Try your strategies out in the league

@arthur-bomber-harris said in A Nameless but Effective China Strategy:

Round 2: Japan captures 3 out of the 4 of the following territories: Malaya, Java, Sumatra, and Celebes. In your game you only captured Malaya.

Everything goes down the drain if you don’t have a strong J2 turn.

I’m not a fan playing against myself - it can make you go blind and miss obvious moves. The J1 was Cow, and J2 - 3 were Andrew’s moves from our mini-test.

The real problem is turn 3. The Allies have mid-sized fleets off both India and Queensland. As for as I can tell, Japan has 3 options for J3:
*Option #1 - Put the IJN in between the Allied fleets. This is what Andrew did, and is probably the least bad option. Most likely outcome is you trade the IJN for both Allied navies.
*Option #2 - Attack one of the fleets. Face the multi wave counter attacks ready on either side. Most likely outcome is you trade the IJN for only 1 of the Allied navies.
*Option #3 - Retreat north. Allow the Allied fleets to merge into a fleet bigger than the IJN. I haven’t played against this yet, but it feels like Japan is turtling.

Note - the absolute best realistic outcome Japan can hope for in the first 2 options is wounded capital ships limping back to a NB while facing another turn of Allied attacks.

I really hope I’m missing something and there is a 4th option.

@panther

Thank you!

Stratbombers and Dark Skies are so flexible and effective, that buying up to 6 is optimal play.  Strategic bombing is a bit too powerful OOB because Russia has little defense.  But on top of that, the 6 range and cheap cost makes them a bit overpowered–they are one of the few units that can consistently reach some interesting target the turn after they are built.

After almost 200 games in the last 3 years, I need to try new things.

@MeinHerr:

@ChocolatePancake:

Yeah, the main problem I see with this strategy is it doesn’t matter if the Allies capture Tokyo first. The Allies win condition is to capture all 3 Axis capitols, and the Axis can still win on the Europe half if Tokyo is in Allied hands.

So, it doesn’t really matter if it takes Germany a turn or two after Japan falls to take Egypt.

I must confess, truly, i was in error.  Never saw the rulebook on that one. The games I played, usually if G to Moscow… or US took Tokyo… the other players conceded…  Thought Victory conditions of Allies mirrored that of Axis  (either Berlin+Rome or 8 VC… in Europe… or Tokyo or 6 VC in Asia).

It is laughable… i agree, but honest confession is proper here.

I agree that the allies win conditions are laughable. I’d like to see a win condition that states either Germany or Japan in allied hands is a victory, but I still don’t see how the allies could win with this strat. It would take too long to take Tokyo. Egypt would be in German hands at least 2 turns before tokyo fell. Like many have stated, all Japan has to do if he see’s Russia doing a crazy tactic, like you described, is all out defense. Then Germany takes Egypt turn 10-12 100%.

YG,

Absolutely incredible detail and care in the craft…. Best painted units I have seen so far, breathtaking, I would be afraid to play a game with them.

“Allwork” is a professional artist.  I guess that explains his awesome talent.

I am very intrigued by the idea of consolidating the European axis for a few rounds, but the window of opportunity closes quickly on the axis in general, so a defensive strategy like this would need a lot of planning.

The Germans were only “un-offensive” for two turns.  During the first two turns they concentrated on killing the UK Navy and also took out some UK Air Force units on defense.  They were also able to purchase several Infantry to shore up their European defense against the Russians.

And the Italians cleared and consolidated the Med.  It was “interesting”.

I think ANY strategy would benefit from either a good deal of thought/planning, or a thorough understanding of the game,…preferably BOTH!

You should think about this as a strategy and “blueprint” your own thoughts for it.  I believe you’ll also see it’s potential.

“Tall Paul”

Yes let’s keep this to a report thread from now on.  However it is better if you go to the link at the front of this thread and report on Larry’s site.

PS- Mantlefan- Man up.

In my opinion, it’s important to try and take out both UK DD’s, one SZ w/a BB in it, usually SZ111 and SZ112. And also take out the Transports, which means SZ109 has to go. I know that’s a lot to ask of the Germans, especially SZ109, since the UK can scramble 4 FTR’s. The only other strategy I believe is to take 2 Subs and attack the CC in SZ91, instead of attacking SZ109 and then use the 3rd German sub to attack SZ111. Or, you could take the 3rd German sub against SZ106 to ensure the DD’s & Trans death. That way, the UK only has 1 DD that can counter attack the 2 or 3 subs(depending on how many survive) in SZ106. You can use the German subs to take away some IPC’s in the convoy zones. The BB & DD in SZ111 is easily taken out w/the 3 FTR’s & 3 Tacs you can get on it. Yes, you may lose 1 FTR most likely but it’s well worth it to kill a UK BB.

J1 is the right move for Japan using OOB.

But why play OOB.  It’s unbalanced.