Name: Mike Jocher
Location: Cliffside Park, NJ (Northern New Jersey)
Games: Every A&A game available.  I own them all.

thanks!

Guys, I saved all these pics to an external hard drive.  just wondering - where can I take them to get laminated?  not sure how that part works.  I don’t own a printer.

I’m in Cliffside Park and play all versions with my buddy.  email me if you want to join up!  jocher@live.com

Wow, that sucks.  I spent over $50 from Field Marshal Games to supplement my markers, chips and game pieces.  Ouch.

@Frontovik:

@Jocher:

Don’t consider an invasion of the British Isles…not going to work.�  Too many territories in the home island that the Brits can keep building upon in no time.�  Plus you have mines to face.�  The strategy doesn’t work.�  My advice, having played Germany a bunch now, is to destroy the Russian battleship and use YOUR waters as opposed to Britain’s waters.�  You can’t keep ferrying over troops to the western front with transports.�  you’ll keep facing mine dice.�  Better off using your navy (protected by 2 TT’s of mines) to ferry troops to the Russian front to make the Russies go down easier.� 
Also, destroying the British home fleet isn’t such a bad thing.�  You’re right, it sort of leverages the Brits to building up India, becoming a pain for the Ottomans.�  However, as I discussed in my post at the top of the forums, the Ottomans are more than a match for a 100% British blitz in the middle east.�  Just keep retreating slowly, all the while piling up your forces.�  Better to have one huge clash 7 rounds in to the game, rather than have 7 smaller skirmishes that the Ottomans can’t keep up with.�  Fight in Constantinople…you will have accomplished taking the Brits out of the game almost completely, as they’re spending too much time chasing the Ottomans and not enough time where it matters…Europe and the Eastern front.

sounds like hitler luring the russians to berlin before beating them back to moscow and so winning world war 2…

not gonna happen; you can have your clash even later; but by round 9-10 constantinopel is in allied hands (unless the brits force that army up to sebastopol, which can be done if russia retreats from moscow to prevent RR)

Luring the Russians to Berlin?  This is a game bud.  Not real life.  So yes, the Germans could do what you are suggesting above and be successful sometimes and not successful other times, because we are playing a game.  Don’t confuse the two.  It’s silly that you are comparing a strategy in Axis and Allies to real history.

And yes, it is going to happen…I’ve already done it.  I might try another 10x only to fail 9x (or succeed), but the fact remains it is a viable strategy.  The money the Ottomans earn for their territories does not warrant a ‘stand your ground’…all that means is losing a lot of smaller skirmishes and having the territory taken from you anyhow.  I am not suggesting an immediate retreat.  I am suggesting that 4-5 turns in, when the Brits amass a large enough force to start taking Ottoman territory, that be the point where I suggest the Ottomans pull back some.  A Brit strategy to go all out in India means a good chance at conquering the Ottomans.  My suggestion is to pull back if the attacks are overwhelming and make your stand with a very large piled up Ottoman army in a territory closer to Constantinople.  Hopefully by then, Germany and Austria would have expanded because they haven’t had to fight the brits in Europe…only the weakened Russia ns and and the mighty French.  Austrians could, of course help the Ottomans if possible with reinforcements.

Don’t consider an invasion of the British Isles…not going to work.  Too many territories in the home island that the Brits can keep building upon in no time.  Plus you have mines to face.  The strategy doesn’t work.  My advice, having played Germany a bunch now, is to destroy the Russian battleship and use YOUR waters as opposed to Britain’s waters.  You can’t keep ferrying over troops to the western front with transports.  you’ll keep facing mine dice.  Better off using your navy (protected by 2 TT’s of mines) to ferry troops to the Russian front to make the Russies go down easier. 
Also, destroying the British home fleet isn’t such a bad thing.  You’re right, it sort of leverages the Brits to building up India, becoming a pain for the Ottomans.  However, as I discussed in my post at the top of the forums, the Ottomans are more than a match for a 100% British blitz in the middle east.  Just keep retreating slowly, all the while piling up your forces.  Better to have one huge clash 7 rounds in to the game, rather than have 7 smaller skirmishes that the Ottomans can’t keep up with.  Fight in Constantinople…you will have accomplished taking the Brits out of the game almost completely, as they’re spending too much time chasing the Ottomans and not enough time where it matters…Europe and the Eastern front.

