1939 Scenario for the 1942.2 Map and Pieces


  • @Frederick:

    My point is that Russia was more leaning towards axis than allies during 1939, but I would say they aren’t at war unless Germany attacks them until R2.

    I would say that commie Russia, aka Soviet Union, was pretty much alone from the revolution in 1917 and to today. What this game designer is doing wrong is he take for granted that Russia sometime during the game will get allied to the western Allies. What he should have done was give Russia its own specific victory condition. Then the different players could aid each other, or backstab now and then. Just like in the real war

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    Narvik, I agree! You could definitely make the 1939 scenario work as a game for 3 players on 3 separate teams: (UK & US) v. (USSR) v. (Germany & Japan). One challenge with that setup is that you might create an even bigger incentive than usual for Germany and Japan to race toward Moscow. Another (smaller) problem is that you would prevent Russia from reinforcing China. A lot would depend on the specific victory conditions.

    How would you design the victory conditions? Would you say that a team wins if it gains a certain number of victory cities (e.g., four?) relative to the number of victory cities that it started with? If the Anglos are up 4 VCs, the Germans are up 3 VCs, the Russians are down 4 VCs, and the neutrals are down 3 VCs, does that mean that the Anglos win?

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    THOUGHTS ON AMERICAN OPENING STRATEGY

    The Philippine Gambit

    One unique feature about the US starting position in 1939 is that the less developed state of the Japanese economy and the new turn order gives the US a fighting chance to hold onto the Philippines, especially if the British are willing to reinforce the Philippines on B1 from Australia, starting the islands off with 2 inf, 1 art, 1 AAA. American can build an IC on the Philippines on A1, move the US Pacific Fleet to Wake Island (where it can strike the Philippines on A2), and move the US Panama Fleet to the coast of San Francisco (where it can help deter a J2 attack on the US Pacific Fleet). The Flying Tigers can reach the Philippines on A1, as can the British fighter on the Indian Ocean carrier, for a total of 2 inf, 1 art, 1 AAA, 2 ftr, with a naval escort of a British cruiser to stop the Japanese naval bombardment.

    Because Japanese fighters can land on the Caroline islands after attacking the Philippines, Japan can reach the Philippines with its entire starting airforce, plus up to three transports of ground troops, so there’s no question about whether Japan can take the Philippines on J1. The problem for Japan is that this immediately activates the USA, giving it +20 IPCs on A2 and bringing the USA into the war. There’s also the problem of what to do about the US fleet – if the Japanese split their forces to attack both the Philippines and the US Pacific fleet, then they’re not going to make any progress at all on the mainland – it’s not clear that a Japanese factory in the Philippines is enough progress for J1 to get the Japanese economy going. On the other hand, if the Japanese leave the US Pacific fleet alone, then the US can reinforce Wake Island with the Panamanian cruiser and EUS fighter on A2, at which point Japan has to either interrupt its empire-building to send its entire fleet east to Wake Island (a useless territory), build significant naval reinforcments that it can’t really afford, or risk losing its own fleet on A3.

    If Japan ignores the Philippines on J1, then America can reinforce it by building something like 2 inf, 1 ftr on A2 and flying in the EUS starting fighter, giving the Philippines a total of 4 inf, 1 art, 1 AAA, 4 ftr for defense, which is more than the Japanese can afford to destroy even if they use all three transports. The point of building a factory in the Philippines is to force Japan to choose between attacking the islands at an inconvenient time and bringing the US into the war early, or conceding a beachhead for the US that will be a huge thorn in Japan’s side when the US finally does enter the war.

    The South America Opening

    If the Germans were relatively conservative on G1, and there are less than 5 tokens in the US entry box, you might be looking at spending a few turns on the sidelines, so you probably have time to conquer neutral Latin America, securing the victory city in Rio de Janeiro. Swing the Panamanian cruiser and transport over to the Caribbean, and make good use of your cruisers for bombardment. You can leave the West Indies for A2 – the important thing is to drop two fully loaded transports into South America on A1 so that they can march south into Argentina and Brazil on A2 without the need to pull your transports out of position to the south Atlantic. The EUS fighter can attack Colombia and land in Panama; the Pacific fighter can attack Mexico and land in Panama. Don’t send a third transport’s worth of troops to south America unless you take 3+ hits on turn 1; if you need to you can attack only Brazil on A2, and then save A3 for a dicey assault on Argentina – if it doesn’t work, no big deal. Collectively, Latin America is worth 10 IPCs, which will pay for two transport’s worth of troops in about 3 turns, and then the rest is pure profit.

