When I play as Germany I attack bold on G1, like most. I don’t worry too much about my fleet or navy. Every turn I get one fighter and however many other inf/art pairs I can get. By turn 3 I have a massive wave of planes, inf, and artillery that the russian player really gets mad at.

Ok lets take what we know about the major powers of World War II and create a “how could” and “what if” discussion out of it.

Main Axis Powers:
Germany, Italy, Japan

Main Allied Powers: USA, Britain, and the Red Army.

What do the allies have that the Axis does not? A hell of a lot more production and manpower. Maybe not Britain as much as Soviet Russia and the United States.

Soviet Russia and the USA’s industries were pumping out thousands of vehicles, and their populations supported large amounts of infantry, pilots, and vehicle crewman. Soviet Russia had moved its industries back further into Russia when they knew there was a possibility of invasion. United States was virtually in no threat of being invaded by either side and was probably fairly confident they could defend against a ground invasion from Japan/Germany if they were actually crazy enough to try it.

Britain’s industries were not as large as USA’s or Russia’s, but Britain was on a practically impregnable island that would of been a hell job for the Germans to take out. Also, Britain’s industry was being supported by the USA.

Take the contrast: The Axis Powers.

Germany and its industry was relatively small in comparison to the United States and Russia, both of which were already beasts in terms of manpower and industrial power. After Germany had control of mainland Europe, it provided a nice boost in industry to them, but most of it was being drained away on the Eastern front, because despite what the Germans could do in terms of manpower and industrial capacity, they still couldn’t match the Soviets who had practically every non-combat citizen working 16 hours a day making everything from small arms rifles to assembling tanks.

Italy was relatively small in terms of population and size compared to the rest of the major allies. Its army lacked motivation when it came to fighting, lost morale when it took a beating in North Africa, and had neither the civilian support, industrial capacity, nor population to manipulate in order to continue fighting a war over Africa.

Japan started fighting because it lacked resources to start with. Its primary goal was to build a war machine by conquering the resources of China, East Asia, and the Dutch East Indies. It was spread all over hell on islands, lacking both manpower and resources to properly supply all their forces. When in a conflict with the beast of manpower that China was able to summon (Not necessarily organized and/or equipped manpower, just pure manpower), and in a conflict with the United States which was now coming across the Pacific, what hope did the tiny Island nation really have to outproduce the USA?

My point being, could the Axis really have had any hope to actually win the war when the industrial capacity and manpower was favoring the allies? I mean, no one was touching the United States other than the Japs taking some islands, therefore the United States factories would’ve been operating at full capacity for years had the war dragged on that long. Germany started conscripting young boys and old men into its army for god’s sake while the United States was still receiving volunteers.

We never invaded Japan, but had we successfully landed on one the islands, and Japan not surrendered, we would’ve eventually been fighting Children and Old Men there as well, with fresh recruits pouring in from the states, being properly equipped by huge industry, and heading off to the fight.

Discuss.

Hehe hell we can’t even do operation torch correctly. Sicily would have to be its own zone so that we could invade it separately and Italy would be divided into more zones.

So…… there was an American battleship left alive from a naval battle in Japan’s one sea zone. I built a fleet there, I know what hte rules say about that… America ended his turn, and as japan I ended up buying more ships, only one seazone I could put them in… soooo… yeah. Nothing messed with the battleship.

Russia had its bomber over there for some reason… it attacked my fleet… Would the american battleship be able to attack as well? Technically the rules say multi-national forces can’t attack together, only defend when attacked… but the russian player argued that the battleship should be able to defend itself.

LOL. Ok, I understand everything now. Thats really…. well… ok nvm… lol.

So I’m planning (considering Japan has the first turn and will most likely kill my fleet off the coast of Hawaii), so send the remainder of my fleet with the one transport and two infantry to the Solomon Islands (You can get there the first turn). My starting 38 IPCs will go into 2 transports, and 3 destroyers.

The general plan is to have the Jap fleet chasing me all over hell while I keep building my own fleet, I’m want to liberate all the British islands that used to be Indonesia and try and steal/gain what bonuses I can.

My problem is I have no idea what to do on the Eastern Coast and in the Atlantic to help the Soviets and/or UK over there.

Good strategy by Imperious Leader.

I happen to buy eight infantry, as stated above, but I decide whether or not to send Infantry to China depending on how badly that Chinese Player wants China. If he is not going full force…… then I just send everything towards the Germans.

What exactly does KGF stand for? From what I can understand its a strategy but what is it?

Thanks in advance.

@a44bigdog:

The Chinese fighter starts in Yunnan which borders French Indochina. Japan has 2 infantry and 3 fighters that can strike Yunnan round 1. There is no reason for Japan to let this fighter live and every reason for them to kill it round 1.

They CAN, but there are other things they also may want to attack instead of a chinamen and a fighter…… such as both the American and UK fleet in the pacific/indian sea theaters.

@Woodstock:

@MasterChief096:

I have seen Japan roll China quickly and take India… it upped their IPCs enough to have three battleships with various cruisers/destroyers/subs/Aircraft carriers w/ fighters… Very very risky if the United States focuses on putting Pressure on Germany/Italy.  IMO, UK needs to consolidate its African forces to Egypt, blow up the German Fleet, and industrial bomb Italy. Italy doesn’t start with a lot of IPCs, thus making it repair its factory each turn really hurts their effort, and hinders their ability to leave Italy/Balkans.

That does seem to be the way to go for the Allies, but you are painting a very positive picture.

United States should fully focus on Japan. If the US is throwing enough Pressure on Japan, Japan worries less about taking China, and more about defending against the US.