We were unsure of a few things, wondering if you fine gents would help us out.

1 - Tanks.  Can someone explain tanks to us in detail?  They attack at 2, defend at 1?  They soak up hits?  How?  We didn’t understand tanks at all and haven’t used them yet due to this fact.  Please help if you can.

2 - Army Movement.  Example -  I am playing as Germany, and I have let’s say 30Inf/20Art and I move them in to hostile French Territory which houses 30Inf/20Art themselves.  We duke it out for that round (Germany attacks, France defends) and the territory becomes contested.  After the initial attack, both Germany and France go down to, let’s say, 20Inf/10Art each.  Now it’s France’s turn.  #1 - Does France have the choice to NOT defend, and instead retreat all their armies and give the territory to Germany?  That’s question #1.  Now let’s say France decides to fight.  After France defends, the armies are both split evenly at 10Inf/5Art.  Territory is still contested.  Next turn is Germany’s.  #2 - As Germany, can I move my 10Inf/5Art closer to Paris?  Or must my army stay in the territory until no more hostile units are in it?

3 - If I am Britain, can I muster let’s say 10 infantry in India, even thought the IPC value is only 4 for the territory?

4 - If I am Germany and just took Rome, the next round am I allowed to muster units in Rome, or do the Allies/CP ONLY muster units in their capital and NOT in captured capitals?

5 - Austria’s initial naval force…turn 1 of round 1.  Can I move the cruiser, battleship and transport in to Italian territory (naturally, I will face a mine roll by my Italian enemy) in an effort to unload 2 infantry in, let’s say Naples and NOT fight the Italian cruiser, battleship and transport?  Or must Austria fight the existing Italian boats if they decide to offload troops on to the Italian mainland?

Thanks fellas for the help.

These are estimates…
USA - 23
France - around 40.  France had taken Portugal and a bunch of territories in Africa.
u.k. - around 38 or so, from all the ottoman territories it took.
Italy - weak.  Around 6 or 8.
Austria - no territories gained and none lost, so around 25?
Germany - powerhouse…around 60 from all the Russian territory, and now Italian territory and very close to Rome.
ottoman empire - around 6 a round.

Due to pure currency, the Brits would have outspent the Ottomans severely every turn thereafter.  The reason Britain attacked towards round 9 or 10 is that we had already played for hours and my opponent was planning on winning that 3 Ottoman fighter vs. 3 Brit fighter battle, which would have given him air superiority.  Brits had a HUGE amount of artillery and had they won the air, the battle might have happened differently.

Also, due to the ENORMOUS advantage the brits had in currency, it probably would have taken another 3 turns to get the Brit army next to Constantinople in shape to dominate.  Right around the time Britain attacked and lost the decisive battle, the Austrians were mopping up the French 10-12 unit forays to Albania from Marsailles.  In other words, if the Brits would have waited another 3 turns, that would have been 3 turns quicker that the Austrians would have started reinforcing the Ottomans.  I think the result would have been the same…CP win.  Plus, right around next turn Italy went out.  Russians were already dead.

Fellas, just finished up a massive game that took around 10 or 11 rounds to end.  I wanted to provide a brief summary, because quite honestly the game was interesting as hell.

UK / Ottoman Empire - Basically, the UK did absolutely nothing in the home island.  99% of it’s money the entire game was spend on planes and artillery for India, making the push to Constantinople the entire game.  Sure, there were landings in Europe with the home island army, but only minimal ships were purchased and really nothing happened besides the occasional landing to help out the French.  As a result, the Ottomans were in rough shape.  Instead of fighting Britain for each territory and losing small battles, each time the Brits would threaten the Ottomans, the Ottomans would back up, not fight and retreat to the capital.  By the end of the 8th round or so, the Ottomans built up a HUGE defense force and the Brits amassed an even HUGER attack force of something like 30 artillery and 30 infantry, supported by airplanes.  I got lucky and in our 3 planes vs 3 planes fight, I came out on top with 1 plane left, so the Ottomans had air superiority.  I won a decisive defensive fight in the capital on a British attack.  The next round, I swept them out of the capital and prepared to move south to now take on the broken up Brit armies.  The strategy of not fighting the brits and their HUGE superiority, and instead retreating to make one last final fight a favorable outcome resulted in the Ottomans completely dominating the Brits in the middle-east.  Moral of the story is to not go all out with the Brits in the middle east, for sure.

