Transport questions

@the_good_captain said in Rules Question/Clarification:

My reading of pages 20 + 26 is that if a country’s capital is in enemy hands, and a friendly power controls another factory owned by this country, the friendly power can use the factory and collect IPCs.

Yes.

I was really hoping that if Italy fell to Russia and Russia fell to Japan, that America or Britain could later use the Italian factory. "

No. You cannot capture a territory from a friendly power, whether or not that power has fallen.

If the USSR controls Italy when Moscow falls, it retains control (and cannot use the IC) until Italy is recaptured by the Axis, after which another Allied power could capture it from the Axis (and use the IC). The same applies to Karelia.

@Comical_Sans:

Thanks for the feedback sjlr1! In terms of tech, are rockets particularly great in europe/africa? For one game I’ve had is that with a German-Russo Stalemate with Italy trying to contest Africa with America, (With an Italian Industrial Complex on Egypt), and both the Soviets and Americans had developed rockets. So they kept on around the clock strategic bombing and rocket strikes on the Industrial Complex in Germany and the Italian Industrial Complex in Egypt, forcing the two Axis powers to constantly repair their factories. On turn 5, three bombers from U.S. all got a six during a strategic bombing on Italy’s Egypt Industrial Complex, completely shattering Italy’s already fragile economy. By turn 7, the around the clock bombing forced Italy to withdraw from Africa completely and Germany, being bogged down by U.S., U.K. and USSR bombings and rockets, were purchasing less and less units. By turn nine, Japan also got kicked out of the Asian mainland, and was stuck with the home isles and an IC in the East Indies. At the same time, Italy only retained the boot as the Russians and a few British mechanized infantry took the Balkans. By Turn nine, Italy had capitulated, with Germany only retaining Germany and Norway. After Germany fell, the Allies won with a total of 15 Victory Cities. The combination of Strategic Bombings and Rockets forced Italy and Germany back when they seemed to have an initial advantage. So are Rockets a tech that the European Powers should aim for?

Rockets are a great tech for the USSR and UK, as the UK can reach either Italy or Germany with its AA in the British mainland, and if the Japanese or italians have built an IC then the one in india can do harm as well. The USSR starts of with 3 AA guns, and all can reach Italy or Germany, which can be devastating. Most of the time, USSR needs most of its money buying infantry and tanks to fight the Germans but can afford a few tech tokens early in the game. It’s a little less useful for the US unless they put their AA guns on a transport and shuffle them somewhere (Okinawa or Iwo Jima against Japan, B United Kingdom against Germany or Italy), which can be a bit tedious. And if the US and UK spam bombers like you said, the Axis will be hurting badly! You could try playing with the Escorts/Interceptors optional official rule if you wish.
Hope this helps

The rules as you state them are correct.  The only way you wouldn’t be able to load and then unload a transport on the same turn is when you load your units on to one of your allies transports then you must wait until the next turn to unload them.  I think if transports worked the way you wanted them to industrial complexes would become very popular in this game.

Thanks for all your imput guys…  totally makes sense.

Yox

Russia gets to reinforce Cauc R1, so softening up Cauc for Italy isn’t a good reason to hit Cauc G1.

If you want Cauc, think about setting up for a Round 2 attack….in that case, it would be Italy and its bbs that would soften up Cauc I1 (unless it had to counter Ukraine), and then Germany goes for it G2.  To do this effectively the G Med transport should survive until G2, where it joins the Italy fleet.

With a bid unit to Egypt, you had better just leave Egypt alone and hit the following:

sz2 use 1 ss, 1 fig, 1 bmb
sz6 use 1 ss, 1 fig (+ 1 ca if you feel like it)
sz12 use 1 ss, 2 fig
take Gibraltar with an infantry from France or Algeria to help Italy get its NO

on Italy 1, you can hit Egypt or Trj, whichever, or both if the UK pulled back to Sudan.  Just make sure to get both of your NO’s so as to get the money flowing.  If the UK pulled out of Egypt so that your Libyian troops can take it, you could even move the fleet to sz13, dropping off 1 inf, 1 arm in Algeria so that on Italy 2 you could take Brazil with the infantry unit if the US is headed to the Pacific, but the armor unit could still go to Egypt on Italy 2.

This should accomplish what you need to accomplish.

Also, you should buy at least 1 air unit on G1 (preferably a bomber), so as to keep the pressure up on the UK Atlantic fleet since you should have decimated it.

Oh wow I overlooked that :-o and will definitely remember that from now on.  My group and I never played it correctly then even though it probably would have only mattered like twice.  Usually we had allied units in originally controlled Russian territory then it was obvious.  Thanks for the heads up.

With my friends, we play with Dardanelles closed and I gotta say that this limit Italy alot and gives Russia the opportunity to counter attack without fearing the Italian troops. Yes, the Italians can still clear a path, but it’s much harder with their ground troops (Italy have little tanks, and little infantry)

With Dardanelles closed, the Allies certainly see their chance of winning increase.

That said, with or without the Dardanelles closed, I believe this game to be fair for both side. I’ll give a slight advantage to the Axis simply because of their strong start.

Right now, we just discovered 42. We feel it is more balanced than 41 (for some reason, and maybe it is really more balanced).
Personally, I’d say this : If you want to balance (if it isn’t) 41, just remove some Japanese transports (I don’t believe in the “add some Chinese units”). 42 shows how Japan is weaker in the first few turns because it lacks transports. Like force them to take 1-2 more turn in order to take the free 8 ipcs in East Indies/Borne or something, or prevent them from sending that many ground forces in their first turn. From there, you will see how it limits Japan’s capabilities.

Robert