I agree with the shield and sword statement. It is my experience that Germany on its first turn should buy a transport for Italy and all men. Regroup your tanks and all your infantry into Eastern Europe and plan to take Karelia on turn 3 if possible. Turn 2 can work but can be costly. Germany should buy mostly all men on turn two and three as well and move them into Eastern Europr so as to overwhelm Russia and get ahead of their infantry total. Once Germany has more infantry than Russia attack Karelia with men and tanks only, save your planes. From Italy send two full transports every turn into Egypt and Trans Jordan until you secure the Suez and subsiquently Africa. Meanwhile Japan hits China, and India and then all out Russia, while still maintaining suppremacy in the Pacific by staying one step ahead of the US and as someone else mentioned take out as many US and UK ships as possible while not over commiting your fleet and only losing the cheap expendable replaceable pieces. An IC is a good idea if you are sure you can hold it: Manchuria is good to go after Russia, but can be reinforced by Japan transports anyway, FIC is safer but India is the best of both if you can capture and hold it, because it is two squares “a tank blitz” away from Caucauscus and Trans-Jordan and you can move fleet through the Suez if needed and assist Germany in conquering Africa as required. Not to mention taking precious money away from the UK. Japan would then purchase three tanks every round for India (or FIC) and keep that up until Russia falls. From India or FIC you can also launch a strike on Australia and New Zealand to further hurt UK. If UK buys an IC on India, Japan MUST capture it at all costs or UK will get the upper hand and its game over. If Germany and Japan hit fast and hard as a unit first at UK to bankrupt and “stall” them and get the valuable money they need and at US to “stall” them, then maintain that stall on both of them and go all out Russia so as to hit Moscow on the 5th or 6th turn from both sides, the Axis will have an IPC victory easily or if using victory cities (AA50 and new) or complete victory rules they will be on their way to world domination. :-)
Help with USA strategy
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There wasn’t too much info on USA and I just had a few questions that weren’t answered in another post. I am going to start with a 3x3 trannie system with the usa, my only question is where should I be offloading these troops. Should I be crashing directly into the shores of Western Europe, shoudl I go up north to the little passage that feeds directly into Russia, should I start from the western side of the usa instead of the eastern side, or should I be going somewhere else totally different like africa? Also should I buy an IC in brazil, or anywhere else for that matter? Thanks for the help.
PS. also is it worth it to invest in bombers/heavy bombing so that I can launch strikes from the UK or will I just be wasting my money?
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To answer your question of offloading, it really depends on where Germany is exposing herself. You shouldn’t be crashing into Western Europe if it’s probable that Germany will still have an inf shield remaining, because Germany can replace those infantry really easily. You want to attack W. Europe only if you can take it, or destroy a lot of tanks, or if you can claim some fighters. Western Europe can be really tough to crack if stacked up because the Allies can only exert so much force from transports and have to do so in one turn; they can’t really build up troops as they could in Karelia for instance to overcome Eastern Europe.
I don’t find it necessary to feed troops into Russia’s northern border until Germany has fallen. I suppose I would if Germany were being ultra aggressive and Russia can’t handle the heat, but even then you might just want to exploit the German weakness elsewhere.
If Berlin and W. Europe are stacked, then you want to offload into Karelia and build up a force there, then work into Eastern Europe. There is a cracking point at which Germany can’t defend W/E Europe + Berlin and has to give up one, and once he starts retreating then you’re on your way to taking the capital.
With a 3x3 transport build you’ll want to use that extra money to build fighters, which give you flexible/reuseable offense as well as flexible defense for Moscow.
You don’t need an IC in Brazil. Just land troops in Algeria on round 1 and/or 2 and march them down. Send some airforce to Africa if you’re having problems there.
PS. also is it worth it to invest in bombers/heavy bombing so that I can launch strikes from the UK or will I just be wasting my money?
I wouldn’t recommend it in LHTR. LHTR limits bombers to the best of 2 dice rolls (and add 1 if strategic bombing), so heavy bombers is not worth researching. Due to bombing limits, just doing normal bombing isn’t a great choice either. You’re better off having actual units on the board contesting Africa and Europe than you are trying to punch Germany in the pocketbook. You would waste a lot of money that way since you almost have to build a bomber every turn to replenish bombers that might die in this turn’s bombing raid.
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Heavy bombers is the way to go, unless you play with LHTR (which you should since the original rules on SBR sucks!).
Otherwise:
- Build one trn, a cv and 6 inf on US1 in ECO/EUS, move your Pac fleet through/towards the Panama Canal
- Fill up your 3 Transports with 2 arm, 1 rtl, 3 inf and ship’em on US2 to ALG. Move your 6 inf bought on US1 to Eca.
- Build enough land units on US2 to keep your 3 trns full every turn from now on (you may go for a 4th or even 5th trn if you got the money)
- Shuttle land units to ECA every round - your trns can load up in Eca and unload in Alg within one single round (it was a revelation for me the first time I realized…)
You may do the same, but unload in NWY, but that will slow you a turn - and who is reclaiming Africa for the Allies meanwhile…!
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Heavy bombers is the way to go, unless you play with LHTR (which you should since the original rules on SBR sucks!).
Otherwise:
- Build one trn, a cv and 6 inf on US1 in ECO/EUS, move your Pac fleet through/towards the Panama Canal
- Fill up your 3 Transports with 2 arm, 1 rtl, 3 inf and ship’em on US2 to ALG. Move your 6 inf bought on US1 to Eca.
- Build enough land units on US2 to keep your 3 trns full every turn from now on (you may go for a 4th or even 5th trn if you got the money)
- Shuttle land units to ECA every round - your trns can load up in Eca and unload in Alg within one single round (it was a revelation for me the first time I realized…)
You may do the same, but unload in NWY, but that will slow you a turn - and who is reclaiming Africa for the Allies meanwhile…!
We are relatively new to the game, maybe 8-9 games or so in the last couple of weeks, so we still use the rules included with the rulebook, I doubt anyone is going to change anytime soon, I will probably nix using heavy bombers anyway until maybe germany is starting to stack guys in its major defense cities, I will use the early time to set up troops in africa and deploy them into karelia to help russia. Thanks for the suggestions.
Do you think it is worth buying an IC in siankiang, or will it just eventually be taken over by japan?
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I don’t think the Sinkiang complex is worth it. It will be taken over, and you’d rather be spending your money on those pesky heavy bombers =)
I would seriously mass heavy bombers if you’re using the normal combat rules. Double dice is ridiculous, even for pure combat and not strategic bombing. A stack of those suckers with an inf shield does amazing amounts of damage and can be reused (although they are susceptible to AA fire).
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I don’t think the Sinkiang complex is worth it. It will be taken over, and you’d rather be spending your money on those pesky heavy bombers =)
I would seriously mass heavy bombers if you’re using the normal combat rules. Double dice is ridiculous, even for pure combat and not strategic bombing. A stack of those suckers with an inf shield does amazing amounts of damage and can be reused (although they are susceptible to AA fire).
Now that you mention it and I am thinking about it that heavy bombing under normal rules sounds very unbalanced. I mean you could get a group of 20 infantry for fodder and if you even had 4-5 heavy bombers to attack with that is 8-10 dice with a 4 roll or less. pretty nasty.
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Heavy bombers also kick the living krap out of navies for their cost. The closest a navy can get is 24 IPCs for a battleship for 1 roll of 4 + absorption, but here comes the heavy bomber that is 3/8 cheaper and rolls two 4’s……
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