Hi my friend and I played quite a few games of global when it was version alpha 2 point something and we ran into a problem.  It seems that if Australia built nothing but infantry, tanks, and fighters, to hold it's continent and the US flew fighters to Hawaii along with shuffling Infantry there.  The US could then pull it's starting Pacific Fleet and build to head to Gilbraltar at the first available oppurtunity.  The UK would build 9 Infantry UK1 and then sink the Italian Navy.  This combined with the US showing up at Gilbraltar once it entered the war meant that Italy would be irrelavent.  With the US spending early in the European theater aside from the fighters and infantry that were sent to Hawaii, we found the US could accomplish the objective of denying the Axis the victory cities it needed to win in Europe.  Then the US would race back to the Pacific and deny Japan it's last victory city.

Japan countered this in our games by trying an India crush.  India would fall with the US being in Europe but by the time Japan turned around to head for either Hawaii or Australia they would be total fortesses and the US would now be spending 100% of it's points in the Pacific at this point because it went to Europe first to make sure UK and Russia could now stand on their own two feet. 

In another game we tried having Japan take Hawaii first anyway even with the US putting fighters and infrantry there and they did take it but it required too many Japanese resources.  This meant that India became a fortress and China grew out of hand so again the Axis could not make it to it's last victory city to win.   

We are playing a game again this weekend with the latest rules and now it seems the prevailing view is the Axis are favored and Allies need a bid which seems kind of surprising to me to be honest.  In our games we played about 18 months ago that Allies kept winning no matter who played.  Has that much changed in this version?  Any thoughts on how to counter the Allied Stragedy put forth above?

Thanks for any input.

I would suggest that those who believe the game is broken try to find time to make their case to LH on his forum before Alpha 3 is released.  He is responding to most posts submitted and taking what people say into account.

I tried that.  First with the India Crush, and then Sealion.  I find that while he has a clear idea of how he wants his game to play out, he doesn't have a grasp of how to actually play them.

I agree with you. That said I was hoping if enough people communicate to him that the game is not balanced he might do more than what I think he is going to do which is not much. 

interesting, i just feel that buying infantry whose combat values are 1/2 for 3(so 3 for 3) is better than tanks whose combat values are 3/3 (6 for 6). at least for russia, their main goal early in the game is too defend against germany, and if it looks like germ is gonna do a barbarossa by having all of their stuff on the front lines, its probly better to defend at first.

While I normaly prefer a mixture of inf/art as Russia I would buy tanks if I smelled a Sea Lion coming.  If Germany does a bloody G3 Sea Lion there is a window for Russia to punch into Germany and get a lot of IPCs as well keep the war far from Moscow.  That being said without American intervention Germany can rebound against Russia with all the cash it will have from sacking London.   Now I have never tried a G4 Sea Lion or played against one.  My gut tells me it could be a heck of fight just to keep the Communists out of Berlin in that scenario.   

I meant to say 19 out of 60.  

2/3 still say it is broken for one reason or other.

The more I get on these threads the more it seems that 2/3's of the threads that exist are dedicated to voices stating Alpha 2 is broken.

Everyone seems to have a different idea as to why the game is broken.  That being said the direction the wind seems to be blowing on Harris Game Forums would indicate not very many changes will be made to Alpha 3 unless LH has a change of mind.

I would suggest that those who believe the game is broken try to find time to make their case to LH on his forum before Alpha 3 is released.  He is responding to most posts submitted and taking what people say into account.        

I think it is still going to take a little bit of work to give the Axis close to a fair shake at winning the game. 

I think a little boost to Italy and the minor in Romania for Germany is a good place to start.

As time goes on I think more people will come around to the conclusion that Alpha +2 still favors the Allies.

It took some time for everyone to realize how horribly broken OBB was.  I think the fact that Alpha +2 is heads and shoulders better than OBB causes some people to conclude that it is balanced when it is still fairly broken.  I thought this at first because playing OBB it was not even neccesary to think playing the Allies.  In Alpha +2 the Axis can capitalize against poor play by the Allies and they can also pull off some flashy gimmicks.  Alpha +2 does make the Allies have to think to play effectively.  That being said if the Allies play a tight game and the Axis play a tight game I have found that the Allies will almost surely win and with authority.         

If Alpha 3+ does not address this then bids may be the next best option as much as they leave a sour taste in many players mouth.  Either that or the clamor will grow over time for Alpha +4 to be created.

I few things I have encountered is that America leaves a blocker between sea zone 6 and Hawaii on it's first turn and reinforces the island with infantry and fighters.

Which is why I don't attack from z6!  

