Agains a KGF the key to win is to be aggressive with Japan. UK should not have more then 25 IPC in round 3.

For Japan to go via China is not a good idea. A threat against Caucasus is the counterattack.

Factory in French Indochina, Burma, India. Take Australia with a small fleet and deny US NO in Pacific. Factory on East Indies or Borneo is to far away. With 60 ICP+ Japan should have 5 factories on main land. Ftr to Europe and SBR Russia.

KGF is normally not a good move for allied. Axis has ha 60-65% chance to win. Japan can easily get 80 IPC and quickly take Russia. Logistics with inf from Japan is a bad strategy in almost any situation. You need factories on main land.

French Indochina is the best one to build turn 1. Burma and Manchuria turn 2 and India turn 3 if Japan doesn’t have any resistance from US.

What do do with G and I. Mix of troops (more then 8 ftr/brb is not good. Inf-tanks is important and always produce maximum HP in G) is important with G. Fleet (will normally not be possible) and HP is important with I. If UK is poor due to Japan SBR UK is good. If possible both with G and J ( yes you read right, J and not I).

Anniversary all nations.

In Global, I have problems remembering with Anzac and US ground forces, and J ground forces in Manchuria.

Revised, old Pacific and the old World i do not remember.

I’d think you and your group are not the only ones looking for interesting mid game set ups.

Played 1v1, 1v2 it takes 60-90 minutes / tern.

The problem with writing down a setup is that i takes so long time. A read(5) och grey(2) maker wrong may be a huge problem.

My group have saved one and are talking about saving more interesting ones. Last Friday Russia controlled Finland and traded Norway and Germany hold Leningrad. I wasn’t playing so i only got the stands by a short description.

I can post some setups here if we decide to save some ones.

@Alsch91:

lolwut

Alpha broken, and OoB Pacific balanced?   :?

Pacific/Europe together. Yes it is quite balanced. Not perfect that Anniversary was, were 3 ICP bid was to much for the Allied.

12 Japan ICP with 4 inf or 3 mech inf makes China and all Asia totally unbalanced. Closing Burma route and attacking Russia without even reinforcing.

I have never played only the new version of Pacific. So i can not tell how balanced it is by its own.

Japan can get 50 IPC by taking 5 in Russia, 6-7 in China. Hong Kong(3), Malaysia(3), French Indochina (2) and Philippines (2) and one of the Dutch islands. With there 28 planes i takes US a long time to build a fleet to be strong enough to sail away from Hawaii. Japan can easily build 2 carriers every turn with start of J2. When Japan in J5 have 9 Carriers (36 hp only these) to move around the US fleet have a huge problem. If US builds maximum attack it will take them 5-6 turns all in in the Pacific to threaten that Japanese fleet. This will be a very logical result if Japan have 12 more IPC in the right position at the beginning. Personally I would prefer 3 mech inf in Manchuria reaching all key Japanese territory in J2.

It will be possible to save 12 IPC with Japan the first round and collect 32 IPC to build IC in French Indochina in J2 and build 2 Carriers.

12 IPC at the start is very much.

If Japan gets 8 new HP on in the fleet every turn (2 carriers + existing planes) it takes heavy US IPC reinforcement in the Pacific. 8 (48 IPC ) sub is a minimum to build the same HP and FP, but with only sub the surface fleet is easily sinkable to airplanes.

This is playable even without the 12 extra ICP in the start but becomes a little to week in China and against India.

Original setup. Alpha+ was so broken so we haven’t looked on alpha2+.

Since Alpha+ was so broken we gave up Alpha+ setup and there followers.

Basic setup is the best balanced.

First we balanced it by creating a US bonus on Philippines. Move 1 IPC to Philippines for every Allied win and move back one for every Axis win. Balanced within 7-9 ICP.

Later

We use modified alpha+ bonuses. German extra bonus in France. 5 IPC.
Japan 5 IPC for not declaring war against India/Anzac/US or France Indochina.

We are also discussing changing US entry to turn 4 and Soviet allow to declare war to turn 3.

Easiest way to bid is by bidding on an Philippines bonus. How much out of US 30 ICP bonus being in war should be put to a Philippines island bonus. No extra ICP in the beginning of the game because that destabilizes a complete zone. 12  ICP gives one axis power the possibility to do every thing what they want. Two additional G sub/tr, 2 Japan transports or two Italian subs/tr is way to strong.

Only around 30 inf in Moscow? What are you players doing?

Japan have 24 ftr to land on carriers. Do never build airbases build more carriers.

Be careful with land units on the front. Often better to sacrifice a fighter then to let China/India to do a cheap retaliation on your inf.

If you take the eastern part of Soviet an a major part och China 50 IPC is in close range. My experience tells me 50 ICP is necessary to withstand American see aggression.

