• this is my question.  have any of you thought of buying one fighter per tern with germany.  after the one fighter buy what you need to buy.  after a few turns germany will have several new fighters.  to me this does two things.  one provides protection however limited from an allied navy in the atlantic, and can provide cover with the russian front.  what do you all think.

  • 2007 AAR League

    I’ve thought of doing it. I believe some people have done it. Germany with 6+ Fighters seems like a very good plan. I will have to do it one day.

  • 2007 AAR League

    http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=5491.msg108567#msg108567

    for a plan that basically involves more Figs/Bmb at the start,  but the main argument for it can be made for 1/turn as well…

  • 2007 AAR League

    That used to be my strategy for germany before I switched to the Carrier buy.


  • I think it depends on the situation.

    1 fighter a turn for Germany CAN be sound.

    It can also be UNSOUND.

    Queen takes Rook is a good move if your opponent has no counter.  But if Queen takes Rook is followed by King takes Queen, you probably just got messed up.

  • 2007 AAR League

    A strong Luftwaffe never hurts.

    Unless there is no army or navy to fly over….

    Generally speaking, I do my very best to never let the fighter count drop below the 6 Germany starts with.  If I anticipate combat that will cost me fighters, I purchase pre-emptively. For those times when my Combat move may require a fighter to die to keep that loaded transport alive or get the last surviving ground unit to place a flag, I buy a fighter.

    Fighters are the ultimate offensive weapon.  They work on land or at sea.  They don’t stick around to get killed by the counter attack.  They can be in Africa one turn, Russia the next, and the Atlantic the turn beyond that.  Properly supported by ground fodder forces or expendables transports, they can save your butt.


  • Many of the games I have lost I squandered my air power early (in addition to other mistakes also, but I still squandered my air)…


  • Very true.  A stack if INF is nice.  A stack of INF with a couple of FIGs for an anchor is deadly…


  • The thing is, those fighters offer a good bit of flexibility, but not an AWESOME amount.  There are really only so many places to pop those fighters, and depending on what you’re doing, they will be more or less useful.

    If you base fighters at Western Europe, you can protect some coastal territories from invasion, while also strafing territories that are pretty close to Germany.  If you base fighters at Norway, you can hit that sea zone northwest of UK that the Allies often use to hold their fleet at early.

    But if you base at Western Europe, you cannot hit most of the vital territories like Caucasus, or West Russia, without at least having to base your fighters at, say, Eastern Europe on the following turn.  The fighters just don’t have the range.

    And if you base at Norway, your fighters are vulnerable to attack, which means that you’d have to keep infantry back from the front lines to protect them.  Even if your fighters are not vulnerable to Allied transport attack, they are pretty expensive, and will have a hard time sinking a unified Allied fleet.

    This is not to say that a fighter a turn is a bad idea.  But I think it better to see which way the Allies try to go before committing to a fighter a turn.  If the Allies are gearing up for a KGF, a fighter a turn can be pretty solid.  If the Allies are gearing up for a KJF, I would want infantry, artillery, and tanks instead.

  • 2007 AAR League

    @Craig:

    @Baghdaddy:

    Fighters are the ultimate offensive weapon.  They work on land or at sea.  They don’t stick around to get killed by the counter attack.  They can be in Africa one turn, Russia the next, and the Atlantic the turn beyond that.  Properly supported by ground fodder forces or expendables transports, they can save your butt.

    They can also be a nasty defensive weapon when properly positioned with the appropriate amount of ground troops.Â

    Fortress Europe lives! :evil:

    Craig

    I’m not as crazy about fighters on the defensive line.  Yes, they are really good at defense but I won’t let them be part of the defensive line unless their inclusion in that line makes is <5% vulnerable.  Fighters are simply too expensive to allow the enemy to determine when you have to replace them.

    I prefer to keep them further back and use them with the secondary defensive line to retake WEU or NWY (or whatever).  This means I’m trading Infantry for that invasion force (usually an Arm/Inf mix) and if I manage it right I can also pick off the amphibious fleet too.  Matter of fact, given the option of retaking WEU or sinking 3/4 of the allied transports, I will always sink the transports.  WEU can always be recovered next turn but those transports get expensive quick.


  • @Baghdaddy:

    @Craig:

    @Baghdaddy:

    Fighters are the ultimate offensive weapon.  They work on land or at sea.  They don’t stick around to get killed by the counter attack.  They can be in Africa one turn, Russia the next, and the Atlantic the turn beyond that.  Properly supported by ground fodder forces or expendables transports, they can save your butt.

    They can also be a nasty defensive weapon when properly positioned with the appropriate amount of ground troops.Â

    Fortress Europe lives! :evil:

    Craig

    I’m not as crazy about fighters on the defensive line.  Yes, they are really good at defense but I won’t let them be part of the defensive line unless their inclusion in that line makes is <5% vulnerable.  Fighters are simply too expensive to allow the enemy to determine when you have to replace them.

