When my band used to share an apartment there was always a bunch of people hanging around. A friend’s brother had a beat up old A&A game hanging around with no instructions. We were bored so tried playing it, making up rules. Moving tanks & troops across sea zones with no transports, whatever. Total mess.
When he finally found the manual it was like, oh, duh.
We all got hooked on the game then and played most every day for months. I’ve been playing ever since.
Definitely dropping the extra transport is usually helpful. If air attacks go well on T1, I’ll sometimes send a fighter to africa to help block and attack. It’s a gamble though, assuming the fighter can be replaced in europe before you get overwhelmed by transports.
Is their anything you can do to make the game harder therefore more fun. Whipping up on the computer is not much fun. By the way I am guest. The orginal poster. Thanks
Yeah. Go into the options menu, choose “edit units” and up the defense number on the opposing country’s infantry and tanks by one. Changes the dynamic enough to make it more challenging.
If that doesn’t fit your style, you can play around and tweak the opposing country’s units 'til it’s challenging enough. You can also save the “edit units” setup to recall for future games.
but if japan captures it, they’re pumping out 3 tanks per turn to wreak havoc in russia/middle east/asia/africa
Doesn’t bother me. If the UK dropped an IC on south africa as I mentioned above, they’re already countering with two tanks per turn. If I have my way, the US has already taken the few IPC loss of taking venezuala, is parking transports off Brazil and running tanks from the western US down to Brazil and across to Africa by the time Japan takes India. Japan is going to save dropping the extra transports, but chances are they’re coming anyway. They’ll need a lot more than three tanks to stop me so those tanks will be busy unless Germany manages to get in my way, which takes pressure off the other end of Russia and taking pressure off Russia is all that matters.
If the IC in India baits Japan away from Russia, that’s good. They can fight whatever Britain drops and if they capture it before the forces link up from Africa, it just means I get to bomb Japan with SBRs for rental.
@cystic:
yeah, but big deal. . .
all this does is delay the American landing in Germany long enough for Japan to soak Russia for an economic victory.
True, but not neccissarily always. If the dice go badly for Germany at the outset, the UK can ship in troops to help Russia and that’s where this happens.
All the sea zones on my board are numbered because we used to play hidden subs. The player had to write down the zone number where the subs submerged. Anyone could check it when they did just to keep it fair. After that, the player would put their subs in the logo near the bottom of the board and write town where the subs moved every turn so it was verifiable by other players.
It does require some honesty, but it really keeps you on your toes not knowing where your opponent’s subs may be at any time in the game. Always a little surprise when a pack of submarines surface and attack you unexpectedly.
Anyone else do something similar?
Just out of curiosity, has anyone discussed allowing fighters to defend against SBRs? It would make more sense to me as realistically, bombers had to contend with fighters. You’d have to develop long range technology for allied fighters to accompany bombers to germany as it really happened.
I’ve thought of it because I’ve played against people who’s european strategy consists mainly of building up bombers in the UK until germany loses all it’s IPCs every turn from SBRs. There’s not much germany can do with one little AA gun, so I don’t think that strategy is fair or realistic. If germany had fighters to defend, it might be different.
If Japan doesn’t capture the IC in India, you’ve got an advantage. If they do, the Allies really ought to have a firm grip on Africa by T3 anyway so it’s a lot easier to run SBRs against Japan between africa and India than to bomb Japan proper. Either way I see it as an advantage.
The original A&A for PC was so buggy and easy to beat I havn’t bothered with Iron blitz. I started playing SSI’s Panzer commander and Steel panthers instead but I pretty much mastered them so I’m back to A&A for awhile.
When I play the A&A PC version, I usually just let the other side have their way for a few turns until I’m in a fix and it looks one sided. That makes it more interesting.
I dunno if I’m a top player. I’ve been playing for about ten years. I used to work for Hasbro and knew the guy that invented the game, but I’ve learned more from playing than from him.
I still lose sometimes.
Tips?
