Need help defending as UK until USSR joins

@Gunngrinner

Hi Gungrinner

What a bummer. At least the Germans won’t be able to buy anything next turn either :)

Welcome to the site :)

Playing Allies is… Well, by now we (my buddy and me) have definitly pivoted to “Axis has a serious advantage”.

My current strategy has a fairly large focus on the Middle East and shutting down Japan. Germany needs longer to fully get out of control than Japan.

With UK Europe take Iraq Turn 1, build a factory there, and use it to keep Egypt under your control. Italy needs to be cut down to size fairly quickly, or you are forever fighting a big annoyance there. Turn 2 UK can destroy the ethiopian Italy forces, and afterwards it gets a bit situational. I like to do the Taranto raid (full strike against the sea zone east of Italy), and a strike against the Seazone around Malta in Turn 1 too.

UK pacifics goal is to keep India for as long as possible. The Iraq factory can support counterpressure on India too. You are likely not going to get on the offensive with UK pacific, unless the game is mostly over anyway.

US drops most of their forces (at best all) into the pacific for the first 5-6 rounds. Build up a fleet that can challenge the japanese offensively with the support of some strategic bombers. Defensively you want to sit somewhere with an airbase, which allows fighters to scramble from there. Your goal is to get into a situation in which the Japanese can’t ship forces from Japan towards India, and in which the mainland Japanese factories are threatened. Taking bake the Phillies will likely be impossible, so the Carolines or (if ANZAC has enough money) a forward operating base at DNG or Java is great. Malay or Queensland work out too but are placed worse. Queensland is already a fairly defensive position. ANZAC works in sync with this, and should try to contest the indonesian islands. I have now gone away from using suicide transports, but ANZAC is pretty much the one exception for this.

The chinese goal is… well, survive. Japan will want to push through you, but you can’t let that happen or the SU is in big trouble. Pick your battles, preserve your forces as good as possible and grind down on the japanese ground forces. You get ground forces back faster than they do.

For the SU… well, I like a slightly unconventional approach. Keep all the siberian forces in the east. They are a serious threat to Japan, and need to be dealt with. Attack Korea early (SU 3 likely), and be that constant threat in the north.

Europe is in this case mostly about survival. You want UK to stay defensive in the home islands, take Eire in UK1. Buys there are dependent on what else is happening. If the navy is still alive (unlikely) you can be offensive, otherwise the goal is to keep Gibraltar and defend against Sea Lion as cheaply as possible. Always prefer to buy airforce, compared to INF-stacks there though.

The Soviets need to really really pick their battles. Unless Germany goes hard for Sea Lion, they will get most of the german (and possibly italian) IPC thrown against them. Unless the german airforce is nightmarishly out of position, you want to retreat. You can get into a position to beat the main german stack(s), but this needs to be done carefully. The target is to not lose Stalingrad and the Caucasus (in this case the eco swings very very badly against you). But in general, rather lose a couple of territories, than take a battle that is unfavourable. Early buys should be mobility focused (always keep a small airforce, and always have some MECH/TNK, to take back areas), afterwards you want that mixed INF/ART stack to counter a german attack that went to offensive.

As soon as Japan is “under control”, the US needs to throw their forces towards Europe. Control of 91 is crucial. From then on you got offensive choices. Rome or Norway are the main targets.

But yeah, it is hard as the Allies. We are now close to actually introducing a bid, as the last couple of games have been very axis-advantage (interestingly the first few games were different)

I argued should I for Scotland too which I said no as you have to worry about that being Sea Lion invasion and you can just beat it up from London.

Ah, that makes sense.  I guess I thought the battleships and carriers were unique pieces and not representing multiple ships.

Thanks!

we played a game the other week that you could move your capital when captured (not for victory conditions, just for building and production) to any territory you had an IC on, Major if you had it, or choice of minor otherwise.  While it certainly added a different aspect of allowing you to continue to build, it resulted in nations never being defeated.

@Rorschach:

I’m fairly certain that the tech roll is for the UK as a whole, not the independant sides as the tech is then applied to the entire UK empire.  It’s just unit purchases that are limited to either side of the board.

Correct.

@larrymarx:

@kcdzim:

I’d prefer a solution were russia is required abide the cease fire regardless of war in europe , but allow Japan to break it whenever they please (which still doesn’t cause war with the other axis powers).  Russia just has to make sure it will be costly for Japan, which is precisely what they did with the far east forces.

How about doing this but also allowing Russia to break the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact if Japan chooses to attack early?

The game already favors the allies.  Allowing Russia to preemptively strike isn’t helpful for balance on the Europe side.  However, barring russia from attacking japan first, under any circumstance, probably means Japan won’t bother with russia at all with no need to garrison and will focus on china first, while positioning for the J3 assault which matches far more closely the way AAP40 plays (where russia isn’t available to attack, and won’t attack Japan).

the 18 infantry already is pretty good about giving Japan pause on J1.  J2, it becomes more feasable, but even then Russia can back away and just leave the shorelines open, giving up minimal value.  I just don’t buy that Russia needs more freedom to attack.  While Stalin was of the mind of striking when either axis was vulnerable, the player is NOT the Stalin, and some safeguards like restricted declarations have to be in place so that the game can be balanced.  Otherwise it’s not 1940, it’s 1942.

In my perfect world:

A) Russia cannot attack or enter ORIGINAL UK or US territories ever.  Russia just shouldn’t be in India.  or the UK.  They can take Persia, they can take neutrals, and they can conquer ORIGINAL axis territories to their hearts content.  And even though it’s unlikely, they can help in France.  Frankly, if Russia is in position to take a european french territory, the game is either over, or has gone pearshaped, but this way they can get a token Syria.

B)UK & US units cannot enter ORIGINAL Russian territories ever.  If they do, they are removed (thus cannot defend), a marker takes their place, and Russia has the option to purchase that equiv unit during their purchase phase at half price rounded up (this is lend lease/pilot internment).

C) Russia can attack & control any neutral it pleases at start of game.  No neutral is friendly to Russia - they will all be combat moves, and they will always defend, even if Pro Ally.  Unless strict neutrals are changed to affect regions (unlikely), same rules as OOB for strict neutrals.

D) Russia cannot attack Japan until Berlin falls or Japan declares war on them.  They cannot enter China until at war with Japan (historically, they were still aiding china after the Cease fire in '39, but stopped after the Pact in 41.  However, since the Tigers weren’t in China until 41 (essentially taking over for the russian air group), the single fighter can be abstracted to be considered the Russian air group at the beginning of the game

E) OOB political rules for Italy/Germany.