Wow, David has defeated Goliath. Well played farmboy and congratz.
This game was back and forth. First I thought Allies had it in the bag, then I though Axis escaped the jaw of defeat and was winning again.
Then the situation was unclear. Then I thought Allies had it in the bag again, then I was unclear again and then it was over. What a rollercoaster.
I haven’t followed the early turns but it became apparent that dice were helping the Allies a lot to get in the dominant position they were after turn 10 or so.
I didn’t understand a few moves from the Allies. I e.g. found Allies quite spewy with their Egypt army when attacking NWP and Turkey so heavy, making it unnecessarily easy for Japan to take Egypt. In hindsight, I believe the Moscow “stunt” was ineffective and I did not understand the stunt at Northern territory when I believed the fleet would have been equally well placed in Queensland, too. At this time of the game, I believed that 30 IPCs “wasted” in bases could have made a difference if invested in boats and amphibious units.
Then, at the end I first thought Allies botched it because I would have started earlier to switch to fighters (or even tacs as an exception because I rarely buy them) because at this point, I believe all Allies had to do was buying 6 mech and 10 fighters each turn and not invest further into amphibious units. In this parallel universe, Allies may have always had enough to either seal Novo or deadzone it.
Also, I found it risky to allow the Germans to go to Belarus.
@Adam514: Wasn’t it possible at this stage to try to take Bela with the Italians and protect the Army with air against the Russians, making the odds shaky on that battle?
However, it turned out, that Allied strategy was mostly on point and that the flexibility you kept, in the end, was a key to make it impossible for the Axis to hold all VCs (although I believe that less transports and more air would have done the job, too)
I was also wondering if there weren’t more effective ways to bring the Anzac fighters over to Europe very fast. They have like 7 movement when hopping on US Carriers. I thought there was potential to bring these over earlier.
@Adam514: As you decided to not play G/J anymore I definitely believed you missed the small chance to attack WGR with the Italians. You had 5% chance to win that battle and if the Germans could have closed the Danish straight, there was imo a shot to hold all VCs the next turn (Maybe not, because US could have airstriked but I believe it may have changed the dynamics.
This was a nothing to lose shot and I am surprised you did not go for it after 37 turns of play.