Playing a game on saturday and need help with German Strategy.
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I will be playing the axis as usual, but I’m a beginner and have held out for 6 hours max. Last time I played I was killed in 2 hours because I spent money on an AC and 2 Fighters on first turn.
Britain was not a problem for me but I fell to Russia when the US joined in the large baltic naval war that was ensuing and I put too much money into that….
Also does anyone have a good Japanese strategy? I basically just go all out on the US and then build up my Mainland army in India… we usually use National Advantage’s and I usually get dug in defenders or whatever the one with higher defence on the Islands was.
So… can anyone help me before saturday?
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Yes.
Buy an AC and 8 Inf on G1.
G1 typically looks like this- take Karelia with troops from Norway, take back Belorussia or Ukraine, take Egypt with BB and loaded transport from S Europe + Bomber/ Fighter if possible. Kill British BB with Sub + either 3 or 4 Fighters. Move as much as possible to E Europe, while protecting with 3-4 Inf the Ftrs that have to land in W Europe.
Place AC in Baltic (place one Ftr on it), 6 Inf Germany, 2 Inf S Europe.
Continue from there on out with heavy Infantry builds, sprinkled with offensive units- but only the minimum necessary to wage an offensive war. Never become Infantry starved or you’ll regret it. Make a commitment at the beginning of the game to buy 10 Infantry per round after G1. You won’t be sorry. As you gain more experience you can start to get more creative with your builds, but my axiom is there’s no such thing as a bad Infantry purchase.
Keep a strong presence in E Europe, and try to kill as many Russians as possible. Only move forward if the opportunity presents itself to put alot of pressure on Russia without compromising your strong defensive position. Germany will be the anvil to Japan’s hammer.
Try it and post the results.
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Key concepts - Baltic fleet and Mediterranean fleet.
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The Baltic fleet is vulnerable to UK air on the first turn. That is why the carrier is built. You do NOT build two fighters as well; you use existing fighters. (You need to produce infantry on that FIRST turn, so the infantry can be sent towards Russia on the next turn. Delay is a major problem).
Later on, you use German air and the Baltic fleet in a suicide attack on the Allied Atlantic fleet. The German Baltic fleet you attack with take all the enemy hits, leaving your fighters safe. (You conserve your air power because you can use it to attack Allied fleets off your coast or to attack USSR territories).
The problem with this approach is that a carrier is great defense for the cost (since you already have fighters), but lousy as attack fodder (so expensive). More on this in a bit.
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The Mediterranean fleet is initially used to help attack Anglo-Egypt Sudan. Anglo-Egypt Sudan is crucial because once Germany has that, it can attack the rest of Africa. Less IPCs for the Allies, more IPCs for the Axis. Usually, you need to keep the Mediterranean fleet in the Med because the UK can counterattack with fighter and three infantry second turn, likely retaking Anglo-Egypt. (This continues for a bit, sometimes with help from the UK Australian transport).
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Remember what I said about the Baltic fleet? You have another option; building three transports. Now UK has to worry about invasion, and the Baltic fleet is protected (if hit, you can take hits on cheap subs and transports while your destroyer whittles away at the UK air). If you send the Med fleet west, you can unite the German fleet on the second turn. Problem is, your transports won’t do much in that sea zone off France, and you have to run away quickly before the Allied navy and air gang up on you. Also, if you go to the Med, the Allied fleet can reinforce Archangel, if you go to the Baltic, the Allied fleet can attack through the Mediterranean (although it takes a long time for the Allies to mount an effective attack there).
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Other key territories:
Western Europe. Early on, you defend with a small number of infantry, tanks, and all your fighters. (You will feel that your fighters are wasted there because they’re not doing much, but really, you’re stopping the Allies from moving transports into fighter range). Later on, around turn three or four, you move all your tanks east, and move a few infantry in instead. Still later, you abandon Western Europe except a few infantry (you cannot hold Western Europe against a determined Allied attack). By that time, you should be kicking down Russia’s door. What this means, of course, is that you should produce lots of infantry and artillery first and second turn; after that, you should build mostly tanks. The infantry and artillery from the first couple of turns and the tanks will hit the Russian front about the same time.
Caucasus. Once you take this territory with a medium-sized force, Japan should reinforce with most of its fighters. That makes it very hard for Russia to counterattack. Caucasus is great because you can put four infantry on Russia’s doorstep every turn.
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You have to work together with Japan. The fighters into the Caucasus is one major move. Another place Japan may help Germany is against Africa around round two to four. Of course, Japan should also press into Asia, so Russia is attacked on both sides.
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Ok Thanks for the advice… you should know that I used to buy nothing but tanks before I learned of the Baltic AC strategy… with about 40 tanks on the board I used to last a long time… but then my friend found a way to get passed that problem with Russia…
Also I am controlling both axis countries for the first game making it much easier for them to work together.
