How do you respond to this German opening?


  • The game starts out with 12 Axis fighters and 11 Allied fighters on the board.

    The side that loses parity in fighters with their opponent is often the one that loses the game.


  • I don’t find that to be a good indicator at all, Aretaku. There are reasons to lose or build extra fighters, but neither has a direct positive correlation with which side is actually winning. UK might overbuild fighters to compensate for a big German navy, but just because the Allies now have so many fighters more than the Axis doesn’t mean the Axis is losing. Equally is true if if the Germans sacrificed most of their airforce but reduced the Allied transport system to ashes. While the Axis would have lost parity in airforce, that doesn’t mean they are in a losing situation. It might take several rounds to get the transport system back into place, while Russia is alone against 2 nations both double its income.

    I also don’t think having too many fighters is very helpful. Usually you only need to trade in 1-3 territories, and you hit a very quick limit on extra fighters being useful. Fighters are also absolutely horrendous for advancing in territories, and are at AA gun’s mercy. They are a great way to supplement infantry like Jen said for trading territories, but you pretty much have enough to start with to do that already. More fighters is most feasible for Russia; UK has to build them to counter German navy and US might build extra ones to complement their 3x3, but Germany and Japan have plenty enough to trade territories as it is.


  • You use fighters to trade territories, and you start with enough to do that on the opening board. The only nation that might not have enough is Russia, and Russia is precisely the nation that can’t afford their price tag very well.

    I’ll continue to laugh at the claim that fighters are “the best investment in the game”. Infantry have that title. The only time I find myself buying fighters is to counter a naval threat, so that after I eliminate the threat at least I’m left with units that will be useful instead of floating there doing nothing for the rest of the game, or the turn before I plan to invade a capital because they’re the only unit that can make it from the production zone to the target in one turn.


  • We all know the numbers. Attack 3 defend 4 move 2 10 IPC.

    Beebs is right that fighters are not good on the numbers.
    Jen is just saying fighters are good for trading territories.

    Because the game is not head on (like, being asymmetric), its not easy to get to the situation where a tank army ruin a weak army with over spending on fighters. Allies simply has more IPC.

    Western Europe IC, yeah that came up to my mind too when I was looking down the path of German fleet union.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Realistically the game starts with:

    2 Fighters for Russia
    5 Fighters for Germany (1 Killed in Ukraine before Germany starts)
    3 Fighters for England (1 Killed in Egypt before England starts)
    6 Fighters for Japan
    3 Fighters for America (1 Killed in China, 1 Killed in SZ 52 before America starts.)

    8 Alliance Fighters
    11 Axis Fighters


  • British BB and TRN SZ 12. US TRNs and DST SZ 12. No fleet unification G2. The Russian AF might even decide to clean up what the Brits didn’t get with their AF in SZ 5 on R2.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Bigdog,

    There’s a carrier and two fighters in SZ 5.  England’s not attacking it with any measure of success.

    SZ 12 fleet unification results in a lot of dead Allied ships since Germany has a battleship, submarine, transport + 5 fighters and a bomber coming at them.


  • Due to the currrent NAs my F-T-F partner has I have faced a CV and SS purchase SZ 5 the last 4 games. On average UK gets 2 hits and looses its fighters and withdraws. I never said what UKs purchases were, it might have been 2 replacement fighters. Doubtfull I would toss the Russian AF at the remnants but I just might.

    The Germans also most likely lost the med sub taking out the UK battle ship. Sure the Germans can take out the Allied SZ 12 fleet, but at a cost of probaly a fighter or two. The US AF will be taking down the BB. Also all those fighters that just went after the allied navy did not head towards Russia.

    I really think not attacking Egypt G1 is horrible.


  • For purely naval attack the submarine at $8 A2 D2 First strike is better than fighter $10 A3 D4. For defense too (if figuring the cost of the carrier).
    $72 = 9 subs        9 hits, A18 D18 First strike
    $72 = 2 car 4 ftr  6 hits, A14 D20
    But fighters (add-on to fleet, even massed “alone”) are pretty good from friendly coasts.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Tell ya what, Bigdog.  I’ll play the axis with 3 IPC bid, only naval purchases for Germany in rounds 1 and 2 and I promise not to attack Egypt on round 1 with Germany, just to see how well your fighter strat works out with England/Russia.

    Okay?


  • I accept your challenge Jen. I haven’t played yet on the forums but I think I have what is needed. Again I think the proposed Axis strat will leave the Axis in worse shape than the Allies.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    @a44bigdog:

    I accept your challenge Jen. I haven’t played yet on the forums but I think I have what is needed. Again I think the proposed Axis strat will leave the Axis in worse shape than the Allies.

    No problem.  Let’s just see how it goes, shall we?  I only recently started even building German navy, let alone building A LOT of German navy.

    Do you have Abattlemap or MapView?


  • I have both but have used neither so I kind of need pointing in the right dirrection to get things going.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Okay, since you’re a blank slate, let’s use ABattlemap.  The pieces are kinda funky, but it lets you see much more of the board at a time then Mapview, which makes my life easier.

    To open mapfiles you’ll have to open the battlemap program, then look for the file you want to open from File>>Open.  You cannot just double click on the downloaded folder.

    Generally speaking, players use Saudia Arabia for cash on hand.  We just use flag control markers.

    Bid of 7 IPC will be 2 Infantry in E. Europe, 1 IPC to Japan.

    Oh, you should open a new thread in the games in progress section of the boards.

    Just something like:

    Russia 1:

    Buy - 8 Infantry

    Combat Moves - 1 Infantry from Caucasus to Ukraine

    Combat Results - Ukraine held without loss

    Non-Combat Moves - Fighter from Karelia to England

    Build - 8 Infantry in Russia

    Collect - 24 IPC

    (Those are ridiculous on purpose, they’re just for demonstration.)


  • @Cmdr:

    Tell ya what, Bigdog.  I’ll play the axis with 3 IPC bid, only naval purchases for Germany in rounds 1 and 2 and I promise not to attack Egypt on round 1 with Germany, just to see how well your fighter strat works out with England/Russia.

    Okay?

    Well, to be fair, he was proposing what to do against just a CV purchase (or possibly a CV+SS), and now you’re proposing $70+ worth of extra navy.

    Although two turns of pure navy building sounds like an invitation to get Russia walking right over you.

    Anyway after further thought on the subject I think the appropriate response is to build navy with the US, and build purely fighters with the UK. Unite what you’ve got navally in SZ 8, on US1. When Germany unites their fleet on G2, you probably need to retreat yours so SZ 1 or 2, because you won’t have enough fighters yet to bring it down. Germany would then probably need to move the fleet to the Mediterranean to outrange the fighters, and a German fleet in the Mediterranean doesn’t really provide much of a threat, but your fighters will still be great for assisting future land invasions.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    That’s my portion of the test.  Can I keep England and America out and leave it just me vs Russia?

    Also, I put the bid to Japan, instead of Germany to balance not taking out Egypt, which I think is what he said was a death knell for the Axis.

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