Fortress Europe

Easy and it is what I did immediately upon seeing the ABORTION of a map that A&A had at the time. Make the boundaries of these 4 places realistic……

Have the Caucasus be the actual mountainous area plus the southern plains to the immediate north only. Have Ukraine  directly border Caucasus, Moscow & Eastern Europe (& Balkans) Have Eastern Europe border Ukraine, Russia, Karelia (& Southern Europe & Germany) Have Karelia border Eastern Europe, Russia & Khanty-Mansi (as it should)
‘Easy - peasey’.
That original map was a giant turd! One of the worst, if not the worst, map produced for a very popular game. The game is great - that map crap.

I would add that one reason why I thought your move was not wise was b/c it left Yak open to attack which isn’t a bad idea.  IMO the only way to defend against a bid of 2unit Asian bid is to either give up Yakut, or to get 8units there.  I will ignore China if it comes to that, or even better is to have bid an armor into Kwan and move 1inf somewhere else.  Once you made your Russian move you were more or less committed to Yakut and therefore not placing your ftr there was an invitation to attack.

Yeah, my intention was to land the UK ftr there.  I thought you’d do Syr and possibly leave the w med bb.  Which ment I would have reinforced Yak with the UK ftr.

I’m actually glad you did that move (not because of the outcome or anything like that), because I don’t see that a lot and it is nice to know that I better take into account that move in the future and that good players may indeed bypass Chi.

I guess, That’s why you play the game.  :-D

Classic 8
Europe 8
Pacific 6

So what is the problem for the allies with a tranny fleet off Spain?  In order for it to be much of a threat, Germany has to stage forces in Western, or bleed off forces in Norway.  Either way, it severely weakens their position against Russia.  It also weakens Germany’s position for moving troops into Africa.

So UK hits that fleet with 2 figs and a bmb.  They score 2 hits.  The subs can;t fire back, the BB hits one, the tranny’s may or may not hit one.  The bmb fires again and sinks a 3rd unit, and is lost on the counter.  Let’s say Germany took 2 of the 3 losses as subs, so they maintain air-defense.  Then the US flies over with 2 figs and a bmb, killing 2 hits on the first pass, taking 1 or 2 hits in response.  They hit 1 more on the 2nd round, and lose another one.  Let’s say that was the end of their planes.  So the total is 6 Allied hits on Germany, 6 Germany hits on the Allies.  No planes in UK or US, right?  And Germany has a navy of ONE Battleship, period.

Germany also would have lost 2-3 planes against the UK navy on G1, planes that Germany can;t afford to replace.

So at the end of Round 1…
Germany has no fleet, has lost half of its Air Force, has delivered either no forces to Africa, or stripped forces from Norway and Western to send forces to Algeria.  So either Russia is going to take a weakened Norway, or Germany will not have forces in Africa and will lose a LOT of IPC’s from an India counter-attack un Africa.  The US built aircraft, and probably a sub or 2, on US 1.  UK probably built a few INF as a precaution, and a couple of figs.

In G2, Germany is stranded in Europe, has either lost Norway, or is going to lose Africa in UK2, has a Navy that can;t do anything except move into the UK Sea Zone for a last-ditch battle against the new RAF; or suicide into 1 or 2 US subs (if it doesn’t die attacking the subs, it will die when those new US figs take off in US 2).  With the lack of extra IPC’s either from lack of gains in Africa and/or from the loss of Norway, Germany is now barely building at a rate above Russia.  And unless that Battleship somehow managed to HOLD the UK Sea Zone, UK has a fleet re-built in UK2, defended by US figs in US2, and does not have enough air-force left to combat it in G3.  Even if they saved their BB and moved it to Gibraltar in G2 to use with the AF for a G3 attack, 1 BB and 2-3 figs plus a bmb against a carrier, 2 figs, 1-2 subs, and 1-2 tranny’s is a suicide mission for the Germans.

A far better use for a 2-tranny bid-buy with Russia RR would be Souther Europe placement to be more flexible and allow for a significant air/land/amphib strike on Caucuses, or strikes in Africa and Middle East.  You can still take out the UK Navy using subs and air-power, consolidate for your Karelia push in G2, while potentially creating a significant second-strike prong in Caucuses that Russia has to consider/counter rather than simply “building in Karelia”.  If you take Caucuses in force, Russia has to sacrifice SOMETHING, and it will probably be Karelia (since they won;t want it to be Russia).

The game is in the “Play by forum” forum, look at it yourself; it seems like it worked, because Zero conceded within a turn from that move, stating that the pressure on Germany was too great and his offensive movement would not have been enough to compensate for it.

I had actually planned on evacuating Karelia on my next Russian turn so as to move offensively with Russia against Eastern Europe as well, as long as I had enough to defend Moscow. Germany would have easily conquered Karelia but it wouldn’t have done them any good having a northern factory when they would need to spend all their income defending their capital.

IMO, yes. Advantages, not sure what you mean by that.

i also like the original A&A

I have both. I found that AA is a bit better, but sence i have both i can play with destroyers and the escort rule for SBRs. AA is good for the first time cause it gives the poor axis player an allie =). but yes, the AAE is much more balanced.