    I prefer to keep them further back and use them with the secondary defensive line to retake WEU or NWY (or whatever).  This means I’m trading Infantry for that invasion force (usually an Arm/Inf mix) and if I manage it right I can also pick off the amphibious fleet too.  Matter of fact, given the option of retaking WEU or sinking 3/4 of the allied transports, I will always sink the transports.  WEU can always be recovered next turn but those transports get expensive quick.

    I agree about the last bit, where going for the trannies would be better in the short term than getting WEU back.  I once had 9 ftrs and  a bber and went after a fleet of 1 BB, 1 dest, 1 sub and 6 trns.  I did NOT lose a single aeroplane in that engagement, and killing that fleet helped me out majorly.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    I do the Luftwaffe thing periodically.  It’s good in the fact it forces teh Allies to spend more on capital ships or keep their fleet consolidated allowing you better ability to exploint Africa or Asia (Since a consolidated fleet cannot be in both places.)  Even if you force them to buy more transports and warships, you come out ahead as they are no squandering their economic advantage while giving you even more punch on strafes.

    Problem is, fighters cannot take land.  That means you’ve dedicated fighter purchases instead of tanks.

    I think it’s better to go 2:1 Fighter, Fighter, 2 Armor, Fighter, Fighter, 2 Armor.

    Armor gives your advancing units stability.  Fighters give your defenders stability.


  • I’d have to agree with Jen there a bit as well.  If you buy just all fighters and inf, and use your fighters as “flying artillery,” as someone said, then sooner or later you’re going to run into a well placed AA gun or two that might make you think otherwise about sending in the screaming sirens of psychological torment.  That happened to me when playing Weekend Gamer one time.  We traded WEU for about 4 or 5 rounds before he finally just sent in an AA Gun after capturing WEU.  I wasn’t too keen on losing a part of my anchor for Germany’s defense.

  • 2007 AAR League

    @General_D.Fox:

    I’d have to agree with Jen there a bit as well.  If you buy just all fighters and inf, and use your fighters as “flying artillery,” as someone said, then sooner or later you’re going to run into a well placed AA gun or two that might make you think otherwise about sending in the screaming sirens of psychological torment.  That happened to me when playing Weekend Gamer one time.  We traded WEU for about 4 or 5 rounds before he finally just sent in an AA Gun after capturing WEU.  I wasn’t too keen on losing a part of my anchor for Germany’s defense.

    Well, yes, that stupid AA gun sucks biggus dickus.

    Gotta keep some ground crawlers handy to deal with those pesky things.

  • 2007 AAR League

    Hmm.

    At the cost of 5 IC, is a handful of AA guns on the front line an easy way to minimize a player who depends on flying artillery?

    If your own tactics stick to arm, art, and inf, the indestructible AA gun does not slow down your offense even if it is captured.  Put an AA gun with every stack of forces and let the airplanes fall out of the sky!


  • @General_D.Fox:

    I’d have to agree with Jen there a bit as well.  If you buy just all fighters and inf, and use your fighters as “flying artillery,” as someone said, then sooner or later you’re going to run into a well placed AA gun or two that might make you think otherwise about sending in the screaming sirens of psychological torment.  That happened to me when playing Weekend Gamer one time.  We traded WEU for about 4 or 5 rounds before he finally just sent in an AA Gun after capturing WEU.  I wasn’t too keen on losing a part of my anchor for Germany’s defense.

    Yep, you gotta get AA guns in place to protect your stacks.  But even AA guns can’t always save you.  Jenn has found that out in our little NA game we have going on.  German air has annihilated two Russian stacks in a row DESPITE THE PRESENCE OF AN AA GUN!!!  But without the AA gun, it probably would have been even worse.


  • WG, I take it you had those flying stukas that shoot on a 5 in the opening shot?  Yeah, my friends and I played with NAs and my n00bish friend who rarely plays Germany got that and went and sliced through most of my forces like a lightsaber through armour.  It really sucks when you don’t even have one fighter to stop that death by air raid!  :-o


  • Actually, I WISH I had the flying Stukas.  I stupidly selected those IPC-sucking subs that do nothing but suck IPCs out of Germany!  :lol:  4 subs purchased x $8 a sub = a whole mess of land units I could use right about now.  :-P  Those subs did shave a fair amount of income from Britain and the U.S., but when you’re buying only 8 infantry a turn as Germany, it’s like your moving in slow motion or something.  Freaking Russia was going crazy in Europe because I had too little fodder to be aggressive (until recently, that is).

    I think I’ll start a thread on NAs, come to think of it.

Suggested Topics

  • 14
  • 2
  • 15
  • 6
  • 29
  • 7
  • 2
  • 5
Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

33

Online

17.0k

Users

39.3k

Topics

1.7m

Posts