• '19 '17 '16

    You are getting to Smolensk/Bransk too late. You should be reaching Bryansk I4/G5. If something unusual happens I could accept Smolensk as an alternative and then going to Bryansk G6 but it isn’t optimal. It’s actually quite important.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    Sounds to me like the loss isn’t so much in the strategy as it may have been in theefficiencies of being an A&A Gamer in general.

    Things like:
    -Are you moving every unit every turn?
    -Are you buying efficiently?
    -Are you leaving units behind to “defend” that don’t really need to be there?
    -Are you exploiting your opponent where and when they are weak?
    -Are you landing planes at air bases and maximizing placement and range and/or using them for defense?
    -Are you maximizing best unit disposition?
    -Are you building mobile units? and deploying MAXIMUM pressure on Russia?
    -Are you inadvertently leaving medium stacks exposed? (groups of 5-7 units in the face of much larger enemy forces).

    Also… how did Japan NOT stomp China if they didn’t get india?  and how did Japan NOT get india? Japan needs to do alot more than hold the coast and a few islands…

  • '19 '17 '16

    Yeah - why did Japan buy a battleship and 2 cruisers? Better to buy carriers.


  • @AxisAndAllies1940:

    Having just finished getting badly beaten in a G40 game as Germany/Italy, I feel like there’s something I’m missing/ doing wrong that causes me to often get beaten like this. I went for a Barbarossa with an Italian can-opener of 4 mechs and 2 tanks. I also sent an Afrika Korps of 1 infantry and 1 tank on an Italian transport to protect Libya from the French and capture French North Africa. Meanwhile, Russia had just been leaving 1 infantry in each territory starting on turn 1, while bulking up Ukraine and Leningrad. By turn 6, when I captured Smolensk and the Italians Bryansk, there were 50 Russian infantry, 7 Russian artillery, 3 Russian fighters, 2 British fighters, the French fighter from London, and 4 Russian tanks. I had 15 tanks and 20 infantry, along with 6 tac. bombers. This obviously wasn’t enough to capture Moscow, and so I attempted to build up tanks in Ukraine to make up for this, while also attempting to use the Italian can-opener to take Stalingrad and attack the Middle East. The Russians, meanwhile, were building up tanks, and on turn 9, they beat me out of Smolensk (with 20 infantry and 3 artillery left- they had struck with 10 tanks). That turn, the British landed in Norway and pushed for Leningrad. Finally, on turn 12, the Americans landed 12 infantry, 6 artillery, and 6 tanks in Normandy, and the British threw in 2 fighters to protect it. That same turn, Leningrad fell to the British and Ukraine to the Russians. It seems like there’s a pattern in my Axis play: I can’t get the strength to kill a Moscow stack owing to masses of Russian infantry and Allied fighter support, so I attempt to build up, but just as I do that, the Russians counterattack, using their stack as fodder, and cripple my forces. This usually coincides with a large Anglo-American landing.

    Also, Japan was reasonably active: they held the Money Islands, Malaya, French Indochina, Shan State, Yunnan, Philippines, and the valuable Chinese coast. Their navy was also reasonably sized (3 battleships, 3 carriers with a tac and fighter each, 4 cruisers and 6 destroyers, all concentrated in the Philippines). Japan had also landed heavily in Western Australia, and was fighting its way to Sydney. What are Germany/Italy doing wrong?

    It seems like there is more to this story, a large portion of starting German units appear unaccounted for. Another thing to consider would be how you move your forces. Sometimes it is better to move them together to prevent counterattack. Other times you can be opportunistic and blitz through some outlying territory.

    For your next game as Germany / Italy I would recommend a more methodical approach to your attack. Carefully coordinate strategic bombing raids on early factories with mobile purchases that can quickly reinforce your fronts and overwhelm your opponents. A Russia army comprising primarily of infantry and few mech has trouble responding to aggressive posturing. When a Russian stack in Moscow creates a situation too dangerous to move your army adjacent to, then you should consider leaving territories empty and fighting a battle of attrition. Wear down his units by trading territory each turn and deprive him of economic resources by taking surrounding locations and moving south towards the Middle East. A steady supply of mechanized infantry supports this plan.

