Another KGF tip…

Use those starting AA guns in the US. They’re just sitting there doing nothing. Use them. Maybe you had the UK take France and the UK has a few units left in France. Have the US go drop another 10 in France behind them, and make one of those units an AA gun.

A warning though: Check to see if Germany can re-take France. If they can take it, how many units will they likely have left in France after the battle? If it’s low enough that the Allies can re-take it the next turn, then by all means throw everything in. It’s just a large trade. You’re exchanging UK and US units for German units and that wears Germany down. If Germany has enough where they can take it and then stack it so it can’t be retaken then be cautious and just drop a minimal number in.

For NW Europe, this is likely just 1 transport. For France, it’s more because it’s a 6 IPC value territory in the situation of a strafe. Sometimes Germany will have a lot that they can bring at France, but if they bring everything then it leaves them too weak elsewhere. For example, if they bring 25 infantry and some tanks to France to take it hard, then that would leave them too weak in Germany.

In that situation bring 3 transports to France to leave about 4 or 5 there. It’s too few for them to do a strafe because they don’t want to lose the income from France. It’s too many for a light trade, so you’re still getting your goal of a heavier trade.

You have to read the situation in Europe though. Sometimes it may even be worth it to have a negative net trade with Germany if it’s early game and Germany is pushing at Russia hard. It will divert units away from the eastern front.

@snoil If playing a KGF, bring everything to the Atlantic. If going KJF, bring everything to the Pacific. I play a KGF probably 95% of the time.

In most KGF games as the US, all you need to build is 1 carrier US1. Other than that, it’s all transports and land units. Sometimes you mix in a plane, but that’s a luxury buy. If Axis is investing heavily in air and naval units then more US navy is definitely needed. The priority is always taking and occupying land. Owning land is what gives you income to build more units. Water is worthless.

So, since land is the priority, then land units are the priority. Land units are the most efficient on land. Ships are the most efficient on water. Planes are less efficient but more flexible on land or water.

So you want to be building as many land units as possible. The large majority of these are going to be infantry because they are cheap so you can buy more of them. As the US, you have a logistics problem getting those land units somewhere useful, so you need transports. To move your transports you need surface ships like carriers with fighters, destroyers, cruisers, battleships to protect them.

Pound for pound destroyers are the best unit for protecting transports. Carriers with fighters are good too because the fighters can attack on land. Cruisers are alright, but over-priced. Battleships are situational and not ideal for an Atlantic fleet. Where I use a battleship is when I’m facing multiple fleets.

For example, as Japan if you are facing a UK fleet and a US fleet, then a battleship is pretty good because it gets a free repair, but for the most part they are just too expensive.

With the US you want to be up to around 7 or 8 transports by the end of round 2. After that reasonable people disagree on how many transports to have. I usually get up to 11 or 12. If the US doesn’t have France it’s 11. If they do, it’s 12. If I’m doing a Med shuck I might get up to 14. Some people keep it at 8 and build bombers.

@domanmacgee Yeah it’s a 100% KGF, and usually India can hold on until at least round 4 or so. If Japan goes for India it pretty much hands central Asia to Russia. Once the UK and US contain Germany, then Russia can focus totally on Japan. Eventually Japan will wear down Russia, but if Japan is building all tanks then Russia can hold them off indefinitely trading tanks for infantry.

The UK can also assist with Japan using the units that retreated from India and possibly bringing in more via Karelia.

Sometimes I get games where Germany just keeps coming at Russia despite the Allies being able to take Berlin. When this happens the UK or US takes Berlin and Moscow may fall as well. After that, the Allies build a Pacific fleet and go take Hawaii and Philippines, then either get Russia or India for the win.

A key principle to getting at least up to gold level is seeing what your opponent can do in response to a move you make. For example, say you are Germany and are considering putting a lot of units into West Russia. Look at how many Russia can attack you with if you do that. Count everything in range.

A lot of lower-level players will just attack something because that particular battle is favorable to them, not noticing what your opponent can do in response on their turn.

Also, a common mistake they make is building way too many attacking units and not enough fodder units. You want almost all of your losses to be cheap infantry. Use your infantry to kill their tanks and you’re going to win. I play so many opponents that try to just rush at Russia thinking that will work.

