@Marshmallow:
I use black chips for 25 units. It helps with the swaying red chip stack!
Marsh
lol
Global 1942 Bids and opening theory
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Searching for Global 1942 Bid on google turns up basically nothing, as sadly is hunting for opening theory about what to do in general. I want to go to gencon in 2018 so it would be nice to have an idea about how to play G42 before I go to the convention (if you are willing to play on triple A please PM me)
In order to start with some ideas here are my (probably bad) ideas regarding opening bids and opening theory
Bids
From what I could gather the axis are at a disadvantage in this scenario (my personal sample size is too low for it to be relevant) and therefore bids will be giving the axis extra stuff. I’m not generally a fan of trying to bid to shore up weaknesses, I rather just use my bid to get as much extra cash as quickly as possible and have it snowball.
Bid #1 Transport Sea zone 33 (caroline islands) To me this is the most powerful possible bid. That Transport will take an infantry from Paulau and drop it off in celebes. 3 extra IPC’s for Celebes and 5 extra for giving Japan their National objective of holding the dutch east indies, costing the UK pacific 3 IPC’s for their loss of celebes. Thus far this seems like the most productive use of a bid. For a 7 IPC bid we get a guaranteed 18 IPC swing (7 for the TT 8 for Japan and -3 for india.) From there the transport can move dudes to Malaya and help invade india/go back to Sea zone 6 to invade the soviet union.
If we didn’t get a transport in sea zone 33, it is probably because our opponent forced us to go lower, in LHTR that happens by them bidding 6, and you being put in the awkward spot of either accepting 6 or giving them bid #1. So for now I’m going to look at bids that have a total cost of 6.Bid #2 Submarine Sea zone 33, This 1 submarine makes Pearl harbor a much more reasonable choice. by combining the fleet in the caroline islands with the fleet in sea zone 6, The problem there becomes that you get into this really silly back and forth war with the united states where you take pearl harbor then they retake pearl harbor then you reretake pearl harbor and the USA’s economic might overwhelms you because you aren’t abusing the huge advantage of the IJN, which is that they are closer to mainland china and the dutch east indies than the USA. This often ends up looking like japan ramming submarines into honolulu over and over and over again. Submarine Sea zone 42 allows for japan to kill every single transport in the south pacific on J1.
Bid #3 2 Infantry eastern poland This is the last bid I can see doing in the tournament, 2 inf in eastern poland gives germany much needed HP for their 11 armor and 9 aircraft. Germany has plenty of Punch with those, but they don’t have a lot of HP to tank hits with. So 2 infantry can pull their weight in the eastern front. They only have 9-12 infantry (depending on how you use the transport) that they can deploy to the eastern front on G1.My current gameflow looks something liek
Russia: Build walls of infantry/artillery and prevent germany from getting too far into you
Japan: Literally the entire axis powers rest on your shoulders, good luck commander. build mech infantry/Submarines and try to get some guys in russia (seriously how are the americans supposed to counter japanese submarine spam?) Take control of all of india and win a land war in asia
USA : Kill japan and prevent them from winning, build Aircraft carriers/transports/fighters/destroyers push off the japanese horde
Germany : build mech infantry and fight a land war in asia against the soviet union.
UK: Build Minor IC’s in Egypt/Persia and help the russians in asia/build defense in India
Italy : Build mech infantry and reinforce the german army.
ANZAC: Build transports and try to take a money island on round 7 sneakilyOpening theory interests me, currently I don’t like the standard lines of Pearl harbor and attacking 5 territories with russia, since you are not Overstacking territories which gives you way more value (by decreasing your causualties) than the small IPC gain you get by attacking more territory/enemy units. But i’m having trouble finding productive alternatives that result in +EV net trades (after all counterattacks). But it’s hard to formulate good plans other than the obvious ones which have problems. I want to do fewer more concentrated attacks rather than more less concentrated ones.
The openings i’m considering right now
1. Russia 4 territory attack (not attacking western ukraine) I’d like to go to 3 territory but at that point you risk losing leningrad
2. 2 Japanese Naval attack, Honolulu and Soloman islands only
3. Spam mech infantry with germany and take out volgograd -
The Axis do not need a bid in my humble opinion. G42 is intended to be a 7 turn (or is it 8 turn) game. So, the longer it goes on, yes the Allies do have more of an advantage because the US starts out at war immediately. They can immediately start committing stuff to the fight.
If playing it to OOB victory conditions, maybe it’s a little bit harder. Even if just playing OOB, the Axis can sack Moscow or Calcutta no problem and potentially win.
I would consider myself an average player; and I would be fine playing Axis against anyone without a bid. Others who’ve played the tournament may chime in. I think the allies actually sometimes get a very small bid.
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Interesting, I guess google wasn’t very good at helping me find things. the only source I had said that people typically put 10-12 extra IPC’s for the axis. In my sample of 10 self play games on triple A the allies won 9 out of 10 games (sample is obviously to low and self play isn’t the best but since this is a game of perfect information self play is quite useful), perhaps my axis play is worse than my allied play, which is probable given that I don’t have a clear A>B>C gameplan for the axis spelled out unlike in G40, where I have a strict memorized gameplan which can be executed every time. The axis are definitely more prone to needing speed to be good and that probably means that more skilled players than I will do better with them.
the tournament rules have weird bidding, such that there are only a small handful of possible bids when looking at small numbers. Bids can only be 3, 4 or 6+.
