• Assume RR.  Also, it might be interesting to what you purchase and where you put these forces.

  • Moderator

    In RR,

    I’ll bid between 9-13, with all new units going to Libya.


  • Same here, all units to Libya. Really, there are only 2 German territories in Africa. I suppose if you dropped a couple of inf in Algeria, it would make a US landing there on US1 more difficult. If you put all 4 inf in Algeria, the allies would have more trouble making their first landing and it would give Germany more time to take East Africa.


  • Maybe I am an idiot, but…

    Why not do 2 and 2?

    Send the original Algeria INF to French West to secure an extra IPC, keep 2 in Algeria to fight off the US landing of 2 INF, or to counter attack a US landing in French West.

    Put the other 2 in Libya, blitz French Equatorial with the tank, and move 3 INF and 1 tank to Egypt.

    Then use the BB and Tranny to kill the eastern med sub and  move 2 INF to Syria, reducing the strength of any UK counter from India by taking Syria out of the mix, and giving them more territories to attack?

    Germany would be +5 in Africa, taking the remaining territories in G2, as well as moving on Persia if Allies did not counter.

    Sure, the Allies are going to take it back, but the build money for Germany in G2, 3, and 4, as well as the additional US forces that will be needed to re-take Africa could help turn the tables in Eastern Europe.

    Of course you can also ignore Syria and go heavy into Caucuses with the navy and let the 6 INF and 1 tank in Africa grab what they can while they can…


  • NCSC,

    Interesting concept, I like this way of thinking as a possibility.

    One reason for not doing this might be that sometimes (and I will often do this) the tank in Norway is taken to Africa in a non-combat move via the Baltic transport once the UK Navy is cleared out.  Thus, there will already be additional defensive forces present and this assumes UK will sink the transport.

    In any event, the money in Africa is located between Egypt and S. Africa and this is where Germany needs to concentrate its forces.  Also, once the Allies do get into Africa with sufficient forces to take it, Germany has the option to back out of Africa into Asia/Russia to assist with the Assualt on Moscow.  Of course leaving the German forces in Egypt, or Syria, or Persia forces the Allies to maintain its forces in Africa as well…they cannot retreat them back to the transports to ship back to Russia if the German forces are still there.  Otherwise Germany can retake Africa and its ipcs again.

    One problem with the BB and trany sinking the UK sub and taking Syria is that the odds are slim.  Assuming the sub is sunk or retreats, you do not get a BB shot on Syria.  2 inf vs. 1 inf is about 67% chance of sucess if I remember correctly.  Its better IMO to take Egypt hard and dare UK to try to take it back when you have more defenders present.

  • Moderator

    Yeah, I too will Non-com either 2 inf or an arm from Fin to Afr.

    With the Syr move I’d do 2 inf and a bom, but that takes the bom away from another attack.

    I also like going to Egy heavy.  If you only go with 3 inf and 1 arm, you may only take with 2 inf and 1 arm, which may indeed open you up to a UK counter, even if you took Syr.

    If I could send 2 inf, 1 ftr and 1 bom and take out the Ger tank in Egy I very well may do that.  Or I’ll just counter Syr instead (esp if I got a defensive hit on G1), and use my bom elsewhere.

    I’ve learned that a US landing on Afr in rd 1 isn’t that great, so I’m not sure I’d worry about it with placing troops in Alg.

    I feel much better with a heavy placement in Lib.  Remember, you don’t have to bring in all you inf to Egy.  If you are really worried you can leave an inf behind and then non-com him to Alg (for defense with an arm from fin).

    Don’t cut down your options by splitting the placement.


  • @DarthMaximus:

    I’ve learned that a US landing on Afr in rd 1 isn’t that great, so I’m not sure I’d worry about it with placing troops in Alg.