If you can get sound tactics you’ll get to at least high silver and probably gold.

@snoil I find the game favoring Allies. If the Allies target Germany, Germany is in a lot of trouble. I also get Allies mostly when I choose ‘No Preference’.

I think at the lower levels the game favors Axis, and at the higher levels it favors Allies. To play Allies well you have to have the different countries work together, which requires a lot of coordination.

Building a bunch of tanks in India with Japan is a bad idea. It’s really easy for Russia to hold this off and trade infantry for tanks indefinitely. I see it a lot though. Tank spam in Asia from Japan. It doesn’t work in my games, but maybe it’s working against weaker Allied play.

I just beat a guy who was going all out with the air units. He was Axis and built 1 or 2 air units for both Germany and Japan almost every turn. By round 7 he had around 25 air units. Even with all that, he never once sunk a transport. He finally resigned in round 11 but it would have probably gone to round 16-18. It can be a longer game when they play that way because you have to build so much navy that it really slows down the transport movements.

Against such a strategy you really have to combine the UK and US navies. The best spot is unloading the transports to Finland and coming around the back. Another option is sending them all to France, but it’s hard to stack France when Germany has so many planes. What you really have to do is build up a big stack in Karelia, then when it’s big enough move to Belorussia. Eventually you can move it to Baltic States.

You want to make sure to come from the east also because you need to make sure that Germany doesn’t get income from West Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Karelia. Also, if Japan is really threatening Russia, troops are close by to help out there.

That’s the guy I just resigned a game to! I resigned in round 1 because I saw he had a platinum ranking. I was playing as Russia and lost the Ukraine battle and lost a lot in West Russia too. I had no chance to even get started. This guy may be cheating.

If you are doing a KGF strategy, dealing with Japan isn’t the top priority. You’re just trying to slow them down and distract them. With the UK in India, don’t let Japan stack Burma. When they go in with land forces, hit them back. Have artillery in India.

I buy 1 of 3 options with the UK in round 1.

1. Carrier, Transport, 2 infantry, 1 artillery.
2. Carrier, Destroyer, 3 infantry.
3. 2 Fighters, 2 artillery, 1 infantry.

Option 1 is if there’s minimal threat to the UK fleet. Germany builds a med carrier for example, loses fighters or moves them east. 3 or fewer planes in range.

Option 2 is if there are 4 planes in range. I’m not risking a transport.

Option 3 is if there are 5 or more planes/subs that can hit Britain. Build fighters in round 1. If they move away you can build a fleet in round 2. If they add more planes like building bombers, then wait until round 3 for the US fleet to arrive before building a navy. If Germany’s building that many planes, their army will be thin.

Basically I’m saying don’t focus all your attention with the UK on Japan. UK needs to be hitting Germany. It’s closer and easier to hit. The goal of the British in Asia is to harass Japan and delay them. Keep them occupied with India if you can. If they ignore India move up to Persia to block them from stacking Kazakh. A Kazakh stack is dangerous because it threatens Caucuses and Russia forcing Russia to abandon Caucuses.

With Russia, their job is to kill lots of Germans in the first 3 rounds. Don’t sacrifice troops but make Germany pay if they are overaggressive with Russia in a KGF. After the US and UK are landing in Europe just defend with Russia against Germany. Shift 90% of Russia’s focus to Japan and let the UK/USA deal with Germany. If Germany is stupid enough to keep attacking Russia and spreading themselves thin, they’ll collapse even faster.

With Japan, try to keep them out of any territories bordering Russia. If Japan is ignoring Russia mostly and focused 100% on India, move some infantry down to India. If it takes until round 5 for Japan to get India you’ve done your job. If I see India’s going to fall, I pull back the troops to Persia, then Kazach or Caucuses.

If Russia’s struggling use the UK forces to back up Russia. Russia has to stay alive. If Russia is fine, the UK India forces can head to Europe to take out Germany.

The USA should be totally focused on Germany.

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog I started playing first as Allies because I hadn’t played the 1942 edition before. I have played the original version a lot in the past. When I played that, the Allies had a big advantage. I didn’t really know this was a different version until I started playing it and saw all these new unit types. I thought Allies would be easier, so I started with that. Didn’t know it had an advantage for Axis. Seems ahistorical.