We tried this strategy this weekend and it worked as intended with Moscow in German hands at the end of German 3. This is a strat I would like to try again as a couple of things were very favorable to the Axis, that I don’t think you can replicate and count on always happening. We also played with out National Objectives, so there was that as well.
First we were playing three players with myself as the Germans and the other player as Japan and the Allies were played by one player(it is what he wanted). The Allied player rolled well below average with some horrible dice consistently in almost every battle whether defending or attacking. Conversely I rolled about average maybe a little bit better and the Japanese player was rolling insanely well.
AA fire was also abnormal with 3 bombers and 1 fighter were all lost to AA. Two American bombers were shot down by Germany when they went for sb raids on turn 1 and 2, and a Japanese bomber and fighter were lost to AA when Japan attacked India. Germany can’t count on avoiding sb raids, I just got extremely lucky both times.
Here are some quick summaries of the rounds.
Round 1:
Japan - Built a bomber and 2 subs and a transport. Took out the American fleet around Hawaii, took out the British fleet around India, and landed all his fighters and bomber in Burma and prepared to take India the next turn.
Russia - Built infantry. Took Eastern Ukraine, and fortified everywhere else.
German - Built a bomber and tanks. Took Leningrad, took Egypt, failed to take Easter Ukraine, and destroyed most of the British fleet. The failure to take Eastern Ukraine meant we had to change it to Ukraine, this was the only battle that really went poorly for us and was the only battle we should have won but didn’t because of poor dice rolls.
Great Britain - Rebuilt the British fleet with an AC buy and some other things. Took a shot at Northwestern Europe and could have taken it but would have lost a fighter in doing so, and elected to lose his tank and let me keep it. Used a Cruiser and a Destroyer to kill a German Sub but lost the Destroyer in the battle. Noncom an extra man to India, moved out of Libya to Persia.
Italy - Since I was controlling Germany I just controlled Italy as well. Built 2 infantry and one Artillery. Sent a tank and the fighter to Ukraine, noncom everything else to Western Europe and left the fleet in Sea Zone 12.
America - Built an Atlantic fleet and a bomber. Counter attacked with everything he could throw at the Japanese fleet around Hawaii and failed at a SB raid on Berlin. Destroyed the Japanese fleet but lost everything in the battle with the except of a single Battleship. This meant that at the beginning of Round two, America only had two naval ships in the Pacific, a Battleship and a transport. Noncom moved a bomber to Britain moved his destroyer to block two German subs from getting to the Brit Cruiser.
China took something from Japan but at this point we didn’t really care and were not concerned for that area.
Round 2:
Japan - Built 2 fighters a transport and infantry if I remember correctly. Attacked the American battle ship with a his battleship and a bomber. Attacked India with everything he could throw at it. Lost only one fighter and bomber to AA, while taking it. Attacked and took Alaska. Then came the big move and landed all 5 fighters in Ukraine.
Russia - Built more men. Realizing that there was noway of keeping Eastern Ukraine he abandoned it except for one man and scent the rest of his Army to Belorussia. He also carried out the only successful sb raid of the war on the Leningrad factory, giving it the max of 4 points of damage. He heavily fortified both Stalingrad and Moscow.
Germany - Built another bomber and more tanks. Took both Belorussia and Easter Ukraine with a ton of troops left right outside of Moscow. Attack the American destroyer with the two subs and got it without a loss. Used a fighter and bomber to take out the lone Brit cruiser. Started Blitzing through Africa. Noncom everything I could to the Eastern front. At this point I could blitz every tank I had (except the ones purchase that turn) through two different spots to hit Moscow.
Great Britain - Built transports and fighters. Attacked the German fleet with the British navy. Did a desperate Amphibious attack on Poland. It had a fighter and a artillery I believe. Took it with one Artillery left. Moved infantry and artillery from Persia to Stalingrad. The Poland attack was pure desperation, the idea being that if he took it, I couldn’t Noncom my tanks through it on German 3, delaying them from Moscow on German 4 to German 5. Sadly this wasn’t enough. Put his transports some place safe, can’t remember were since they didn’t get used. Another mistake he made here was not landing the fighters off the AC to Moscow, which he admitted he just didn’t think about doing until after his turn was done.
Italy - Built 2 tanks. Now this is where stuff got crazy. The Italian navy was two sea zones away from Brazil. Could have held fast but instead we went for it. Took two men and the Italian fleet to Brazil. Basically forcing America to send it’s fleet there. Noncom more stuff to France and some stuff from France to Northwestern Europe.
America - Built 2 destroyers a transport and and all men I believe. Took his fleet and men and transports to Brazil for and amphibious assault. Sunk the Italy navy but lost everything except his Battleship and two fighters. Can’t remember why he took the AC instead of a fighter as a causality. Tried and failed to sb raid Berlin for the second time, I honestly thought he might flip the board when I rolled a one. Landed his fighters in Washington D. C., and put the Destroyers and the transport off the coast of Washington. Put all the men in San Fran.
Round 3(more like 2.5):
Japan - Built a factory, infantry, artillery and transports. Pretty much pulled out of China and sunk the one American transport off the coast of San Fran with a sub. Loaded Alaska with everything he had and pretty much America 2’s buy meant he was there to stay. Even had his bomber in position to start sb raid D. C. or San Fran. Put the factory in India as backup plan in case Germany failed to get Moscow.
Russia - Built Infantry. Left a token force in Stalingrad and fortified Moscow best he could.
Germany - Built All tanks. Attacked the American Battleship and transports off the coast of Brazil with two subs. Attacked Moscow and Poland. We debated the pros and cons of this attack and decided that since he took Poland and it would take so long for the rest of my tanks to get there that we had to go for Moscow. I remember the details of this battle very well. He had 18 infantry, 2 tanks, and a fighter. I had 5 infantry, 10 tanks, a fighter and a bomber. The dice rolls couldn’t have been worse for him and better for me. He rolled 12 dice without getting a single hit with his infantry, on the first round. It was pretty crazy. I took Moscow with like 4 tanks left and still had my fighter and bomber. To make matters worse I sunk the American Battleship and transports without losing either of my subs. Before we even did the battle for Poland he conceded. Germany was about to get paid like 73 bucks, All the American’s had in the Atlantic navy-wise was a couple of destroyers and a transport and Japan was now threatening the west coast. Britain still had their navy and transports but Germany still had a lot of land units and I could have retaken anything Britain tired to take. Plus I was probably going to buy mostly fighters and maybe another bomber on G4 which meant if Britain stayed close to the coast it could kiss the fleet goodbye. And there was no way they could liberate Moscow since Japan could land there fighter force there Japan 4.
It was a crazy game and as the game went on the allied player made more mistakes because he had nobody to help him notice things plus I think frustration had set in because of his poor dice rolls. I can think of several battles he should have done much better in than he did. Plus not being able to sb raid Berlin really freed up a lot of German resources that where able to screw Russia. I don’t know how well this strategy would hold up if American and depending on the situation Britain were successfully sb raiding Berlin.