A discussion on Russia's National Advantages

The only thing really wrong with that is that Japan is going to have its way on the mainland pretty easily I think. The 3 infantry and fighter that start in India isn’t exactly that much unless you build a factory in India. Japanese transports in my games tend to be the game enders because they can reinforce the mainland really well from Manchuria. Also, taking out Germany first will be difficult without the help of the United States. What is England doing in the Atlantic?

I do agree that beginners should stick to the London factory.  It does require skill pulling off the india IC.  But It just depends on how you and your allies play the game.  If each of you are gonna do your own thing, the game will certainly be over quicker than usual.  Thats the key…… Teamwork and persistance.  Control the game by limiting the enemy of options.  Do this and you’ll win no matter who you are.

Yes, it is possible to take DC with Japan if you pull Operation Canadian Shield or a variant thereof (like if only Japan invades and Germany does not, or something.)

Yes, it takes a while to do.

Yes, it can be done faster than I did it against a44bigdog (I just did not want to invest in the bombers to SBR DC every round.)

Yes, Russia will most likely still fall before DC (because Russian territories are mostly worthless, Russia’s besieged by two nations simultaneously on two flanks and England’s being chewed alive and cannot support as readily where as America has a few high value territories allowing them to build at least 6 infantry a round even if everything else is gone (C. USA and E. USA))

That said, I still feel that the invasion of Hollywood is more a distraction to keep America out of the war than an effort to capture America.

After you’ve accomplished your primary objective of getting Moscow and the secondary objective of securing Berlin, then you can develop the shield to take out DC, assuming you have not been kicked off the North American continent at that point.

In my humble opinion.

The reason they are rated low, for me, is as follows:

1)  Submarines are expensive
2)  Submarines die to fighters without risk to the fighters
3)  Submarines purchased take 4 full turns to break even (odds?)
4)  The two submarines in SZ 5 die in every game I’ve ever seen.  It’s just a debate over when, not if they die.
5)  Germany has no business buying up lots of submarines.
6)  America is relatively unaffected by U-Boats.  Sure, they have less money, but honestly, -3 IPC from 42 IPC is not that much.

Those are ranked in order of importance to me.

That said, if you get them as a random bonus, it isn’t horrible.  Germany, of course, has no worthless advantages.

@U-505:

I would have to say that you should be careful about advancing heavy Russian forces too far into Europe. Drawing Russian ground units away from Russia is a trap I frequently like to set with Germany. It gets really had to resist trading a bunch of advanced territories with Germany because the prospect of Russia making 30+ IPC’s a turn puts dollar signs in the Russian player’s eyes. With the Axis outnumbering Russia by 5 to 1 with air units, trading a lot of territories and ground units with Russia almost always favors the Axis, even if the unit trade is 1 for 1. No matter how much Russia makes, Japan always outproduces them by up to twice as many units and that point will get hammered home when a large number of Russian forces are aimed at Germany and their reinforcements going west dry up instantly because they are desperately trying to hold back the flood of Japanese units coming at them. Japan has a tendence to look benign one turn and the next turn be all over the map, in force, and Russia can quickly get into trouble by being too aggressive toward Germany. Especially if the eastern defensive structure is poorly maintained.

I completely agree.  I’ve used this “rope-a-dope” tactic a few times.  retreat with germany, attack with japan, and then usually around round 3-4 i counter attack with germany and squeeze russia out and hope that germany conquers russia so i can get the IPC’s.  I say thi cause usually the Allies have taken western Europe with this strategy at some point and I have to retake it.

Fair enough :-)  My wife will probably be happy if I take a week off anyway :-)

Good luck on your current match!

I have to agree with Duke that Germany is the hardest to play :D

@prof_tc:

1: Are you sure the Superfortresses aren’t too strong? Then again, it is historically accurate.

2: what happens as you lose tanks with the Ger. heavy tanks?
I know you tested all these new rules, and I’m sure you made a decision. I assume that the first is a heavy tank, and then every 4th after that.

1. The superfortresses advantage is now counterable for the Axis, but cost a lot to develop Jet Fighters! However to old rule of mine that I have in these revised NAs may be a better choice since now the U.S. needs to develop heavy bombers as well. This variant with one additional die per bomber in a SBR is not really playtested! But compared to the original one, I am sure it wont be worse to the Axis as long as they can counter it with jets! :wink:

Damage caused by heavy superfortresses (Heavy Bombers development and Superfortresses advantage) against an IC protected by jets (Jet Fighter development):
5/63(1/61+1/62+1/63+1/64+1/65+1/66) + 5/61/610 IPCs = 10,1 IPCs

Damage caused by AA fire and intercepting jets (on a 1:1 ratio for fighters and bombers) on bombers in a SBR:
1/615 + 3/615 = 10 IPCs

This means that the German and Japanese player needs to develop Jet Fighters to an average cost of 30 IPCs and have as many fighters protecting each IC as there are U.S. heavy superfortresses within reach for a potential SBR! The allies would just have a slight advantage to the axis if conducting a SBR with heavy superfortresses, it is even less then for a regular bomber that conducts a SBR on an IC only protected by an AA gun!

2. this is from another thread about “Heavy Tanks”:

First cycle of combat:
Put the first 2 tanks on 3 and every third tank on 4. Repeat this until all tanks are on your battleboard. At the end of the combat remove casualties.

Second cycle of combat:
Remove all remaining tanks from battleboard and redeploy them by putting the first 2 on 3 and every third tank on 4. Repeat that until all your remaining tanks are on the battelboard… and so on!