    Be aware of what kind of target your Caribbean fleet presents to the German subs in the South Atlantic – it’s unlikely that the Germans would bring you into the war just to knock out a couple of transports, but if the Axis are planning, e.g., a very aggressive anti-British turn 2, then they might be about to rack up so many US entry tokens that they don’t care about accelerating things a little more by attacking your fleet.

    Atlantic Openings

    Depending on the status of France, you may be able to have the US cross the Atlantic to Morocco and/or French West Africa – it is unlikely that Germany will want to bring you into the war just to sink one or two undefended transports, so you can ship troops on A1 with relative impunity. If the French colonies have defected to the British, then you can reinforce them during non-combat, and if the French colonies are still neutral, then you can attack them while still officially ‘at peace.’ This can be a good way to rapidly deliver US troops closer to the front lines. Just keep an eye out for the likely fallout effects. If France itself is still neutral, you probably don’t want to run the risk of tipping it toward the Axis just for the sake of picking off a couple of 1 IPC colonies.

    If France is neutral and Germany doesn’t appear to be in position to hit France hard on G2, sometimes you can set up for a A2 attack on Spain! Stack your Panama and Atlantic fleets off the coast of Brazil, taking the victory city there on A1. This often pairs well with a ‘can-opener’ attack on Spain on turn 2. Build an extra loaded transport in the Atlantic on A1 (7 trans + 3 inf + 4 art + 3 industrial repair = 17 IPCs), and you can hit Spain with 3 American transports, 1-2 fighters, and a cruiser on A2. The British should be able to soften Spain up for you to the point where the A2 attack succeeds, giving you a 3 IPC American-held territory that’s only 2 sea zones from EUS and that can be easily reinforced by the British.

    One more option is to send the American Atlantic fleet north, to the coast of Greenland. The starting fleet is weak, but from Greenland, you can link up with British escorts on A2 to hit NW Europe to steal the factory there, or link up with the Russian White Sea fleet to liberate or reinforce Karelia. The northern option works best if you bring the Panamian boats over to the EUS coast and build additional boats (e.g., 1 CV, or 1 DD + 1 SS) on the east coast so that you still have a credible force in the central Atlantic.

    No matter what else you’re doing in the Atlantic, consider positioning your destroyers so that they block German movement – in particular, so that they block German movement toward the smallest British fleet in the region. Using neutral American blockers can help the British gain a tactical advantage in the Atlantic – the British can move through the Americans freely, but the Germans can’t.

    The Chinese Question

    Whether to fight for China depends a lot on how much income you have left after your other priorities – if you’re trying the Philippine Gambit, then you’re spending 15 of your 19 starting IPCs on a factory, making it impossible to drop anything into China on A1, and you have to send the Flying Tiger away anyway to help guard the Philippines. In that case, it makes sense to leave the minimum 4 infantry in China (2 British, 2 American) required to stop Japanese tank blitzes, and evacuate the remaining 3 American infantry to protect Kazakh – Japan will eventually gain control of your damaged 1 IPC factory in Szechuan (along with picking up the Chongqing VC), but that can’t be helped; you just have to try to make the Philippines hurt Japan enough to make up for losing China.

    On the other hand, if you’re headed for South America, then you potentially have all 19 IPCs available, and it becomes more important to turn China into a credible speed bump that can really slow down Japan (since the US won’t be attacking any Axis powers aggressively on A1-A2). Try to force Japan to make maximum use of its transports, so that Japan has to choose between attacking China and attacking the money islands – dropping American troops into Anhwei or even Hong Kong on A1 is usually a waste, because Japan can attack over land from Shanghai. On the other hand, more American infantry in Yunnan means that Japan has to dedicate an extra transport to ferrying troops from Tokyo to Yunnan. Consider building a tank in Szechuan and leaving the Flying Tigers and at least one infantry in Szechuan so that you have at least a minimal counter-attack capability – your forces in Yunnan aren’t there to win, they’re just there to make sure that Japan can’t get enough ground troops into Yunnan on J1 to prevent you from re-taking Yunnan on A2. You may want to send your Pacific fighter to New Guinea – that way if Japan opts to ignore Yunnan on J1, you can reinforce it with a second fighter on A2.