    You should capture Leningrad the 2nd turn of your Barbarossa campaign. If it is too heavily fortified you can bypass and move your troops through the Ukraine. Prevent it from escaping with your Italians and Moscow will be severely under-defended.

    If allied aircraft are harassing you remember to bring your anti-aircraft guns with your army. Those cannons don’t do much sitting in Western Europe. If the allies get a chance to use aircraft in a land battle, you’ve already lost. Your defense should comprise of a gradual build up anywhere from 3 - 12 ipcs a turn starting turn 2 spent solely on defense. This includes submarines, transports, fighters, bombers, infantry, artillery and anything you deem necessary to prevent Italy capitulating as well.


  • I am also having this same issue. Japan never seems to skip a beat and can roll the pacific side, but the Europe side struggles for me. As Russia I feel like purchasing fighters and infantry are a good go to. It provides a good defense with some offensive potential, and more importantly offers protection for Moscow’s factory. I have found that the Luftwaffe can often be stretched thin trying to bomb/escort and also keep allied landing forces in check. My first 2 turns focus on mobile units with a bomber a turn usually. Then switching towards more air power and units in whatever russian factories I have conquered. These turns could include more mobile units or possibly defense units in France if the west is posing a threat, but that isn’t likely this early in the game. In most cases Russia still ends up with a huge stack of infantry matching the German one in numbers, and is then backed by fighters and artillery. This gives me a disadvantage when attacking and is risky to approach due to his offensive capabilities. Is there something clearly wrong that I am doing? Oh and I usually send an italian can opener of a few mech and a couple tanks and bomb ukraine and leningrad as I approach

  • '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    Four mechs! Where on earth did you get four mechs?

    Your two opening tanks are more than sufficient as can openers. If you took the time to build four mechs and get them over there as a group, it seems like you’re moving too slowly as Germany.

    Of course, I don’t know what else happened in the game, so it’s hard to say what’s going wrong.

    Marsh

  • '19 '17 '16

    Yes bgugs. You should be buying some artillery G1. If you are targeting a G6 attack on Moscow, you can’t buy artillery G2 but you can if going for a G7 take down. You need a bunch of mechs G2 to hold Belarus turn 4.

    Why bomb Ukraine and Leningrad? This was all discussed here: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41857.0


  • You may also play a few games here on triple a to sharpen your skills.  :wink:


  • First thing I notice is actually on the Pacific side: Japan should have more than 3 carriers.  If it all goes well, they’re the only navy you need to purchase for the first 6 turns or so.  Why?  Japan has so many planes and not enough money to keep up with the U.S., so send most of your navy south to the Money Islands (Borneo J1, the rest J2), Malaya (J3), and the Philipines to hang out (J4) except your two subs head to Calcutta to convoy.  Back in SZ 6, you keep a destroyer and a carrier and keep buying carriers as you’re able and land planes you already own.  So, J2 I buy a mIC, 1 carrier for SZ6 and 3 of the best unit I can afford for the mIC I already own, J3 its another carrier and more land units at mainland factories… etc

    For Germany, if you already know you’re doing Barbarossa, early rounds (1-2) mean you need to buy artillery to take advantage of your infantry stacks. G3 and maybe G4 its tanks, G5 and later is planes.  My core purchases each round (not all of them, just the less flexible options) are: G1 2 bombers; G2 10 art; 10 tanks

    No reason to delay Barbarossa beyond G2.  Only reason not to do it G1 is if you want UK to have to spend to defend London for a possible Sea Lion.  If your opponent doesn’t buy 6 inf and a fighter for London on UK1 (and does Taranto raid) then you need to do Sea Lion next game.

    You need to be bombing Moscow and any other factories as quickly as possible.  First turn after taking W. Ukraine that you can land bombers on it so you can be hitting Moscow on Barbarossa+2 turns.

  • '19 '17 '16

    If you are saying a G2 DOW presumably assuming USSR didn’t buy 6 tanks to stop the move into E Poland, then do you have to pause somewhere for reinforcements to catch up? What’s the value proposition?


