I’m going to have to do some more testing, but it seems hard for the Allies to get troops to Europe fast enough to counter Japan’s surge in Asia.  It will take the US a few turns to have their transports protected.  It will also take UK a couple turns to have it’s fleet secure enough to dump into Norway or Karelia.  Can Russia survive without support for a few turns?

I don’t do a ground surge with Germany right away (instead grab a bomber a turn to keep Allied boats sunk).  You still make 4-5 tanks a turn which is enough to hold your eastern front.  If you simply send 8+ tanks at Russia at turn they will get killed by counter attack because you’re two turns away from hitting.  I’d rather keep Russia’s front line within tank range from Germany IC until Japan has Yakut, China and India secure.  Then both sides advance while the German air keeps Allies away (you can trade Western Europe back and forth and it doesn’t matter anyway).  By that time you have Africa secured and enough to send 12+ tanks into Russia a turn.

Maybe the Med Sea Russian sub idea really swings the African tide and allows US to spend more on convoy defense and less on troops to land initially.

Why do you guys put factories on Asia?  Seems like a waste to me.  Japan only has enough income to buy 8 units for transporting anyway (can increase to tanks and inf later with more income).

If you spend 15 on IC, then you put 3 units there a turn, but you aren’t using Japan IC fully because money shortage.  You gain no movement either (except through China corridor, which will be almost defenseless in a turn or two).  You can drop from Japan to Buryatia which is just as close to Russia as any mainland IC.  why waste 15 IPCs?  I also build no ships until I see US pacific fleet amassed (which rarely happens).  Since you took out Hawaii fleet (doesn’t matter what you lost as long as their’s is gone), they are not within reach for 2 turns.  Only build boats in response to US massing.

I have made India IC though as income increases and you can’t spend all your money at Japan IC.  This allows for pressure on Caucus at same time as northern pressure.  Then I just mass at Yakut and India until I have enough to hit either Russia IC.

As I mentioned in the Axis thread I tried something a little different last time and it worked great.  I used the Asia fighter to help sink the Indian fleet (with the East Indies fleet).  Use the Bomber if needed too.  Sink Hawaii fleet with remaining boats and the fighter on Japan (can land on carrier).  Don’t attack on Asian mainland on turn 1.  Ferry all Japan troops in and expand on turn two (buying transports to a total of 4 and troops to ferry).  Send East Indies fleet through Suez to meet with German Battleship at Gibralter and shut down that corridor.  US won’t bother in Pacific anyway, and if they do you can build a fleet when they are half way out.  The extra boats at Gibralter allow Germany to decimate UK builds with air and ignore US mid Atlantic activity.  This buys a couple extra turns for Japan troops to reach Russia.

I take back what I said about forgetting Africa.  With the new transport rules, it is much easier to fend off Allied convoy’s, especially for the first few turns.  I did some testing (having the new TripleA now) and this is what seemed to work best:

-Take out see zone 2 with sub and whatever air needed.  Leave Canada transport for Baltic fleet as it won’t have much of an escort with sea zone 2 dead
-take out battleship in sea zone 13 with remainder of air that can reach.
-grab 1 inf and 1 tank from Southern Europe, land in Egypt with all land forces that can reach and fighter that can reach from eastern front.
-take Karelia with Norway troops and reserves.
-consolidate on Karelia, Belorussia and Ukraine

Hold Eastern line (trading if need be) until Japs storm in back side.
trade Baltic fleet for any UK1 fleet build
Keep majority of air in Western Europe and buy a bomber a turn (for 3 turns).  Sink everything

Eventually Japan storms in as usual, and it takes 3+ turns for a large enough fleet to hold off Germany’s air.

Another thing I tried was taking the Japan fleet in the East Indies and spare fighters and take out India fleet, then move through Mediterranian see to hold Gibralter with the German Battleship.  This bought an extra turn or two of holding off allied fleet.  You don’t need it in the Pacific anyway assuming you destroy the Pearl Harbor fleet.

It caused me to lose all but Kwangtung on Asia initially, but I ferried so many troops in after the first turn it didn’t matter.  The allies have no supply line in eastern Asia to stop you, and with half the Japan fleet in the Atlantic with the German boats left, it made African and Western Europe landings impossible.  They only thing the Allies can do is Norway landings, which take twice as long from the US.

I’m not sure of a good Allied counter to this.  I did have the PC move the Russian sub to sea zone 2, which helped take out more units in that battle (still only lost a fighter and sub).

@HolKann:

ABattleMap Modules

Intro:
A quick tutorial on using ABattleMap:

• Navigating is done by holding down the right mouse button and moving the mouse.
• Placing new units in a territory is done by left clicking on the desired unit in the ToolBar window, and then left clicking in the desired territory. To place 5 units at a time, hold SHIFT. To place 10 units at a time, hold CTRL.
• Deleting units is done by clicking the middle mouse button on the desired unit, or by changing the mouse function to delete by clicking “DEL” in the upper right corner of the ABattleMap window. To delete 5 units at a time, hold SHIFT. To delete 10 units at a time, hold CTRL. To get back to the default mouse function, click “ESC” in the upper right corner of the ABattleMap window.
• Moving units from from a territory to another is done by dragging them with the left mouse button. To drag 5 units at a time, hold SHIFT. To drag 10 units at a time, hold CTRL. To drag a whole stack of units, hold CTRL+SHIFT.
• Undoing a recent action is done by clicking “UNDO” in the upper right corner of the ABattleMap window.
• Zooming in is done by pressing “+” on the numpad. Zooming out is done by pressing “-” on the numpad.
• Recovering the InfoView and ToolBar window after they mysteriously disappeared is done by removing the “ABattleMap.ini” file from your ABattleMap folder (default: C:\Program Files\ABattleMap).

Sorry if this has been posted (I don’t want to read 17 pages in this thread).  This program doesn’t seem to work great at all.  You can’t do production or anything.  I don’t get it.

So this is in TripleA now?  Where at?  I’ve been trying to test strategies for AA42 by myself, but the transport rules and sub rules make that almost impossible).

I haven’t tried building a German Navy yet (I think air suffices for deterring landings), but I’d like to explore his notion of not putting troops into Africa.  I tried this in my last game.  I had always hit Egypt.  But, unless you continue to ship units there, the US can ferry a lot of troops to Algeria (and eventually to WU or SU).  The US Navy is pretty weak in the Atlantic to start.  Why not take out the British Battleship, move African troops as far west as possible, and make sure the US doesn’t land in Africa.  It will be very hard for them to land in Europe being 2 turns away.

If you take out Egypt at all costs, US lands in Algeria and you divert troops from hitting Russia.

I think you take out UK navy in S2 and S13 (with right air support and battleship 2 hits you likely only lose a sub).  Move Baltic Navy to S6 (within range of any UK1 build).  S6 and possibly S13 Navy takes out any UK boats on turn 2 for sure.  It also saves half your air for G1 attacks at Russia and all for G2 attacks.  It keeps US out of Europe or Africa for 3+ turns and UK off Norway for at least 3 turns.  That is key because it allows you to use the 3 inf in attacks on Russia.  It also allows you to only leave the  starting infantry behind in WU and roll more tanks into Russia.

The maps you guys provided on here are very nice.  However, I haven’t been able to find one with starting units placed at all.  It would be a nice reference when discussing strategy.  I’ve only played this version a few times so far so I don’t have starting units memorized or anything.

Has anyone seen a map with starting units placed on it (at least listed)?  or pictures/lists of the starting placement cards?