German strategy for building AC

@squirecam:

2. A sea purchase usually causes UK to fear 2 things, invasion and merger. I dont think you tried to merge. So the AC by itself wont stop the UK/USA from gathering to destroy you (as you are finding out). If you build an AC you must threaten to do something substantial with it.

I bolded the important part.

Edit:  Just to clarify.

I don’t think a sole AC purchase threatens much of anything.

@DarthMaximus:

@squirecam:

2. A sea purchase usually causes UK to fear 2 things, invasion and merger. I dont think you tried to merge. So the AC by itself wont stop the UK/USA from gathering to destroy you (as you are finding out). If you build an AC you must threaten to do something substantial with it.

I bolded the important part.

Buying an AC alone won’t do that.  At least not IMO.

Depends. Sometimes it will sometimes not.

Squirecam

You need to Merge G2. Merging G4 is way too late.

Squirecam

So what?  Pull out of E. Europe and Balkans with Germany, leave 1 infantry there.  Unify your fleet, force the Allies out of SZ 3, 6, 7, 8 and 12, then push the Russians back.

to Germany, build 10 infs or what you can afford, and push back into EEur with force the following round, gives russia some short time cash but he can´t break Germany alone in any circumstance since it´s easier to defend then to attack and “traditionally” Russia tend to lack offensive punch.

@goldenbearflyer:

newpaintbrush:  But instead of attacking Karelia on G2, you COULD have attacked Archangel on G2

BTW, I generally do not advocate attacking Archangel on G2.  Woops (?)

newpaintbrush:  The trick is threatening Russia on the north and the south.

I wonder if I’m doing something wrong, because the numbers don’t add up for me to threaten both north and south.

And that’s the trick.  It is damn difficult to threaten Russia on north and south.  But I should elaborate on what I wrote.  It’s not really a matter of ATTACKING Russia so much as pulling Russia into Germany’s infantry.  (I think).  By that, I mean - let us say that Germany had a big stack at Ukraine that Russia couldn’t attack (because of lots of German infantry).  Then let us say that if Russia can’t really afford to attack, Russia must then decide between protecting EITHER West Russia or Caucasus (because Russia should not have enough infantry to protect BOTH West Russia AND Caucasus against a big German stack).  So Russia is forced to choose ONE, and Germany takes the OTHER.  And when Germany DOES take the other, then Russia is forced to decide between protecting the territory it’s in, or Russia itself (because regardless of whether Germany controls Caucasus or West Russia, it threatens Russia for the next turn).  So if Russia still cannot attack the German stack, Russia must pull back to Moscow, and Germany controls Europe and west Asia.  Note that I’m not all that great with Axis (at least, judging by my results; I’m not BAD, but I’m not great with em either).

With that said, my AAR for today:  heading into J3 things are so-so for the Axis.  Panzers took all Africa except S.Afr, and Trans-Jordan fell, but Norway was lost, and R holds Ukr, Belo, W.Rus, Kar.  J has not hit its stride yet; just the simple move UK1 destroy J DD in SZ59 makes a significant impact on J’s early game! R3 took Sink back, so J has not made much headway.  IC in Kwang and 3trn in SZ61 should get things rolling soon.  UK has abandoned India, and US has all but abandoned Pacific due to KGF, so J should now expand.

So you have how many transports total for Japan?  I think five is a good minimum.

Back to Germany: once I had a real navy, I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it.  Don’t know if this was a huge mistake or not, but I decided to go for fleet unification.  G2 moved from SZ5 to SZ7; Russia went for block by moving sub to SZ12, preventing G3 unification in SZ13.  G3 moved SZ7 to SZ12, sinking sub wol.  1BB 1trn moved SZ15 to SZ13.  Can the Allies prevent unification?

The Allies shouldn’t be able to stop German fleet unification with just a couple boats/ships, because if they try, German air can just blast those “blockers” away, then Germany’s navy unites during noncombat movement.  However, if the Allies have plenty of air, they could potentially just blow up one of Germany’s little fleets before Germany has the chance to unify.

Well, US has 1BB 1DD 3trn in SZ10, plus 4ftr from ACs in SZ8, so the Kriegsmarine will probably be sunk US3, albeit at a high price for the Americans.  The long-term consequences of that battle remain to be seen…

Build some German fighters, maybe one a turn.  You will see that Germany becomes weakened against the Russians (which is a problem), but IF you kept some German navy intact, the Allies will find it really really difficult to crack either the Baltic or Mediterranean (as soon as they get navy in range, you can suicide the German navy in that area and attack with Luftwaffe, trading your wee navy and perhaps a fighter for the entire combined Allied fleet.

