IPC's and Chips

If Russia is aggressive in its first move, all things considered, it’s game over for the Axis. It’s why I favor a house rule that forces the USA to spend a certain amount of money in the Pacific Theater-and units purchased can only be used in that theater of operations…

when capitals are liberated they ALWAYS go back to the country whose capital that is. Germany has Moscow. Britain takes Moscow, Moscow is now Russian.

@Mannstein:

This has probably been subject of discussion before, but I want to give it another go; Who’s your power of choice? Not the most fun or exciting or challenging power to be, but the most succesful or “safe”? If you had to play for money, would you prefer to be axis or allies? If it was a matter of fun or excitement, (and luckily it usually is) I’d play axis anytime. But it seems allies have a lot better chance of winning usually? I’d say it’s about 70/30 allied favour? … What do you think? Maybe Hobbes and Bunnies will reply also - they seem to have played a few games, maybe they have some statistics they’d like to share?

Thanks in advance…

There is no most successful or safe single power.

The game’s pretty much about using the powers in combination effectively using calculated risks.  If you don’t work well with your allies or your allies don’t work well with you, you will probably fail.  If you don’t take calculated risks, emphasis on risks, you will fail, because only by taking risks can you maintain a forward position and therefore enough income to remain competitive.  You cannot “play it safe” and win unless your opponent is also “playing it safe”.

Luck and skill are far more important than which side you play in Spring 1942.  (Which is NOT the case for Revised.  There, I think the Allies have a REAL advantage, which can be offset by giving the Axis a bid.)

If pressed to commit to an answer, I would say I think the Allies have the advantage.

I personally find the Allies more interesting and challenging to play, because I pretty much know what I want to do with the Axis at any given time (I might stare at the board for quite a while, but I usually end up with a very concrete idea of what I want to do.)  On the other hand, I feel my Allies game is a lot looser and has room for a good bit of improvement.

That’s why I feel Allies have the edge.  I think I know what the Axis can do, and I think I don’t know all the things the Allies can do, and I fear the unknown.  It’s scary, sort of like when you open up the refrigerator and discover you’re out of carrots, then you wonder if there’s any carrots left at the grocery store.

start a new topic for each of the players (if they’re a&a.org members) and ask them to post what they want and don’t want in a country, and that can determine what nations you should play as

I voted the DD, it is the backbone of every defensive or mixed fleet.

The CC imho is the least usefull unit, but still has some use in large fleets. The question always is, why buy a CC and a DD with 20 IPC when the same money can get you a BB. Well, the answer is fleet volume.
When playing Dice, you can get lucky or unlucky. But, no matter how lucky you get, one BB will only get you one hit (in att or def) while one CC and one DD, if you are lucky, will get you two hits. So, for every second BB I buy, I prefer adding some pure volume in my fleets by bying a DD and a CC.

Another equivalent is to buy 2 SS and one DD, but when def is a primary concern and volume is needed, 2 SS are no more than fodder, given the attacker will have a DD (or else his air hits won t be assigned on the SS, and they will be useless even for fodder…).

The optimum setup for a mixed fleet (for example a US2 pacific fleet aiming for south pacific in US3) is 4 SS, 3 DD, 1 CC, 2 AC loaded, 1 BB, 2 TT (carrying 4 inf). Total IPC cost 82 (buy US1 2 AC, DD, SS, US2 1 ftr, 1 TT+1 inf, 2 SS, DD).

@Keredrex:

Here it is

This is awesome and it is the sheet that I will use from now on. Thanks.

I’ve played games yesterday as allies and won them against the other player. We had played before using the same sides and I lost. Here’s my impressions of what happened and what you described:

The initial Russian opening is pretty much standard, he should have lost 3 inf according to probabilities but G will lose 2 of the following 4 territories to R on the first round: Ukraine/West Russia/Bielorussia/Norway. G has to push Russia back on the first or second turn. Buying only inf for G on round 1 is not the best choice (the allied player did it on both my games). Ideally, if you buy 5 tanks you can be able to make Karelia impossible to take by the Russians (depending on the number of russian casualties and their initial purchase). If that’s not possible then you will have to take and hold Karelia or Ukraine somewhere on the following rounds. What you do regarding the Brit fleets really depends on how much you want to risk sacrificing your air force. Taking out the UK Battleship and the Transport with the sub, fighter and bomber gives some breathing room for G on the Atlantic, along with killing the Cruiser. And don’t forget to move the G subs. Regarding J it really depends on what R and the UK have made. If they are playing aggressive then you’ll have 6 inf on Buryatia, UK controlling Borneo and New Guinea, UK fighter on US carrier on Hawaii. Your first buy should be 2 transports and 1 destroyer, in any case. You’ll need the DD do deal with any allied subs, while the factory can wait a little longer. With Japan I’d say that the US fleet is the biggest target, followed by China and Borneo. If R moved to Buryatia leave 1 inf behind in Manchuria and land as many fighters as possible there. If the US goes Pacific (like I did on my games) and starts building a fleet, then your focus is to prevent the US fleet from invading either East Indies/Borneo/Phillipines and building an IC there. You’ll need some infantry to drop on Asia using the transports available but combat ships and planes have the highest priority. On Asia focus on taking India, the Chinese territories and the 3 Russian territories. Don’t leave your ground units where they can be destroyed by allied  counterattacks.

It’s better to just write your money down, especially if you’re playing one on one. It can get messy trying to keep IPC’s organized for all three allies. Writing income down is quicker and is evidence of purchases in case there are any disputes later. Our group stopped using money before 42 even came out because we realized the pointlessness of it.