    That would be the reason I would put the 2 INF in Algeria: to make sure that the US did not land in Africa in US1.  Both Algeria and French West would be occupied rather than Algeria being left open, so the US would DEFINITELY have to wait for US 2 to attempt to invade Africa (unless it wanted to try an unsupported 2 INF landing against either 1 INF in French West or 2 INF in Algeria)

    To be honest, I mgiht consider putting 3 of the 4 INF from the bid into Algeria, reasoning that I would then have 2 INF in both territories reachable by the US in US1, making the defeat of any attempted US landing almost certain.  And then do as others recommended and “all in” remaining troops plus tranny for Egypt.

    By holding the US off in US 1 combined with sinking the UK fleet in G1, I am almost 100% certain to hold and get paid for ALL of Africa in G2 (depending on the South Africa INF), and will only take marginal losses in G3 (1 or 2 IPC’s) to initial US landings.  That is a LOT of extra revenue for Germany early.

    Relocating the  Norway tank to Africa has never been a move I had much reason to consider.  Whenever I play Germany, my opponent ALWAYS takes out that fleet using Russia sub and aircraft or sub and tranny cannon fodder.


  • @ncscswitch:

    Relocating the  Norway tank to Africa has never been a move I had much reason to consider.  Whenever I play Germany, my opponent ALWAYS takes out that fleet using Russia sub and aircraft or sub and tranny cannon fodder.

    Ya, I also play with Russia unrestricted, and my opponents do the same thing. Our bids are usually in the 20’s though, which is enough to place an extra sub off the coast of France for taking out the British navy. I usually don’t have the option of transporting anyone from Norway to Algeria.


  • @ncscswitch:

    That would be the reason I would put the 2 INF in Algeria: to make sure that the US did not land in Africa in US1.

    I think that DM meant that for the US a landing was not that great, in that it is a weak play by the US, sacrifical for little gain.

    Do you really go to syria with your battleship and transport? I’ve always liked the move, but never had the balls to actually do it. Your chances of winning (and I mean winning with the transport being alive) hover somewhere around 55%. You are giving the axis a 45% chance of trading a piece that is guaranteed to die for little cost for not only the transport, which may be damaged anyhow, but the two inf on board. You would effectively be bidding 6 IPCs less 45% of the time. Not very good odds to me.

  • Moderator

    Yes, aaFiendish is right, I ment it is not optimal play for US to go to Afr on rd 1.  So it is no real threat if they do, and can even be encouraged by the Germans.

    Some reasons are, that US tran is now a dead duck on G2, now the UK fleet may be hittable by G2 as well, also it is an easy counter for Ger esp if they have planes in WE after G1.  Remember this was RR scenerio, so Germany will have all its ships, 5 ftrs, and 1 bom to play with on G1.

    Example (RR with bid of 12 - place 4 inf on Lib)
    Attack Egy with everything, now non-com 2 inf from SE to Lib (or 2 inf to Egy)

    So what is the US going to do?  Land 2 inf in Alg?  G can counter with up to 5 inf (if they non-com to Lib) and a few planes.  Easy counter for G and the US is out 1 tran and 2 inf for no real gain.

    Germany still has enough to take Ken, can still blitz IEA and take that other ter to the left of Ken.  Ger still has all of Afr (except Uosa) by G2.
    And US ended up wasting a tran and 2 inf.

    Relocating the  Norway tank to Africa has never been a move I had much reason to consider.  Whenever I play Germany, my opponent ALWAYS takes out that fleet using Russia sub and aircraft or sub and tranny cannon fodder.

    Yes, you can only do this in an RR game.  Otherwise the Baltic tran gets killed on R1.

    Do you really go to syria with your battleship and transport? I’ve always liked the move, but never had the balls to actually do it. Your chances of winning (and I mean winning with the transport being alive) hover somewhere around 55%. You are giving the axis a 45% chance of trading a piece that is guaranteed to die for little cost for not only the transport, which may be damaged anyhow, but the two inf on board. You would effectively be bidding 6 IPCs less 45% of the time. Not very good odds to me.

