A&A 1940 Global: Japanese invasion of Russia and Expeditionary Fleet to Europe

@barnee

On a slightly unrelated note:

Do you think it would ever benefit Germany to grant the Baltic Fleet access to the Atlantic or the Northern Fleet to the Baltic? I’m not sure what’s the best move.

@krieghund Thank you very much Krieghund. This makes sense…

I view the essays as para-historical entertainment from someone who contemplates the board waiting to find an opponent.

Welcome to the forum and try the game online. It’s much more interesting than writing and speculating about the game. :wink:

I did it in a league game a couple of seasons back. With a positive results.
The way I did it was close to what shadowhawk describes. But it needs to be a unaware US player that makes some small but crucial mistakes. otherwise it falls short. So if US starts acting the correct way in turn 1 and 2, the axis player must change plans away from the US, otherwise it ends up as taamvan describes. But even then it might be to late for the axis as to many ressources are spent for the german. And this is even more true if you play balance mod. 2.0 with a stronger russia.
best regards
Mrcunego

If Germany wants to make a naval build round 1, usually it will be 1 carrier + 2 transports OR 1 carrier, 1 destroyer and 1 submarine. Either way the total equals 30 IPCs.
The reason for this purchase is it gives Germany a lot of options on future moves.
A - The most obvious is a preparation for Sealion. You will need the loaded carrier plus other warships to protect the stack of transports you put there on round 2. Also, whatever ships Germany has will be used to clear the way for the German landings plus protect the transports if England scrambles, leaving more of your Luftwaffe to join in the London attack.
B - Secondly, you can use them to threaten Sealion even if you don’t plan to actually invade England. This keeps the UK on edge buying defensively which could give Italy some badly needed breathing room in the Med. If Germany can keep UK from putting more units in the Med for even just a couple of rounds, it could be just enough for Italy to get the upper hand.
C - A loaded carrier plus other warships will threaten any Allied fleet and cause the US in particular to invest in more warships to protect it’s transports if they want to stage by Gibraltar and think of approaching Europe.
D - You could use the German navy for an amphibious invasion of Leningrad when you decide to attack Russia. If you can take Leningrad in the same round that you first attack Russia, then you can replace the “Peace With Russia NO” with the “German Occupation of Leningrad NO” and not loose $5 when you attack Russia.
E - Another idea might be to send them into the Med to boost the Italian navy and help them get over the Allies there.

I’m sure there are other good uses that I just can’t think of right now. I guess since Germany buying a navy round 1 does at least threaten Sealion which may prevent England from running the Taranto raid, although I have seen them do it anyway even if Germany threatens Sealion. The point is, if the UK player you are playing with is bound and determined to wipe out the Italian navy, I don’t think your German G1 purchase will matter one way or the other.
That being said, while the naval purchase is most popular for Germany, they are not bound by it. There are many options. 2 bombers + 1 submarine OR 2 bombers + 1 tank are a couple of options. Another possibility is a Major IC to place in Romania in preparation for a major attack on Russia round 2 or 3.

As for the Taranto attack, the UK usually sends the following units:
1 carrier, 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 1 tac bomber from SZ 98 to SZ 97.
2 fighters, 1 bomber from London to SZ 97.
1 fighter from Malta to SZ 96.
1 fighter from Gibraltar to SZ 96.
The 2 fighters in SZ 96 to kill the Italian destroyer and transport. They will land on Malta.
The tac bomber from SZ 98 and strat bomber from London (assuming they survive) will land on Malta.
The 2 fighters from London will land on the carrier assuming they all survive.

The Taranto raid is pretty devastating to Italy but not necessarily game ending. Italy could recover and give UK a pretty good fight. At the very least, Italy is good for keeping the UK mostly occupied while Germany goes all out after Russia.

