Copy of USA and Japan Reference Cards

Giddy makes some excellent suggestions.  Many of the ideas mentioned have worked out splendidly for me when playing the United States.

It is really impossible to consider the U.S. strategy without considering the Allies strategy.  That is to say the only good U.S. strategy is one that fits within the framework of the overall Allied strategy.

The most commonly successful of these strategies usually includes sacking Berlin before the Axis can sack Moscow (commonly known as KGF or Kill Germany First).  This is probably the easiest path to victory for the Allies and imho should be mastered first before considering execution of the other common path known as Kill Japan First.

If this is the Allies strategy then certainly many of Giddy’s statements apply to a good U.S. Strategy.  The key is to know how & when to play each of these strategies according to how your German opponent is playing.

U.K/U.S. 1-2 punch!  The turn order allows the U.K to attack Germany followed by a U.S. attack on the same turn (and the possibility of a Soviet Union attack at the beginning of the next turn) all before poor Germany can counter-attack or reinforce.  The allies should use this to their advantage as often as possible.  A lost battle for the U.K. just may whittle Germany down enough for the U.S. to knock them out.

Amphibious Assaults (Early & Often) - Your German opponent should show signs of frustration every time you land more troops in the European theater.

*Sea Zone 1 makes an excellent naval staging area.  You have a triple strike option from that sea zone (Norway, Western Europe, or Algeria).  Strike where Germany is weakest or perhaps least expects.  Force Germany to play your game and not play his own.  Any pressure on Germany is relief for Soviet Union.  If Soviet’s don’t have to worry about Germany they can start to stack units and shift them East to prepare for Japan’s march.

I usually prefer to strike Norway on turn 2 (especially if he moved the fighter out on his 1st or 2nd turn).  Germany may be gaining IPC’s in Africa, but I’m taking them back just as fast in Europe.  By turn 3 or 4 Fortress Europe can feel like a tiger cage to Germany and they will retreat their forces out of Africa and condense near the center.

In addition, should fortunes change and Japan is pressing Moscow early it is easy for U.S. &/or U.K. to reinforce Moscow when Norway is held.  This squeezes Germany south and allows the allies free movement over Scandinavia straight to Russia.

*Bring all Fighters to England.  i even vacate my fighters in the Pacific and bring them here so I have 4 without buying any.  They can be used in combination with amphibious assaults or in sea battles.  England acts a bit like it’s own Carrier in this sense.  (I also bring my Bomber for the same purpose).

It is best to keep all Fighters (& particularly Bombers) on the territory of England until you are certain your foothold on the European continent is strong.  Only when you are certain Germany cannot attack & win should you move your precious air units to the European mainland.

*Shift your Pacific navy to the Atlantic.  This is done by many of the best players.  In addition if I play United Kingdom I vacate the Indian Ocean around the Horn of Africa and meet up with the U.S. Pacific fleet (except I use my destroyer to take out Japans transport on turn 1).  I also move the Australian navy East and they join the U.S. Pacific navy at the same time.  In fact I usually take 2 infantry from Australia and use them to harass the African coast which Germany has probably left empty.

I have lost my entire Atlantic navy to German heavy bombers only to have my combined U.K/U.S. navy show up from the Pacific & Indian Oceans combined with new purchases and without missing a step continued the onslaught of Amphibious Assaults on Germany’s Europe.

*Purchase - I like to purchase as many transports as I can & as many infantry that will fit aboard to ship each & every turn.  You begin the game with 2 infantry, 1 artillery, 1 tank & 2 transports so I like to move transports to sea zone 1 & ground units to Easter Canada.  Then I’m poised to strike on turn 2.  My 1st purchase is 3 transports and 6 infantry so on turn 3 I’m landing those.

I keep purchasing the same mostly and keep slamming them into Germany in 1 of 3 places.  Once I’ve established control over a landing zone territory in Europe (meaning I don’t think Germany could or would attack it) then I consider other purchases. This game is a race and Allies must sack Berlin before Moscow falls.