Okay point taken yet America can still block Japan USA1 regardless of where they go unless they move their fleet right next to Sea Zone 26.  Yes Japan can do that but it leaves their fleet way out of position to do everything else it is needed to do.

Reading you, it seems Japan always attack early in your games. What I do with Japan is wait until a killing shot to attack... and if none occurs, then I attack Allies on J3, perhaps even J4 since Japan is before USA. But sure thing is, if USA reinforce Hawai on USA1, Japan completly destroy all navy there. A real Pearl Harbor occurs with a devastating 52/22 against a max possibly of 41/16 for USA (Combat value/hit point). z26 would most likely be clear in 2 waves...
As Japan, I also attack Russia on the very first turn, no matter what Russia does at R1.

Usually USA will avoid that sure lost battle. Therefore they just can't go to Gibraltar before USA4... by that time, Gibraltar is well defended, either by Germany or Italy, depending on the game.

IF UK attacks Italy, then UK will also loose all navy... in that trade I find Italy winner.

I few things I have encountered is that America leaves a blocker between sea zone 6 and Hawaii on it's first turn and reinforces the island with infantry and fighters.  The only way to really avoid that is a J1 but I don't believe that is worth it.  Therefore with the blocker in place on US1 that means Japan can attack Hawaii J3 at earliest.  The USA does not reinforce Sea Zone 26 with Navy just the island with fighters and infantry.  That leaves the US free to pull most of it's starting Pacific fleet into the Alantic to get a big head up on crushing Gilbraltar.

Now with the blocker in place Japan has to wait till it's third turn at earliest to hit Hawaii and take it.  At that point there are about  6 inf and 6 fighters sitting in Hawaii.  Everything else is prepared by the USA to smash whatever resistance the Italians and Germans have put up at Gilbraltar.  For Japan to take Hawaii with that many Americans sitting in it they will surely have to forgo getting the money islands.  Yet if they do that UK Pacific and Australia will grow to be quite large.  Now if they don't pressure the USA at Hawaii and go for the money islands that means the US will smash through Gilbraltar and ruin the Italian economy with ease.  Not to mention they can hurt Germany as well.

I also think killing India should be high on the hit list of Japan.  If Japan can sack Calcutta then America must pay attention to them because they are now a threat to win the game.  If Japan focuses on Russia then the USA is free to spend more time in the Atlantic because Japan is not a threat to win the game.  

Also I have tried late attacks with Japan to keep the Allies off of Europe as long as possible but I have found it is just not enough to stop the Italy Stomp.      

Also if I am the UK and I know that the USA is on it's way to stomp Italy first then I will trade my Med Carrier fleet to sink the half of the Italian Navy with 2 transorts/2 German Fighters.  Yes I may have lost a lot of my starting fleet but now Italy will not be able to get resources to Africa/Gilbraltar fast enough and the German Air Force is less of threat to the incoming American fleet.

I don't have absolut strategy with Axe. I won my 4 games with Axe with different players and, therefore, different alliance strategy that I had to deal with.

Reading you, it seems Japan always attack early in your games. What I do with Japan is wait until a killing shot to attack... and if none occurs, then I attack Allies on J3, perhaps even J4 since Japan is before USA. But sure thing is, if USA reinforce Hawai on USA1, Japan completly destroy all navy there. A real Pearl Harbor occurs with a devastating 52/22 against a max possibly of 41/16 for USA (Combat value/hit point). z26 would most likely be clear in 2 waves...

As Japan, I also attack Russia on the very first turn, no matter what Russia does at R1.

Usually USA will avoid that sure lost battle. Therefore they just can't go to Gibraltar before USA4... by that time, Gibraltar is well defended, either by Germany or Italy, depending on the game.

IF UK attacks Italy, then UK will also loose all navy... in that trade I find Italy winner.

That being said, I would enjoy testing my axis tactic, I invite you in a game. As I said, perhaps elsewhere, without playing at least 10 games, no one (including me) can state the game unbalanced. I played over 15 games of OOB Global40 (on boardgame, not here)before saying there's absolutly noway that Axis can win, no matter waht. I challenge any game tester to state otherwise.

Okay I have played all my games in person and never played online.  If you can give me a little help with how to play online I would enjoy playing you.  

I think you have a lot of good ideas to counter an Italy Stomp and I might be able to learn from playing you in a game.  That said I think I have some ideas how to counter your counter

  

@BigBadBruce,

Maybe I just need to learn better tactics but I am finding that if the Allies do an Italy Stomp first while reinforcing Hawaii that Allied victory is probable.  It have used it to great success as the Allies and I have lost a couple of games to the Allies as the Axis due to this tactic.

