[Beginner] 2nd game played, I have some questions !

  • '14

    I played my second game of axis & allies 1942 as japan (not the 2nd edition I think because there is no R&D). I’m a big fan of strategy games so I’m quite interested in getting better at this one.

    On J1 I bought 1 transport, 1 destroyers and infantery. I then:

    • sent pretty much everything I had at sea to do pearl harbor (the island at sea, not the actual US west coast) and won without taking any damage.
    • I tried to take china but failed (I should have added the east india infantery and 1 more fighter with my attack I believe)

    It resulted in : most of my fleet couldn’t move after the attack to go defend my transports. The US suicided its 2 fighters from US-west and the one from china to kill my 3 transports next to japan (they were placed in both sea zones ) since nothing were left defending beside my newly bought destroyer (it got destroyed too).
    This move basically meant I couldnt do much for J2 beside building transports back and lost us the game.

    Can’t the island of japan defend its 2 sea zones ? I thought so -_-. Should I have left ships there ? I really thought the units on an island defended the sea zone next to it, but I was told they count as seperate zones.

    What should I do ?
    Next time I’ll try to destroy china’s fighter so I would be safe from a “suicide attack” from Us-west on the sea-zone left of japan with my transports.
    UK, Russia and USA concentrated all their effort to take down germany and I was helpless to help :(

    btw, my ally, germany played way too passive on G1 and didn’t make many attacks while the UK and US didn’t care about india or africa and kept building their fleet to invade (which they did successfully on UK2 and US2) By turn 4 it was over. (even though I suicided my fighter to moscow with a tank and took it over on J3, germany lost berlin at UK4)


  • First, welcome to the game. New Players are exciting!

    Couple thoughts/answers:

    • Some China territories should be easy to capture first round and this is generally done as a standard move by Axis players unless for some reason Russia gets fighters or tanks down there. You want to boot American infantry from the continent before they can withdraw and help Russia.

    EDIT: Since you’re mentioning China I just want to make sure you’re on the same version of the game as this forum…there are actually 4 China-related / US Occupied Territories in the version you’ve posted under.

    • The US should not have been permitted to suicide any fighters as you described. Fighters can move 4 spaces and MUST have a place to land, otherwise, it is not a legal move. There are some exceptions when it comes to Carrier combat - i.e. you move them to a sea zone, bring a carrier, do battle, the carrier is sunk, then the fighter may either land after the battle on a land territory in that SAME zone if you owned it to begin with, or will crash and sink in the ocean. But beyond that it sounds like his move was illegal.

    • It is true that an island does not defend it’s neighboring sea zones, only naval forces or fighters stationed on a carrier can do that.

    • As Germany, your first move should be to take all of your naval and air power and sink the entire US Atlantic Fleet and the UK Atlantic Fleet next to Britain (with the Battleship). This can be done with zero casualties or at worst a sub is lost. You will also be sinking the British Cruiser in the Mediterranean. You’ll have to experiment with the right mix. You can ignore the British transport/destroyer off Eastern Canada as they are orphaned and can easily be sunk next round unless they pull back to USA Atlantic coast, in which case they have to sink your subs that are still lurking there. By doing this, you delay ANY possible Allied naval buildup/landing in Europe by 4+ rounds. You can ignore the British Destroyer in the Suez as it poses no real threat and will likely retreat next round.

  • '14

    thanks for your quick reply!

    This is the map I am playing on axisandallies.org/p/axis-allies-spring-1942-article-series-part-5-strategy/wpid1297-axis-allies-1942-0220-jpg but we have no R&d
    So I think I posted on the wrong forum? If so sorry :\ (so many versions, it’s kind of confusing, especially for reading strategies -_-')

    So if I understand correctly, no planes can do “kamikaze” ? Even bombers? The US actually bombed japan without any plans to return home, but hey the infantery couldn’t shoot planes either so! ;)
    We allowed planes to attack and crashed on land on both our games (sometimes its a very good exchange like the US did)

    If this is not allowed then I guess my transports would be safe :P

    I also heard about a “revised” rules where the axis can put an additional 8 or 9 IPC on the map wherever they want at turn 1 to even things out since it’s hard for them to win the long-term war. (but didn’t find much on it)

    anyway thanks for the info :) !

    Ps: It’d be awesome if someone can move the thread to the right game, sorry again about that!


  • The versions are confusing to ME and I’ve been playing since around 1990. No worries there.

    Yes I think the version you have is the more simplified/entry level version, great for beginners and hopefully a path to this version for you in the future! (http://www.amazon.com/Axis-allies-1942-Second-Edition/dp/B0080NQ878)

    I am not intimately familiar with your version but I’d bet my house that the ruleset regarding kamikaze planes is the same - it’s been this way all the way back to the first Axis and Allies version I played. Whether bombers or fighters.

    Your revised rules are basically a ‘BID’ system, which both players need to agree to and which generally exist to correct perceived imbalances in the game (or to offset someone being a bit newer and playing someone experienced). I don’t know if your version requires one. I suspect this one does and I have some threads discussing that very point in here right now. But basically both sides come to an agreement where one party gets extra IPC’s or specific equipment to help level the playing field, and that is added at the start of the game.

  • Official Q&A

    Welcome, tryon!

    From the image you referenced, you’re playing the 1st Edition, the forum for which can be found here.  OutlawUnForgiven’s comments about air unit suicide missions apply to both editions.

Suggested Topics

Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

23

Online

17.0k

Users

39.2k

Topics

1.7m

Posts