Don Bosch

Don Bosch · Apr 3, 2018, 10:27 AM

Hello everyone,

Once every three months I play Axis & Allies with a group of 4 to 6 players. Last three games we were using a slighyly modified version of Oztea’s 1941 setup. My group likes this version much better than the original 1940 setup :mrgreen:.

Last weekend we have used a few optional rules which I would like to share with you. Maybe you can also use (one of) these rules and have tips for us. The optional rules are:

1 Production Capital ships
Production of an AC or BB takes two turns, payment 50/50 per turn. So you pay 8 or 10 IPC first turn. Second turn you may complete the ship by paying the remaining 8 or 10 IPC. We were using a coaster to identify the capital ships 'under construction".

Capital ships can only be build on a major factory and takes 2 production points. The only exeption to this rule is ANZAC, they can build a capital ship on their minor IC in Autralia or New Zealand (home county). The same is true for France (LOL, will never occour :-D).

2 Blitz
I’ve watched GeneralHandGranade’s video’s on GlobalWar 1936. I liked the bitlz rules in this game so our rules says: ‘After the resolve combat phase, tanks and mech. inf. can attack the next terretory if they have used only 1 movement point in the first combat round’. Mech. inf. must be paired 1:1 with a tank to be ablke to blitz.
Fighters and tactical bombers (no strat. bombers) can join the blitz if they have enough movement points remaining. During non combat, planes must land in a territory that was owned at the beginning of your turn.

3 Airborne
We were using paratroopers by allowing a strat. bomber to drop 1 inf. in a battle. The bomber and inf. must depart from the same terretory.
At the start of the resolve combat phase, the defender may roll for AA-guns (if present). The defender must roll for attacking fightes/tac bombers and Bombers containing a paratrooper seperatly. A hit @1 from an AA-gun at a a bomber kills the bomber and the infantry unit.
Then the attackers rolls for the landing to succeed, by rolling 1-4 the inf lands succesfully. By rolling 5-6 the paratrooper is killed. The bomber must return during non combat.
The airbonre unit attacks and defends like a regular infantry.

4 Target select
Tactical bombers have target selection. Roll dice for tac. bomber seperately. When you roll a 1 on a tactical bomber, the attacket may choose the casualty. The casualty must be a land or naval unit (air units not allowed).

We had a lot of fun, especially playing Germany and USSR on the eastern front. Tell me what you think of the rules.
Maybe i’ll post our modified Oztea1941 setup, if you are interested.

Greetings from a Dutch A&A player, please don’t judge my grammar :lol:.

Don Bosch · Oct 13, 2016, 8:18 AM

@ShadowHAwk:

@Arthur:

Taamvan, there are several valid Axis openings in the European and Pacific theaters. They all get used to varying extents by top people in the G40 League. Dark skies, Sea lion (feint or real), Egpyt push, Australia Attacks, Barbarossa, Russia crush and other strategies are all options depending on the die roles of the first couple of rounds and placement of Allied purchases.

The data from 460 matches is very convincing that the game is not fair. Even with a 20 to 25+ point bid for the Allies, the Axis still managed to win 54% of the matches in 2015. Those number are for some of the most experienced people in the country, many with 100+ games played in their career. The bids hardly are unbalancing a “balanced” game. I would expect that a 25-28 bid would be necessary to balance out the win percentages in League matches.

This being stated, I can easily defeat bad players 100% of the time as either Axis or Allies. They tend to turtle down, unwilling to risk potential close battles but willing to allow economic victory by the opponent.

That only shows that most players are better at playing the axis or that the axis playstyle suits them better.

It is always easier to Act then to react especialy in the first few rounds, when i started playing this game with a friend we could not win at all as axis. And allies always got an easy win, so based on that data you could argue that allies are favored.

Also where most people place the bid is in the med, a location where even without a bid italy is screwed big time. The bid is used to unbalance a little bit of the board even further iso fixing the spots on the board that are unbalanced. Because it is easier and taking out italy round 1 basicaly makes europe a game of moscow or bust.

How many of those 100+ games had any meaningfull Italy? or even some competition in the med or afrika?

Everybody puts their bid in the med or afrika and is complaining that russia cannot hold out against germany. But they dont give russia more units.

Thanks everybody for the comments, it’s an interesting subject in my opinion:)

ShadowHAwk posted that nobody uses their bid in Russia instead of the Med. I’m wondering: would 15 IPC for Russia make any difference against Germany’s “bowling ball” strategy? how would you use it?

In my opinion it’s better to balance the game with NO’s instead of a bid. I’m using YG’s card for the NO’s, i think using the additional NO cards for the allies can balance the game.

Don Bosch · Oct 3, 2016, 12:17 PM

Hi everyone,

Last weekend i’ve played my first two tripleA games. I’ve played the board game 8 times now so i know all the rules and the basic strategy. However, i never played the allies. In the online games i had a bid (12 up to 18). I lost all games so i’m wondering: what’s the best way to use the bid? (assuming max 1 unit per teritory/SZ).

I’m thinking:

UK sub in sz. 98
UK tank in Egypt
UK art. in Alexandria
UK art. in Anglo Egypt Sud.
ANZAC inf/art. in New Guinea

More idea’s?