    Actually, I don’t do that alot.  But I do consider it.  I’m more likely to do it in LL and RR though.  If I go to Syr, I’ll bring in a ftr with the bb because in LL that is a guarentee hit, so you are safe.  But again you are out a plane for use elsewhere, which is why you need RR, so you have use of 2 subs and a tran (baltic).

    My more typical RR small bid (12) G1 turn would look like this:
    (assume Russia fleet to UK sz)

    UK sz - 1 sub, 1 tran, 2 ftrs, 1 bom vs. allies (or use 3 ftrs instead on bom)
    E Can - ftr vs. tran
    W Med - 1 sub, 1 ftr vs. BB (or 1 sub, 1 bom vs. bb)
    E med - 1 ftr vs. sub

    I’ll attack Egy with 5 inf, 1 arm, pull back in Europe to defend EE, and take the empty ter in Afr.

    Now, I’ll non-com 2 inf (or 1 arm) to either lib or Egy from SE with BB for defense.
    If my sub hits in the W Med, I’ll go there and try to keep my entire Med fleet alive.  UK can still hit it but now they are looking at 2 ftrs, 1 bom vs. 1 tran, 1 sub, 1 bb.

    Usually I’ll lose 1 ftr on G1, but still you come out pretty good, and if you get a Sub hit in either battle you can come out great.  Occasionally I may leave the E can tran, if I really want to try and have all 6 planes survive G1.

    Other options:
    1 - Go BB vs. BB in the W Med and send extra ftr/sub to UK sz
    2 - Go BB vs. BB, send sub to US sz (this kills the US shot at Afr), ftr to UK sz
    3 - Leave the UK bb in the Med alive, kill everything else (possible Syria move here)
    4 - Send 2 subs to UK sz, this is where you can non-com the tran to Alg


  • @aaFiendish:

    Do you really go to syria with your battleship and transport? I’ve always liked the move, but never had the balls to actually do it.

    I don;t play with bids (lacking the RAM on my PC to handle the Java based version of AA available online).  So I normally do the initial landing in Egypt.

    However, on those occasions when I “change up” my strategy and send air support to Egypt instead, I will indeed attack Syria on G1 with tranny, using the BB to plow through the sub.  The odds are highly probable that the sub is going to go “glub”.  And if it happens to hit on the counter, I’ll lose the tranny, and the INF.  I will ONLY attack Syria in a no-bid game when I have bought a tranny for the med as part of G1’s buy; so I have a replacement just in case.  Obviously my version does not work against the mega-stacked Karelia strategy (since it pulls too many INF’s from Europe due to tranny buy and multiple troops to Africa).  But against anything less than the mega stack, it makes for an interesting game that is a bit off the “normal” game flow.

    As far as losing some troops in the exchange… that is kind of part of the game, especially for the Axis… roll the dice and go for it.

    Using the bid-strategy outlined in the preceeding posts, and likely counters, by the end of G2, Germany is going to have all of Africa (perhaps less SA, assuming UK moves that INF to Rhodesia to cut off the tank blitz) plus Syria.

    And if you only single INF the West Africa territories (putting 3 INF of the 4 from the bid in Libya) you could also land in Madagascar in G2 (in addition to grabbing Congo, Italian East and Rhodesia) leaving yourself staged for Persia OR India in G3 AND getting your navy out of reach of those pesky UK fighters that are somewhere in Russian territory…

    Unless of course those UK figs stage to Persia… then you don;t blitz Africa in G2, you send the tank from Egypt through Syria to hit Persia, combined with your INF that survived the Syria landing and 2 transported units, and your BB, and add any fighters from Ukraine or Eastern, and your bomber.  Say goodbye to the UK Airforce :-D  And if they pulled forces from India to Persia in UK 2, so much the better.  Now Japan has India free in addition to being able to follow-up in Persia in J2.

    All in all, risking that sub to get your med fleet into the Indian Ocean in G2 is a damn fine idea; bid or no bid.

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