What if I dont want to do it larrys way?

Another thing is - if the French and Brits can hold some French territory what then happens when the US enters the war? You might end up with more than you can handle…

Like I said its going to take like 5 rounds or more to get to Moscow. By then the French & English will be power houses on your back door. They will also be able to kick the Italians out of Africa by then. The only problem the allies will have is should I take Rome 1st or Berlin.

@maverick_76:

Actually Russia had the world’s largest army when Germany invaded in 1941. But because of the treaty they were ill prepared for a strike by the Germans and the Russians lost huge quantities of men and machines during the first few months of operation Barbarossa. In fact if Hitler had not swept South to conquer Kiev, moving much of his mobile force away from Moscow, we might have seen Russia get conquered by the Germans! i think to make this accurate, Germany should get a first turn special attack like Japan had in AAP. Russia had huge forces but they were decimated because of the swiftness of the Germans, also on the first chance to invade I think units that move more than one spot should be able to move until they run out of moves, regardless of how many times the unit is in battle. This can simulate the blitz that the Germans put on the Russians which allowed them to conquer an area twice the size of Germany in six weeks if I remember correctly. Basically make the game to where if Germany plays their cards right, Russia can be taken in 2-3 turns, but as I have said in another post, make the game to where more than one allied capital has to be taken for an Axis victory, thus eliminating the tendency for Axis players to focus on Russia from both sides, because once they are done with that, they have a whole other capital to worry about.

Let’s not forget the PURGE!!!  Stalin had a purge of his armed forces in 1937-38, and got rid of most of his competent generals and officers and replaced them with Communist stooges that were very good at shifting blame onto their inferiors  (one of the fatal flaws in World Communism, it tends to reward the most mediocre or those best at playing the political game).  The Finnish invasion’s Winter War in Nov of 1939 demonstrated this folly to the world and showed many deficiencies in the Red Army… which was noted by the Germans as a critical weakness and factored into their invasion plans (Hitler is quoted as saying the Germans would only have to kick in the door and the whole thing would collapse like a house of cards!.. he was proven wrong).

Stalin was also slavishly enamored of Hitler as a fellow dictator, and trusted him until the end, still not believing what was happening when the Germans were invading in June 1941.  All these factors and above are reflected in that the Reds start with a huge DEFENSIVE army in 1940 but no real offensive units and they must be chosen carefully by the player to maximize effectiveness of his forces when the Germans DO finally turn their attention to Russia.

But yeah, if Germany WAS capable of keeping their Siegfried line intact in the West and continue their drive in the East I suppose its plausible; earlier better than never.  Personally, I’m totally mystified by them breaking their treaty with Russia; Stalin was sending Germany TONS of needed resources through the treaty, and they could have thrown their research into jet fighters and naval tech for invading Britain, or just throwing a lot more forces into Africa to kick Britain out of the Middle East.

I guess all of this shows just how crazy Hitler’s schemes were.  Hopefully Larry will have a rule set up so that repeating mistakes of the past isn’t inevitable.

@idk_iam_swiss:

Does that mean that the axis dont stand a chance? Or does that mean they never did? I think if it wasnt for that whole lenningrad thing the germans could have taken russia. But they way you guys make it sound the axis are COMPLETELY surrounded by enemies…

Heheheh, if you look at it from the Axis sides’ perspective, OF COURSE they were surrounded by enemies… BUT in reality most of these “enemies” were self-autonomous powers that were just looking out for their best interests, without giving a damn about the greater global picture and what happened within it.  We take for granted today the U.N. and the our scrutinizing news reporters/human rights advocates/genocide watchers, that did not exist in 1940…  US was pacifist to the bitter end at Dec 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor; looking at the actions of the world countries in the 1930’s-40’s, one could say that Britain and France were more of the world’s traffic cop!  Germany declared war on Russia and the US, which was totally not 100% necessary and the US war declaration was probably what sealed Germany’s fate more than anything!

