USA in uk

If the Germans have a fleet, they can attack up north from SZ 112 (threatening Karelia, Novo, Arch, Nemestia), there has to be a specific LZ for the fighters to cross which you can threaten or deny as long as you have attacked them on G2 or G1.    Fighters crossing the med have a slow time of it.    Maybe some help can come in the form of making it more inconvenient for the UK fighters to get into Russia in the first place?

I also dislike blowing the Russian NO by having allies hanging out in Russia before its abs necessary, but that could be pretty early in the game.

“Sea Lion”  if the USSR has a fleet and Novogrod, they can keep this threat alive for a long time.  No matter what I want to do with UK, I usually end up buying 6+1 and bringing as many Canadians across as I can.  If I lose any significant ## of fighters, UK has to continue to worry that Germany can bring wave after wave of attackers, which keeps me conservative.  This is why the Gibraltar air base or crossing to Russia early would be difficult;  I don’t have enough fighters to protect UK and project threat.  Once they cross to Russia, they cant cross back…

“Get Cairo”  That sounds awesome but with a UK bid of 10, its not going to happen.  If Germany and Italy build/rebuild navy and try to control the Med, that’s a subtle win for the Allies.  Navy is resource intensive and takes away the armor punch described by the other posters.  Without an added commit, I just don’t see how the Axis can take Egypt at all, there are just too many UK pieces around there.  Germany can fly or bring ships down there but its a 1 way trip, into a dead end trap, and its away from the critical path (Russia)

“Tan Skies”  you are on the right track;  if UK has 6+ fighters it is kicking butt, if not, it feels cornered and powerless.  The key for the axis is to do the strongest opener that doesn’t invite any scrambles, then the UK navy is dead and Germany has most of its air left.  The UK also doesn’t need to lose any (many) fighters during its opener, other stuff can take the casualties.  Its especially good if the airforce from Taranto lives to fight another day (by avoiding the Italian counterstrike, we hope 1 sb 1 French inf 1 tac 1 fighter on Syria?)

The transport shuck is good for flexibility, by like was said earlier, it has risk with air attacks.  If I was investing a lot into the med, I would have an airbase in egypt with planes to help protect.  Maybe a destroyer in the Red Sea to assist as well.  Mechs and Tanks tend to be less costly to set up and will be very useful, especially if you are building constantly out of SA.

@ghr2:

But Germany’s air can help give italy cover.

Instead of hitting both z110 and z111, Germany might choose to go for just z110 and sink the French fleet and Yugoslavia.  Look at the med if Germany hits z106, z91, z93, z110 and puts off sinking the z111 crowd til G2 (with 3 subs, cruiser, carrier, planes).  It almost forces UK to do Taranto.  z92 is no safe spot without the French fleet and not enough blockers to prevent a landing in Transjordan. If they hit Taranto the Germans will scramble to save the Italian planes, then Italy counterattacks and might just get NOs for no allied ships in the med and South France/Greece/Gibraltar on the very first turn.

The key to this approach is a G1 build of 1 carrier, 2 subs, save $2.  Don’t use artillery in yugoslavia.  Earn $68 and you will have $70 in hand to build 10 transports if sealion looks good after taranto.

Japan actually won on turn 5

Well yeah, that is what happens when usa builds stuff in the atlantic when Japan is snatching up NOs. Like you said the -38 does not kick in till round 4 when you are parked off east usa. Plus it is not -38, because you gotta roll your convoy damage and very rarely does that max out.

Sure USA makes -38 or whatever, but from a big picture of the long run… it is really insignificant when Japan flops out.

btw, question; do you prefer the axis because you think they are better with perfect strat, or because you think it is easier to not lose the game to mistakes?

in most axis games I have played, the allies have been the harder side to play, but they have also been the stronger side. for me it seems like the playtesters have not been skilled enough to play very good, so they have concluded with that the allies need more help. then when the game is released, the game will be fairly even when people play it the first time, but later the allies will will, because learning how to play them gives much more strength than learning now to play the axis.