  • @Argothair:

    Narvik, I agree! You could definitely make the 1939 scenario work as a game for 3 players on 3 separate teams: (UK & US) v. (USSR) v. (Germany & Japan). One challenge with that setup is that you might create an even bigger incentive than usual for Germany and Japan to race toward Moscow. Another (smaller) problem is that you would prevent Russia from reinforcing China. A lot would depend on the specific victory conditions.

    You make the map, just make China a neutral like Spain or Sweden. In the real war, Maos commie China got more support from Russia than Kuomingtan China got from USA. Of course Russia and US can not share territories, so it will be a race. Maybe one part of China should start with a US factory ?

    Germany and Japan always race towards Moscow because that is an easy strategy. It is not possible to race even more. On the other hand, it is not in the interest of US and UK to let Germany and Japan get all that Russian money. So they need to keep up the pressure.

    The difference between a 1939 start or a 1942 start, together with nation specific victory conditions, is that Russia want Germany to attack UK first, and UK want Germany to attack Russia first. In the real war we know that Stalin made a deal with Hitler, making him to take care of the Western Europe first. But it might as well have been the other way. Lets find out what if ?

    The German and japan victory conditions don’t need to change.

    If UK, US and Russia beat the Axis, then the individual winner is the guy with most VCs

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    That might work. I’m imagining how I would feel as the USA if Japan starts chowing down on Siberian territories. I’d be tempted to abandon Russia to its fate and start picking off victory cities in the Atlantic, e.g., Paris, Rome, and Rio de Janeiro. I can probably hold those cities through turn 10 even if Japan takes Moscow. If the US and USSR at war then I can’t fly planes over to defend Moscow anyway, and I’m certainly not going to build a whole fleet just so I can attack Axis infantry right before they crash into Russian infantry when instead I could send the fleet to attack Axis victory cities.

    Also, do you score the US and the UK separately? That could make it harder for them to coordinate can-opening attacks. What about scoring Germany and Japan – do they each have to worry about who individually has more victory cities? That opens the door to a kind of ‘kingmaker’ effect – the winner turns out to have more to do with whether the Anglos chose to go KGF or KJF than with who was the better player.

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    THOUGHTS ON JAPANESE OPENING STRATEGY

    The Money Islands

    Japan’s biggest worry in the opening is how to get more cash – the 15 IPCs it starts with are not enough to both flesh out Japan’s fleet and keep the ground troops pouring into Asia. As in other versions of A&A, Japan can be a huge breakout power, but unlike other versions, the 1939 scenario doesn’t guarantee a mighty empire for Japan – Japan has to earn it. If, you know, violently conquering innocent countries counts as “earning” anything.

    The most obvious source for Japanese income is the two ‘money islands’ of East Indies and Borneo, which are worth 4 IPC each and are guarded by only 1 neutral infantry. Britain can try to ‘reinforce’ one or both islands on B1, but neither is a great strategy for Britain. The problem is that Britain only has two transports in the region, one of which should really go to French Indo-China to secure a victory there and deprive the Japanese air force of a place to land in the south seas. If Britain sends the transport to French Indo-China, then Britain can only attack one money island with two ground troops – the Dutch island that gets attacked isn’t that much safer than it was with its one neutral ground unit, and the other Dutch island is likely to defect to Japan without a fight, so overall the islands aren’t really any harder for Japan to take. If Britain doesn’t send the transport to French Indo-China, then the entire region of Indonesia becomes a kill zone for the British fleet – the Brits can sacrifice two undefended transports to take the money islands, but without crusiers and fighters to help with the islands, the Brits are likely to lose at least one ground unit, meaning the islands will be defended with three ground units instead of two – hardly a big enough bump to justify sacrificing two transports and ceding regional naval supremacy to Japan.

    Assuming the islands are still neutral, Japan wants to hit both islands for the same reason that the British did – if you don’t conquer both islands in one gulp, the other island is likely to defect to your opponents. With three starting transports, the most sensible strategy is to send one transport to Borneo, one to East Indies, and save the third transport to ferry troops to China or Vietnam.

    The third “money island,” the Philippines, is normally less attractive on all counts. It has only 3 IPC, and it’s guarded by two enemy units. Worse, attacking the Philippines immediately activates America, giving them an extra 20 IPC/turn. The only time you should attack the Philippines in the opening is if America built a factory there. Even then, you can decline the Philippine gambit if you and Germany see a path to win (or get rich) with minimal attacks on Allied territories. If the British diverted too much of their fleet to protect the Philippines, for example, you can try to stack in Burma on J1 or even attack India J1 if the corridor is open. Ignoring the Philippines also works well with a blitz on Moscow – if Germany can make it through the Turkish Straits into the Black Sea, then Germany can ignore France and try to take, e.g., the Baltics, Leningrad, Ukraine, and Stalingrad without bothering with any other Russian territories – enough to cripple the Russians but not enough to activate the USA.