It seems to me that the USA with the help of the UK can ruin Italy's economy fairly quickly.  By smashing the Italian Navy on the UK's first turn and then sending the American's roaring to Gilbraltar Italy watches it's economy quickly dissolve. When this happens I have not been able to recover since I am now facing all the Allied Countries with just Germany and Japan.    

By flying fighters to Hawaii and using the transports it starts with the US can reinforce Hawaii also.  At this point Japan could take Hawaii if it wanted to but it would have to expend too many resources to do so.  The problem with Japan not taking Hawaii though is it leaves the USA enough time (imho) to wreck Europe enough that Russia/UK can stand on their own 2 feet. When the USA does have to spend heavily in the Pacific to stop Japan from winning the game they no longer have to worry about the Axis winning in Europe.

If I could find a way to win the game quicker as Japan before USA gets back to the Pacific then that would obviously be an effective counter.  Yet to date my Allied opponents have had a pretty good handle of when to stop smashing Europe and turn their attention to defense in the Pacific.

I am not going to say the Italy stomp can't be countered but I will say that I am struggling against it and I have tried a variety of tactics to counter it that have not succeeded.

It just seems to me if Italy was slightly stronger or Russia was a tad weaker then the game would be more balanced.

Yet maybe I just need better tactics    

  

As Japan I keep trying to find a way to ignore China, it cannot move outside its confines, so why even try and fight them?  I'd prefer to send those troops to SEAsia or Siberia.

The only problem I run into is that two victory cities are in China.  On one hand it is really nice to have Japan help in Europe.  Giving up China would free up a lot of resources.  On the other hand I think it is important for Japan to put pressure on America to spend points in the Pacific if the Axis really wants to win in Europe.  If the USA knows Japan can't win the game in the Pacific anymore once China is given up I think they would be free to spend most of their resources in Europe/Africa.  

It seems like there is a general consensus on here that in order for the Axis to win, German must conduct a successful Sea-Lion.

I was wondering if someone who has used this strategy could post exactly what they did, specifically with regard to Germany.
1. What did you buy the first few turns
2. What round did you conduct Sea-Lion on
3. When did you invade the Soviet Union?
4. What general strategy do you do with Germany after successfully completing Sea-Lion (What is the key to beating Russia etc.)
5. What is the general strategy for Italy?
Your help would be much appreciated, and would probably be helpful to others as well.

I have lost many games as the Axis attempting to take out Russia first.   I have now set my eyes on London and Operation Sea Lion.  I did win one game with Sea Lion

1) On my first German turn I bought 1 Carrier and 2 Transports.  On my second turn I built 10 ten transports.

2) I conducted a successful Operation Sea Lion on my 3rd German turn.

3) I stayed out of war with them until they attacked me on their fourth turn. 

4) I used my IPC advantage to try and produce a combination of Units to destroy the main Russian Army.

5) For Italy the game I played they were able to secure Africa with London knocked out then they helped in Russia with Mechs and Tanks/Planes.  The germans were moving in mainly with Inf/Art.

6) Don't forget Japan!!!  I am not entirely sure what is best to do with them in a Sea Lion game but I know they are super important.  If Germany can take London and then Japan can tie up the USA up long enough I believe the Axis can win.   If Japan does not put pressure on the USA to spend in the Pacific in some fashion then the USA can liberate London before Russia is dead. 

Not to my knowledge.  To my knowledge he's only talking about reassigning equipment in the Atlantic and moving the Mexican NO to anywhere else.

IMHO the Axis could use a little more help than that.   

It looks like I will have to go back to the drawing board to find a way to win as the Axis against my friends   Operation Sea Lion here I come!     

That all depends.  You can still choose to move German fighters there and use those, or you can keep your fighters for Germany nad use the Italian ones.

That is true and I did not think of that.  That means when the UK takes it's first turn I get to pick my poison at least

Any word if LH is going to do anything to give Japan a boost?  I would have preferred to see Italy stronger or Russia weaker but at this point I will be happy with anything the Axis get to give the game more Balance.   

I tried a similar move to this before, but i was just thinking... What if Japan comes around south america and takes brazil and builds an IC there?!? Could be crazy...

Well in the plan I was thinking of time is of the essence and if the Axis do not sack Washington they pretty much lose the game.  I am not sure a minor in Brazil would hold for Japan very long with the USA having 3 major factory's a stone toss away. 

Yes, I enjoy it as well.  The talk is relocate Fighter, TB to S. Italy, convert TB into SB.

I think it is cool to save some of the German Air Force and all but that means if UK does the fleet raid on it's first turn Italy will lose most of it's Air Force with most of it's Navy.   

That is a large amount of real estate to lose before even taking their first turn...