Russia: Aggressive or Defensive turns 1-4 (w/ Bid of +/- 24 IP for Axis)

In the forums here and at GTO, I have often read that the general consensus is that the allies had the advantage in Revised, but the axis have the advantage in Spring 1942.  I read of leagues where every game started with an allies +6 bid.  Everyone I play with (offline) feels the allies have the advantage in both, with the exception of one friend who feels the axis have the advantage in Revised.  I have begun to warm up to the axis in Spring 1942 lately, but I don’t know that I would go so far as to say they have the advantage. In my circle of family and friends, I am the most experienced A&A player. I know I ought to expand my horizons and play against some better players, thereby giving me the opportunity to learn more. Regardless, here is my question:

Do you think the Axis truly have a real advantage in a casual game without a fixed time limit, or is it only an advantage in a tournament setting with victory cities being the first deciding factor? I see it as clearly possible, if not probable, that the axis grab India and/or Karelia without losing any of their VC’s and time runs out, even if the allies are stronger militarily. The allies could be positioned to trounce the axis in the following round or two, yet lose because the axis hold 7 or 8 VC.

What are your opinions on the matter?

If you feel the axis have the advantage even in a long game, please explain why (perhaps citing a bit of your typical strategy). And please, let’s avoid the sarcastic joke strategies that have plagued some threads.

I think this strategy has a lot to recommend it.  Playing as Japan, my first turn objectives are as follows (roughly in this order):
1. Destroy the fleet at Pearl Harbor.
2. Take India.
3. Destroy the Indian Ocean fleet.
4. Take China.
5. Take Alaska.

If the main British fleet links up with the small Australian fleet and adds a fighter, it’s going to take a huge force commitment to destroy.  Tough to pull off both #1 and #3 in this scenario.

@Viceroy:

@kcdzim:

…
A) 1 sub, 1 bomber, 1 fighter to the north atlantic UK BB & transport
B) 3 fighters to the Med UK cruiser
C) 1 bb, 1 transport (loaded) to the Med UK destroyer
D) Amphibious assault from said transport, plus a fighter, a tank, and an infantry against Egypt.
E) Attacks on whatever territories of Russia are important or weak, depending on what they did.
…

Each battle may be rolled in any order though strategic bombing missions and naval battles in seazones with an amphibious assault are always prior to any other attack on those affected territories. In this case, C is ALWAYS rolled before D.

Once all battles have been rolled and completed, you move onto Non Combat Move phase. You cannot have another round of combat after this, so you cannot for example (as germany again) have a battle in West Russia and then attack Moscow with those units that just had a battle in west russia - all combat moves are done, and then all battles are done. Effectively, all combat moves are simultaneous and then all battles are simultaneous.

Other than amphibious assaults, there should be no point where you stage battles (attack one territory in order to attack another territory).

yes but for an opening turn the transport cannot be loaded, there fore this couldn’t happen.

Sure it can.  You can load a transport, move it, and unload all in the combat movement phase, even in the first turn.  Germany does start with a transport in the med and a bomber (bb) capable of reaching the UK destroyer to take it out clearing the assault for that transport (which you load from france).

Great, I WAS right!  :-D

Thanks for the help!

One thing about translating NA’s from AA50 would be Italy.  Without Italy, the NA’s would be in favor of Allies.

If you want to play AA50, use the AA 1942 pieces and IL’s big AA 50 map and download the rules from WotC/AH website.

Not sure about the techs.  Paratrooper would wreck havoc as the board is smaller than AA50 and LRA and paratrooper would allow you to reach almost any territory possible.

As for being bland, I would have to disagree, AA 1942 (AAR with AA50 rules) allows for different strategies, (not sure about a bid as it’s still new and people haven’t had enough time to play with it.

Play with it first before modifying.

Good gaming.

With Germany, I will be attacking the USA atl fleet first turn with a submarine.  I will be positioning my air force to ensure that the allies can not land in Europe or Africa the first turn (easy to do this time, since i will only need 1bomber and 3fighters in range to wipe out any first turn joint allied fleet that decides to move to africa).
With USA and UK, I will be buying shit tons of Fleet Defense, which will delay my landings by 1 full turn.  Russia is going to be in a tight squeeze because of this.

Russia and Japan will be played pretty much the same, except that russia can count on any support through africa being 1 turn late.