A good player really caught me off guard by having the U.K. drop an aircraft carrier on their first turn, then having the U.S. fly it’s lone fighter onto the U.K. carrier on it’s first turn. Along with what was left of the Allied navy after Germany’s aircraft blitz, it turned the tables and the allies were able to help Russia defend Karelia, boxing me in.
Obviously, the U.K. needs to drop an IC in south Africa ASAP. A couple of tanks coming up from there every turn secures africa most every time once Germany’s transport is gone. Eventually those tanks start flowing into asia and…
I never attack the U.S. fleet with Japan unless the axis has the game sewed up. If they try island hopping I hit them with aircraft and maybe subs. Best for Japan to bring the navy home from the start and drop transports. That way, you’ve got units moving into asia and if needed, you can suddenly attack Alaska to divert U.S. attention from whatever if they’re causing problems anywhere.
I also like to have the U.S. concentrate on buying bombers and rolling for heavy bomber technology. If you get that, you can fly strategic bombing out of the U.K. and wipe out all of Germany’s IPCs eventually. I learned that the hard way from a good opponant too.
The only time I find them overwhelmingly useful is if the U.S. buys lots of bombers from the start, rolls for heavy bombers and gets them, then flys out of the U.K. against Germany.
In that scenario I’ve seen Germany losing all their IPCs every round.
Yes. I always do it. I also drop one in south africa. It’s worth defending them because between the two, if you keep dropping in U.K. tanks it can turn the tide.
Russia definitely has to fall as quickly as possible or the Axis is likely to lose. I like to use Germany’s aircraft and totally decimate the allied fleet as much as possible on the first turn. Even if the German air force gets wiped out, it’s ok. Just keep attacking ships as long as you can. Then, Germany needs to move troops toward Russia, but not attack. Just build up troops. Keep your armor in the capital and replace the troops you move toward Russia with ones you buy(buy only troops for Germany for the first few turns). If Russia attacks, they’ll probably lose a lot of troops and you can use the troops and armor from the capital to counterattack if they take the territory.
If the German air force succeds in wiping out the allied fleet, that will postpone a full scale invasion and keep Britain from helping Russia. If you fail to take them all out, it can be a problem, but Germany should be able to hold it’s own for awhile.
I never mess with asia in general to start with Japan. If the allies take ground, they take ground. I move the Japanese fleet right off Japan, buy troops, tanks and transports, then attack Russia from the other side furiously by getting a steady flow of troops from Japan pressing relentlessly toward Russia’s capital. I ignore anything else unless the American fleet starts island hopping, then maybe I’ll fend them off with part of the navy. If the few allied troops in asia attack the flow of Japanese troops, they’ll usually get eaten up. A good player may drop a factory for the U.K. in India, but that’s alright. The allies start very weak in asia, so take advantage of that to hit Russia hard while Germany starts out on the defensive where the allies are stronger.
If America get’s too cocky, you can usually interrupt things long enough to whack Alaska. That draws them north, away from the islands and you can move back to Japan and start hitting Russia again. Just don’t linger around Alaska too long or you’ll get caugt up in it and lose momentum against Russia.
Once Japan pushes up far enough and is attacking Russia’s capital, then Germany can blitzkreig from the other side, but not before. If the first wave takes too many casualties, retreat and build up again. The whole thing is to force Russia to defend Karelia without weakening Germany too much. That prevents Russia from Fighting Japan because they have to keep building up to protect from Germany. If they don’t, you’ve got them anyway. If possible, do strategic bombing on Russia as soon as you can to take away IPCs.
Russia must fall and fast if the Axis is going to win. It all hinges on that.
Things can go wrong. Bad dice rolls or good opponants but you react the best you can and keep focused on Russia. If the allies can keep Russia in the game long enough, Germany will weaken. In that case, just conceed the game unless you feel like playing until you eventually lose.
Probably seventy percent or more of the time, this strategy works for me, depending on the dice and my opponant.
Good luck.