• Hi all,

    I only have ever found one other person to play Axis and Allies with :( everybody thinks it’s too complicated or difficult or boring in these high-technology days. But regardless I love the game and really cannot get enough of it. Since I’ve only played against one person ever (and the occasional computer game) I wanted to see what you guys think of my strategies and give me a fresh perspective on how you guys play, so I can see what I’ve been missing this whole time or major holes in my overall strategic plans.

    Allies

    I’ll start with my Allied strategy, since I’ve noticed that both myself and my opponent have a hard time playing the Allies. I find the Axis much easier to win with, so there’s a lot I need to learn about how to correctly play the Allies and make use of their huge economic advantage. I take a strictly Germany-first policy in my Allied games, and accept the inevitable fact that Japan will grow basically unchecked, but hope that Germany will be sufficiently weak to make up the slack (especially for Russia, who can take over Eastern European territories at the expense of defending its far east territories to maintain an almost-acceptable level of income).

    Edit: this has taken a really long time to write so I will get to the Axis later, maybe in a separate topic

    Russia

    I buy 4 men and 3 artillery on Russia’s first turn, maximizing their 24 IPC’s. The artillery will be placed in the Caucasus along with 1 man. I usually only attack West Russia with the 5 men from Russia + Archangel, 2 planes, and the 3 artillery from the surrounding territories. Sometimes I will add some men from Karelia, which basically just depends if I want to defend Karelia with 4 men (2 stay there and I place 2 men there at the end of my turn) or 6 men (all men stay there plus the 2 new ones).
    I gradually bring all of my men stationed in the far east back to Russia. The men in Evenki Natl Okrug travel to Archangel for a potential counter-attack on Karelia. Sometimes I bunch up 5 men on Buryatia SSR, in an attempt to stretch J1’s turn thin and keep its transports from being useful in Southeast Asia and China. I usually don’t want to sacrifice the men, however, which I feel can be better used to protect Russia’s core territories or even China. I’ll move my tanks and planes to the Caucasus, keeping a healthy defense against G1, defending West Russia, and threatening to advance into Ukraine if Germany is not careful. The rest of my moves are really just dictated by what Germany decides to do, and if they are acceptably distracted by the Allies, Germany will only be able to give minimal attention to Eastern Europe. I don’t want them producing stuff in Karelia so retaking that factory is my immediate priority, but once Russia can safely take Belorussia or Ukraine the game is preeeetty much decided.

    United Kingdom

    With the UK, I expect all of my Atlantic navy will be destroyed, with the possible exception of the Destroyer/Transport in Canada or cruiser in the Med. Regardless, my foremost priority with the UK is to rebuild my navy stat. I spend 14 of my 30 IPC’s on an aircraft carrier, which America can land a plane on during A1 (otherwise, it’s plane goes to Gibraltar and is really useless for a while). This gives the UK a strong navy which is unlikely to be sunken by the Luftwaffe, unless the German player really kept a lot of fighters on the Western Front, in which case Russia has more freedom and strength in return. With the remainder of my money I usually buy stuff to put in India. I really struggle with what to do in the Pacific region, how much money to spend in India vs building a navy/invasion force in London, etc. Some games I buy 3 men per turn and turtle in India. Depending on the situation in Egypt/Africa, I may bring men to Africa via the Indian transport, and if I still have the Egyptian plane, I may be so daring as to land 4 men in the East Indies and try to destroy the Japanese fleet in its surrounding waters, which sometimes goes horribly, in which case my transports retreat to India, giving it an extra 2 men. If it goes well, I potentially halve the power of the Japanese navy and really put a thorn in its side regarding its income, but this is usually just a dream. India usually falls after some time, and the Pacific fleet is doomed to eternal failure, but the hope is that the Allies can chokehold Germany well enough that by the time this happens Russia can turn its attention to Japan, who will need time to replenish its army. Alternatively, I sometimes bring the man from Burma into Yunnan, and bring all three of my Indian fellas and their AAA into Burma. I do this in tandem with putting 5 Russians on Buryatia, and these simple but decisive moves really slows Japan’s ability to expand and hopefully keeps Japan from reaching Moscow/India with any level of force before Germany has been sufficiently clamped down.

    America

    With America, I pray that the German subs in the Atlantic do not attack my destroyer and two transports (I will get to those Atlantic subs in the Axis portion) and just basically buy transports and men, whose ultimate destination will be France. If my destroyer and transports do not get killed in G1, I move one man from Western US to Central US and buy 5 men and 3 transports (36/42 IPCS). This allows me to field 5 transports worth of men, which includes 7 men, 1 arty, and 1 tank, by A2, while having some money left over. I bolster my Atlantic fleet with the American cruiser from sz19, but generally don’t buy any extra warships and rely on the UK fleet to protect my transports, while flying down my two planes from the mainland to land on British CV’s. I put all my men and transports in Eastern Canada so they can threaten to take France on A2 if they so please, perhaps coaxing the German player to needlessly commit a couple men to his Western front. They can also reach Norway/Finland on A2 this way, securing some extra income for the Allies and further occupying Germany. America basically turtles in the Atlantic and builds up a force powerful enough to land on France, kill any Germans there, and keep it along with the help of UK men and planes. I bring my Pacific fleet and transport down to Indonesia to hopefully threaten Borneo, New Guinea, the Philippines, and the East Indies, while also hopefully occupying the Japanese fleet from focusing on India or taking Australia. America is really just the central player in bringing Germany to it’s knees.

