This is obviously simplistic but in the broadest sense the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich had the same cause - Hitler.  He created it and he destroyed it.

We were strictly following the setup, rules and NOs from Larry’s thread on A2:
http://harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=4167

We didn’t want to make stuff up since the stuff we’d make up would naturally benefit the person coming up with it!

Too many rule differences are confusing and has caused many arguments while playing.  That’s why we decided to stick to rules Larry came up with - OOB, A1 or A2.

@Koningstiger:

@Antonescu:

We played 3 games of AAE40 with alpha +.2, all won by the Axis.

As far as we could tell, the Allies didn’t make any major or minor mistakes, maybe they were just overly cautious.  Russia just turtled, built only infantry.

There you go. You went and mentioned the mistake yourself: As Russia NEVER build ONLY infantry! You need to be able to make counter-attacks. the best way to do this is buy planes along with your infantry and possibly some artillery. Though not very historical, don’t invest too much money in tanks. You will probably lose them when the germans counter-attack, while the planes will give you the punch you need and afterwards you can (even MUST) withdraw them to safety. Alternatively, buy tanks but don’t continue attacking till you’ve taken the territory. Retreat before that, but make sure you’ve killed off enough German/Axis infantry. This way any German counter-attack will likely lack infantry support and cost him tanks and artillery.

OK, my original thought was that turtling only with infantry is the best solution.  The reason being that infantry is the best defensive bang for the buck, so to speak.  For 30 IPCs you can get 10 infantry, 20 defensive points.  For the same IPCs you can get 3 fighters, that’s 12 defensive points.  Wouldn’t you want the most defensive points?  Also, wouldn’t you also want more fodder for the German tanks?

@Krieghund:

@Boyardee:

In Alpha 2, does the ussr still got the 2 infantry bonus when at war with germany.

No.  (In OOB, this troop bonus applies only to the Europe game, not to the Global game.)

But even in alpha 2 Europe the USSR still gets the 2 infantry in Novosibirsk,right?  There’s a house rule that says the USSR gets +9 IPCs to spend wherever instead of the 2 units, but I don’t see that in the alpha 2 revision so it cannot really be counted as part of alpha 2.  Or can it?

We played 3 games of AAE40 with alpha +.2, all won by the Axis.

As far as we could tell, the Allies didn’t make any major or minor mistakes, maybe they were just overly cautious.  Russia just turtled, built only infantry.  The UK was lost once.

The problem was that the Axis can now take their time to build up forces that totally wipe out Moscow.  They are under no pressure to attack, they can repel any landings in France and/or Italy and then go back to Russia.

Italy is also out of control, it always had Africa, the Middle East, Persia and India.  In all games it threatened Stalingrad.  At one point, Italy was outproducing the US!!  With all these IPCs Italy is more than capable of protecting southern Italy.

My friend and I find that…

1. OOB is Allied heavy because:

• The US gets way too many IPCs after it enters the war.
• The US builds a major IC in Norway and outputs a ludicrous amount of units because of point 1 above.

2. Alpha +.2 is Axis heavy because:

• Italy runs rampant all over Africa and the Middle East, at one point it outproduced the US!
• Germany runs rampant over the USSR with its extra units (inf, planes) and the major IC in Germany.

Someone on the forum mentioned that alpha +.1 is balanced, has anyone else noticed this?

Thank you for the quick reply, your explanation definitely clears things up.

If we take an example scenario:
1 attacking sub
1 defending cruiser

Scenario 1:
sub sneak attack rolls a 1 or 2
Result: cruiser is sunk with no retaliation

Scenario 2:
sub sneak attack rolls 3 or higher
Result: cruiser now defends at a 3 or lower

Are both scenarios valid?

Thanks again.

I have a question regarding submarine sneak attacks - basically how does it work?

From what my friend and I are reading in the manuals, these are the possibilities:

1. Subs attack twice per combat round, once for the sneak attack and once during regular combat.  As such, if a sea battle lasts a few rounds, then the sub becomes a powerful double hit unit.

2. Subs that do a sneak attack only do so once per battle.  Then they must either submerge or retreat and the sea battle goes on without the subs doing the sneak attack.  This, of course, doesn’t apply to subs that aren’t involved in sneak attacks.

This takes into account that no destroyer is present.

Thanks!