Hey Rommel,
Be happy to play against your Red Line any time! That should generally be stoppable… Germany just doesn’t have the firepower early on!

Yeah, if you move a lone trannie into a sea zone occupied by anything… even just another trannie, the attacking trannie will lose, cuz a defending trannie hits on a “1”… an attacking trannie cannot attack…

So the battle would go… Attack - no attacking pcs. Defend - roll for a 1. (probly miss). Repeat, till you hit.

That is by far the best method to use to get a good feel for how a battle round will turn out. (adding up the fractions). If you want an overall percentage of who should win, then you have to go into permutations.

Example, take a very simple battle: 1 sub attacking 1 sub defending.

Sub A hit: 1/3
Sub A miss: 2/3

So 1/3 of the time, the attacking sub will win right off. Now that doesn’t mean it’s a 1/3 matchup!

Now you get into the IF-THENs…

If Sub A hits, (1/3) then it’s battle-win for A.
If Sub A misses, then B gets to return fire…

Sub B return fire hit - 1/3
Sub B return fire miss - 2/3

Now sub B only fires IF sub A missed, so they’re dependent results, and you have to multiply the probability of A missing, by each of B’s prob’s of hitting or missing on the return.

So we have…
A hits… 1/3 (or 3/9 for ease of comparison, later)
A misses (2/3) and B hits (1/3)… 2/3 x 1/3 = 2/9
A misses (2/3) and B misses (2/3)… 1/3 x 2/3 = 4/9

So,
3/9 of the time, A will win.
2/9 of the time, B will win.
4/9 of the time neither will, and the battle will reroll.

So for decisive outcomes, you have 3/9 A win, vs 2/9 B win, or 3:2 odds. 3:2 odds means that 3/5 times A will win, and 2/5 times B will win.

So it is 60% A, 40% B.

That’s a very good battle for A, as 60% of the time, the final outcome is likely to be a win, provided neither side retreats, and there is some result eventually. (it could in theory go on forever in eternity, but assuming there is some result eventually, it’ll be 60% / 40%.

Wow, good move for a rookie to figure out! That UK tranny is good for “blocking” the Phillipines tranny. So did Japan go for India anyways? they can still hit it with 2 infantry from FIC and 2 fighters / bomber…

To all those who say all this junk about the game being 95% allies, and therefore it’s pointless to play the Axis in a “normal game” without bids, STOP!

It is only 95% in the clubs, which have analyzed the game to a point where they know the predetermined optimal strategies! How long did we all play the game before bids, when it was a boardgame, and the Allies won like 60%? Not 95%?

These are newbies writing out here… instead of saying “Don’t play a normal game, that’s futile – You should adopt a bid and play by my club’s rules” why not just answer their quesions, and let them learn?

Newbies -

For newbies, the game is VERY even because you won’t make the Allies work together very efficiently when you first play them. That’s sort of the “coming of age” with A&A… when you realize how to make the Allies work together, and you can win consistently with them, THEN, and ONLY THEN should you move up to playing a “bid-type-game”. You have to know WHY this bid thing exists, and you only get that by learning how to be good with the Allies. The 8-yr-old example someone gave is really extreme. Any player who hasn’t analyzed the game on an online-club level will not play the Allies optimally, and thus it’s a very even game!

The Axis are much easier to play when you’re new, cuz of the powerhouse strength they each hold. As a new player, you should focus on that. Use Germany to move in force to Eastern Europe, and keep a big threat on Karelia. Use your BB and Tranny to shuttle guys to Africa, and hit Egypt on turn 1 with guys from your Tranny & Southern Eur. Hopefully you’ll capture Egypt fast, and then the rest of Africa on the 2nd turn… That will give Germany a big income, which will be hard for Russia to deal with. Unless the Allied players are skilled at how to Retake Africa, you could end up controlling it for most of the game!

With Japan, be aggressive! Try to conquer as much of Asia as you can. Don’t worry too much about the US, or if they’re building a Navy. Focus on what makes the money - territories. Buy lots of transports, and keep the infantry flowing to the mainland. Don’t buy an IC right away. Stick to infantry & transports. 2 trannies can bring over 4 inf per turn, and costs 16. An IC can only produce 3 inf per turn, and costs 15. So you can see trannies are the way to go.

This is a tough gamble.

It really depends on how R1 & G1 went. If Germany did poorly or average, then UK should go the usual route of trying to build a navy, retake Africa from the west, and invade France / EE.

If however, G did particularly well, and maybe killed all the UK boats, then it’s tough for UK to buy a Navy, if it could just get blasted again… then they have to come up w a new plan.

The India IC is risky… UK has to go all out to hold this, including putting their tranny off FIC (French Indo-China) to block the Phillipines tranny.

2 UK infantry, and 1 fighter tho is risky. Japan can hit that on round 1. (2 inf from FIC, plus 2 fighters & a bomber can all reach India!). If you knew ahead of time this was your plan, then you could play for it by hitting Manchuria hard with Russia on R1, and landing the other R fighter (after using it to attack Ukr) in India.

So R kills one J fighter by capturing Manch. That, combined with the 2nd R fighter going to India can allow UK to hold India on its first turn.

On the 2nd turn, Russia will have to hit Manchuria AGAIN, with the infantry that moved out from Evenki, and 2 fighters. The UK fighters from the UK on UK1 went to Russia… then on UK2, they can attack FIC, or just fly to India for defense. UK will now build 3 inf in India, plus 3 ftrs defending, and they’re pretty strong.

Russia tho is now paper thin on their eastern front, so it didn’t come cheap. Also, Russia has to send all future builds (and eventually pull back their fighters, too) to fight Germany, who will be threatening Karelia from G2.

Combine this with a US IC in Sinkiang, or a US navy / pacific strategy, and it can be quite strong…

UK is the most fun to play… They have influence all over the board. The other nations are all localized.

Wow, are there really that few A&A gamers in the bay area?
What about other war games? Civilization?
Speak up! Game on!

Anybody out there in the Bay area? San Jose? I’d love to find someone local to play instead of always online… it’s just not the same w/out the board all set up, a six pack of beer, and then realizing you’re out of beer and need more cuz your game’s goin on 4 hours… :smile: Lemme know if yer local! poobaloo@hotmail.com