When do you attack Egypt?

@Sherman

Just to nail this part down, I went ahead and pulled the exact stats for Egypt actually being captured by the Germans with an extra British infantry added in and its 35%:

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You have to convert one tank to a fighter and select “Retreat when only air left”. This will ensure the calculator leaves one of the tanks alive along with the bomber resulting in an Egypt capture.

And if it helps, I have lost as the Allies even after holding Egypt on G1 (I’ve also won games after losing it on G1 but in that case, I feel experience won the day). And after reading your second post, I will say that when I make balance recommendations in the videos, they are very conservative relative to what I feel is the true game state. In other words, I’d rather the game remain imbalanced than go too far with too much for the weaker side. I might also make that more clear in a future video. Anyway, I hope that helps try to convince your group to adopt that second infantry into either Yunnan or Egypt - or even both for a total of three… or an additional bid of some kind.

@leebear I would suggest that if the extra British ships aren’t making a difference then the British player isn’t using them well. If you send the German bomber to Egypt then Britain either keeps both Atlantic transports, or Britain keeps the destroyer and cruiser near Gibraltar.

With two transports, it is nearly impossible for Germany to protect France; Britain can attack turn 1 with 2 inf, 1 art, 1 tank, 2 ftr, 1 bmr, and 1 BB bombard. To protect against that you would have to leave almost the entire German starting army in France, meaning that your front against Russia is in danger of collapse from a Russian counterattack; you can lose your tanks or lose control of the NO for Baltics, East Poland, and Ukraine. If you don’t protect against it, then Britain gets $6 for France plus $5 for the NO, plus the US gets $5, and you can’t land planes there on G2. This sets up a cycle where Brian has enough cash to keep retaking France each turn, which is at least as valuable as the Italian NOs. You can somewhat prevent these problems by having Italy retake France, but that means keeping the Italian forces back from the eastern front, and buying mostly army rather than navy for Italy, which kind of defeats the point of having a strong Italy – you can still lose the Italian fleet in the middlegame.

On the other hand, if you leave Britain with the destroyer and cruiser off Gibraltar and the Egyptian fighter survives, then Brian can attack the Italian fleet immediately on turn 1 with 1 destroyer, 1 cruiser, 1 fighter, and 1 bomber; before Italy has a chance to build a carrier. Britain is mildly favored to win that battle. If you play with any kind of bid, Britain can add a sub to that fleet and become strongly favored to win that battle.

None of this is to say that you shouldn’t attack Egypt on G1…it’s fine if that’s where you like to focus the Axis energy. It’s just that you’re not getting a free lunch, because leaving more than the bare minimum of British ships alive ought to give the Allies plenty of counterbalancing advantages.

You’ll find that the best approach to the Allies is a slow burn. The Axis start off with way more stuff than you, and the 41 scenario just takes that divide to the extreme. It’s best to stay back and slowly accumulate advantage before making your big push. In most cases, defense is stronger than offense in A&A (i.e. INF attack at 1, but defend at 2, and FTRs attack at 3, but defend at 4), so try to use that to your advantage when possible.

One more note for USA. Rather than go straight for Japan’s jugular, try parking the fleet in the SZ that contains the “Solomon Islands” Territory. It’s a nice territory to camp out in with your fleet, as it:

Puts you within 2-moves of Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, Dutch East Indies, and Philippines, the Pacific territories that are either worth a lot of money, are part of NOs, or both.

Keeps you within 2-moves of West US, your spawn point for new units, so new reinforcements will always be on the way and you always have a safe point to retreat to if Japan is too strong for you.

Keeps you more than 2-moves away from SZ63 (Japan’s spawn point for new units), so Japan will never be able to send a large amount of units your way without first spending a turn moving their units towards you (and thus, giving you a hint that Japan is planning on attacking you).

Just food for thought. Of course, Japan has ways to play around you basing your fleet in the Solomon Islands, but that mini-game of fleet positioning is part of the fun of A&A’s Pacific Theater.

@Violent.copper:

To add on to Cmdr Jennifer, You are also leaving the Brittish Navy to Invade the Norway Round 1 or then Sz 5 R2 or R3 overall doing more harm than good to Germany I never want the Allies in SZ5 Personally.

You know, hitting Norway may not be the worst thing to happen to Germany…if you go Fleet Heavy like Functionetta and Emperor Mollari (and many others I am sure) on Germany 1.  Now their ships are in range of yours (you have to hit it from SZ 3).  Realistically speaking, you may have 2 destroyers, cruiser, submarine, carrier, 4 or 5 fighters and a bomber in range of SZ 3 at this time…depending what you did, what happened to you and how you are positioned at the end of G1.

I forgot to mention that I usually play Japan and the american player is new also.  I do know that he doesn’t do too much in the pacific and I know an attack on the mainland from japan will completely surprise him.  I just wanted to check the best way to set up the attack.

I like a late in the game IC’c in Egypt if things are going well.
The last game I played Germany put up an IC in France and was battled to a halt at the russian fronter. Italy did not renforce Afrika that much so in UK 4 I dumped all the forces that should have gone to France in Afrika, The IC  made it nearly impossoble to take and there were about 12 Inf 4 tanks or so and fighters. By this time the Italian fleet fled the Med and threated India leaving the rest of Afrika to be moped up by a very stong UK force. Then Gremay started to make a Navy so I need the navy back at home so to make a good defnce position I made an IC in India and Egypt in turn 6 when my Landing army got there. I really like an IC in that area so you can get what you cant fit on the trasports into the action in a hurry. Like if you lose a good bit of you fleet you dont need to wait the extra two turns to get new ships for the homeland.

hm i was talking about an italian complex in egypt, bought on IT2 ;)  here is what happend.

in a KIF game, G1 took egypt. so yes axis did get italy its 2nd NO and 20+ IPC for one or two rounds but it dindt help. IT was SBRed so heavily there was no point in repairing factory damage. he was basically down to purtchasing 2-3 inf a turn… and with italian navy sunk at round 4 or 5 only a defesive tool for germany ( africa retaken by allies at that point.)

so we have come to the conclusion that italy really needs an IC in egypt to be of any help to germany.  by the time allies have taken egypt and the IC , japan will be there to enter land war against US in africa. an IC really commits one of UK/US to really fight for africa or UK  goes under 20 IPC… this gains time for japan to reach the european theatre, this takes pressure of germany.

if G1 takes egypt, italy can only shuffle about 6 -10 units over to africa before his navy is sunk. plus he cant really produce in italy cuz he needs to repair factory damage.

Thanks guys.

The numbers look fairly even to me.  I don’t think there is much of a question that the Axis start out with the ability to do a ton of damage in rd 1 and can realy put a dent into the Allies.  Germany can smash multiple Russian territories with Russia being limited in countering and Japan can really go crazy.  So I think that the Axis need to severly outnumber them in terms of IPC and do so for several turns.  Remember the supply lines for Japan (to Moscow) have been extended.  I don’t think an Allied deficit of 10-15 ipc per turn is that bad (maybe Axis 120, Allies 105), however, if you get into the 20-30 range for multiple turns then it is bad news.  Anything under 10 can be potentially be written off by dice (ie when one lone inf hits on def, or maybe 2 inf hit out of 3-4, bom shot down due to aa, etc).

So I still think that for the most part the longer the game goes the better it is for the Allies.

I think one of the biggest factors is how quickly can the Allies kill the Italian fleet.  If you get it by round 3 or 4 you are in good shape, anything after that and you might be pressing your luck.