  • I would say you are not buying enough of the right units as germany. Once you send your german army off, the only troops you can use to reinforce are fastmovers. You should try buying 18-20 mechs on G2, 10 mechs on G3, and 10 mechs on G4. That will really give you staying power and allow you to move into terretories much more efficiently. If you have trouble forcing the soviets back to moscow, you can go for rostow with italian canopeners. If you get there USSR has to retreat, otherwise you can use the italians to clear a path, and blitz right past his stack to moscow.


  • @Kreuzfeld:

    I would say you are not buying enough of the right units as germany. Once you send your german army off, the only troops you can use to reinforce are fastmovers. You should try buying 18-20 mechs on G2, 10 mechs on G3, and 10 mechs on G4. That will really give you staying power and allow you to move into terretories much more efficiently. If you have trouble forcing the soviets back to moscow, you can go for rostow with italian canopeners. If you get there USSR has to retreat, otherwise you can use the italians to clear a path, and blitz right past his stack to moscow.

    That seems like an awful lot of German troops attacking at a 1.  Germany already has around 30 inf on the Russian front.  Wouldn’t artillery and tanks be more useful?  I’m often doing 10 art on G2 so that one army group is 25ish inf and 10-15 art and I still have 10 mech (bought G3) and 10 tanks available for a 2nd attack.

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16 '15

    @weddingsinger:

    @Kreuzfeld:

    I would say you are not buying enough of the right units as germany. Once you send your german army off, the only troops you can use to reinforce are fastmovers. You should try buying 18-20 mechs on G2, 10 mechs on G3, and 10 mechs on G4. That will really give you staying power and allow you to move into terretories much more efficiently. If you have trouble forcing the soviets back to moscow, you can go for rostow with italian canopeners. If you get there USSR has to retreat, otherwise you can use the italians to clear a path, and blitz right past his stack to moscow.

    That seems like an awful lot of German troops attacking at a 1.  Germany already has around 30 inf on the Russian front.  Wouldn’t artillery and tanks be more useful?  I’m often doing 10 art on G2 so that one army group is 25ish inf and 10-15 art and I still have 10 mech (bought G3) and 10 tanks available for a 2nd attack.

    10 art buy G2 is a great buy. But remember you can buy art out of novgorod and ukraine. And really you dont need more than 15 art to attack moscow and more than 20 armor is a waste too. So if you are outside these numbers buy other units, like mech. Some people say the ultimate art:inf ratio is 1:3. Personally I think 1:4 is OK too as long as you have enough bombers (tac and strat)


  • @oysteilo:

    @weddingsinger:

    @Kreuzfeld:

    I would say you are not buying enough of the right units as germany. Once you send your german army off, the only troops you can use to reinforce are fastmovers. You should try buying 18-20 mechs on G2, 10 mechs on G3, and 10 mechs on G4. That will really give you staying power and allow you to move into terretories much more efficiently. If you have trouble forcing the soviets back to moscow, you can go for rostow with italian canopeners. If you get there USSR has to retreat, otherwise you can use the italians to clear a path, and blitz right past his stack to moscow.

    That seems like an awful lot of German troops attacking at a 1.  Germany already has around 30 inf on the Russian front.  Wouldn’t artillery and tanks be more useful?  I’m often doing 10 art on G2 so that one army group is 25ish inf and 10-15 art and I still have 10 mech (bought G3) and 10 tanks available for a 2nd attack.

    10 art buy G2 is a great buy. But remember you can buy art out of novgorod and ukraine. And really you dont need more than 15 art to attack moscow and more than 20 armor is a waste too. So if you are outside these numbers buy other units, like mech. Some people say the ultimate art:inf ratio is 1:3. Personally I think 1:4 is OK too as long as you have enough bombers (tac and strat)

    Arts are good if they get there in time. you could buy 10 art and 8 mech (from w-germany) instead. But you usually want to stay away from buying any more tanks. They are expensive and not that good. Most people undervalue volume in this game. If you want to calculate strength of a stack (compared to an other), the correct formula is to use [Average strength]*[number of units]^2 .