Don Bosch · Apr 11, 2016, 12:07 PM

a BB can be usefull,

Whan doing a J1 DOW i use 2 BB against the US fleet in the Phillipines. The US player scored two (luck) hits with his sub and destroyer. Using the two BB’s to take the hits saves units. Since you own the Phillipines after J1, you can repair the BB’s J2.

I’ve seen many games where te UK battleship in SZ 37 is able to kill a Japanese cruiser and a bomber (if Japan comes in with a cruiser and two bombers an get diced).

The German “Bismarck” is often damaged in SZ 110 or 111. The UK will try to sink the battleship. When te UK comes to kill it you have a chance to kill an English ship/plane and might puts their fleet out of position.

Don Bosch · Apr 6, 2016, 3:10 PM

OK i think you mention several problems:

1. the OOB victory conditions suck!
2. the allies are not making enough money (or the axis too much).
3. you can’t find a way to realy hurt your opponents

this is what i think you can do:

1. change the victory conditions. Try to use YG’s victory objectives in this video. This will make the victory conditions a lot more balanced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X-47c75SyI

2. use extra NO’s for the allies explained in this video by YG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9C_3d1EMR8
OR create your own addition NO’s to help the allies, especially the US.

3. This is where experience is important. I think playing the US is fun but the most difficult nation. I think for the US a 50/50% purchase Europe/Pacific is not a good idea nor is 100% on one side. Try to find out wich side does better and adjust your strategy.

Make sure you have a variaty of units (i personaly never buy cruisers nor battleships).

Use the US for the warships (bombers, carriers, planes, destroyers and subs) and use ANZAC and the UK for transports and land units. When the US attacks and takes a territory, the UK/ANZAC can reinforce it by sending troops/landing fighters. Make sure you combine your allied fleets for optimal protection (scramble) and the option to let the UK/ANZAC follow the US each turn.

For example: the US fleet (with a few transports) in SZ 91 moves to SZ 95 or SZ 112 and takes Norway or Southern Italy. UK land their troops into the same territory and land extra fighters for extra protection. If possible, UK can also attack Northern italy so Italy or Gemany can’t counter their next turn.

The US is the only player that can deal with the Japanese navy so they should provide the warships. ANZAC/UK’s production is closer than the US production so they should provide the troops and fighters.

Hope this is helpfull…

(sorry for the poor english grammar) :|

Don Bosch · Apr 6, 2016, 9:32 AM

@Warwick:

I play Global War '39 from HBG so I have lost a lot of my memory on Global '40 but I do not see how Italy is in trouble. This is most likely due to me forgetting the surrender conditions on Italy.

However looking at the troops strengths

Southern Italy
INF - 14
FTR - 2 or 3
MECH - 3
ARTY - 1
AA - 4

US
INF - 10
MECH - 3
ARTY - 5
ARM - 2
FTR -2 (1 in reserve)
TAC - 1 ( 1 in Reserve)

Lift = 8 (4 in reserve) transport lift capacity

Since Italy moves before the US Italy can have an additional 10 INF on the Italian Penisula, depending on Strat Bomber action. Italy also has Africa nearly empty of UK troop and several options to expand their IPC income.

What am I missing?

US has 4 carries with a total of 6 fighters and 2 TB’s. however, they can only use 5 fightes and 1 TB in their next turn to attack Italy.

Italy has 3 fighters.
US goes before Italy so they can attack Southern Italy. Germany can send 6 inf from North Italy into South Italy.
Italian/German fleet is very weak.
When Southern Italy is lost, the Italians can’t counter and lose their income to US or UK.
Italy has a huge advantage in Africa (south of Egypt) to rob the UK’s income. However, they must be carefull not to lose Egypt to the Allies.

Don Bosch · Apr 5, 2016, 9:28 AM

@simon33:

US marker is on 49. Is that a mistake?

So if the Japanese fleet attacks the US one, it would be 6 carriers on 5? I guess that isn’t enough advantage to counter the defender’s advantage.

Yes, the marker should be at 52 (we usualy check it each round). We don’t include NO’s on the income tracker, we use YG’s card deck.

Japan has no reason to attack the US fleet as long as a victory is not 100% sure. Japan is currently making 69 IPC’s, maybe even more when they attack Russia/Calcutta. Japan’s goal is to keep their money and block the US fleet using destoyers in SZ 16,17,18 (wich are attacked each round). Japan has the defenders advantage + scramble advantage + kamikaze advantage. No reason to attack the US so far…

Don Bosch · Apr 5, 2016, 8:42 AM

@simon33:

Pretty sure ShadowHawk didn’t see the red counters on the Philippines carriers.

Assuming Germany is moving next it looks like they’ll have to retreat to wait for reinforcements. However, continued strategic bombing on Moscow will make it difficult for the USSR to mobilise.

Japan would then smash the Caroline Islands’ fleet and perhaps be counter attacked by the Gilbert Islands

Japan has 6 loaded carriers in the Phillipines
We start a new game round so Germany is first
All the US carriers are at the Caroline islands, not the Gilbert Islands (sorry for the confusion)
US is currently making 73-78 IPC’s (52 income, +20 NO’s + 1 dice extra income “war bonds”)

Don Bosch · Apr 4, 2016, 10:39 AM

extra pictures

Don Bosch · Apr 4, 2016, 10:37 AM

extra pictures

Don Bosch

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