I may end up playing 2 games saturday if the first one ends too quickly… in which case I would play the Allies … which I have only done once.
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To play Germany successfully you have to buy infantry. One of the guys I play with usually buys straight tanks, the problem with that is that when you run into a decent size stack of infantry w/tanks as the offensive punch you will lose. Infantry don’t just defend territories they also defend your offense. You are much better off going heavy on the infantry and throwing in a couple of tanks every round IMO.
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OK, quick hits…
AC in the Baltic on G1, the rest of the buy is INF
Take Egypt and kill the UK ships in the Med on G1.
Consolidate your German ARM (probably to Eastern) on G1.G2: Mostly INF, perhaps 2 ARM or a FIG, depending on G1 rolls.
Retake Ukraine, solidify Karelia, retake Belorussia if needed
REinforce Western, move INF to Eastern with most fo your ARM
Re-take EgyptG3: Mixed buy (INF and ARM, maybe a FIG)
Hammer Russian weak point en masse
Fan out in Africa
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my biggest problem with the axis, is i can never establish a force in africa, i usually take anglo-egypt with the usual force but for some reason the battle goes poorely for me, usually end up with only a tank surviving, then uk retakes on uk1, however this helps by leaving the india territory open for a big push around the middle east to caucasus
one thing i have learned round 1 is very very important, and my strategys adapt to what is happening in round 1
a good example
if j1 gets greedy and takes india and china first turn, i have built an ic on sink in us 1, japan was spread too thin in china, and the 2 units per turn have helped open up some options for russia, like right now we are sitting on turn 4 and russia has 4 inf in china, the back to back attacks against the same jap forces from usa and russia are working pretty well so far
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TC, you just re-hit Egypt on G2 with the Algeria forces (that moved to Libya on G1), a fesh amphib from Southern, your BB shot, and the AF that flew down to Africa on G1.
That should leave you several land units in Africa, and only 2 UK INF anywhere in the area (the original Persia unit, and the South Africa unit)
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Hello, I’m new to this forum (and to the game). I have a quick question about the baltic AC strategy. Ya’ll say not to build a new fighter for the AC but how do you put a existing fighter on it on G1? dont you have to wait till G2 due to placing new units coming after noncombat moves?
also, what does ARM stand for?
Thanks!
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ARM = tanks. Tanks used to be called “armor” in Axis and Allies classic; the term stuck.
For placing fighters on carriers, the official errata, “http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/faqs/axisrevised” allows you to put fighters on carriers if you have a fighter in the same land territory containing the industrial complex that the carrier was built on. You can also build a fighter on a carrier if you bought that fighter and the carrier at the same time.
Larry Harris Tournament Rules have slightly different rules, but even there, you can put fighters on new-built carriers. The mechanic there is different; there, you just leave the fighters in the sea zone where the carrier will be built. (You leave them there in the noncombat phase, but they don’t crash)
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Just incase this would weigh into the strategy I should use…. I am using Fortress Europe and Atlantic Wall for German NA’s and Dug in Defenders and Tokyo Express for my 2 Japanese NA’s.
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I totally missed the fact that you mentioned you played with NAs when posted the first couple of times. But it’s REALLY important. My bad.
If you are playing with national advantages, you are gonna get majorly hammered. Do you know how ridiculous those NAs are? And you are using MULTIPLE NAs?! I sure hope the Allies are limited to one random NA each. But even if they are -
Superfortresses: Game-breaking insane. America buys nothing but bombers and strat bombs Germany. Shuts Germany down completely, very quickly. After US builds five bombers (for a total of six bombers), it goes for tech dice Heavy Bombers for added impetus. Losing 12d6 (Average 42) IPCs per turn with Germany is a REAL PAIN IN THE ASS, and Germany can do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to stop it. And it happens by the fourth turn (first turn US builds two bombers and flies one to UK, second turn US builds three bombers and flies the first two to UK, third turn, US flies three bombers to UK and rolls all tech dice, fourth turn, Germany is totally shut down. Oh yeah, and the US bombers also go around and pulverize the Japanese navy. 15 IPC for two fours? Man.
Lend-Lease: Also game-breaking insane, you get ridiculous fighters from UK, and carry out insanely powerful hit and run attacks on BOTH Japanese and German fronts. Even if the Allies don’t have superfortresses, all the Allies have to do is a typical KGF. You have infantry and tanks coming in from UK by the fourth turn, and Russia’s IPC production easily jumps to 45+. I mean, how ridiculous can you get?
UK gets Joint Strike, Colonial Garrison, and Radar - all very nice.
In general, it’s hard for the Allies to get a sucky NA. Salvage isn’t all that hot. Mideast Oil isn’t all that useful in most games. But all the rest of the Allied advantages will give you something nice.