  • The correct ratio for art/inf and what other units you might need/want is tricky because it actually depends on the opponents stack and 1) how many hits you can expect to take over 2) the number of rounds of combat.

    So a much larger stack of attacking ‘1s’ (inf/mech) are cheap hit absorbers, but not much good for ending the battle sooner.

    A more even stack of 1s (cheap losses) and 2s (more expensive, slower moving, but more hits) and 3s (tanks defend and attack better, but are more expensive, but obviously much cheaper than planes) can end the battle sooner.

    Its why the battle calculator can shift so quickly… a few extra early hits can swing things in a battle that will last 4-6 rounds.

    70 ipcs spent on G2 spent on 17 mechs is very useful for how quickly they move, but only worth 2-4 hits a round in an attack and 6-7 hits on defense.  70 ipcs also buys 10 art and 6 tanks are slower but worth 6-7 hits a round on their own, but really worth 9-10 hits in an attack because they also elevate 10 inf to hit at 2.  Slower, but more powerful… as long as you have another 10 inf in front of them to take hits.

    Germany starts with 30-35 inf (depending on Yugoslavia attack) and only 5 art for the Eastern front, and start with 9 tanks.  An art buy on G2 slows you down a round (Bryansk on G6 at the earliest) but the biggest punch.

    If Russia buys tanks for a hard counter attack, you’ve got some options.  Sometimes let Italy take Eastern Poland so Germany can occupy it with their full stack including planes.  The game I’m playing now, I went ahead and “over extended” Germany into Belarus on G3 so Russia hit it with everything he could, leaving 6 tanks there to be blitzed by 3 German tanks and a LOT of planes from 2 squares away because Italy cleared the blocker out of the way.

  • '19 '17 '16

    There is no reason Germany needs more tanks than mechs in the early rounds.

    Even if you buy a bunch of art G2 make sure you can still reach Bryansk G5. That way you can build in in Ukraine G6 for the Moscow assault G7.

  • '17

    Some of you on this discussion post continue to beat me. But could anyone explain to me the value of the E. Poland stack? I still don’t get it. But I see the “pros” bring it up. And yes, I got it, I’m still not that good at this game.

    Assuming the Allies are going primarily against Japan…

    My preferred drive into Russia, consists of at least a G1 buy of 6 art / 1 tank…G2/G3 combo of tanks/mechs, planes G4/3 tanks on Leningrad and then bombers G5 or some defense if the Allies are bringing over some transports.

    Why drive into E. Poland? Isn’t Baltic G2, than fully stack on Leningrad G3 the most optimal? Italian can openers catch up of course.

    G4 the stack fully combines on Belarus with your 3 tank build right behind it on Leningrad. Than step into Bryansk on G5. Obviously the Smolensk thing is only if something goes amiss.

    My ultimate goal is for Italy to can open Tambov and never capture Rostov. Rostov is where Germany builds a forward factory and Tambov is where I want to park my German stack.

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    It would be really helpful to know what the Allies are doing in order to assess your strategy…if the Allies are focusing on killing Germany, then getting to Smolensk and threatening Stalingrad while not losing Paris or Rome is an acceptable outcome. Meanwhile, if Japan is relatively unopposed, then they should be able to wipe out at least two of China, India, and Australia. If the Allies went KGF or even used a balanced strategy, then your problem here is your Japanese play.

    On the other hand, if the Allies are focused on killing Japan, then holding the money islands and the chinese coast is about all you can hope to do anyway, and the problem here is your German play.

    Either way, I think there are some improvements to be made in your Italian play. Taking a transport to northwest Africa to fight the French is a pretty unorthodox move. The French are a strictly defensive force; they don’t have any ability to deploy reinforcements, and they’re heavy on infantry – they’re very unlikely to be able to take Libya from you. Even if they do take Libya, so what? You lose 1 IPC and they gain nothing, because they have no economy. This is not a big deal, and not worth using a precious transport to prevent. The three main targets in the Mediterranean for Italy should be Gibraltar (cuts off a British national objective, sets you up for the New Roman Empire national objective, and denies the Allies the use of Gibraltar as a naval base), Egypt (cuts off the British national objective, part of your national objective, useful factory site, and closes the Suez canal), and Syria (gets you set up for the Persian oil national objective, and threatens to activate the friendly troops in Iraq).

