• given the skill gap between plyrs are not too great, u cant dream of gaining the upper hand in each theater of conflict.

    therefore u have to set your goals (ie how to win this particular game) as early as possible and utilize everything u got for a maximized effect.

    but the downside here is that your opponent can do the same - understand what your goals are n try to utilize everything he/she has to deny your goals

    the trick here (especially for axis) is to try to keep your options open as long as possible, and striking at your opponents weak points.

    the following g1 open is done, according to this general strategy:
    (keep in mind this is optimized for ll)

    purchase:
    2 trans 1 carrier

    combat:
    2 subs to sz106
    2 subs, 1 ftr, 1 tac, 2 bmbrs to sz111
    1 sub, 1 bb, 3 ftrs, 3 tacs to sz110
    every land unit in range to france (7 infs, 4 mechs, 3 arts, 6 tanks)
    6 infs, 2 arts from southern ger, plus 3 tanks, 1 ftr to yugo, retreating to romania after 1st round of combat (getting 4 hits)

    noncombat:
    landing 1 ftr 1 tac to sz112
    yugo ftr plus poland tac to southern ita
    landing rest of air to w ger
    cru, transport to sz112
    2 denmark infs to norway
    1 norway inf to finn
    1 romania inf to bulg
    2 slovakia infs to poland
    11 infs 3 arts 3 aa guns from ger to poland
    2 aa guns from w ger to ger

    so now u r optimally set to see what allies have to offer, and strike where they are weak. u can

    a) go barbarossa g2,
    b) go sealion
    c) go heavy africa

    -u ll get france probably only losing infs

    -if going for barbarossa, usa / uk wont be able to use normandy factory so u dont have to exchange normandy so no need to have a defensive stack in france late game. if going for sealion u can get normandy 2nd round np at all

    -other than going sealion (if the allied response in first round was inadequate) with the help of 3 transports:
    a) u can stack baltic in g2 (100%) and grab novgorod in g3 (100%)
    b) u can grab morocco and/or gibraltar in g2 (given uk doesnt block sz110 with enough to deny ita can open), getting in range for sending transports to sz98 in g3
    c) can do both giving ussr doesnt optimally threatens a baltic attack

    -with 2 ger air in southern ita u get to choose to save 1 ita ftr.

    -with a strong sealion threat u force uk n usa to purchase n move accordingly.

    etc etc

    so to sum up, the basic idea is to keep your options open, to get ready to hit any weak spots u can see, n to force your opponents to play without too many options avalaible.

    always keep in mind: if u can force your opponent to choose between 2 or more relatively bad moves, u r winning the game without him/her even noticing it.

  • TripleA

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Standard G1 play, Sometimes Yugo dies in dice games, which is fine.

    Other play include inf/art/mech/tank combo on germany round 1 and a barb commitment - this is acceptable as well, but I prefer standard play.

    I think most players fumble with Japan. Yeah, this is a low luck optimized strategy, it is good for dice games though.
    ~

    Well, this is great, now when people play gargantua’s tournament they will know what I will do before I do it. I am japan they know I am crazy and I do J1 DOW. I am germany, I will probably do standard g1, because of the moo options.


  • actually yugo dying vs 3 tanks is not fine at all, since it hurts your odds for stacking baltic in g2

    so if it s dice I either send no tanks at all for a grab or 3 infs 3 tanks for a lighter strafe


  • btw after reading so many things about yugo/romania facs or g1/g3 barbarossa, didnt really think there was a consensus on g1

  • TripleA

    soulfein, most players are not cows that place 3 artillery up top. You can still hold :)


  • playing with the assumption that your opponent s a noob who will let u stack anywhere u want is not too nice :))

    u r probably right tho, but u also know I do tend to play safe.


  • My optimal G1 is as followed:

    buy: 3 artillery + 6 infrantry and put it on Berlin.

    Take south of france with 3 mechs and 1 tank(this gives the germans a foot in the meds). Put all units in range of Paris to attack Paris, backed by 2 tactical bombers. Take Finland. Take Bulgaria. Take Yugoslavia with all units in range of it.

    Attack the british fleet at SZ100 with all aircrafts and battleship available and pray to god that UK scrambles so I can take out their airforce. (leave the rest unharmed with my airfoce, I can strike them next round again as I intend to keep all my planes on the western front).

    destroy the DD and transport with subs in range of the coast of canada.

    noncombat all units that didn’t move towards the Russian front.

    All my purchases up to G3 are all infrantry and artillery and on G3 I’ll also purchase mechs, seeing how it goes on the eastern front. Russia is my main objective. I don’t use any planes on the eastern front except maybe for my 2 strategical bombers IF I have enough planes left on the western front the remaining rounds and if UK has something valuable to attack. If they manage to get too much vessels and my casualties would be disastrous, I’ll just let UK sit there and pull back with my planes to Russia. Allies can’t invade at least until US5 (and then my defence would still be way too strong in the West), so I can focus all on Russia.


  • can see some flaws with that open:

    -sz111 and 109 ships can escape, so u wont be able to hit them with your planes on 2nd round.
    -with no ger ftrs in southern ita taranto raid can be done rather easily.
    -with no sealion feint plus easy taranto, uk can drop egy fac on first round, denying africa n middle east to gertaly forever.
    -compared to the g1 posted by me above (g3 novgorod) barb is going rather slowly.
    -risking air to paris aa gun.
    -g2 gib or morocco options can be easily blockd by uk.


  • @soulfein:

    so to sum up, the basic idea is to keep your options open, to get ready to hit any weak spots u can see, n to force your opponents to play without too many options avalaible.

    always keep in mind: if u can force your opponent to choose between 2 or more relatively bad moves, u r winning the game without him/her even noticing it.

