• '10

    @Gargantua:

    Game thinking is no longer conventional, people forget that.  They focus on taking territory by territory thinking it’s helping them economically, when really, they just need to focus on objective and economic based territories that ACTUALLY matter.

    Japan’s outright strategic objectives for winning should be

    1) Hong Kong - Easiest
    2) Phillipines - Easy
    3) India - Difficult  (But not if your plan properlly)
    4) Hawaii - easy to extremely difficult.  - The reason Hawaii is last, is because it can be reached from your Capital Zone - so your Entire income can focus on it.

    It all comes down to What happens early in China and India.  Most people just buff themselves Right into China Right away -  I think this is bad, the new theory should be all about Neutralization.

    Stack up in Kwangsi.  You can get like 14 ground units there.  take the odd territory here and there from china, but don’t expose yourself to counter attack.  The game is not won by  beating china,  it’s won by getting your men out of china and into the fight for  india.

    J2, you can hit Yunnan with everysingle plane you have, and a FAT stack of ground units.  Chances are, the Chinese won’t stack here, but they could - hope that they do.  Regardless, they have almost no counter to take yunnan back on China 2, it will be a slaughter.  So you have a stack in Yunnan .

    Yunnan IS the burma road, without this territory you cut China’s income roughly in HALF.  by taking 1 Territory!  Forget about China for the rest of the game.

    J3 you attack south to fight the british, right along the Burma road,  China won’t have a chance to take it back - Ever.  By this time you can have built a naval base in Hainan and an airstip in Kwangsi, all fairly standard japanese buys.  You can then also make any ships or transports available - ready in this region as well.

    Now a few things can change here depending on what the british have done with their navy.  But there is a trick to this-  Most ppl Fck it all up here because they hit the money islands instantly - instead of a direct focus on India. I think this is BAD FORM.

    Ignore the money islands- sure you might lose 16 IPC’s of income, oh well, you’ll get India.  Use your airfoce to take out ANYTHING that is blocking the path from Hainan to Burma.  Then, NCM your entire navy and full transports from Kwangsi/Hainan to burma, and unload the ground units INTO burma.  Now what’s india going to do?

    Not soon after this it is easy to nuetralize ANZAC from the game.  IF at some point you take the Soloman islands, or a likewise territory - you can eliminate ALL ANZAC No’s.  That said Mayla takes out half their NO’s aswell.  Make sure you deprive them of these objevtives, and make a point of killing there navy once or at the same time you do.  They’ll be out of the game for the rest of it.

    It all comes down to Hawaii after that, and at the same time peeling units from India into those Money islands.  Now you are on Economic Par,  China has done F-all.  Anzac is neutralized, and all you ahve to do is put everything you have into Hawaii.

    OR, you send everything you have onto the Europe board to make all the difference in Russia.  Ouch.  an Anti Russian campaign is part of my strategy too.  But I’ll put this all together in an article someday to make it easy.

    If you don’t do something like this, then you better be sending everything you have against America, to try and draw their units out of Europe.  Otherwise you are just a panty waste Japan, who floated around for awhile and sank.

    Thank you for taking the time to write an elaborate answer to my question. Very interesting post as usual. I will try your strat as soon as tonight !

    Basile II : nowhere in his post Gargantua talks about attacking Yunnan on turn 1.

    Funcioneta : i don’t think Gargantua means to ignore China for the rest of the game, but that a J2 attack on Yunnan is a killer move for China.


  • My early India strategy revolves around avoiding the J3/J4 crush. I like to take two inf from Malaya and take Java on UK1. The Anzac air force can land there on turn 1 as well and are usually ignored. Turn 2, UK takes Sumatra if still not at war. Taking the East Indies and making only inf buys are crucial to provide those few extra units needed to survive J3 in particular. The two inf could be brought to India instead, but they can net 12+ IPC’s by going on the “offensive.”

    By turn 4, India can be in serious jeporday against a determined Japan, often needing allied support by this point. The Russian air force can prove to be a critical last-minute defensive addition, but this is hard to set up for, as there are no convienent staging areas on R3, and this move has to be done before Japan’s intentions are revealed on J3.