If G42 doesn’t require a bid then is G42 the most balanced official axis and allies of all time?
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Maphead and I won this tournament last year at Gencon. We will be playing the 42.2 tournament this year, see you in Indy!
The Axis have a distinct advantage in this version, which is not as “structural” as their advantage in G40. the Axis start with less stuff, but mostly, its because the Axis have less time to recover their position and go into rage mode, and during the tournament there is only time for 7 turns. The Allies only have a limited amount of time to challenge the Axis income position, their push has to culminate in the game-ending time. I believe that you have to get 125 income on the board with the axis at game end.
We played 5 “official games”
Kantcon; Allies (Maphead+Taamvan) vs (Bob Roby, Grandmaster) Axis; Allies bid +6, goes to Russian infantry. We used our KGF plan, it worked well but this was largely due to luck. 3-4 fleets have to be protected, Greece backdoor shredded the key income.
Gencon Qualifier; Allies (M+T) vs Jason/James (Axis). No Bid. Axis victory. We lose. KGF didn’t work at all this time.
Gencon Qualifier 2: Axis (M+T) vs Axis. No Bid. Axis victory. UK made a grand sacrifice turn 1, which Japan exploited, conceded turn 4.
Gencon Semis; Axis (M+T) vs Bob Roby and Veteran Jake (Axis). No Bid. Axis victory. Won by amazing luck against 2 very vet players. total luck in the atlantic, subs survived somehow. All the German troops survive the open in one territory, which caused Russia’s position to erode quickly.
Gencon Finals; Axis (M+T) vs Jason/James (Allies) No Bid. Axis victory. Hard fought, game culminated in a huge fleet contest over java which the Japanese won by the skin of their teeth, which allowed them to retain key income.
As you can see by these game reports, the key to winning was playing the Axis. In a longer, AAA game, that goes to 10-12 turns, im not sure the Axis has such an advantage, because of the ever-increasing amount of allied pressure on the income. In the tournament play, the Axis really only need to 1) retain all their income to start 2) gain any 2 other regions and hold.
A region is roughly defined as any two of most of (Africa, china, inshore asia, spice islands, Australia, east Russia, south Russia, north Russia, a capital).
The tournament game works a bit like football or rugby, the Axis have to push the income to a level somewhat above the 125 because they get pushed back down the line by the allies as the last turn concludes. If you are still “over the line”, you win. If you can interfere with the Allies ability to hurt your income at the last minute, you pretty much win.
The Allies need a bit of at least 8 in order to change these considerations around. This should be a DD with the scapa flow fleet, so that Germany has to commit more resources to this attack and potentially flubs it. Even with this change, the Allies are still at a bit of a structural disadvantage because this is a economic victory scenario; the allies need to “load the shotgun” by turn 5-6 to make a huge push on the final turn without being picked off or screened off the income.
The territories that are worth 1 don’t change the game. I would suggest studying the territories that are worth 2, 3 and 4. If the Allies can set up on the Pacific side near austrailia, on the final turn, they “unload the shotgun” and retake the money islands and Malaya. Japan must confront them here before they spread out. A factory on Hong Kong helped me win the game, because I could place BBs near the fight, with a NB for free. Roby pointed out to me what a powerful defensive Axis base this square is.
On the atlantic side, its a bit more difficult to hold all the $$. Use your Italian can opener as the Axis to take the $$. Ignore Africa. As the Allies, you have to prepare to block Gibraltar, or turtle the facing squares that are worth 3 and 4 (s france, rome, south Italy…)
One strat we did not use that was fairly powerful is to build a factory in Persia. DO NOT FORGET TO OPEN NW PERSIA. If you run mechs/tanks out of there, india goes from being a fallback zone to a take-area by turn 5, so UK is grabbing $$ back, and Japan is running away.
Keep in mind that most stuff you buy after turn 5 wont even be able to enter the battle. There are exceptions (forward bases, bombers). Buying is critical. I bought 1 fighter on Turn 5 for japan, after all the other air headed south, wasn’t sure why I did it, but It ended up killing an American invasion fleet coming for Japan that was coming in my back door. Study what you buy, small mistakes esp with japan, uk and usa can lose you the game. Wasn’t trying to stall but one Japan buy literally took me 20 minutes, I rebuilt it from scratch 4 times. Had I chosen any of the first 3 configurations, I would have lost the game.
1) all else being equal, play the Axis
2) do not play this like a normal game; it is a timed game. You can sac everything on the final turn, even if you lose everything, the sun sets at 7h 45m game time. You will not play an incomplete turn.
3) time is not on the Allies side
4) but, the Axis cannot protect all (10?) $$ and $$$ zones, this is where the Allied win is at.Slight Axis bias. No bias in open play. Some players do not like to play with a bid, learn your opponents preferences and predilections.
You will be playing for 30 hours, if you are lucky. My brain was on fire the final day. Wake up time is 6AM.
Good Luck, Have Fun. Jon
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