• Hello all, new “kid” here
    I’ve played this game for years, though our group plays only a few times a year. We are definately rookies compared to you all, based on what I’ve read on these pages.

    The strategy of building Allied IC’s in: India, for England ; Singkiang, for USA has become standard practice. By cranking tanks from these two factories, the axis’ fate is even worse than usual. Even if Japan can take the India IC, she can’t hold it and still ends up throwing all her resources at a losing battle on the mainland.
    Do any of you have tips or tricks to help overcome this allied IC strategy ??

    Thanks, very much !
    Col. Klink


  • @Klink!:

    Hello all, new “kid” here
    I’ve played this game for years, though our group plays only a few times a year. We are definately rookies compared to you all, based on what I’ve read on these pages.

    The strategy of building Allied IC’s in: India, for England ; Singkiang, for USA has become standard practice. By cranking tanks from these two factories, the axis’ fate is even worse than usual. Even if Japan can take the India IC, she can’t hold it and still ends up throwing all her resources at a losing battle on the mainland.
    Do any of you have tips or tricks to help overcome this allied IC strategy ??

    Thanks, very much !
    Col. Klink

    Okay despite, having the Japan industry like a sea zone away you have to build one in Kwangtung, and since the US has some extra forces you got to use some transports, but with the Kwangtung industry it should help a bit more for future turns focusing on the US. Also use your airforce to an advantage.
    So yeah you could try that.


  • Hey, can’t say I’m a long time Classic player, only played this version a few times, but here goes. This would be more to add to Japan’s troubles. You’re familiar with the Siberian Surprise and Kwangbang? Now that I think of it it’s not likely to be helpful but - If you’re not playing RR, the Soviets take Manchuria and land their fighter in China. The British take Kwangtung, also landing a fighter in China. This leaves India open, however. The Soviets would have to spare a tank or two to ensure the UK can build in India.


  • Can’t Russia also attack the Baltic navy with 1 sub and 1 ftr?

  • '12

    The game is tilted to allied victory our group finds.  We play with the optional rules no russian attack, jap super subs, german jet fighters and 2 extra infantry in Libya, eastern europe and manchuria.

    I’m not a fan of Japanese factories and since you can build unlimited units in Japan there really is little need for it.  You can make the argument you get units to the front faster true, but at the cost of 5 infantry and perhaps the associated cost of the AA.  True it is tough to transport tanks with the transports only bringing 1 tank or 2 infantry, perhaps midway into the game 1 factory to produce only tanks might be required.  Japan really needs lots of infantry to mate up with their air power, trading territories with russian and leaving tanks is no way to win the war of attrition.  Some tanks are required to add punch and to offer greater mobility, liquid power I like to call it.  The tacitial threat of mobile tanks requires greater defensive thought and resources, ie blitzing jap tanks into africa might cause the allies to keep some forces at ‘home’ playing safety.

    I’m 50/50 on pearl harbor, if I knew the allies were building factories in asia I might concentrate forces along the coast rather than attack hawaii.  On the other hand, I hate having assests not being used, those 2 fighters and battleships have little else to do on round 1.

    I’m a big fan of jap transports.  Build 2 on round 1 plus 3 infantry.  Efficiently take infantry off surrounding islands while moving units of Japan.  With 4 transports on round 2 you can bring over 24 IPC worth of infantry per round, save towards a 5th transport then towards an IC.  Bring the transports down south from Japan to drop off in French indo-china (FIC), then next turn move them up north and bridge units to manchuria.  While your navy is off FIC you can leap frog India if it is too heavily defended and attack Africa directly at the cost of having your transports out of sync.  That would be the ideal time to build a factory or more transports.  Merely having the threat of a navy with 4 transports that can land 8 infantry with airsupport into Africa can do amazing things to the allied plans….

    By round 2 you are bringing over 8 infantry per round, you are outbuilding the allied factories now by units, you don’t have to defend japanese factories while the allies have to defend theirs.  The allies are building tanks at their factories by necessity so you should be trading your infantry for their tanks. You should also be able to position your Jap forces to threaten both their factories while choosing to attack the least defended one.  If Russia is required to help make the british and american factories defendable in asia then germany should be running amok.  It’s a heck of alot of allied investment in asia to produce 5 unites per round in my humble opinion.