Some Axis NAs are nice. Panzerblitz lets you hit and run against USSR, so you can commit your fighters to Western Europe. Luftwaffe Dive-Bombers isn’t great, you generally don’t want to risk your fighters for half-assed bombing runs (the NA CAN be used, but it is risky as h***). Rest TOTALLY suck, you are not going to build lots of artillery, and subs are useless against the major problem of having to take Russia down. But it’s not like Germany has an insanely game-breaking NA like Lend-Lease or Superfortresses. If the Allies get EITHER one of those, they should kick the c*** out of the Axis.
Japan - you don’t want to build new destroyers because they’re simply inefficient, and the one you start with will probably die by the end of round one. Kamikaze and Kaiten are super expensive to use. Dug-in-defenders is useless, if your infantry is defending on islands (i.e. US overpowered the Jap fleet in the Pacific), you’re dead anyways, and dug-in-defenders just slows the US kick in the face a little. Lightning Assaults and Banzai are the only useful Jap NAs; you use lightning assault against the top two USSR territories and against multiple territories in Africa. Banzai lets you build mass infantry and transports in Japan, switch to second IC quickly.
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My friend is using Colonial Garrison and Radar for GB. I can easily see a way to beat that strategy as he puts the garrison in India.
I thought that Bomber could not destroy MORE than the value of the territory? That’s how we always played… that would make the most he could take from me 10…
I know he’s using the Russian Railway one … but that won’t matter much to me because the more attention he pays to east asia the less he’ll have running on the eastern European front.
I think that me and him like the NA’s mostly because we are really into the history of the war… and it makes it more realistic for us to have the countries having the actual advantages they had in WWII. Some day it would be fun to play with all 6 if you ask me
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Larry Harris Tournament rules limit the total IPC lost per turn to X IPCs per industrial complex, where X is the value of the territory the complex is on.
But the regular boxed rules and errata do not impose such a limit. The limit is per industrial complex, per territory value, per BOMBER. But not per turn. So EACH heavy bomber can inflict up to 10 IPC of damage.
Your buddy is running Radar and Colonial Garrison? That makes India very tough to crack.
Oh well, I know NAs are fun. But just remember they’re unbalanced in favor of the Allies. Heavily unbalanced.
You should use a bidding system on each game to determine who plays what side.
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Sadly I have never yet figured out how the bidding system works….
Also since we use the “IPC’s per territory per countries turn” house rule when we play I am quite content. We play that if GB and the US bomb Germany in the same turn it can lose 10 from each raid.
But back to this bidding system… how exactly DOES it work?
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German advantage giving art a defense of 3 is powerful indeed. Gives you a boost of 1/3 to your defense. Think german art boosted as an inf with 3 in defense, 2 in attack and a bonus to a buddy inf. Only at 4 IPC’s. This is very good and makes the german art better than tanks!.
Sure superfortress and lend-abuse are crazy (and chinese divisions or col garrison), but remember, these are optional rules. Superfortresses can be mended using the A&A Europe rules for strat bombing (escorting planes). Lend- lease can be used as in Europe, only in Russian IC and only in placing new units phase.
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Today I lost 2 games as the Axis and one as the Allies…. the Allied one was much closer though…
I guess I’m just not experienced enough… and also just plain unlucky… my opponent would bring 8 pieces from Russia into a territory defened by 5 german pieces only to kill all 5 in one round and suffer NO casualties from my returned fire! That put Germany WAY down… sometimes to below 20 IPCs… though my Japanese navy did very well… I always lost in the end to a combined US GB strike… as colonial Garrison was in effect.
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"German advantage giving art a defense of 3 is powerful indeed. Gives you a boost of 1/3 to your defense. Think german art boosted as an inf with 3 in defense, 2 in attack and a bonus to a buddy inf. Only at 4 IPC’s. This is very good and makes the german art better than tanks!.
I stand corrected. Thanks, funcioneta.
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I set up the board game at my house last night after I got home …. and I played out my friends R1 against my G1 and it turned out in good favor for the Germans… I guess they are evenly matched strategies… so the luck of the dice plays the biggest factor…
 I think from now on … whether or not I buy an AC should be determined by how many casualties the Russians actually take during their first turn. Does that make any sense?
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Are you interested in bidding via online dicey’s like DAAK?
Or just bidding info in general…
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I was interested in bidding in general for say, a game in my living room.
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There are a few threads already posted on bidding and how to do it…
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=1146.0
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=5580.0Those should get you started.
You can also read the essays on the subject at DAAK
http://www.daak.de/indexe.php?sprache=e
(click DAAK-club rules along the left side, bidding is the second topic that will come up in the main window)That should get you up and running.
If you still have questions after reviewing those, please feel free to ask
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