I noticed the two camps on this forum. One saying the axis is more likely to win, the other says the opposite.
I’m part of the people who think the sheer number of german assault tanks at hte start is too much to hold back for the russians. Germany usually buys 3 artillery its first turn which are placed directly at the east front. It buys 10 artillery. The first attack round they take the baltic states and belorussia. Then they ship two artillery to finland, add two infantry from norway and start to amass all their offensive power right behind the eastern front. In the second turn Germany takes east poland and karelia with added air support. In their movement phase they amass all their tank power in poland and hungary. the artillery from the first turn reached the front and from now on only tanks will be bought and driven directly to the front.
Now Leningrad Belorussia and the Ukraine are direct threatened. A massive 15 tanks are awaiting to roll in belorussia with added supprot of the artillery and infantr fro the front. And allt his before the allies could even build a decent fleet! How to defend to this strategy of the germans?
In the first turn Germany takes baltic states and besarabia in stead of belorussia (as I accidently posted). Sorry for the mistake!
Germany poses a serious threat in the first turn, ut they must be careful. If they advance too far, too fast, they will spread themselves out too thin. Russia will put all new units in Moscow and the Germans will be too far away from freindly soil and not be able to reinforce their line losing their momentum and subject to a russian counter-offense. A good German player knows when to advance and when to hold back He has to use his judgement and maybe take a few chances. When playing russia, try to keep the Germans in Poland ad “try” to weather the storm until I can get support from the british and US. It’s different everytime I play.
to defend against the Germans only build soldiers and America and Britain MUST send fighters to help defend. in one of my games which i won as the allies America alone i think sent 5 or 6 fighters to the Soviets.
That’s what I was doing in my game…flying fighters and my bomber over to Russia while shipping infantry and tanks across as well. Russia just need to be a bit more careful in selecting when to attack and when to go on the defensive.
if you are playing a game w/ one player that is better than the rest, i would definietely make that player be russian. they are the hardest country to play, but in the hands of a skilled player they can hold out for a LONG time, and maybe even push the germans out.
In my games, each side seems balanced, but the same tactics are used everytime - Germany goes after Moscow.
Germany always plunks most of their $$$ on armor and zooms them to the front lines towards Moscow with their 2 space move.
When I’ve played as the Allies, I just buy as many Soviet infantry as I can and plunk them in the 3 countries right behind the 4 pink countries (forget what they’re called). And I add a few AA guns as a deterrant in case some aerial units come through, although I’ve yet to see Germany build up lots of fighters and bombers. I just let the Germans take over those pink countries and sacrifice the few $$$ to them so I can concentrate on defending 3 areas instead of 4.
The latest tactic I used was doing the above but also slowing sending some troops from the northern Soviet places (and some produced units from Leningrad) to take over the couple scandinavian countries Germany gets right away. This added some $$$ to the Soviets’ coffers, German lost out a handful of $$$ and the Allies have Norway to lanuch SBRs.
I’m new to this game, but I think what I did was legal - using Norway as a launching pad to SBR the Hell out of Germany. I think I had about 6-7 US bombers, 3-4 UK bombers and about 3 complementing fighters for each. A few times I made German lose all of their cash. The UK and US just kept making flying units when they got shot down from AA and the defending fighters.
While that happended, the Soviets continued to stockpile infantry at the front lines, amassing 15-20+ in each one, getting continuously supplied by their ICs. Germany’s tank production never caught up, since the SBRs made them poor. After combining my infantry stacks, Soviets had a stack of 30+ infantry and I ended up marching to Germany that was depleted of units and won.
the german player must be stupid, if he saw that he should have moved all his fighters to germany to defend against the SBR’s
One theory that may help defend Russia is to manuever the entire British Middle East force into the Caucasas to and eventually to Turkmanistan, depeding on how successful the German attack is going. While doing this, I would speedbump the central Mediteranean on Turn 1 with my destroyer (which I would lose anyway on either Turn 2 or 3), and use my transport to deliver Egypt Inf and Art to Syria. By turn 3, I would presumable have all of my British forces in either reinforcing the Russians or presenting a flank threat against the Germans if they ignore Ukraine and move northward. This manuever might also free up a small dosage of Russion armor for a northern assault on Scandinavia. Freeing up Scandinavia allows an alternate route for British and American aircraft to reinforce Russia in Moscow defense.
I realize this action would allow Germany to clean up the Middle East, but by the time they capture all of the Middle East (Turn 4), the momentum of eastern front battle will generally have been determined already. This makes the extra 8 IPC a moot issue at this juncture.
Any thoughts on this strategy?
I have played the game three times. The allies have won two. I think it is a very well balanced game. The first turn is critical. The russians must hold onto lenningrad, and or viborg, so the allies can land planes. Also the russians must be wary of how they use their armor, if the germans destroy it thereby ending the threat of any kind of major counterattack, the allies are toast. Do not like the idea of giving the middle east up. Do not give the nazis anymore money than you have to. Just play it cool and wait for help to arrive. Oh and a little luck on the dice never hurt.
yeah, i don’t exactly like the idea of giving up the middle east either. that basicaly deafeats the purpose of the SBR’s if you’re gonna put that $$ right back into germnay’s pocket anyway. its a much better idea to protect the fighter in malta w/ a few infantry there w/ the initial allied 12 (i like to put 2 infantry in malta and 2 infantry in leningrad) and then use that fighter to take out the germans in africa/middle east as well as their fleet, or at least their transport so they can’t bring reinforcements from the mainland. then when you’e done in middleeast/africa you can take the fighter/rest of units up to russia. the fighter can get to moscow before the game is over, but the units might be a bit too slow.
I cannot give solid advice on a russian defense. You must pick your fights against the Germans very carefully. Protect your tanks and do not over extend yourself. The Germans, in my opinion, are very strong for a majority of the game. 40 ipcs, goes along way. I seem to hit and miss playing the Russians. It depends mostly on how fast UK and the US can threaten germany with a second front.
i just played a game that took 15 turns (i finally got moscow)
i think it was 73 inf 24 rtl 39 arm attacking 86 infantry 16 rtl and 22 ftrs
obviously the allies sent in fighters! Had they sent a few more he certainly could have, instead he build a large ineffective fleet, i would have lost (i took moscow with 19 arm))
if you figure that germany has 2x the production of russia, but i’m considering the strategy where the allies mainly build fighters, and send them all to moscow russia bids armor with the bid so they can get finland and norway asap, then infantry so if leningrad falls, the allies can land in norway instead) The usa can build 3 fighters a turn, the uk 2, this is the same as 10 infantry, or 30 ipc’s. At this rate, you can almost say it’s russia against germany, russia get’s 54 ipc’s a turn, germany get’s 40. remember russia has finland and norway. Of course it is even harder for germany since moscow is 4 turns away. All russia has to do is hold out, eventually with 30-40 fighters, they can kill the german stack… or if they have enough to hold a few turns, the allies can build their fleet, or whatever, the allies are cashing out extremely high.
you can build a few bombers as allies, and leave leningrad and stalingrad open (germany takes, sbr it!) If germany sends into ME, russia just get’s stronger (i personally thing sending there is a waste of troops). Usa and uk have to build subs and stuff the first turn or so to get the convoys though. Not really sure, but it might work. I’ll try it my next game.
