Russia Restricted and Russia-Japanese Non-Aggression Pact. Opinions?

you also have to consider the fact that Germany usually keeps all five fighters with RR vs losing 2-3 without RR

You should probably start playing with bids to help out the axis.  You seem like a pretty good player who is ready to move on.

Quite frankly it doesn’t matter what Russia does on R1 (straight up) the Allies are going to win the game.

For the sake of argument though, I’ll Retake Man (heavy), probably take Chi, and do a variation of Pearl Lite.

The Reason bids should be considered is here is a typical R1 turn

1)  Attack Ger sub with Rus sub (either win or chase off ger sub)
2)  Kill Ger ships in baltic (2 ftrs, 1 trn)
3)  Strafe/take Ukr
4)  Strafe/take Man (or just reinforce yak)

There is just too much damage you can do.  Russia is far to powerful when played right.  Hence the need for RR with a 9-12 bid or just a 21-24 bid game.

I agree that it is foolish to buy anything other than infantry for some time, but I do like to strafe at the begining of the game; it allows me (Russia) to have some control over the front. Not feeling in control is probably one of my worst enemies.

I was wondering the same exact thing. Since Blitz is hard to come by, is AA worth getting. Or anyone know where I can Blitz from?

Key word is the Allied Navy. Now granted that you can pull all available troops in Europe and hit Karelia with a super stack, you still have a good chance of winning even against 18 inf, 3 ARM, 2 ftrs. However, there’s no way that the surviving force can poke through Russia on G2, especially if the Russians have reinforced entirely with inf. This is where the Allied Navy comes in, when you busy building ARM for an invasion force and have to wait for supplementary inf to arrive on time, chances are that UK and USA will be hitting you in Western Europe or Worst Yet(!) Germany itself – game over.

Case closed!

i wanted to share a playtest on a new panama canal strategy. with the axis, our first turn purchase for germany was an ac for southern eur (a radical departure from our group’s normally infantry-intensive games). japan took the canal on turn two, and it was promptly taken back by the u.s., of course. on germany’s third turn, it was able to sail a bship, ac w/2 f, and a tr w/2 inf into panama and free it for japan’s move. as good as it felt to get the japs over there, however, the game was effectively over by mid-turn three. japan was slowed from taking much asian land – because of needing a fighter and transport with the fleet, not to mention that the u.s. bship was free to roam the pacific and sink other japanese transports – and germany was crippled from attacks by u.k and russia – because of purchasing the carrier and missing out on heavy first round infantry. thank you for your suggestions on alternative moves for the fleet. i’m now prepared to admit that japanese simply can’t get to the atlantic early in the game without too much sacrifice…

The difference though is that Germany committing additional ground units to CAU means those units die R2.  Japan committing additional ground units to secure SFE does nothing for Russia other than pull them off China - Russia can’t really counterattack them because SFE is a Japan deadzone with their fighters, transports, and BBs.

It is somewhat micromanagement, we’re only talking about 2 IPCs and 1 inf, but I still think you’re better off just giving Jap SFE.