    One gutsy but useful response to an American factory in the Philippines is to send all three transports to attack the Soviet Far East on J1, with the idea of moving to Alaska and/or Western Canada on J2. Just because America builds a factory in the Philippines doesn’t mean it goes to war – but if America spends A2 building anything significant at the Philippino factory (e.g., boats, planes) then it has no income left to activate the San Francisco factory or reinforce the mainland. On the other hand, if America ignores the Philippines, then all three Japanese transports can reach the Philippines in one move from the Soviet Far East, eliminating the threat while delaying the USA’s entry into the war by one more turn. In essence, you ‘fork’ the Phillipines and Alaska. The downside is that you don’t get a chance to take the money islands, although you do get a chance to attack in China with your full air force, which can help you eke out a couple more bucks there.

    Siberia: is it worth taking?

    The problem with Siberia is that even if you conquer all the way from Vladivostok up to Novosibirsk, it’s only worth 7 IPCs. The victory city in Buryatia (Vladivostok) helps, but then the question becomes whether it makes more sense to just take Buryatia, leave a modest garrison there, and move on. Usually the answer is yes – the two exceptions are when you’re trying to win by starving Moscow (usually in combination with a strategic bombing campaign), and when Russia evacuates the east, leaving the territories virtually unguarded. If you’re actually trying to capture Moscow with Japanese troops, you’re usually better off going through China and Kazakh instead of Siberia; it’s a shorter route.

    If you’re trying to starve Moscow, be aware of how your conquests affect the USA entry clock – there’s no point in taking away 1 IPC from Moscow if it results in a +20 IPC gain for the USA. Your goal should be to set up a turn (probably J3) when you can conquer as many Russian territories as possible all at once. One good setup is to take Anhwei hard on J1, stack in Sinkiang and Buryatia on J2, and then explode into Kazakh, Novosibirsk, Evenki, Yakutsk, and the Soviet Far East on J3. The USA will surely enter the war on A4, but by then it’s too late for them to build troops that can make it to Moscow in time to help save the capital.

    The Drive for India

    Although the British start with more troops in Asia in the 1939 version, and more factories in the southern hemisphere, it’s not necessarily any harder to take India. This is partly because the troops are so spread out – the infantry in Hong Kong and Singapore, e.g., will die before they can ever make it back to defend India. The other factor is that the USA’s -20 IPC/turn peacetime penalty means it can’t afford to build as many fighters to defend India and West Russia, and that the UK usually has better things to do than build fighters in London and fly them to India. Paradoxically, the factories in Capetown and Sydney mean that the loss of India isn’t as catastrophic for Britain, so Britain has less incentive to stage an expensive defense there.

    Many of the same principles as the 1942.2 game apply for attacking India from Japan: gain control of the seas, ferry troops to stack in Burma, and be ready to fly in a large air force to help sack India when you see a good opportunity. Because Persia starts the game neutral, it’s harder for the Allies to reinforce India from the west, but you still want to have a ‘surplus’ of force when you take India to reduce unnecessary casualties – Japan has less fodder in the 1939 setup than in the 1942.2 setup, and if you burn off all your planes on the Indian assault, it can take a few turns before you’re ready to threaten anywhere else.

    Because Japan starts the game relatively cash poor, you’ll have to assess how much you can afford to pour into an early assault on India vs. how much you need to use to snap up territories for income. Better to sweep up Yunnan, Malaysia, French Indo-China, Kwangtung, and New Guinea on J2 for a total of 7 IPC than to spend J2, J3, and J4 scraping together a force that can barely take India for 3 IPC. You need cash more than you need glory. If Britain over-invests in defending India (e.g., multiple turns of 2 inf, 1 ftr) and also still tries to contain Germany in Europe, it will probably leave Sydney and Capetown wide open to a Japanese assault. From Sydney and Capetown, you can expand into South America (after the USA has moved on). If you can occupy South Africa, Rhodesia, Madagascar, the Congo, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, New Guinea, Western Australia, and Eastern Australia, that’s worth 14 IPC – which is as much as Burma, India, Persia, Trans-Jordan, the Caucasus, Egypt, and Kazakh all put together. If you’re not in immediate danger of losing the VC race, the southern hemisphere strategy can be a good way to go for a huge economic lead that you can later convert into a successful attack on a capital (possibly London).

