League13 G40 Arathorn (Axis) vs Wheatbeer (Allies +16) Game 1

[wheatbeer]

Sorry for the slow play. I am wracking my brain to see how I can achieve anything more than a slow demise.

Would it be unsporting to surrender at this stage? Or do you want to see how it plays out.

Russia and European Britain aren’t even capable of defending their remaining territory beyond their capitols. Japan is under some pressure, but far from contained.

Even if I go full bore Atlantic with the USA, by the time I build a fleet capable of surviving the German airforce, Russia will be shrunk to Moscow.

[arathorn]

@wheatbeer:

Sorry for the slow play. I am wracking my brain to see how I can achieve anything more than a slow demise.

Would it be unsporting to surrender at this stage? Or do you want to see how it plays out.

Russia and European Britain aren’t even capable of defending their remaining territory beyond their capitols. Japan is under some pressure, but far from contained.

Even if I go full bore Atlantic with the USA, by the time I build a fleet capable of surviving the German airforce, Russia will be shrunk to Moscow.

No problem!

I would not count it as unsporting to surrender. Your assessment of the situation is the same as mine.

If you want to end the game here, I will accept your sword, and we could start game 2.

[arathorn]

@arathorn:

…. we could start game 2.

That is if you want to start game 2 for this league. If you’d rather wait till next year’s league, that is fine with me also.

:)

[wheatbeer]

Alright, I surrender.

I can see a few things I’d do differently, but I really don’t want to play as Allies again against you (right now) nor offer such high bids.

If you want to switch sides with this same bid amount (+16 with a 1 unit per tt limit), then I’ll play a rematch as Axis.

[JDOW]

Hey guys, sorry to just appear here but I had at the game at an earlier stage and was happy to seen an update but surrendering at this stage really surprised me.

I am not even close to the experience you guys have but I would not assess the situation as hopeless for the Allies.

• Russia has a huge army, it takes some time to threaten them
• Japan has a lot of pressure (Money islands gone plus severe losses of territory on the Chinese mainland will follow
• Russia has a nice army in the east having the potential to reclaim Russian territories
• Monster Italy is nice on the one hand, but for a finishing move one would imo rather take 10 IT IPC and hand them over to the Germans^^

So I’d say if the Allies manage to get the Japanese empire down Moscow could hold forever, couldn’t it? Also in terms of income the Axis have not equalized yet.

I don’t want to say the Axis aren’t in a very good shape, but I would not consider the Allies situation as hopeless. Maybe boldfresh would assess the situation by even expecting the resignation of the Axis ASAP  :lol:

One question about the bid. Was the +16 agreed to be only used in Russia? I see some merits of a strong Russia but so far I thought an bids are placed best where having an immediate impact or a significant strategic impact in future stages (e.g. Inf New Guinea)

So aren’t things like:
Fighter Scotland, sub sz98
or Arty Sudan, Inf Kenia, Sub sz98, Inf New Guinea
a bit more “demanding” to the Axis?
Or if supporting Russia, give them the bomber and add an Arty in Sudan or Sze or so?

Cheers,
Tobias

[arathorn]

@JapanDOWRound1Fan:

Hey guys, sorry to just appear here but I had at the game at an earlier stage and was happy to seen an update but surrendering at this stage really surprised me.

I am not even close to the experience you guys have but I would not assess the situation as hopeless for the Allies.

• Russia has a huge army, it takes some time to threaten them
• Japan has a lot of pressure (Money islands gone plus severe losses of territory on the Chinese mainland will follow
• Russia has a nice army in the east having the potential to reclaim Russian territories
• Monster Italy is nice on the one hand, but for a finishing move one would imo rather take 10 IT IPC and hand them over to the Germans^^

So I’d say if the Allies manage to get the Japanese empire down Moscow could hold forever, couldn’t it? Also in terms of income the Axis have not equalized yet.