If you loos Caroline Island Japan itself will be threatened. Hawaii is almost always possible to block.

If you rush for the Dutch islands US will be able to cut your fleet in half. Therefore an IC is necessary in French Indochina more carriers can be built.

Malaysia is a better place to build a large factory then Kwangtung or any other 3 ICP territory on land.

Make a early SB (turn 3-4) on India if possible.

If you go for Australia your fleet will be split in two. US will go for Japan and the two fleets will be out manuvrerade and the profitable islands will not be Japanese.

Better to have fewer transports and guard them from US, India and Anzac then to wast transports for money one turn. If wasting transports make sure you get ICP for several turns.

Taking India costs to much strength. Better to minimize there money and maybe convoy them to only a couple of ICP.

In the north make sure Soviet are pushed back at least 6 ICP. From there some of your ftr will make sure you can trade some areas to really starve the Soviet and help Germany.

So. What to do about US?

The big question for Japan. To provoke India or Ansaz to attack helps to delay the US.

Some bombers on Caroline helps at the end of J1 helps you to threat Hawaii and other sq. Sidney will be block from attacking in J2.

It is possible to place a large fleet on Hawaii (not declaring war) and threaten LA, threating to to take Hawaii in J2.

If making a bloody attack on US fleet. Make sure to buy new carriers. USA, India, Anzac are short on ftr compare to Japan, but do not sacrifice fleet. Opponents have more ICP so easier for them to build more.

Japanese key points.

Small factory in Manchuria, Soviet and Chinese northern front.
Caroline Islands (Keep US away).
Malaysia (Large factory to control profitable islands) (small if you build a small in France Indochina).
Close the China route. If China muster Artillery twice they became strong.
As many planes as possible should be placed in the territory south of Kwangtung in J1. Later some planes should be placed in the first Chinese territory in the middle. From there bombers reach both India and Soviet besides China.

Do not build to strike out US fleet. Build so you can move around just as you like. Carriers is better because Japan have so many fighters and tactical fighters. If US goes all in Pacific it takes Japan 3-4 turns go get another 4-6 carriers witch adds 24 hp to the fleet. Some extra carriers saves some transports from sinking.

IF US goes all in Europe. Make sure to use fleet and subs to convoy ICS from West US. Destroy all US bonuses that you can. Including harassing Panama. Force US to put IPC in the Pacific to easy the Europe front.

One more thing. Me and my friends do not play with victory cities (VC). We play world domination or until one side gives up. So far, Japan haven’t finished the game by taking West US or Moscow any time, in anniversary Japan was the normal one to finish Moscow. The new combined Europe/Pacific are so large so then Japan has a gigantic run (90 ICP or more) it is closer to US then to Moscow. But when that is happening German have every time finished the game by taking Moscow, or it is just a mater of time until the troops gets to Moscow.

Sorry if I am a little unfocused. I am tired and it is 4.am.

The easiest way to balance the game is by moving one American IPC bonus from US to Philippines for every Allied win and withdraw one IPC bonus from the Philippines back to US.

Our group of players balanced the game with 7-9 moved American bonuses on the Philippines.

Later…

Alpha+ (about 6-8 months ago) was really broken, when Germany hade about 85%+ chance to take London in turn 3. We gave up Alpha+ and plays today with original setup and Alpha+ modified bonuses.

Extra German bonus in France. 5 IPC.

Reduced Japan bonus not declaring war. 5 IPC, meaning Japan loose 3 ICP if they take France Indochina. All depends on the Japanese strategy if they take FI or not.

I have played arond 100 games and observed 50 all irl.

I do not play LL games because dices is a part of the game. Me and my firends a talking a little about insted of bidding with IPC from start bid with a number of rerolls in favor of the Allies. If you bid 3 rerolls you are allowed to rewoll three of your own rolls in the game. To force the Axis to reroll it costs you 2 of your own rerolls.

I am no fan of IPC-bidding because there is a risk moment and if you change the risk by adding new units in the start there is a new game. I would prefer adding IPC to the countrys “bankaccount”.

We have also been experimenting with China. Our basic houserule for China is that they get reinforcements based on the territory they control in the end of their turn insted of inte the beginning.

Veqyrn and I are testing a mod where China gets to play during the Soviet turn…hopefully this will be a more balanced game.

This is a something I most definitely will talk about with my friends. A very interesting change of turn order.

Depending on one players style of gaming and taking risks the IPC bidding or reroll bidding changes the game. Reroll of dices encourage risk taking, but if you ar out of rerolls then you have to change your strategy.

Have anyone else considered bidding for rerolls insted of IPC? (I will lock around in the forum or possiable answers.)