    Knocking out China early

    China has a limited economic upside (only 4 IPCs of Allied territory to conquer), but because of the two VCs (Shanghai and Chongqing), you can’t afford to ignore it all together. The obvious target is Szechuan, which has both the Allied factory and the Allied VC in the region. To maximize your odds of taking it as soon as possible (i.e., on J2), try to split your stack between Anhwei and Yunnan, with a slight emphasis on Anhwei so you can leave a tank in Manchuria for defense and still bring it to the Szechuan fight if needed. The Allies don’t have the manpower to eliminate both of your stacks, and unless they bring in heavy reinforcements, they don’t have the manpower to eliminate even one stack and still defend Szechuan. You usually want to ignore any turn 1 attacks on French Indo-China, Hong Kong, and Buryatia so you can focus on driving hard for Szechuan – all of the other territories, while admittedly more valuable in terms of cash, can be snapped up at your leisure once Szechuan is yours.

    Obviously, there are some exceptions. If America fails to activate the Szechuan factory and/or shows signs of being distracted elsewhere (e.g., they build a factory in the Philippines, or they put together a carrier group in the Atlantic on A1), then it’s not a big deal to wait until J3 to take Szechuan – the one extra American infantry or whatever isn’t going to ruin your day. Similarly, if Britain gathers a large attack fleet (2+ transports) off the coast of Australia and is getting ready to hit southeast Asia hard, you might need to pick off any Allied infantry on the Asian coast sooner rather than later, so that the British don’t get a chance to unite their ground forces.

    Even if America is building in Szechuan, you can opt to maximize income rather than ‘space’ on J1 and J2 as a matter of personal preference – just be alert for reinforcements coming from Evenki and India. If you handle the situation right, you may be able to ‘bleed’ the Allies a bit in Western China, tempting them into repeatedly trading at a loss in the (vain) hope of keeping their factories and victory cities. If you’re too reckless, though, the Allies might actually hold Stalingrad and Chongqing long enough to register an early win on victory cities. Allowing the Allies to keep a foothold in western China tends to lead to a more complicated game – you may ultimately wind up better off than if you blitzed it right away, but make sure you know what you’re doing.

    Early Purchases

    Japan technically can still afford a Manchurian factory on J1, but it’s usually not a good idea – the smaller starting economy and the starting third transport means that Japan has less use for additional production slots. Similarly, it rarely makes sense to build extra planes unless you’re certain you will take heavy losses in the air on J1 (e.g., because you are assaulting a combined British fleet in SZ 37) – your starting 7 ftr, 1 bmbr is plenty of air support to assist your starting 11 inf, 5 art, 3 tnk.

    If America is being aggressive with its navy in the Pacific, you will need to buy some fodder on the water, as you start relatively heavy on your capital ships – 1 DD, 1 SS can work nicely, or you can build 2 SS and 1 inf. Otherwise, you probably want mostly infantry for the first couple of turns, with maybe the purchase of a fourth transport to give your fleet extra flexibility and reach. You will be doing a lot of light trading in the opening, if only because you have a big air force and your opponents can’t muster anything more than small forces on defense in the initial battlegrounds. Infantry are the engine of light trading, and if you don’t build and deliver enough infantry to the front, you’re just going to pay for it in the loss of more expensive units.

    Once the east Asian coast is secure and cash is coming in from the money islands, you can start investing in bombers to starve Moscow, or (if America is still at peacetime, especially if America has left the Pacific lightly defended, and double especially if the San Francisco factory is still damaged), you can build a third carrier group to try for an assault on Hawaii and San Francisco. Because of the peacetime income penalty, America isn’t as able to rapidly respond to an assault coming from Japan – even if America sees it coming, there’s a limit to how much America can build in a hurry until you actually attack.

  • 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    UPDATE: Screenshot & TripleA save game file!

    Note that both the map and the saved game are missing the neutral units (including French & Dutch), because the WW2v5 map in TripleA doesn’t allow for neutral units, but this should still save you a lot of setup time if you’re interested in playtesting the 1939 scenario.

    AAA screenshot 1939.png
    Argo 1939.tsvg

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