First pics from GenCon

Re: Think K[G/J/I]F is over?

As a recent new player to AA50 I would respond to this old post with a nuanced strawman approach (heavily based on my pref for Allies) but useful for Axis. I have wrestled with the math optimization of how to win OOB as Allies no bid in 1942 with NO and tech both on. I have been pondering how much income to send from US in particular to either coast. I’ve read almost all of the posts under AA50 and a few revised. Some say to launch a dedicated SBR campaign against Italy or Ruhr. Others go into a crazy naval build in WUS and do an arms race with IJN. The one post talked about parking an attack fleet with subs and caterpillar from Iwo. Others use the money island gravy train with surprise optionality to attack the Italian boats via the Suez (or repair one of my newb blunders if losing India by a relief invasion from Nimitz).

Particularly for the Allies I have two ways to think about this.

Turn 1 Allies: What IPCs or No’s can I grab cheaply esp with US and UK. What scraps did the Axis leave in the rubble of my fleet on Turn 1? If the cheesy AI skips Pearl I roll into Solomon. No cost of new units. Got one of my NO. If Herr Donitz can’t sink my Brit cruiser or B.B. I am taking you to Casablanca with the Canadians. Play it again Sam, no cost of new units. If Burma or Manchuria is stupidly left open I walk in an Indian or Siberian picket for no cost except deadzoning the poor guy. Free or dirt cheap. if the Japs are steaming for Midway I sneak in with my scrappy little 2 US guys into Borneo. Japs can’t cover everything or even most anything in the PAC and I snipe and nibble and scrape. Anything I can take I snag with Us fleet.
So far I have spent 0 IPCs as US. I call this Kill cheapest first.

Turn 2+: What about when the subs chew apart my EUS DD and TRx2? Or smoke my Brit BB and I have to start building air and fleet from scratch? I use the other part of the strategy of not what to kill first, but when to kill it with US and UK. There is a delicate dance in build order for US against a good Axis. See what they give you and dance carefully. Maybe a sub and bomber campaign off WUS. Or run the torch playbook or just Bomb the tar out of Rome. My personal favorite.

As a newb I read the Essays. Shuck shuck is unfortunately no longer a viable option. I think the equation is now a generalized formula of a combination of pips per ipc, time needed to bring a given unit to a front, covering fleet per unit moved, and other considerations. Don Rae shuck shuck is like a limited form of a generalized cost benefit analysis including things like power projection and timing, and cost for the surface fleet needed to get that one guy from NY across to Eurasia. It’s just not as easy as inf push mechanic.

My Soviet strategy is again about timing with the timer being East Poland. Once I start seeing a given massing of tanks and inf I go turtle in an orderly and planned way, socking in spitfires and p51s in Moscow. Again it is a cool timing to the game that makes it fun. Where I see a lot of these posts go into a spin cycle is that they are looking at a static playbook that missing the point of when to make the important decisions
A. When to build pacific fleet
B. When to sbr
C. When to invade Norway and so on.
D. When to build the Indian IC. Or not at all. Or wait until Turn 3. Yes that once happened where it was best to wait.

HT1… You sonnofabitch!  :-D :-D Been dreaming about this game for a while my friend. Despite the piles of HBG plastic at my house, I have reorganized my AA50 game into the finest that WOTC has to offer! I have taken all the best plastic and paper and put into one box. Thankfully I have piles of HBG plastic at my house so I can play G40 and GW39. See you on the battlefield! No doubt pics and AARs to follow.

what are “the strait rules from G40?”

@Subotai:

To build any German naval units is usually not helpful, and kill UK first will only happen as an AAR sealion project, means it’s only doable against players who have not played the game before  and is learning…

If Germany is doing fine during the first rnds and builds IC in France, and if the Italian navy is not killed before rnd3-4, I can see Germany dropping naval units in the south if the fleet can survive, but a heavy German naval strat is doomed to fail against decent allied players, b/c Russia will be too strong.

That is why I think if you want to advocate something crazy like a Kill UK first, Italy is the country you really have to look at.  Germany has to attempt to sink all the UK navy and probably do a T1 naval build big enough to distract the UK from Italy (subs or a carrier most likley) after that is has to make sure to build 1 air unit a turn to send to the West (hopefully bombers to keep SBRing UK/ keeping US transports at bay), while Japan has to go HEAVY towards the WUSA and if it can spare it India and Australia, to try and keep US out of Africa and hopefully hit some UK IPC’s, also you may have to get that Japanese Carrier to the Med as fast as possible.  Italy then would have to pray it can win enough to secure Africa and build a fleet in time to seriously threaten the UK, probably take Brazil in the process too.  You have to do this and hope somehow someway Germany can still stave off Russia and Japan can make some mainland in roads.  I don’t think it’s a good strat, but it is the best I can think of.

And if you think that is too much of a long shot, the only other thing I can think of is to once again have the Japs threaten the US as much as they can while still hopefully having enough to gain ground in asia.  But instead try to hit with Germany. You still shouldn’t start off with Navel builds.  The Germans have to build air at 1st I think to try and clear the Brits.  Then if you can pull off a double hit with Italy/Germany on the UK.  I think this is a bit more far fetched to an already far fetched strat, but still if you want to try something crazy…

Honestly kill UK first is just way too difficult.  A kill America 1st strat would even be easier I think.  Now if you want to do a cripple UK strat and make them irrelevant, that is much much more feasible.

@Craig:

Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition Game Play/Tournament: (10am & 4pm Thurs/Fri)
This is the first annual Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition game play tournament. All levels of AA players welcome but must have a working knowledge of the Axis & Allies game. Game rules will be reviewed for this casual game play tournament. 2 players per side and game play could last up to 6 hours. 13 VC victory conditions or most VC at the end of the game. Winners advance to SE Semi-finals on Saturday. Please bring a copy of the game. Top teams receive prizes.
Supported by WotC/AH, GM GregSmorey.

I don’t think I could play in this tournament because I would tear my hair out worrying about my pieces to my game.  Not just because it is AA50 but because I get obsessive about my board game pieces.  For every person that is over protective of their games, there are probably the same about who are more willing to share their board games!

Attention Japan!

Attention Japan!

The U.S are going to attack you!

Attention Germany…

Move along there is nothing to see here :mrgreen:

China’s first turn is treated in the same way as any other turn.  It gets the number of infantry indicated by the number of territories it owns at the beginning of its turn.

Jeffdestroyer is correct.  One infantry for every two territories means that odd territories don’t count.

So Italy really wasn’t a large factor? Did they conquer all of Africa? What were their builds?

Italy built 1 trs and 1 CV and then mostly land units, adding 1 DD later on. Africa wasn’t important, Germany sent a tank down there which manoeuvred to avoid 2 UK infs (landings in West Africa were not done but probably would have been a good idea). Italy was a factor in that it distracted from attacking the Germans and I think a balanced approach by the US and the UK is probably more effective, i.e. landing in both Norway and Algeria, having fleets both in North/baltic sea and West Med, SBR against both Germany and Italy, and this necessitates a lot of US involvement.

For such things as India IC, this is a detail which o/c we just have to try and fail to see if it can be held, more than 4-5 rnds?

In this game there was no India IC, India survived because Japan focused on China and Australia. In an other game an IC was built and defended with the help of some Russian troops but the jury is out on if this really is viable if the Japs really go all-out vs. India. I hope there’s more UK ships to start with since that would make defending a built IC so much easier! We’ll see very shortly when we get the UK set-up.