    By turn 5 and beyond, India’s fate starts to depend more and more on the balance between Japan’s commitment to take it and the other Allies’ effort to defend it. Depending on the balance in the European theatre (i.e. Sealion) the US can shuttle planes into India as early as US5.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    The way to win the war AS china I have learned from experience, is to Hide from Japanese attacks BECAUSE they can bring in planes.  And then counter attack small groups of Japanese ground units. Every Jap you kill, is a jap not taking Chinese territory, and less a jap facing India.

    TOO MANY GAMES have gone by now, that I haven’t seen a DECENT campaign into India.  This has to be corrected.  Japan is the best hope for an Early Axis Victory.

    TOO MANY GAMES have gone by where I have seen the Burma road opened  - THIS is letting China Breath, retaking the road EVERY turn, and widdling off your units.

    First off all,

    There is no such thing as “Valuable IPC’s” in china  Yunnan kills 7 Chinese Ipc’s and gives you 1 IPC - a total switch of + 8.  You would need to take 4 chinese territories JUST to make up for this one.  Same goes for any of the DEI,  you take 2 or 3 of these territories and China is paid for.  IF you want a decent campaign against Russia, and to make an impact in Moscow, then ATTACK RUSSIA, you have almost as many ground units as they do, and certainly as many planes.  Sure they get 12 for one turn,  But that’ll be spent, and you’ll be earning there IPC’s that China can’t even touch.

    Also note that I am not advocating for an ABANDON China campaign.  I’m saying it’s better to consider ways to Neutralize them whilst you smack out India, AND the money islands - with a northern Russian campaign.  Force the Chinese to attack your LARGE defensive formations - it will be a slaughter everytime.  And god forbid they ever reach a coastal territory - those units will be dead.

    I am playing a game now where I will map this out, and you’ll see the effect.  We’ll discover if there is truth in your point Func.

    Remmeber I don’t care if I win or lose in China, I just care if I win or lose the game.

  • '22 '19 '18

    I treat them as the sacrificial lamb.  There goal is to take out as many Japanese land forces as possible.  I also like to buy AA guns so that everytime Japan attacks the UK I get AA shots at his airforce.

    I also position navy as blockers to prevent J3 crush as mentioned earlier.  The other goal I have with UK is to help keep Burma road open, espically Yunnan, because Japan needs to control Yunnan to be able to land airforce there after J3 attack on India.


  • @Gargantua:

    There is no such thing as “Valuable IPC’s” in china  Yunnan kills 7 Chinese Ipc’s and gives you 1 IPC - a total switch of + 8.  You would need to take 4 chinese territories JUST to make up for this one.  Same goes for any of the DEI,  you take 2 or 3 of these territories and China is paid for.  IF you want a decent campaign against Russia, and to make an impact in Moscow, then ATTACK RUSSIA, you have almost as many ground units as they do, and certainly as many planes.  Sure they get 12 for one turn,  But that’ll be spent, and you’ll be earning there IPC’s that China can’t even touch.

    Taking ‘advantage’ of the irrealistic ACME wall, uh? A error that many players make from Revised is to ignore a theater. Japan can toast China easily in the first rounds, and then is time to shift to India (after all, usually the best bet is wait until J3 to attack the Western Allies). Why lose the chance of taking 8-12 IPCs and destroying one enemy power when is so easy? And Japan has enough punch to take the islands as well … fricking 26 planes …

    Anyway, seems that you are using some alpha stuff (I agree that the 12 IPCs given to USSR if Japan attacks sucks, it should be at least a penalty of 20 for Japan to count!). That changes the things a bit (just a bit, because western allies are also nerfed in the Pacific), but I prefer stick to OOB, because is the only solid ruleset we have, and I have no proofs of the supposed OOB’s  unbalance. Testing is task for WOTC testers, and not for the players that paid for the game  :wink:

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    My strategy is for the current alpha 2, not OOB

    And YES.  Ignoring China in AA50 is a HUGE mistake.  But Global is a DIFFERENT game completely.