    In another expression, to win you need to retain the initiative and keep your opponents responding to you, instead of the other way round :)


  • @Hobbes:

    In another expression, to win you need to retain the initiative and keep your opponents responding to you, instead of the other way round :)

    nicely said :))

  • '16 '15 '10

    Good stuff.  Yeah that opening looks pretty good.

    One caveat I’d add is I doubt 1 ac 2 tpt is the optimal buy IF you intend to go with a J1 DOW.  I figure a J1 DOW pretty much takes the juice out of the SeaLion threat so if J1 DOW is the plan I wouldn’t buy the transports, and maybe not even the AC.

    Soulfein says in another thread that Allies should always hit 97.  But if this German opening went ok (eg 106 cleared), then should Germany go Sea Lion IF Allies hit 97?  The odds on London are probably pretty good for Axis at that point.

  • TripleA

    zhukov44, allies should always sink 97, usa should always buy bombers to cover london, if japan does not war on j2… pacific victory for axis will not happen any time soon so usa can focus on liberating london completely.

    russia should always buy offensively when it sees naval purchase from germany. artillery/mech
    ~

    that is where nash theory comes into play. Most players are not familiar with it, but it goes like this.

    germ-> ac 2x transport
    USA-> bomber
    UK -> sink 97 always like it should.
    g2 -> decide to take london at the expense of japan not being able to war on japan 2 or go barb
    J2 -> depends on germany

    However we know with certainty what outcome is best for axis as a whole, germany goes barb.

    If you want to further incentive germany away from sea lion, the ruskies can stack up pretty nice and hit poland/romania/whatever that other spot is. big stack east poland.

    russia should always move as many from nov to belarus as possible (usually the whole thing goes, bare minimal defense for it)

    G2 will always go barb, because not going to war on japan 2 is really bad. That is why America bomber play is awesome.

    Also if germany does go through with sea lion, italy cannot sink all that naval alone… especially if no scramble occurred in 97 (you may not scramble because you need the fighter for london attack).

    Anyway yeah, uk should send 2 fighter 1 bomber down to 97 from london, seal that deal. use cruiser and fig to hit the spot below it. the naval by egypt all ins 97, odds are 94% for dice game if he scrambles that you win otherwise 99.google%

    The japan set back is huge, usually sumatra and java goes uk pac 1 anzac 1 . anzac buys tran inf. new guinea then celebes goes to allies, you get blocked on all fronts. sometimes uk pac and anzac DOW you for the bonus money.

    Now taking india is near impossible, anzac be rich enough for awhile.
    ~

    Some people believe in the Sino japan strategy for this reason. because he’ll at least get russia money up top without bringing usa into war… but this needs to be decided on J1.

    In which case USA does not care if london falls or not to begin with anyway… the sino russian japan strat pretty much says, “I am not going for pacific win.” So split buy usa 1. then you just split income, you just provide the necessities to convoy 97, and later help uk defend fleet to get london drops for normandy/holland income. pacific should be smooth sailing. Even if russia goes, you got a 2nd russia, called uk pacific to wall off egypt.

    Either way, there is no good outcome.

    That is why I believe in japan 1 DOW, the way I do it. G1 can sea lion feint … it is not like shuffling men from germany to nov is bad, it does bump inf/art up… not to mention you do get some good options with it.

    the weakness about j1 DOW, is uk can get that minor complex on egypt and still defend london and still max power sz 97 (usa fig from iceland and 5 bombers to london). Most people aren’t that ambitious though.

    All things considered, this is still the most optimal germany play in the beginner to mid tier range of players, because most players will not understand anything I just said. some prefer slight alterations, but any alterations must involve baltic states G2 and novgorod hold G3 in other words you can skip the feign if you are getting 6 mech/armor units. Japan DOW 1 only gives real for sure certainty to USA’s london reinforcement, instead of Nash theory certainty (which UK already had to begin with). The main property of this is to hold novgorod round 3, the fein just screws up beginner-mid tier players from doing less than optimal moves it should do anyway, all things considered based on nash theory.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium

    Yes some people have this game down to a science already. I still hate you soulfein for posting this, because I was looking to pick up easy wins in garg’s tournament. That is ok, I will work for my wins.

    Some people insist that usa bombers round 1 is bad, but the bombers are not for SBR, they are for italy airbase, killing italy units in africa or italy naval, sniping japanese inf off of china, pacific play sometimes, sniping mech/tank from germany… etc etc. They end up being very effective. Plus they got use on their first round, deterrence.


  • @Cow:

    the weakness about j1 DOW, is uk can get that minor complex on egypt and still defend london and still max power sz 97 (usa fig from iceland and 5 bombers to london). Most people aren’t that ambitious though.

    @Cow:

    Yes some people have this game down to a science already. I still hate you soulfein for posting this, because I was looking to pick up easy wins in garg’s tournament. That is ok, I will work for my wins.

    but at least I was nice enough to wait for posting uk1 egy fac counter to j1 dow :)

    ps: after our lil playtest, found a decent enough g1 open. is also well suited to be coupled with a j1. problem is, it s optimized for ll, and really open to dicings in dice games. so not entirely convinced if it s worth it but still d like to playtest vs u.

  • TripleA

    Yeah I noticed, huge difference in dice and low luck games. Can still do it in dice, but it can make you sad.


  • i some times like to use the poland tac on france G1 so i can peel off a tank and 2-3 inf to hit normandy aswell.  the aa gun is only 1/6 chance to hit, so the odds are still worth it me thinks.

  • TripleA

    still not a big fan of that, much too conservative and 2 ipc doesn’t do anything. Still have to buy a destroyer if I want to do sea lion anyway… can’t buy all transports otherwise you look silly when 5 subs defend england against sea lion.

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