U.K. purchases should be similar so that your placing fat stacks of infantry (supported by artillery & tanks when possible) on the European mainland.

*Sea Zone 5 - at some point (use good judgment on when) you should look to eliminate the German navy on sea zone 5.  You may do this with a combined U.K./U.S. assault on the same turn before Germany can counter or reinforce.  This will open a path to an Amphibious Assault on both Germany & Eastern Europe.  In addition any troops already in a neighboring territory to either of these may join the attack.  This should make Germany VERY nervous.

If the allies have made smart purchases & coordinated their play together either U.K or U.S should be in position to strike and take Germany including Berlin (maybe it will require a same turn combined strike).  Once Berlin has fallen if the allies can keep it for 1 turn then the outcome of the game should become fairly academic at this point.  You can begin sending your combined forces to the Eastern front into Asia and the U.S. can even focus on naval production in the Pacific once again.  It may take 8 or 10 more turns depending on the Allies efficiency, but the Axis will be doomed.

Playing the U.S. is fun for me.  It requires patience as I only make non-combat moves on turn 1, but by turn 4 it’s fun to smile & laugh with the U.K. while the German player studies the board & sweats.

@blitzkrieg:

Hi,

i’m new, and play A&A since december, so i’m not quite good yet and still discovering new options. we started a game yesterday, and i play axis but japan is getting tricky.

it’s J2 now and this is the situation:
i had unfortunate rolls on china so i couldn’t take it but i got rid of the PH fleet pretty easy. (lost the sub)

-UK fleet: BB is together with the US transports and destroyer on the east coast, no UK transports left in the atlantic so no pressure in the next round for germany. the indian fleet is in SZ33.
-the RAF (5 fig, 1bom) wiped out my baltic fleet and is now located at caucasus.
-manchung is taken by 5 rus inf.
-kwangtung IC, 2 fig
-FIC 3 inf, 2 fig, 1 tank
-india 5 uk inf
-china 1 us inf
-sinkiang i us inf, 2 rus inf, 1 rus tank, 1 rus fig.
-japan 4 inf, 2 art, 1 bomb.

i was thinking of taking china with 2 inf and 3-4 fig from FIC.
then take (non combat moves) 2 inf from manilla to kwangtung 2 fig, and my AA and 1 inf to FIC.and locate 4 fig
locate my FIC fleet next to kwangtung, my other fleet in 60.

then drop an AA and 1 tank at japan, trans at 60 and 3 inf in kwangtung
which leaves to:
FIC 2 inf, AA, 1 tank, 4 fig
china 1 or 2 inf
kwangtung 5 inf, 2 fig.

so now my fleets are pretty save, and only my transport next to FIC will probably be destroyed.

there’s 1 us fig at persia and 1fig/1 bom at alaska. uk can’t reach the fleet but may take FIC with good rolls. but then the raf will be way thinner.

please help me out, is this the best solution?

cheers,

BB

First priority should be to recapture Manchuria, which should be easy with all your air power and BB bombards.  Then China , Sink, India.

You did not mention whether the USA was massing a Pacific fleet.  Assuming not, there’s not alot of pressure on Japan, so just try to focus on the best targets where you can take out the most enemy troops with least loss and also balance that against IPC gain per territory.

In this case, you can take out 5 inf with relatively little loss, and the gain is 3 IPC versus 2 in China, so thats your best choice.

@theace47:

[…]
Now to what I was wondering was what is the best way to keep Japan off of Russia’s back and how much is the right amount of british involvement in Asia.  The way I stall Japan usually is by spending about 10 ipcs on navy and airforce to make the Japanese build a navy or have me knocking on their back door.  I also build an IC in India for the British and crank out 3 tanks a turn.
[…]

The bristish player alone has several options to stall the japanese, but it depends from the overall situation before the british move: Have the russians fortified Buryatia with 6 INF? Has Germany attack EGY such heavy that a counterattack is suicidal? Has Germany set pressure by building many trannys, so that the british have to fortify the UK and have no money left for asia?