  • '17 '16 '15

    Hi Lopsang and welcome

    I don’t play the 42.2 board but Black Elk and a few others seem to be pretty into it. You might check out some of their threads. Also you can play against people online with triplea if you’re having trouble finding players.


  • Welcome to the forum Lopsang.

    Three pointers on finding people to play with:

    • There’s plenty of players on this forum and you can get games going with forum colleagues via triple a, playing “by forum”.

    • There is a Find Players board here, within which is a list of players by location you might want to check out and various threads of forum colleagues looking for others to play.

    • I am a newbie to all this, but started with 1941 and managed to get a local group going with that simpler, shorter version of the game, from which me and most of my 1941 group have migrated to 1942.2. So far I have taught possibly a dozen people to play 1941 and all but a couple have played again. Perhaps an easier way to get a group going?

    No time to offer comments on your strategy stuff and others are more experienced than I anyway, but if you are lacking responses when I get back from a short break I’ll look at that stuff too.

    Cheers
    Private Panic

  • 2024 '22 '21 '19 '15 '14

    Hi Lopsang!

    I think your approach is pretty sound,  and you wouldn’t be alone in puzzling out what to do with your Allies. From what you’ve posted I’d say the way you’re handling Russia and USA is fairly solid. The only thing that might be taking under advisement is how early you try to make an entry onto the water with UK. When I first started 1942.2 I struggled trying to make a carrier buy early on. It seemed the natural thing for UK to do at least coming from Revised and Classic. The UK1 carrier buy with the 3 infantry left over also seemed somehow to recommend this as well. I was also really intrigued by the sz37 hit as a possible way to open things up for the Allies. But over time, and many games botched, I found that this approach actually put a lot less pressure on the Axis than it seemed like it should. That’s when I started switching to UK Spitfires over UK ships, and really trying to get more power onto Russia/India. The thought being that UK was too weak and cash poor to get anything going before round 3 anyway (when USA could properly back them up) so might as well just by aircraft. Either Fighters or Bombers out of UK, and then dump the rest of the purse on India for 3 units a round minimum.

    Buying Air on UK1 instead of ships was a big transition I felt, from previous games. And buying yet more Air on UK2 seemed somehow even crazier. But once I got used to it, it started to make a lot more sense. With no transports to protect in the early rounds, UK was free to launch the Royal airforce all over the place, and even to threaten the Japanese fleet after a couple rounds!

    I’m a fan of using the US Pacific Naval forces in the Pacific rather than going full Atlantic right away. Often by the time the Pacific fleet backs through Panama to converge in sz 11, the US Atlantic force is already large enough that these extra ships from the Pac don’t make a whole lot of difference to the Altantic theater. I found if I kept them in the Pacific, or used their fighters to keep the Japanese on their toes, that this did more to disrupt the Axis than anything I could do with them vs G in the first round. For me the choice is usually between sending the whole Pacific fleet north, or sending the carrier group south around S. America and racing the battleship towards sz11. Either way though, I think your assessment about how to use USA is pretty dead on. They need a ton of Atlantic transports for the endgame to have any real impact on Germany. Usually this means 6 or more loaded transports picking up 12 or more units in E. Canada and dropping them either in Finland, France, or Northwestern, after the Brits clear a path (landing all US Air to secure the territory.) In my experience for it to work you need a double drop, 2 rounds in a row, which often means switching from France to NW Europe, so you can get another drop in with UK, while the US transports go back for more.

    The D Day double drop seems to be the fastest way to persuade Germany to back off Russia and redirect everything home to the defense of Berlin, but it’s harder to set up here than it has been on some earlier boards. Its hard to really get anything going with USA until you have like 20+ ground units shucking around to threaten Europe, and that’s a lot of transports! So I think your initial instinct is correct, to expand USA transport capacity as soon as possible. That said, American bombers are a lot of fun, and make those ground forces a lot more effective when they start launching amphibious assaults with air cover. Just something to think on. The nation that invests in bombers early and consistently over time, often fairs well vs an opponent who neglects the bomber buy, even if you only use them in a normal combat role. Of course a killer bombing run, at the right time, can push Germany over the edge, taking them from an aggressive snapping turtle, to a shy turtle, who just hides in his shell and awaits the inevitable  :-D

Suggested Topics

  • 2
  • 3
  • 11
  • 109
  • 48
  • 16
  • 2
  • 8
Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

25

Online

17.0k

Users

39.2k

Topics

1.7m

Posts