  • Well, unless you give the axis a big advantage (such as a bid), you have a very poor chance of winning as the Axis anyway, but the IC’s built by the US/UK actually help the Axis.

    A few things the Axis should do here.

    1. Strat bomb these ICs.  Force the Allies to either suck up the losses or spend an additional 10 IPCs to buy AA.
    2. The extra money spent in Asia for the ICs and for the troops being placed there means less available for fighting Germany.  Germany should be pushing hard against Russia and maybe even holding Africa longer than normal.  See if you can take and hold Karelia by the Germans and force the Allies to pump troops from these ICs to Moscow to help protect it.  With less UK/US troops there, this might be possible.
    3. Japan should be able to eventually take these ICs away.  By careful coordination of the MANY fighters Japan starts with, I don’t see how these don’t eventually fall to Japan.
    4. If you are playing with bids to help the axis, then you have a couple of choices.  Go Power Europe for Germany and try to crush Russia early.  or Go Power Africa and try to hold Africa for a while.  or Go Power Asia (I really don’t like Power Asia bids) and take away the option of these ICS.  Of these choices, I like PE best.

    Again, without bids or some way to level the playing field, the allies should win, even with this sub-optimal play so don’t worry that you don’t win often against this strategy.


  • For the Allies to build ICs in Asia they have to have a very strong foothold in the first round.
    2 transports + infantry in round 1
    With Russia restricted its usually preventable.

    You can leverage a lot of airpower, the transport in the Phillipines.  The Bomber goes inland as long as much airpower and infantry as you can bring to bear.  Pearl Harbor isn’t vital, helps if you can disrupt it a bit, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much.  Hit it with a light attack using whatever is left over and expendable after your mainland attack.  You may want to leave the battleship and the aircraft carrier towards the coast one off of Japan, and one off of wherever you decide to land reinforcements for that region.  If they have too much airpower you may want to consolidate them, but this costs time.

    I wouldn’t draw from the islands (except the Philipines on round one) just make sure your transports can consolidate in the sea of Japan for the infantry wave that starts on round 2.  The allies will spend a lot of resources keeping any foothold they get once they build those factories.  Unless you are really unlucky you will knock them out.    As the other poster suggested, Germany will benefit from the redirection of effort.

    It will cost  you some time, but don’t worry about the Northern territories in Russia just yet.  The opening moves should give their intent away, so just hammer them early.  Once dug in they will cost Japan a lot of time.

    They are difficult to mop up and your reinforcements from the Main Island should be able to hold them back until you have resources free to deal with them.  You want to deny the allies the opportunity to dig in.  If russia reinforces heavily, Sinkiang may be out of reach.

    Make sure you don’t leave  your fighters vulnerable to counter attack, you will need them to support your infantry if you can’t get them early.  Its just a matter of time until you overrun them if you use your troops judiciously.

    In the interim be aggressive with Germany.  A legitimate threat with a strong mix of tanks will keep their troops on the front, and they will have less support than usual.  If they draw to much into asia, count them up and consider an offensive against them, or a strafe.

    If you put a lot of pressure on the factories they will have to buy fighters to defend them and it will eat a lot of their units.  If they get a fighter stranded, attack it with low value units or a lot of fighters so you increase the chance of a favorable trade.

    If you need America to slow down on their builds you can send a transport out and pick up a troop or two within striking range of their coast.  They will have to build defensively… if they go light enough on defense take the gamble and land them.  It will tie up the transport but the IPCs they have to spend to protect an attack from hawaii affects the quality of what they can put in the factory.


  • In your experiences what percent of the games are Axis victories?

Suggested Topics

  • 10
  • 4
  • 7
  • 4
  • 6
  • 4
  • 18
  • 3
Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

35

Online

17.0k

Users

39.3k

Topics

1.7m

Posts