USA going for Japan, wont be making Japan take on China any less. In J1, japan can get enough units positioned to take on China. Without any further investment on this front, Japan should easily make it to Chinghai before being stopped there.
By then, Japan’s income will have outgrown USA’s, especially if NO’s are in play.
If USA wants to pose a threat to Japan, they need to invest EVERYTHING. And as others stated, without USA help in Europe, the European theatre will heavily benefit the Axis.

Russia needs to pump  out infantry each turn, and not worry about anything. Russia needs to bleed German forces and force the Germans to defend with valuable ground units.

German’s production > Russia’s. The only advantage Russia has, is the sheer amout of attacking units from the start available, and the long way from Berlin to Moscow.
Only INF’s for Russia, will be their death. Over time, you will lose your attacking units, as Germany is constantly pumping out tanks and fighters.

My point being, if you hinder Japans ability to gain a lot of IPCs,

How?

and you trap Italy in Italy…

UK focusing on Italy, and no USA help? Germany will have a field day, and even possibily set up an effective Operation Sealion.

you beat the Axis. If you put a bomber in Alaska (I’m not sure yet) I think you can industrial bomb the hell out of Japan.

2 transport’s shucking from Japan to Alaska = a dead bomber.

Which should let you have an edge over them with IPCs,

Not an edge. Maybe get on par at best.

allowing your fleet to become more and more larger than Japan’s Each turn. China STARTS WITH ONE FIGHTER,

which is dead at J1

this is immensely import to keep alive. It makes taking China a bit harder.

Eventually the UK and secure Africa, invade Italy, get reinforced by Russian Infantry, and bomb Germany. This in turn lets the Soviets advance into Poland. You have basically thrown Germany into France, Northwestern Europe, and Germany…. (assuming you sent some Russians to get Norway/Finland. Bam, you beat the Germans. Russians attack the Japs from China, UK starts invading the Asian islands, United States sends its fleet to the sea Zone Japan is in, hindering Japans ability to actually defend its islands from the UK. Russia garrisons the borders of China… and I guess you can get crazy and start building a fleet at this point but whatever.

I am not saying your strategy is bull, in fact, it is very feasible, but you are neglecting everything the Axis can do aswell.
With an Axis player just sitting there, doing nothing, it might work, but believe me, the Axis can do enough to hinder your plans.

1. Meh, forgive me for not knowing out to break up quotes……

2. Its just what happened in my game as allies… I was trying to beat 3 Jap battleships, 2 carriers, like 8 subs, 4 destroyers, and 3 cruisers I mean seriously I was like, “WTH?” Japanese turn comes first… and they are set up so perfectly for some early victories. They can take a couple Chinese provinces right off the bat, hit the UK fleet in India, hit the crappy small US fleet near Hawaii and ignore the one off hte coast of California.

3. If you get a couple tanks to garrison the Chinese frontlines along with that single chinese fighter they start with, Japan must devote a lot more to taking China, which is further made harder if the US is invading Islands.

4. Germany’s production is 1 greater than Russia, and the benefit Russia has is that it places its infantry all over the place. If you don’t get shoved back to Moscow I’m pretty sure you can afford 8-10 infantry per turn… you can place 4 in Caucasus just in case Italy gets ambitious, 2 in Karelia, and the 4 in Moscow. The key is to keep your starting units alive, the tanks you start with and the little tiny Russian air force (fighter/bomber) are good to attack with, as they will allow you to easily dispatch some Germans in an area you attack. Russia was who I was doing best with because the German player failed to kill my airforce and tanks that I started with, and my mass infantry hordes just took hits as my tanks/airforce dealt out the damage. I pushed German back to Poland WITHOUT the help of UK/US. UK’s fleet got blown up so it couldn’t do anything lol… so it went and bombed Italy a lot.

5. By garrisoning China with a couple tanks or getting more US fighter support there. I got long range aircraft my first turn as US so I was able to get like three fighters to China before htey took those Russian territories. The UK can usually easily invade Burma with its 3 infantry/fighter against hte Japs 1 infantry and then gain a bonus as well.

6. You said yourself Germany has to throw ground units towards Russia… A lot of htem too if they are attacking, because while infantry hit on 1s they defend on twos, lots of german casualties in the east… not to mention if you SBR Germany as UK you are screwing his economy up (I also got rockets as UK… and I managed to get an AA gun to Norway…, I was making him Dish 15-20 IPCs each turn to repair his factory… I was slowly but surely winning.) If the UK sends an invasion fleet into Italy, It would take German infantry two turns to move there to react unless they have mechanized infantry, and if they diverted troops from the Eastern front to go liberate Italy and/or Balkans, it just gives the Russians more breathing space.

7. I usually have a couple infantry, a tank, and a fighter in Alaska, so those two transports wouldn’t equal a dead bomber :D… Don’t leave it undefended of course!!! :)

8. Depending on how the UK is doing in the Pacific theatre, an edge should be more than likely. I can’t remember the exact value of Borneo or the East Indies… but I know they are worth decent amounts to the Japs… and are relatively undefended but by a couple infantry. Really easy to cut off Japanese income if you know what you are doing.

9. How does the fighter die right away? I have never seen this happen… It doesn’t start on the front lines (it starts in Yunnan), and there is an infantry with it. The most the japs should be able to throw at it is an infantry and maybe a fighter, which both odds are more in your favor… unless rolling really goes bad.

10. Yes yes of course the Axis player can hinder my plans, but the game would be amazingly boring if they couldn’t right? I mean… well… you get the picture… lol. I actually like when my plans are hindered and I have to re-think everything or die… hehehehe.