If I played the same every single game, I would be bored out of my mind. Axis have more options than allies and are the ones in the most control of how the game develops.

To answer your question. I prefer axis because of 1) fun 2) if you get diced throughout the game, you can always just go for the win. 3) axis have to perform or they lose especially if usa is going full pacific (puts germany/italy on the clock for africa and russia).

Did I mention that the allies are boring? Axis do this -> allies got to do this. Axis indirectly control the outcome of what you do and the impact or effect you have on the axis doesn’t come to mid/late game.

Everyone’s axis 1-3 purchases and moves are always the same. HMMM I WONDER WHY. I mix my stuff up depending on my mood and who I play against, but most people have a set way of doing things.

I have a set way of doing this as the allies depending on what the axis purchases / strategies are.

Example sea lion feint -> 1-3 inf rest artillery/mech/tank russia buy. usa 3 bomber 2 dd or 3 bomber 1 carrier. UK 9 inf 1 art.

I always hit 97 and the sz below it as uk, i hate getting diced in one of those spots, because it sets me back a whole round, but the outcome is very good when you win… even if he did not scramble outcome is still good, because you do get to convoy italy… if italy sinks it, he has less stuff than germany so you get to fire more than 1 round typically and that means the french fleet can move.

germany can’t move his naval to take gib or morroco or take uk if japan wants to war round 2. If he does this and puts japan off another round, japan is screwed in pacific, that’s so much income for uk pac and anzac and japan income is put off from being big another round.

so it is an ultimatum the axis face. best move is to just shuffle in the baltic and go barb, let japan explode. Sometimes japan waits to war and I lose UK. That’s fine. I bought offensively with russia and usa. I am ready to push romania push yugo push northern italy and push into rome with my russians. usa can always land air units to help hold. it is beautiful and it is awesome.

The only time I enjoy allies is when germany takes UK over, because the run for italy with russia is too funny, plus I bought plenty of time in pacific by making japan wait till round 3 to declare war… so I don’t have to buy anything for pacific till round 4.
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in all fairness the guy could not scramble 97 if he wanted 80% at UK. he also had to buy more naval to defend against 2 fighter and 3 bomber from usa the turn he took uk over (so he had to drop 3 destroyers down off normandy)… I think he also bought infantry for germany and air to hit usa if he moved up. he took uk with only tank 2 bombers and a tactical left.

I pulled the pacific fighters into the atlantic side of the map. so I held yugo because of the UK air plus usa bombers. USA moved by gib the turn uk got taken with 4 fully loaded carriers and that starting cruiser the round london fell and it got sunk so germany had to get carriers off normandy to land his air (this was where his london income went to and infantry/art for germany/west germany.

So I had a fun push for yogo at 55% chance to defend. He attacked because it was the only way to save italy. the first round of attack did not go well other than I lost my bombers for usa so in terms of total unit value he was up, but he couldn’t continue or risk germany being taken… So yeah I took italy when he got to liberate it, europe was a mess. Was a pretty cool game, the most fun I had as allies.

most of the time russians just hold romania for some time. usa liberates uk eventually. blah blah you know how those games go.
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I do like to play allies when I see that no one online knows what the hell they are doing as allies… I’ll take it.

@Jeff28:

Is there any way to save the french ships in sz 93?

No.  Italy goes before France, therefore, unless Italy decides to ignore the ships, they are dead.

The “only” is implicitly on page 20 of the Rulebook, as that is the only place in the Rulebook that taking control of an allied power’s territory is mentioned.  In the absence of any other rules regarding taking such control, one may assume that it’s the only way it can be done, since no other provision is made for doing so.

@FieldMarshalGames:

:?  Seems the purpose of my thread is completely lost…

Oh, well.  interesting and funny to read

Very funny indeed!