How many turns on average does a game take?

thanks guys i appreciate it. cant believe ive been playin the wrong way for a while now. i had units counting one to get on and one to get off in NCM. so only tanks were able to. woops lol

That would be nice, but hes my tourney partner  :-)

We do have a lot of people to play against but unfortunately they’re all good.

Thanks.  :-)

It’s not exactly related to any strafe, but a move I sometimes enjoy is to hit sz61 and sink the destroyer there, then send your Aussie sub to sz37 and dive immediately (no combat). This can be annoying for Japan, especially if you put your bomber in range, and kept your fighters at the ready for a UK2 attack.

It’s not as painful as trying to kill a Japanese carrier in the first round, and it gives you some naval flexibility against the IJN in the second round, without requiring you to risk the destruction your own navy in the process. If no good attacks vs Japan present themselves, then your sub can bounce towards Suez and just hang out there until more British aircraft arrive to make it effective.
;)

If the Japanese destroyer in sz61 is sunk on UK1, there is no way for Japan to attack this sub, so it’s safe camped out in sz37 by the Japanese battleship/carrier group (going anywhere the Japanese can go) at least until J2, when it can either attack a target of opportunity or withdraw towards Africa.

I’m very wary of an opening move that leaves the second Japanese transport alive, because it allows Japan to bring their ground units into the fray much sooner. Not attacking sz61 would seem to be a requirement of the sz37 attack, whether you’re going all out or just trying some kind of strafe move. A British bid can change my outlook, another sub or destroyer or fighter bid to UK can make the sz37 trade much better, but OOB it still seems real dicey to me.

Anytime man, it’s a fun board. For a casual dice game, if you’re not trying to bid it out, Allies can still come out with the edge, but takes more energy and greater risks. I’ve probably seen a good half dozen openers I like with the Russians.

From a purchasing strategy standpoint I think you’re better off producing some combination of 7 or 6 units/hitpoints, and taking the advantage on more counter attack options from your units, as opposed to the Classic 8 inf units/hitpoints for your starting 24ipcs. The Russian endgame is always about stacking infantry. But unlike in earlier boards, the Russian position is not as strong. Germany has teeth and Karelia is pretty much hopeless for an opener. I find if you don’t give Russians something to work with on offense you just get squeezed out of the center too quickly.

Two schools, one says destroy max german units in the first round for the minimum investment, buy max inf for the duration and count on UK/US to handle the entire offensive threat to G.

Other says conserve infantry in the opener,  risk the bare minimum in battle round 1, and imstead try to bait G, by pulling their ground forward into favorable counter attack trades during the second round.

Some things I’ve seen include full W. Russia stack 4 tanks and all the goods, bait G into Caucasus at the cost of giving them the cash, at the cost of 1 inf destroyed. With UK retaking or else, Russia in round 2 with aims to hold thereafter.

Ukraine attack. Some feel it is critical to take the territory to destroy the 6th German fighter right away and avoid the land attack on Caucasus. Others prefer to strafe off the German ground and retreat their armor if possible. Most just go 3 tanks to ice it. But I’ve seen arguments for just taking 2 and putting 2 tanks into W. Russia instead of 1. It’s a tough call. Problem with W. Russia attack is no control over how many hits G will put up.

Still others like a Belo Blast in combination with W. Russia, rather than Ukraine.

Or the Baltic gambit with 1 inf 1 art 1 fighter vs the german inf and tank. Hoping for a lucky sweep.

Some options that are interesting for purchase at seven units/hitpoints are…
4 inf 3 art
6 inf 1 tank

At six units/hitpoints…
2 inf 3 art 1 tank
4 inf 2 tanks
6 artillery

At 5 units/hitpoints (dangerously low for controlling the center against full Axis press, but still)…
2 inf 3 tanks
3 artillery 2 tanks

For me the 7 unit buys are optimal, but if you go any lower it should be to try something high risk with a strong payoff. And then after you gamble big, you walk out of the casino and max produce infantry and artillery from then on out ;)

Whatever you buy, it’s helpful to have the heavy hitters coming out of Moscow, since you may have to trade in Caucasus. I think if you’re not going to max buy 8 infantry in round 1, then it’s important to conserve your starting infantry in opening attacks. The hits you sustain in W. Russia can determine so much of what Allies can do. If the Russians get in clean you just have a lot more options with UK. If you get hammered by Germany in W. Russia, it’s immediately rescue Russia mode for UK/US.

Yes, provided the fighters have a place to land when the attack is made, you can choose the carrier as a casualty before the fighters. Though in either case, whether you win or lose, if the surviving fighters don’t have a place to land after combat, they will crash into the sea. The important point is that when combat begins all combatant fighters must have a viable place to land. The ability to move fighters off territories to land on carriers, or off carriers to land on territories, may allow you to bring more fighters into the battle than the carriers alone would seem to allow, this is called maxing movement, but you can’t suicide or kamikaze fighters outright. In other words, you have to have a place for them to go at the start of the attack, but not necessarily once the attack is underway and you are actually taking fire. There is some flexibility in choosing casualties, once combat begins… so if you know it is an all or nothing flight, it may make sense to choose the carrier before the fighters.

There is one situation where choosing the carrier first can be crushing though, if you are defending, and the attacker retreats after a strafe, if your fighters have no carrier or territory to land on they will crash into the sea at no cost to the attacker.

On the older boards there were mechanisms like counters to track the exact  movement left for individual aircraft. But I think on these latest boards, the attacker is just assumed to always take casualties on the fighters with the least movements first. For the defending carrier based fighter it doesn’t matter, if the deck is destoyed they have to land in a territory adjacent to the sz where the combat took place. Otherwise they crash

sz15 can be attacked with 2 fig 1 bom, vs 1 bb 1 cru 2 tran the odds are

61% all G units dead
15% only 2 trans left
17% BB + 2 trans left
7%  all G units survive

This is asuming that the UK destroyer at sz17 was killed with G air on G1.

Either Germany needs to buy more navy to protect the BB, or it must either attack Egypt G1 or take Gibraltar on G1.
Otherwise it will be possible for the UK to launch a solid attack.

@MistuhJay:

@UrJohn:

It depends on your strategy.

–CV, AP & 3 INF

why would you need a third CV when you start with two already?

I don’t think you’d need a 3rd CV on J1. By the time its J1, you may be down to 1 CV. If the UK attacks your SZ 37 fleet and wins soundly, then Japan starts off on the defensive. You may want a 2nd CV.

If you don’t buy any navy/air force on J1, then the US can take the initiative in the Pacific. You will be hard pressed to do everything the IJN needs to do: protect Philippines, Borneo, East Indies, Japan, Kwangtung and Manchuria; chase off or destroy the USN; crush India; and pick up Australia, New Zealand and/or Africa.