Saving majority of bid for allies

@tincanofthesea idk. I am going to try it in the Pacific map and see how it goes. Going to do a allied bid game (our first official one lol) because last game, allies didn’t really stand a chance. I wonder if there are “Blockade” markers at HBG, well if the shipping wasn’t so expensive I could buy those-

This will be my last 40 game before I will use the new stuff I got from HBG 🙂 maybe try to learn the G40 Balanced Mod (TheCaptain’s) + some extra stuff

I’d only just discovered these rules like a day before this thread popped up.  My buddy and I started a game on AAA a while ago to prep for our FtF this weekend:

https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41587.0

This would seem to be a counterpoint to the UK/ANZAC 2 DoW.  I was doing some goofy stuff in Europe but basically a G4 Sealion is coming.  I’ve got a US Atlantic Navy ready for London Calling which would have moved to sz102 but now there’s an interesting conundrum.

If my buddy does a J3 DoW that lets my US forces retake Gibraltar and to stage my UK fighters and STB there.  If he doesn’t J3 that’s another whole turn where he isn’t taking Money Islands or India (he’s been content to take SFE and China but I suspect an ANZAC crush coming on – he likes to do them).

So not doing the DoW I think I’m in a slightly better position (although still horrible position overall).

Well some interesting facts.

All agree that in Europe 1940 the axis need a bid.
All agree that japan is hard to stop unless US invest heavy in the pacific.

In global nearly all players give the bid to the allies on the europe board and nobody gives the bid to the pac board.

Has anyone tried the “China first” proposal I made? I used this solution in AA50 as a bid alternative, and I think it works well in G40 too, but haven’t received much feedback from actual games other than my own group.  Maybe its because the HR forums are a wasteland of forgetfulness? haha.  
:-D

The basic idea is pretty simple, everything else stays the same, but China moves first in the turn order!
So in Global that’d be…

China, Germany, Russia, Japan, USA, UK/Pac, Italy, Anzac, France (then back to China)

I’m not saying that this change does away with the need for an Allied bid entirely, but it surely makes the bid range a bit narrower, and a lower. I mean if you can bring it down from 15, back into the single digits that’s a definite positive right? And China is a lot more fun to play this way. Its not like you’re getting “11 infantry in Yunnan”, but it does allow China to pull back and consolidate their starting forces, and build 1 round worth of additional units. It gives them their artillery in the first round, and bonus for control of the Burma road. What’s more it gives them a much better chance to secure their National Objective in subsequent rounds. This adjustment in turn order, also affords the Chinese an opening attack option in they want to get balsy!

The reason I really like this approach is because it doesn’t mess with the Europe side of the map (e.g it doesn’t break the med.) Doesn’t change the situation outside of the Chinese theater, since those units are restricted on where they can move. And most importantly, it gives Japan more to worry about. Sure, you’re probably going to kick a lot more ass as Allies if you give UK an extra carrier in the Med, but if that kind of bid strikes you as overly distorting you might try this instead. It’s pretty easy to implement and makes China a lot more effective as a player nation, which eases the pressure on the other Pacific nations. China has an advantage (over India) in that it can’t be strategically bombed or convoy raided into non-existence. Also, you can preserve the illusion that the OOB force distribution of units on the gameboard, actually corresponds to something in reality. As if the units OOB units where chosen for some reason by the designer, to be at least vaguely historical. This change in turn order of just one Nation, allows to avoid bringing too many extra units into the board outside of the normal purchasing/placement mechanisms. Its at least as easy to explain to your opponent as a standard bid, and if you still want to bid anyway, then go for it. But the change is so simple, and it really does give Japan more to chew on, and it seems like the Pacific side of the map is the one that is grabbing all the attention lately in terms of balance.

Also, for the history buffs…I feel like this tweak gives a slight nod to the fact that the War had been going on in China, even before all of Europe and the rest of the world was embroiled in the conflict.

“July 7, 1937 a day that lives in”… I don’t know, the first turn of G40 at least? hehe. There are crazy numbers of potential players in China. The materials are produced there more often than not. Why not roll the dice and see if a China first approach will work? Anathema to all Americans, like me! But in the game’s turn order I think it is kind of cool ;)

In the games a played it seemed that Japan could help the European Axis more by getting in positon to have enough victory cities on their side of the map than really pushing towards Russia.  If Japan pushes to Russia then USA is free to keep spending in Europe.  Maybe I will give this a try though with the newer edition of rules.

If germany doesn’t have many transports, be sure to slide a few infantry and artillery up into Karelia to force your way into Scandinavia to get those nice No’s and reinforce with Brits and US, let the cash role in

@valtteri771:

why would japan have to attack russia I have won many times as germany without sealion and japanese help in barbarossa.

Oh ,  and if you check out the early GNazi buys,  my Axis opponent  even admits he didn’t buy enough tanks since he used his airforce to destroy the British Navy in turn 2 and the Mediterranean Navy in turn 3  early in the game.  so the extra 9 IPCs from the far east could have been elminated earlier.  He didn’t hit it till Japan Turn 8  which meant the Soviets colleted 72 IPCs for the game from the far east.  cutting it down by turn 5 or 6 well after Germany was pressuring the Soviets and with Japan stomping to to india could have swung the war against the Allies!  I had also moved 15 far east troops all the way back to moscow and they were big help in retaking Stalingrad.

@Frank:

I just played a 20+ hour game to a draw although I might of lost if it was played to conclusion. I sent the Japan Navy to Africa and protected Italy.  Italy then was spending close to the points of Germany.  The USA fleet battled the Japan fleet in the Med Sea and the Japan fleet destroyed it along with 17 US transports.  At this point Europe was Fortress that the US could never crack because I built mostly inf and art with Italy and Germany all game.  The problem is I was only able to destroy India and the Russian Inf.  China and Australia got out of hand because I did not kill them.  The Australians boarded transports and took some islands and china had a stack of like 40 inf.  We were at a point of after 20+ of play that I was not in position to get 14 victory cities but that I had about 200 inf art in Europe and America had to start a new fleet to come over to attack.  It was called a draw.

The problem is that you would have lost if the game played out as a simple money thing. The allies have more to throw at the axis over time and they could have taken Japan out forcing Germany to attack with lots of 1’s  or sit back and watch Japan get killed and then over time wittle down Germany and Italy. It would have taken another 20 turns at least.

Japan should be able of taking India mid-game (let’s say round 5-7), but never as soon as round 1-3, as usual in AA50-42. Also, this thread is about a 1942 mod for AAG40, not for the OOB setup, that it’s still undecided if it has advantage or how many advantage could have

Also, with this order, ANZAC cannot act as can opener for USA against Japan, and that’s a very big aid for axis (and if you’re trying ignore Japan as allies, you’re totally toasted in AAG40, specially with this mod)