@Carolina:

US War Time Production: To show the isolationist attitude of the US towards the war in Europe, change the 20 IPC value of USA to a variable amount.  With increasing provocations from Germany on US interests before entering the war, the calculation includes an increase for each turn.
The variable calculation is; 8 + Tn + 2d6, where Tn = turn #.  At point where US enters the war, the latest calculated IPC count of US will be fixed for USA going forward.  (US can hold until after turn 4 to declare war in an effort to possibly improve the IPC value).

Interesting house rule, my group will try something like that next time we play.

I’ve always been confused about production speed in all flavors of A&A games … it takes 1 turn to build infantry and 1 turn to build aircraft carriers and battleships … seems like it should take longer for the USA to build a navy than it does for the Russian Empire to draft conscripts.

Even without Italian can-opening, simply retreating all the way to Moscow is a dangerous play.

When Russia does this, I use the Luftwaffe to attack territories behind the front lines that only have 1 INF defending them. Helps clear them out quickly, allowing me to blitz through and it frees Italy up to focus on Cairo. I don’t like Italian can-opener strategies, Italy needs to be challenging the UK in Africa/Middle East, not just helping in Russia.

As Russia, you need to know a lost cause on the front lines and trade territories for turns while fortifying Moscow, but you need to push back too. If Germany has one giant stack of ground units, you need to be pushing back with mech infantry trying to rush “past” it into Germany’s original territories (Romania, Poland, etc). There are IPC’s + Russian NO’s to claim by taking German territories, even briefly.

A smart German player will bypass Moscow to go claim the Russian territory with the +9 NO and then start pounding on Moscow. Russia needs to fight smart, but they can’t just collapse into Moscow and hope that they can hold the Alamo … they have to actually fight back.

Allowing your opponent to mass his forces in an attempt to “destroy them all at once” inevitably means you take more casualties. You want to wipe out defending stacks in as few rounds of combat as possible.

Scenario 1: 6 tank stack vs string of defending infantry
Turn 1: 6 attacking tanks vs 3 infantry = 3 hits vs 1 hit … win rd 1 with 5 tanks remaining
Turn 2: 5 attacking tanks vs 3 infantry = 2.5 hits vs 1 hit … win rd 1 or 2 with 4 tanks remaining
Turn 3: 4 attacking tanks vs 3 infantry = 2 hits vs 3 hit … win rd 2 with 3 tanks remaining

Scenario 2: 6 tank stack vs one big 9 infantry stack
Turn 1: 6 attacking tanks vs 9 infantry = 3 hits vs 3 hits … round 2 of combat, 3 tanks (1.5 hits) vs 6 infantry (2 hits) … round 3 of combat, 1 tank vs 4 infantry … attacking tanks wiped out

You win battles in A&A by massing firepower. You lose by allowing your opponent to mass firepower. Withdrawing from the Med and allowing the Italian Navy to mass in one location increases the chances you don’t get back into the Med. Poor play by the UK.

Absolutely horrendous play by the Allies. I would understand if the game had a ‘fog of war’ mechanism, but there’s no excuse for the USA to ever lose their capital before the end of the game. There’s simply no way to land an ambush invasion fleet in Washington. Horrendous play. Funny story tho.

In my experience, Allies have a significant advantage in hemisphere games because the USA doesn’t have to split its forces.

Counter to Stalin’s “not one step back” order, Russia needs to retreat; if you give away 6-8 infantry per turn trying to defend useless forward territories with no IPC value, you make it impossible to ever build a big stack. Withdraw all but 1 INF from forward territories, give away Kiev and fight hard to defend Leningrad, Stalingrad and obviously Moscow. Russia should be able to trade territory for time and have an enormous stack 30+ INF by about turn 4.

If Germany build one big stack, there should be holes to counterattack and retake certain territories. If Germany build multiple army groups and try to attack north and south at the same time, you should be able to hold those stacks off. Don’t get flanked and lose your NO +9 territory (the one east of Moscow) but as long as you don’t let Germany pick off 6-8 INF a turn trying to defend stupid stuff like Bessarabia, Russia should be able to stall long enough for the US to land in London or Morocco.

Don’t like Global 42 but 1914 would be good. Keep me posted.

New to the forum, name is Will and I’m in the Cambridge/London area of the UK.

Like to play Global/Eur/Pac 40 and 1914.