As for the 18 Russians in the east, there are a number of things you can do with them.
A - Move all 18 to Amur to temp Japan. In this case, they will probably get wiped out as Japan will probably take the bait. It will suck for Russia to lose all those guys and there will be nothing left to stop Japan from taking all those cheap territories. On the plus side, with Japan attacking, it will put Mongolia on Russia’s side and get them 6 more infantry. Also, Japan will be expending a lot of resources in this attack, which could slow it’s progress down south where the real money is for them.
B - Immediately start moving all those guys toward Moscow. With any luck, they will reach Moscow in time to protect the capital from the massive German assault. It does leave all the cheap territories in the east empty for Japan to take without a fight. However, Russia won’t lose more than 6 or 7 IPCs and the Mongolians will still join you.
C - Place some on Amur as a guard against Japanese aggression while holding some back for either a counter attack or to head back to Moscow. There can be any combination involved in this plan.
D - You can go aggressive. Fly your Moscow planes out to join them so those infantry will have a little offensive punch. If Japan withdraws troops from Manchuria and/or Korea and leave one or both weak enough, especially if Japan is very busy taking on India, Australia or maybe the US Navy, Russia could use their Siberian troops to take Korea and Manchuria. Depending on the situation, that could really weaken Japan financially. One thing though, if Russia is the one that first attacks Japan, the Mongolians will remain strict neutrals and will never join with the Soviets (unless an Axis power were to attack them directly).

(Alpha) 3.9 are outdated rules.

Latest ruleset is 1940 2nd. Edition with the addition of a FAQ.

Get the rules and setup from
http://www.axisandallies.org/resources-downloads/

and the FAQ from
http://www.wizards.com/AvalonHill/rules/AAEurope1940_2ndEdition_FAQ.pdf
and
http://www.wizards.com/AvalonHill/rules/AAPacific1940_2nd Edition_FAQ.pdf

@SgtBlitz:

Heh, ok.  I was being 50% sarcastic 50% fooling with ya at the end there, mashing the words together like that, Mr. SupremeGeneralICanKickANewbsAss   :-D.  I think TripleA came out with the Pacific setup a few months ago, but not sure how long it will be until we get a Global mod for it.  Considering how often Larry is changing the ruleset on top of the new Global rules it will probably be a long time before they get a Global working.  TripleA is definitely the way to go, though, savegames for the win.  Hope it comes soon.  We’re using an Alpha +.2 mod to the out of box rules so far.

You know how to use ABattlemap, right?  Some of the more computer savvy people on our forum have programmed a Global game map for it, its useful in that it stacks units and chips together like a real game board, so you can play games on the forum with the internal dice roller (I still say its biased on the crucial battles).  We just type out all our moves like a giant herd of nerds on the forums and let the casaulties fall where they may.  It’s pretty fun and can be nail-biting at times, the way it ought to be.  Let me know if you’re interested in starting a forum game, I’ll help you out.

Thanks for the offer to help Sarjento. Hope to get into an online game soon.

You wouldn’t happen to have some drawing on that you would be willing to share?

What’s the out to out dimensions?
What’s it  standing on? is it a table that sits on anther table or is it a free standing table too?
How deep is the board set down?…etc, etc?

I’m working on some tables for the AA game group I run but we are tossing around the idea of elevating the table with a “lip” under it for trays and stuff rather than too the sides, the idea being this way the board stays as narrow as possible.

any info you would be willing to share would be cool, if you share none, that’s cool too…just seeing it is help enough.  Thanks for sharing the pics, seeing your board is really inspiring!

i don’t have a drawing.  i just laid the gameboard and pieceboxes on a piece of 6x4 board.  then took a pencil and drew their outlines.  i built up from there.

the table has no legs.  its actually sitting on another table.  its more stable that way.

the table looks wide but when you sit along side it, you can see the whole board.  i wanted to make sure i wouldnt have to stand up every time it was my turn.

i’m happy to help anytime i can.  any other questions, feel free to ask or pm me.

can you measues the amo boxes(lxwxh)and the space between the sapcers in the containers

i will, but they are the boxes from the FMG ammo box