  • I just played a game as allies were I went kill Europe first with US.  Italy got recked to like a 17 point country and I knocked Germany down to the high Thirties.  Alantic Brittan got a fleet up and was at just under 40 points and growing and Russia was spending over forty a turn as it was winning against the Germans as the US had taken Norway and killed all German transports.  I feel like UK and Russia if left to there own at that point could have revived France and the three of them would have taken out both European Capitals.

    My opponent Chompers read Gangtua tactic for doing the non combat move with the Japan Navy past my blockers and India died turn 4 even though I had 30 inf and planes sitting in it.  At that point the Japan Navy made a bee line for Hawaii, Australia was a fortress of inf, tanks, and planes that would have taken forever to fall against the now depleted land units of Japan.  As US I kept putting every point I had into Navy to fortify Hawaii but it fell and the allies tapped out into submission for losing 6 victory cities in the Pacific.  I feel like I could have saved Hawaii if I played slightly better but it was not ment to be.

    I am starting to think this new version of the game may be pretty darn balanced but more play testing will be required.  I like it far better than OBB.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    LOL so your friend tried it and it worked?


  • Yes he tried it and it worked LOL.  We have played a lot of games of US going into Pacific first and that has been hit or miss with the allies.  Mostly hit for him and miss for me because he plays a much better Japan.  Basically the former tactic being used by the allies was to try and maim Japan with everyone in the Pacific and US spending all its points in the Pacific for the first 5 turns or so.  At that point if it works Pacific UK, Anzac, and China can keep Japan in line while the US speeds over to Europe and trys to deny a victory city and spend its points there from then on.

    The problem with that tactic is Japan can fight it’s way out of it sometimes at least in our games and if that happens the axis will win.  Also if the US does not show up in Europe till turn 6 or 7 then by the time it does show up Russia is crippled and Germany is about at 70 points a turn.

    So when I played our last game as allies I built a very offensive Russia with art, tanks, and even a couple more planes.  I did this because I shot to Gilbratar at the first chance with a large Navy and about 8 transports of men as US.  My goal was to then look at the situation and decide where to hit from there. My opponent built a bunch of subs and planes as Germany to force me to build more fleet and to give himself a shot at sinking my fleet.  I used blockers to stop the subs from hitting me and I dropped one US inf into Northern Italy and wrecked the major factory.  I then dropped one inf in Norway and denied Germany 8 points a turn. By that point India fell on J4 as he used your tactic.  I then started building up a fortress in Hawaii because I was one victory city away from tapping out no matter how much I had wrecked the European Axis.  I then got all my men and fleet that had gone to Europe and began to head for Hawaii.  Sadly I got greedy and decided to make a pit stop on the way there to crush the baltic German fleet that had come out into the Alantic to play ball.  I sunk it with ease and put men in Normandy and Holland so that the German airforce could not waste my Navy with 6 transports filled with troops.  I made a terrible blunder because with the new turn order Italy used the 3 tanks and a couple of fighters which made up of all that was left of its army to retake Holand.  At that point on the German turn the Airforce was able to reach my fleet and send it to davy jone’s locker along with the six transports and then rebase in Holand.  That was probably when I lost the game because when the huge naval battle took place in Hawaii I lost but had the reinforcements been there Japan most likely would have never been able to take Hawaii.  I was looking like a champ in Europe because the US had gotten Germany to not spend nearly enough on the Eastern Front and had allowed UK Alantic to defeat Italy in Africa.  Had the game gone on Russia and UK would have revived France and occupied Berlin and Rome.  But it’s my own falt I lost by a hair at Hawaii and also due to some good moves by CHompers.  Your tactic did work and he won the game.  The next game we are playing he will be the allies and I will be the axis.  I think your tactic for winning the game in Pacific is very good and your were right about bypassing the money islands for one turn to crush India dead.  That being said I am going to try some of my own ideas and see if I can find a way to win my game as the axis.  I like the new set up a lot better and think it opens up a lot of possabilites.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    And don’t think there are not strategies out there to STOP this Japanese tactic.

    Because there are - and they can be very successful.  But the Allies HAVE to committ to it - or they will be destroyed.

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