Question 1: is an 8-tank build still worth it if you can’t stack safely in Karelia? I would say no - if you can’t threaten a quick-kill of Russia then better to build infantry and fighters to trade territory. Or maybe inf and a bomber and stack air in WEU to threaten Allied shipping.

Question 2: How do you destroy both British Med fleets and take Egypt, if Axis has no bid? If you have no bid, what do you hit?

Variants that say the player “must spend X money on the theater per turn” or “must take these territories to win” are forced solutions - telling the player they must do something instead of giving them a motivation to do something that parallels history. Also one of the updates in Revised is a change from capital-based victory conditions to VC-based. No city in Revised should be a “must have” to win.

I also really don’t like the “city penalty” idea where you can impose special penalties on your opponents by conquering some VCs. Some of the special penalties (e.g. Honolulu) are more broken than the NAs! Besides, the penalty imposed on your opponent by capturing a city is already there: you’re one step closer to victory, you have superior position, and you get the IPCs. If a city isn’t important enough then make it worth more victory points, give it a better position or make it worth more IPCs.

Without changes to the actual sea zones the best way to make USA and Japan care about the Pacific is to put more IPCs there, put additional VCs or ICs there, make LA a second treasury/capital, etc.

To slow Japanese advance into Russia, a good variant is Japanese units must stop after entering a red territory. This slows the Japanese advance to one territory per turn and shrinks the influence of any Japanese IC buy on the mainland, representing the harsh conditions of Siberia.

Japan hits Russia because Russia is the only IPCs/Capital Japan can seriously threaten. If Japan can’t attack Russia then they’re just useless.

So to make Japan more threatening in the Pacific you can do some combination of the following:

1. Upgrade LA to a second capital.
2. Upgrade LA to a second treasury (USA loses all IPCs to Japan if it falls).
3. Make Hawai’i richer (probably by subtracting from CUSA).
4. Give Japan one free IC that may be placed at the beginning of any J turn on a conquered American (not Chinese) territory.

Conversely the USA needs more incentive to island hop. Right now capturing Japan is possible but by the time it happens the game has already been decided by what’s happening in Europe.

So, to give the USA incentives, I would make Hawai’i an IC.

Hi Jennifer,

We do not play with bids, so the Anglo-Egypt attack is rarely played and Germany often loses Africa early.

I forgot to mention that I move a sacrificial boat up in the North Sea (or sometimes the whole fleet if I’m doing Unbaltic) to stop Brits from doing a suicide attack on Karelia softening my stack up.

Even so, I think the best counter to this strat may be that the Russkies have enough materiel to wipe out Karelia on R2? It depends what they build.

This assumes USSR1 has taken West Russia but did not attempt Ukraine.

I move all available infantry and tanks to Karelia (this includes 1i1t from WEU by TP). That should be 6 tanks 9 infantry.

1 infantry is left in Ukraine. All other available units across Europe are sent to Eastern Europe (7i1a2t). All the air lands there as well after hitting the Gibraltar BB and any exposed targets.

I use the Mediterranean TP usually to ferry troops from Libya to France so I have a total of 4i1a1t there.

Finally, I build 8 tanks in Germany.

Now I have three Army Groups:
      Group 1: Karelia stack and EEU tanks. Can hit ARC or WRU.
      Group 2: EEU infantry/art and GER tanks. Can hit BEL or UKR.
      Group 3: EEU airforce. Can hit ARC, WRU, BEL or UKR.

The important thing is Russia cannot defend 4 territories against these two stacks. On G2 I can conquer the weaker territory with each of these stacks. Because the rear stack can pass through the territory held by the front stack, on G3 I can send 16 German tanks, 6 fighters, 1 bomber, and some infantry to hit either Caucasus or Russia on G3.

How would you counter this opening as USSR/Allies?