    In terms of Italian can-opening, you need to think about what territories you’re threatening to open up, and what German force would penetrate through the resulting gaps. Like, sure, building 4 extra Italian mechs and sending them east can be a reasonable choice, but only if you’re stacking up quite heavily on German mechs and tanks. I haven’t seen your games; maybe you’re already taking care of that kind of thing. But it’s not good enough to just threaten to put holes in the Russian front lines; you need a strike force of German fast-movers that can threaten to take Kiev, Stalingrad, Moscow, etc. from two spaces away unless Russia preemptively retreats its entire army one turn earlier than usual. If you can’t afford that German strike force, then there’s not much point in having extra Italian can-openers.

  • '19 '17 '16

    @Ichabod:

    Some of you on this discussion post continue to beat me. But could anyone explain to me the value of the E. Poland stack? I still don’t get it. But I see the “pros” bring it up. And yes, I got it, I’m still not that good at this game.

    If you are talking about an I2/G3 DOW on USSR, E Poland allows the forces from Bulgaria to reach and both allow Leningrad to be held turn 4 normally. Baltic states offers nothing that E Poland doesn’t if German troops move into Vyborg/Karelia G3. Even if the Karelia peninsula is stacked with Soviet troops, to block Germany out of Leningrad would cost a lot of troops.

    Looks like you’re talking about a G2 DOW though. I’m not completely sure about how or why that would be done.

  • '17

    @simon33:

    @Ichabod:

    Some of you on this discussion post continue to beat me. But could anyone explain to me the value of the E. Poland stack? I still don’t get it. But I see the “pros” bring it up. And yes, I got it, I’m still not that good at this game.

    If you are talking about an I2/G3 DOW on USSR, E Poland allows the forces from Bulgaria to reach and both allow Leningrad to be held turn 4 normally. Baltic states offers nothing that E Poland doesn’t if German troops move into Vyborg/Karelia G3. Even if the Karelia peninsula is stacked with Soviet troops, to block Germany out of Leningrad would cost a lot of troops.

    Looks like you’re talking about a G2 DOW though. I’m not completely sure about how or why that would be done.

    Yes, G2 DOW. I didn’t come up with this myself. I learned it from Arthur Bomber Harris. You secure and hold Leningrad on G3…1st build is G4.

    I don’t know how to do the G3 DOW very well. G3 DOW I run into trouble and often don’t make it to Bryansk on G5. I see people on triplea live do the E. Poland thing with a G3 DOW, go south of the Prippet Marshes and often than get stuck at Ukraine or W. Ukraine for at least 1 turn. UK fighters land on the Russian stack at Bryansk.

    G2 DOW. Stack Poland G1 with everything from Berlin. Sometimes I bring the 2 infantry from Denmark and use 1 less mech going into Paris. The 3 tanks in the east don’t hit Yugo (they go to Poland). If you purchase 6 art / 1 tank G1, even easier (because that tank helps with the stack at Baltic on G2). The slow walkers hit Yugo, plus 2 planes, no tanks. G2 stack Baltic. G3, walk into Leningrad with your Finnish troops. Often you have enough stuff (if German planes are in range to force the Russian Stack to back off Belarus). This means your slow movers from G1 / G2 mech/tank purchase / Paris tanks/mechs can all get to E. Poland (or Baltic) and Leningrad on G3. G4 the entire stack is together at Belarus. G4 you can now purchase on Leningrad. You know by G4 if you want to do max Moscow effort purchases or not. By being able to build 3 tanks on Leningrad on Turn 4, it helps you get to Tambov. I don’t get to Tambov every game, but it’s always my goal. Way easier to take hold of Stalingrad and Caucasus.

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