Standard Tactical/Strategic Advice

While I admit I do not follow all nine steps myself, I will also admit
that nearly every game I have ever lost of Axis and Allies, Axis and
Allies Revised, Axis and Allies Revised enhanced and the other flavors
of Axis and Allies has been because I have failed to abide by the nine
laws of warfare listed below.

It should be noted that these are
similar to the nine laws officers of the military learn to incorporate
and the same nine laws that most businessmen learn when attempting to
earn a business degree. However, they apply just as much to the game
as they do in life.

I am going to try and avoid using
acronyms or abbreviations in an effort to make it understandable to
everyone, not just regulars.

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Axis and Allies, the strategy:

1. Objective: Direct every military operation toward a clearly defined, decisive and attainable objective.

In
other words, do not get bogged down in inconsequential theaters of
operations. If England builds an Industrial Complex in Madagascar, do
not get into a war to capture it if your over reaching goal is to
conquer Russia. I have seen too many games where some out of the way
territory becomes the focus of the war and the players seem to have
forgotten that the goal is to take the other team’s capitol territories.

2. Offensive: Seize, retain and exploit the initiative.

Easier
said then done, I know. But true none-the-less. Basically, the
concept is to put your opponent on the defensive and keep him there.
This allows you to dictate what pieces will be sacrificed, what
territories will be traded, and what avenues will be open to attack.

3. Mass: Concentrate combat power at the decisive place and time.

Almost
everyone knows this already. You bring your forces together so they
can attack at one time (even if coming from different territories) to
disable your enemy’s armies as fast and decisively as possible.

Honestly,
I am going to say that it’s better to let certain territories go
without being attacked if it means you can bring more firepower to
critical battles. There’s mass of force both on the offensive and
defensive and if you can win with more survivors by avoiding other
battles, depending on the board position, it may well be within your
best interests to leave them prosecuted.

Just for example, if
you can attack Ukraine, Belorussia and Karelia but the results would
most likely leave a counter attack with a 40% chance of success or you
just attack Ukraine and leave any counter attack with only a 10% chance
of success, it may be better to hit only Ukraine and leave the other
two territories unconquered.

4. Economy of Force: Allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts.

How
often have you played a game where Germany and/or England/America have
dedicated literally hundreds of IPCs worth of Navy, Air Force and
Armies to the conquest of Africa? How often was it necessary? Africa
is a secondary effort. It’s great income if you can get it relatively
uncontested, it’s not so important if it drains you of the resources
you need to win the war (Berlin or Moscow depending on which side you
are on; generally speaking.)

Same with Operation Sea Lion (the
German Amphibious Assault on England). Great if you can pull it off,
but keep your eyes on the objective {see number 1}.

5. Maneuver: Place the enemy in a position of disadvantage through the flexible application of combat power.

The idea is not to destroy your enemy’s armies, per se, but to negate their effect by getting them out of position.

For
instance, the Japanese may have the strongest navy in the world, but if
it’s in SZ 15 and not in SZ 60, it is not defending against the
Americans in the Pacific very well, is it?

Germany may have the
most tanks and planes in the game, but if they are all locked in W.
Europe defending against D-Day (Consecutive English and American
invasions of W. Europe from England/Norway) they are not helping
Germany defeat Russia.

Russia may have a 300 IPC army on the board, but if it’s all in Europe it is not stopping Japan from advancing.

All
of these are examples of out maneuvering your opponent. You can do
this with the “rope a dope” trick where one nation sets up easy wins
for the enemy in a consecutive order to move them out of the way, or
through threats to the enemy’s rear forcing them to either allow you to
win on that front or dedicate valuable resources to stopping you. This
works best if your threatening force is not locked up trying to
maintain the threat; for instance in the W. Europe/D-Day example. In
that example, America and England are shuttling forces to Norway from
England allowing them to have forces in both Norway and England that
can simultaneously attack W. Europe on any given round.

6. Unity of Command: For every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander.

This
comes into play in team games only. You and your teammate(s) need to
sit down, establish an over reaching objective, short term objectives
and then appoint one player to be the “commander” for all forces. This
commander will coordinate the nations so that everyone’s tactics work
in concert to reach the alliance’s objectives. This commander should
be able to see the big picture so he can sacrifice where sacrifice is
needed and rally reinforcements where strengths are needed.

7. Security: Never permit the enemy to acquire an advantage.

Once
you gain the initiative, you need to endeavor to keep it. I used to
use a football analogy when training officers who were junior to me in
military tactics. It’s like the center grabbing the other guy’s face
mask and every time he attempts to look somewhere else, he shacks the
mask. If that does not regain the opponents attention, then the center
can give the guy a kick to the rear.

Basically, the idea is too keep your opponent focused where you want him focused. This will force him to play your game.

8. Surprise: Strike the enemy at a time and/or place and in a manner for which he is unprepared.

I
cannot even count the number of games that have been lost due to
players falling into the same traps and playing right into their
opponent’s strong points.

If your opponent is really good at XY
and Z, then force him to play AB and C. For instance, your opponent
has the formula down pat for the transport mechanism to get troops from
North America and England to Europe with the most efficient speed. You
know this before even starting the game. So why let him do it? Set up
a German navy, building on what you already have, and throw a wrench in
the works.

Your opponent has moved the Japanese navy into the
Mediterranean Sea, but you were able to take Egypt and thus close the
Suez Canal preventing their timely escape. Why not put a carrier, 2
fighters and a transport in SZ 55 and raid the islands in the Pacific?
You can always bring them to Europe instead of Japan goes nuts building
submarines, and it’s doubtful that Japan would expect that maneuver.

You
think you can do serious damage to Germany’s defense at the cost of
England’s army, but you know that America will have time to build up
and eventually win each round and by draining Germany’s infantry you
can free up Russians to defend Moscow, why not do it? Not many players
would expect England to throw away 30 IPC worth of units a round to
kill 4 or 5 infantry, but if it furthers you towards your objective,
then there is nothing wrong with it, and the surprise alone would be
nice to see on his face!

9. Simplicity: KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID!

Complex,
intricate plans fail more time then they succeed. Keep the plan
simple. If you are going to attack Japan, then attack Japan, not
Germany. If you are going to attack Russia, then attack Russia, don’t
build fleet to go attack the British.

Most plans can be written on the cover of a matchbook. If it does not fit on the cover of a matchbook, it’s too complex.

 

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Obviously
the above are my personal opinions. And, as I said before, I don’t
ALWAYS follow my own advice. Then again, as I also said, when I fail
to follow my own advice, I almost always fail.

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Edit 1:

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One
should always perform a SWOT analysis before finalizing any combat
moves. SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat.
Try to run this both for yourself, and from your opponent’s
perspective.

If I invade Ukraine with everything I have,
can I be destroyed? If I am destroyed, will my opponent destroy
himself? If he destroys himself, can I recover faster? Based on his
previous game play, will he attempt to destroy me? What can his
ally(ies) do to me if I fail to defend well?

Category: Axis & Allies Revised, Strategy