sub build is a special case, because subs are optimized for killing your navy, but subs are bad at protecting American transports. If the USA builds more than 3 subs in the first 2 turns, then you do want to build Japanese factories, because, as you say, the subs make it too difficult for Japan to protect its fleet, and the subs also make it easier for Japan to nuke any transports that the USA tries to bring west to take over your factories. The USA is rich, but it can’t afford to build a huge sub stack and a huge carrier stack and a huge stack of loaded transports all in the first few turns, even if it ignores Europe altogether.

Okay thanks for the insight.

1. Barbarossa it is!

2. Most of my opponents, when they play the US, play a almost-all-Pacific game. Why is it better to attack in the first round then the third? And how do you go about it? How do you defeat China? And I always defeat China in round four (with an extra MIC in Kiangsu). Is that still possible?

And with how many Japanese troops do you attack Russia? My opponents retreat all 18 units from the far east to Moscow asap…

Our group has played with India and UK as seperate parts of the Commonwealth (Global 39 has the FEC {Far East Command} and the uk seperate}).  The allies have to work together and nt compete against each other.  The ANZAC player already has to share the DEI with India if either of them are going to have any real income to work with.  India and UK can work together as seperate players.

AS for the thread, build destroyers in Canada to hunt subs to work on your NO (no German Uboats in the Atlantic).  Also, bomg Germany in West Germany, Paris, Normandy…where ever you can hit them.  You may not be able to ivade effectively by yourself but you can harrass the German player enough that he has to pay attention to the Uk as well as smash the Soviets.  Landings in Norway and fortifying it takes away from Germany and opens another route to aid the Soviets.  Securing the Northern flank can help Leningrad or if need be retake it for the Soviets.  Zhukov44 was right.  Don’t lose Cairo.  Trops build in South Africa of tanks and mechs can help hold Cairo and even destroy the North African Italian army.  A IC build in Cairo, once secured will help limmit Italy and secure a route for US troops the attack the soft underside of Europe (usually not that well defended by the axis).  One last thing is hold Gibraltor if possible.  Building and air base there and sending some fighters can make US entry into the med so much easier.  It also  allows allied ships into the med to keep the Italians from their Med naval NO if the British med navy didn’t fare so well.

@Whackamatt:

I don’t know that Germany would be in much of a position to push you back with too much beyond planes.

As an Allied player, I would be happy to get pushed off again in the first or second attempt if it meant the German air force was being reduced.

The Mexican Naval Base still has some value no matter what Japan does.  Because if they see it and decide not to attack in order to screw your plan, this only helps India and ANZAC prepare.

@Bravehart:

How many hours was it when the 5th round was played? Just curious.

Too many something like 5h

UK pac is the answer to EURO axis after a KJF… that’s why people do KJF. Japan shutdown… ok uk pacific you make 22-30 right? ok that is what russia was making before he went down… you go hold egypt down till usa supply train shows up. don’t worry anzac got yo back. japan makes 0 from naval bombard… it can be so sick sometimes.

I don’t like the aa gun buy. also I tend to buy strait inf for uk1, because I sink the hell out of italy. I don’t care if I get sea lioned. Gives usa something to do in the atlantic, because I tend to buy some mech for russia anyway. so the turn london is nabbed i got romania hold and can hit the other adjacent to russia spots.

Which is why I never really minded sea lion so much. russians bank hard. i save persia for them to blitz too, I always do that russian income thing in iraq/persia and if i can get the two italy territories in east africa, I do it too. just 3 mech all i need to start banking. get a bomber to bring down there so 2-3 mech inf 1 bomber kills 1 ethiopia guy or w/e unless uk has it.

As you can see this is a gamble, but it CAN work.

If Russia is spending money on Airbases, subs, and losing aircraft that it is working.

As long as you are matching his Land army builds and pushing towards and objective also.