Russian Frontier - My buddy happens to play Russia like a champion, whether its WW1 or WW2.  I knew it would be a tough fight.  My strategy with the Germans on this front was to move the home army in Berlin move towards the Russian frontier, as well as armies in Silesia and Prussia.  I took care not to bring in 3 separate armies, but took 1 turn to combine then and then headed east.  Since Britain wasn’t building boats, I did not have to.  Instead I took out the Russian BB and built a few transports, each turn ferrying (4) infantry over to Russia’s rearguard in Livonia and Karelia.  Meantime, the Austrians just tried to cause as much damage as possible but made no significant gains east.  Russia fell late in the game to the Germans.

Austria / Italy / France / Germany - Honestly, France did very well in this game.  After the 3rd turn or so, France had around 6 transports (maybe 5?) and each round ferried 10 or 12 troops from Marseilles to Albania.  This was accompanied by a LONG trek and a HUGE French army in 1 territory amassed at Trieste.  This was an unbelievable move, and honestly almost caused the Austrians to collapse.  So the Austrians and French took around 4 turns going back and forth over Trieste.  Germany sent around 15 infantry from Berlin over to Trieste too, which took a bunch of rounds but proved decisive.  Germany and France on the western front both pretty much played defense, knowing one another could not make the long trek to their enemies’ capitals.  It was a game of maneuvers, as Germany built a string of defensive armies in the territories Ruhr and Munich predominately.  France never attacked on the western front.  They used most of their troops to defend in Lorraine and Picardy, and instead used their boats and attacked the Austrians.  All the while, Germany had built the biggest army in the game, with around 30 infantry and 45 or so Artillery.  While trying to stay out of France’s way, I managed to bypass the huge Frency army headed to Trieste (and later smashed) and instead made a maneuver from Munich to Venice.  Nothing could stop the force, and around turn 8 or 9, the Italians were easily swept away and Germany controlled Rome.  Germany also controlled Russia sometime around this time.

Summary - For the CP, Germany basically played defensive on the western front and went all out on Italy and Russia.  Austria tried to stay strong and defend against wave after wave of French troops, but in 1 HUGE French army that marched overland and numerous 10-12 unit armies being ferried over from Marsailles.  The Ottomans decided NOT to defend against the brits in numerous small battles and instead played a game of scorched earth, finding themselves with an enormous army in Constantinople, which they defended easily once the inevitable British army got to it.

Summary - For the allies, UK spend all their money in India, attempting to knock out the Ottomans.  They would have if the Ottomans chose to fight.  They did not.  UK brought the home army from the island and Canadian troops and send them to the western front in France’s defense.  They were a non issue due to their small numbers.  Italy simply attempted to keep the Germans out of the north and did not succeed due to their small numbers and HUGE numbers of the Germans.  Italy was ineffectual the entire game.  The US, whom I forgot to mention was never in the game either, so to speak.  By the 7th round or so, they were still landing troops in Europe, but at such a small scale that it was useless.  Germany never advanced towards France anyhow, so it was a useless gesture.  The French had quite an interesting gameplan.  Early on they took stock of Germany’s plan of not dividing and created an enormous army on the western front.  They knew they couldn’t take on Germany directly, so instead they marched overland from Burgundy in to Lorraine, Alsace, Munich, Tyrolia and then Trieste.  At Trieste they were met with a fierce Austrian army.  The nail in the coffin was the German reinforcement of 15 infantry that proved decisive.  From then on, the 10-12 army ferry boats were not doing much good, as Austria was now gaining the upper hand.  Again, VERY interesting tactic to hammer the Austrians with constant transport ships.  If I play as the allies next, I’m going to try this again.  Lastly, the Russians pretty much just played defensive.  My buddy played them like a pro and they held out a LONG time, but eventually the Germans spread out and took territory after territory, whittling down Russian currency enough that the end was predetermined.

If you have any questions about how the game went, feel free to post.