If EGY can be counterattacked, then maybe two INF from IND with the FIG there goes to EGY, perhaps assisted by the british BMR. In that situation a IC in India is not commendable.
If EGY can not counterattacked, than you have several options with the asian forces:

(1) First turn overall attack: attack SZ 59 tranny with DD; attack Borneo with two INF from India, supported by FIG (FIG can be landed on CV); attack New Guinea with two INF from Australia; attack SZ 45 with sub. Intention here is to give the japanese to much targets for the first turn attack and get some IPC for the first turns.

(2) Gather all british navy in SZ 30, including FIG, including several INF from India or Australia; options are a second turn attack of East Indies with four INF or moving to SZ 28 and unload troops in africa. The fleet can continue to atlantic theatre or stay in the area, combined with IC in SA, which produce INF/ARM for the first turns followed by naval units and counterattack the Japanese Imperial Navy.

(3) attack SZ 45 with sub and FIG and land FIG at US CV in SZ 52; attack SZ 59 with DD and CV; move australian tranny to SZ 42 and into the atlantic; use the indian tranny to bring two INF to africa via SZ 33

(4) British IC in India and US IC in Sianking. Both must be support by russian troops for some turns. You will not hold these ICs for long, but maby buys time for crushing Germany.

(5) Attack SZ 45 with sub. Attack SZ 59 with FIG only and land the FIG at BUR (only if the russian have stock INF there). Bring the BMR to NOV or EVK. If you can afford, bring the two FIG to WCA. Intention is to counterattack after Pearl Harbour and bring pressure to SZ 60/61, so that the japanese player need protection for his newly build trannys (Note also that both the FIG from hawai and the BMR from EUS can attack SZ 60 if there is a landing place in BUR).

The next options I have seen or use in games, but I would not recommend these against an experienced player:

(6) Attack FIC with INF from India and FIG, land FIG in CHI. Use navy to attack japanese tranny and sub and give the japanese many targets for the first turn. Perhaps the two FIGs survive the japanese attack.

(7) Build IC in Australia and save money, move all fleet to SZ 30, build FIG/BB there and meet with US fleet as SZ 45. The US player also must buy navy at pacific, game will be a KJF. Perhaps you can get some of the japanese island with the british to get more IPC. Problem here is that UK spend many IPC in pacific (and none in the first two rounds in europe), and Germany becomes a monster. Russia is under heavy pressure, and africa may be a problem too.

You also have the option to go pacific with US to stall the japanese, and handle Germany with UK/Russia only, but these is a complete different approach. You may buy two CV and one FIG or CV/BB, followed by heavy sub and/or trannys and FIG overbuild and start island hopping (have in mind that a rightly placed CV can bring 4 FIG to an attack). One milestone here could an american IC on East Indies, pushing the japanese back to homeland and switch to KGF.

Hope that helps …

You’d still want an IC in W. Europe for England so that you can move the British fleet into the Med to pincer the Japanese fleet then.

Anyway, most players will just surrender after Moscow or Berlin falls. (Assuming a normal situation, which is to say, massive Axis armies, pitiful Allied armies or badly positioned Allied armies.  (switch if axis falls not allies.))

If you want to call me an arrogant bastard, that’s fine, even accurate a fair amount of the time.  But call me an arrogant bastard because I’m an arrogant bastard, don’t misquote me!

i have no desire to call you that, nor was i offended by your post :mrgreen:

i apologise for poor emoticon use  :oops:

Yea, I’ve used an Egyptian one the same way once.  Though, what really kept me from an invasion wasn’t the IC or your silly Submarines, which did nothing but die.  It was lack of strength to follow up the invasion.

In response to the KJF Bluff…

NEVER change strats during a game.  If you are going KJF, STAY KJF.  Otherwise, just go KGF, and STICK WITH IT.

Trying to bluff in the Pacific as the US leaves the Axis with economic dominance, and with USA and UK in NO position to assist a dying Russia.

Yep… I had that argument with Tri in one of our earlier games…  I was using the box rules which implied somethign else, he was using LHTR, which are explicit.