I believe the quote was: “You have only to kick the door in and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down!” But you are right, that did play a role, but remember, Russia had more planes than all other nations combined and equaled the world’s forces in tanks, but because of bad officers, a surprise attack by Germany, and Stalin going almost catatonic for a week when the invasion happened attributed to the slaughter and capture of millions of Russian prisoners. Again Russia was extremely lucky that Germany did not invade Moscow because Hitler was more concerned about beating armies in the field rather than taking cities. And not to mention one thing Larry should include was the Russian backed Yugoslavia uprising in the Spring of 1941. That stalled Hitler’s plans by six weeks, allowing precious fair weather months to slip away from the Germans. Even though….Hitler’s mistake of not going straight for Moscow was the downfall of the first invasion, the second was because he wanted to stoke his ego by taking Stalingrad like an idiot. These mistakes were paramount to Russia not being taken over by Germany, believe me they were within an ace of capture. I think SgtBlitz is right that we should be allowed to correct these mistakes but set it up as it was so we have lots of decisions to make. And I still think that we need to have it where several allies should have to fall for an Axis victory, like Frnace, UK and Russia. Because in the real thing it was several Hitler blunders that caused Russia to stay in the fight, if we are flawless in our tactics we should be able to conquer Russia and then that would leave the UK and US to win the Europe front. But Larry should make the US a beast in the economy department, we equaled the entire world in steel production at the start of the war and were outproducing it by the end of the war, the US should have an income that should almost equal the Axis all by itself.

"But Larry should make the US a beast in the economy department, we equaled the entire world in steel production at the start of the war and were outproducing it by the end of the war, the US should have an income that should almost equal the Axis all by itself. "

Ahh Yea the good old days when America actually had a manufacturing core. Thanks NAFTA.

@WILD:

"But Larry should make the US a beast in the economy department, we equaled the entire world in steel production at the start of the war and were outproducing it by the end of the war, the US should have an income that should almost equal the Axis all by itself. "

Ahh Yea the good old days when America actually had a manufacturing core. Thanks NAFTA.

LOL, yeah.  Only way Axis to win is if it takes over the rest of the world, THEN USA might start having some problems.

Italy is good for one thing, well make that two. Attacking Africa and the Middle East, and supplying the Atlantic and Mediterranean with ships. They were and should be the breaking point for the Axis in the game. As long as Italy holds out then Germany will be a tough nut to crack, lose Italy and Germany will fall like a house of cards, so long as Russia is still alive.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=15031.0
third post down in the above linked thread has LH’s quote on France-Germany-Russia triangle.

The diplomatic aspect of the Nazi/Soviet relationship will be ignored in part.  Either can attack each other turn one, but what would they be able to bring to bear, that will be the question.  What will be remembered will be the ‘friendly’ relationship in terms of offensive ability on the front.  Both will be setup in defensive positions at best, but nothing too deep.  The vast expanse of Russia will be the a problem, too much ground for Russia to defend early but too much ground for Germany to reinforce quickly.
 The question will be is there enough in France to keep Germany’s attention?  Could Germany split their forces and go both directions right away?  Can they chip away France’s 3 territories over a couple turns, will moving to Moscow.  LH has mentioned about SeaLion, so it will also take UK a couple turns to mobilize to the continent.  US also will be delayed.  How much can be grabbed and as quickly as possible.  Depending on the final numbers of units involved in the setup, both may be possible, or just let the Italians take France and ignore Africa.

Anyone can take France at anytime.

If you think of it this way, Germany took territory that basically was double the size of Germany. And they were still about 100 Km from Moscow when the winter hit. Depending on how many territories Larry wants to put in between, I would say 3-6 territories in a straight shot from Berlin to Moscow. The distance is about 900 miles, so 3-6 seems like a good number, and allows Germany to be at Russia’s capital within 2 to 3 turns.

@maverick_76:

If you think of it this way, Germany took territory that basically was double the size of Germany. And they were still about 100 Km from Moscow when the winter hit. Depending on how many territories Larry wants to put in between, I would say 3-6 territories in a straight shot from Berlin to Moscow. The distance is about 900 miles, so 3-6 seems like a good number, and allows Germany to be at Russia’s capital within 2 to 3 turns.

Wouldn’t it be similar to Axis and Allies Anniversary?

Most likely.

A bigger map may include more territories

Hopefully that is the case, and now that I have looked closer at the photos for AAP40 it does look like there are many more SZ’s and territories. Hopefully that will be the case with AAE40.

I am hoping so too.