Oh yeah -

Generally, after you see which way the Allies are going, you start buying fighters with the Axis power under attack.

So on G1, you build a carrier and 8 infantry (or whatever), and on J1 you build 3 transports and a tank.  If after US1, there’s a fat Atlantic fleet, on G2, you build 1-2 fighters and infantry plus possibly some other ground units so you can continue to trade with Russia, while Japan gets an industrial complex and more transports, but if there’s a fat Pacific fleet, Germany gets infantry to follow with tanks, while Japan starts builds transport and fighter(s) instead of industrial complex and transports.  And you continue to buy around 1 fighter a turn, until you have this gigantic air force.

Actually, an AC lets the Germans use their AC-based fighters to threaten territories deeper in Russia.  The AC also lets the Germans use their AC based fighters to threaten London.  (But you know, fighters based at Western Europe could threaten London anyways).

What happened, I bet, was this:  The Allies used their combined navy and air force on YOU.  You don’t want that to happen.  You want to use the German navy and air force on THEM.  Barring that, you want to have big enough of an air force so that if the Allies DO commit their navy and air force, they have to commit pretty much all their navy and air force - and here’s the REAL trick - your navy has to be strong enough defensively so that the Allies cannot effectively hit and run after soaking up a few casualties.  That is to say - if the Allies attack with navy and air force “to the death”, leaving Allied navy in the water, you should have enough of a Luftwaffe to destroy the entire rest of the unified Allied fleet with minimal Luftwaffe losses.  If the Allies attack and retreat before the core of their force is destroyed, you should have enough fodder and air power to destroy the Allied fleet again with minimal Luftwaffe losses.

Too bad I can’t run TripleA at work.  Then we could play a game or two.

TripleA is a free program that runs Axis and Allies.  It has a lot of maps; Classic, Revised, BigWorld, Pact of Steel, thingy, other thingy.  It uses an online dice server for multiplayer email games so there isn’t cheating (the dice server emails the results of dice rolls to players).  You can also play live games.  You can also play against the TripleA AI, which is pretty horrible, but still a miracle considering it’s all free.

BTW, the program looks pretty good.

Do a web search for “TripleA”.  I think you have to sign on to the TripleA forums before you download TripleA, but it’s all free.

(There’s also a ladder for TripleA players.  Genghis Khan, who whupped me with Axis (one of few to do so), did NOT buy a G1 carrier in our game.  Lots of decent players on the TripleA ladder.)

Larry Harris Tournament Rules are not yet implemented for TripleA.  TripleA uses Out of the Box rules (and FAQ, I think).  You can preplace bid units too.

I can’t play TripleA now . . . no internet (except at work, yeyz0rz).  I’ve gotta get an internet connection set up at home (I moved Feb 1st, but I still don’t have internet!).
–

BTW, I think there may be solid lines of play without spending IPCs on the G navy.

To expand a bit on what Newpaintbrush said: the AC helps you use the navy ON THEM. Really, the G2 navy linkup in SZ 7 with a bunch of supporting fighters in france forces a cetain set of moves on the allies. If I were you I wouldn’t expect the German fleet to live forever, but just having it makes the UK/US respond defensively for a turn or two. If you get lucky, the Allies will react wrong and you can exploit something. However, the whole point (and I think the key to the Axis game) is to stay on the initiative, forcing the Allies to respond to YOUR moves. Once that table turns and you find yourself mostly in reaction mode to allied moves, your days are numbered. IMHHO.

The AC (or 3 TRN) purchase is one tactic to gain initiative.

Of course, free advice is worth what you pay for it. In recent games, I’m 3-1 with the axis, 0-4 with the allies…  :-(

Oh, by the way, I think the link to tripleA is http://triplea.sourceforge.net/mywiki . This is fantastic software and is now my preferred way of playing A&A.

All this talk about fleet unification…

The job of the Baltic Navy is to screen territory while they live, and to do as much damage as possible to the Brits as they die.
The job of the Med Navy is to get intial income gains in Africa while maintianing a threat against Caucuses for Russia to consider while Germany builds up its land forces.

On land, Germany can outbuild the Allies in Europe (counting TRN loads) for the first 3-5 turns at a minimum (depending on specific Allied moves and losses)
At sea and in the air, Germany is outbuilt by the Allies from UK1 forward.
Play to your STRENGTHS, not your weaknesses.

@ncscswitch:

Play to your STRENGTHS, not your weaknesses.

By building a navy ,we ARE.

Squirecam

For 1 AC to reinforce the Baltic, yes you are.

For the attempted fleet unification, no you are not.