I don’t want to say the Axis aren’t in a very good shape, but I would not consider the Allies situation as hopeless. Maybe boldfresh would assess the situation by even expecting the resignation of the Axis ASAP  :lol:

One question about the bid. Was the +16 agreed to be only used in Russia? I see some merits of a strong Russia but so far I thought an bids are placed best where having an immediate impact or a significant strategic impact in future stages (e.g. Inf New Guinea)

So aren’t things like:
Fighter Scotland, sub sz98
or Arty Sudan, Inf Kenia, Sub sz98, Inf New Guinea
a bit more “demanding” to the Axis?
Or if supporting Russia, give them the bomber and add an Arty in Sudan or Sze or so?

Cheers,
Tobias

Hi Tobias,

First off, he was free to use the bid where he wanted to, the only restriction was max 1 unit per territory.
You would have to ask Wheatbeer what his reasoning was to place his bid there.

The situation in Europe was not good at all - no pressure on Italy and Germany from the West, and it would be a matter of time before Russian income would be reduced to very little.

Japan was doing ok and was healthy, because though the Allies have more forces, they can’t attack collectively, only defend, thus they don’t provide enough pressure against Japan.

If this game had played out, Axis would great out produce the Allies in a turn or two. Africa is about to completely fall, and the swing of IPC is always twice the gain for the capturing side.

Remember, +2 for Axis is also -2 for Allies, so that is an IPC swing of 4.

If Axis go up 10, allies go down 10, which gives a swing of 20. Russia was forced to retreat, since the forces being split up can’t withstand alone, thus they need to gather it, which means that the siege of Russia is only 2 turns away. In objectives alone, European Axis would get 40 extra IPC per round within two turns.

And the USA can’t provide enough pressure to stop that even if they went all Europe.

The positioning was strongly favouring the Axis. It was only a matter of time at this point.

Hope that helps.

Alex

[arathorn]

@wheatbeer:

Alright, I surrender.

I can see a few things I’d do differently, but I really don’t want to play as Allies again against you (right now) nor offer such high bids.

If you want to switch sides with this same bid amount (+16 with a 1 unit per tt limit), then I’ll play a rematch as Axis.

Then we should perhaps wait until you’re ready to play the Allies, because I’ll bid you up ;)
I prefer to play the Axis ;)

[JDOW]

For +16 I would btw be interested to play the Allies vs you Arathorn. I guess gamerman can give you reference of me being at least tier 2 which would allow you to climb the leaderboard by defeating me. Please let me know if you are interested.

[JDOW]

To clarify: I saw some discussions about Tier 1 players like you having a disadvantage by playing Tier3 or 4 because you could drop in ranking despite a win, that’s what I thought I mention that.

[arathorn]

I know some worry about it, but I don’t mind playing those that want to play me. I know it can hurt my ranking, but everybody deserves a shot. :)

We can play, but I would like to start bidding over. The reason why I was willing to give such a high bid to Wheatbeer was because we’re both Axis experts :)

[wheatbeer]

JapanDOWRound1Fan,

No worries about commenting, I follow other people’s games too.

On paper, I don’t look so bad … But I can’t project power where I need to, as fast as I need to. Germany will be pumping troops on all sides of Moscow (soon from Volgograd as well, since I can’t split forces much longer to guard the south).

Germany will have basically uncontested control of 7 VCs in a couple turns. If they can’t crack Moscow, they can use their massive income and fleet to crush London (which will actually be easier than Moscow after Italy overruns Africa).

[wheatbeer]

Sidenote:

Arathorn could be threatening London almost immediately if he had landed some planes on Gibraltar to stop American liberation.

As it sits, my best Atlantic move would be to liberate Gib. with the US then build an airbase there with the UK and land the UK fighters there (preventing an Italian recapture).

That would keep Germany’s fleet stuck in the Mediterranean for a little while, but ultimately, that would be a futile gesture.

[wheatbeer]

@JapanDOWRound1Fan:

I see some merits of a strong Russia but so far I thought an bids are placed best where having an immediate impact or a significant strategic impact in future stages (e.g. Inf New Guinea)

Generals always prepare to fight to last war.

I believe I chose this bid after facing a G1 Barbarossa and I wanted to have men ready to counterattack Eastern Poland if I faced the same situation.

Since I won that game and lost this one, I won’t defend my bid  :lol: