I agree with the shield and sword statement. It is my experience that Germany on its first turn should buy a transport for Italy and all men. Regroup your tanks and all your infantry into Eastern Europe and plan to take Karelia on turn 3 if possible. Turn 2 can work but can be costly. Germany should buy mostly all men on turn two and three as well and move them into Eastern Europr so as to overwhelm Russia and get ahead of their infantry total. Once Germany has more infantry than Russia attack Karelia with men and tanks only, save your planes. From Italy send two full transports every turn into Egypt and Trans Jordan until you secure the Suez and subsiquently Africa. Meanwhile Japan hits China, and India and then all out Russia, while still maintaining suppremacy in the Pacific by staying one step ahead of the US and as someone else mentioned take out as many US and UK ships as possible while not over commiting your fleet and only losing the cheap expendable replaceable pieces. An IC is a good idea if you are sure you can hold it: Manchuria is good to go after Russia, but can be reinforced by Japan transports anyway, FIC is safer but India is the best of both if you can capture and hold it, because it is two squares “a tank blitz” away from Caucauscus and Trans-Jordan and you can move fleet through the Suez if needed and assist Germany in conquering Africa as required. Not to mention taking precious money away from the UK. Japan would then purchase three tanks every round for India (or FIC) and keep that up until Russia falls. From India or FIC you can also launch a strike on Australia and New Zealand to further hurt UK. If UK buys an IC on India, Japan MUST capture it at all costs or UK will get the upper hand and its game over. If Germany and Japan hit fast and hard as a unit first at UK to bankrupt and “stall” them and get the valuable money they need and at US to “stall” them, then maintain that stall on both of them and go all out Russia so as to hit Moscow on the 5th or 6th turn from both sides, the Axis will have an IPC victory easily or if using victory cities (AA50 and new) or complete victory rules they will be on their way to world domination. :-)
3 Players: 1 Axis and 2 Allies possible?
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Hello,
I just bought the game, read through the instructions, and am
looking forward to my first game :-)Probably we’ll only be three players, and the instructions say
that in this case one should play all the Allies, one Germany and
one Japan.Is it also possible to do it the other way round, so that Axis
are played by one player and the other two divide up the
Allies?I don’t see that it would make any difference, but I find it
strange that the manual does not state this option. Are there
any balancing issues which I don’t see yet as I haven’t played?Thanks for input,
sponge -
A single Allied player allows for better Allied coordination and allows for a more balanced game.
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To create the true intent of the war. Id have the two allies one as UK /USA and the other as the Soviets not allowed to speak to each other. If the axis play something like " I’m attacking India but not saying how many forces your going in with" would be more historical.
Their was no coordination in this war except UK and USA. in every other respect they had to spend a dime and read the papers like everybody else.
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I wouldn’t recommend splitting 2 Allies and 1 Axis. Give your strongest player the Allies. The Allies must be very coordinated while the Axis don’t require that quite as much. It is also a bit more fun that way as it keeps the pace up a bit.
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When we only have three, we give one the Axis, one America, and one Russia/UK
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Thanks for the info. It seems that Axis has some advantage, so that the Allies need
more coordination than the Axis to win. -
There’s a factor no-one considered though. When 3 people play, we usually set it up with 1 axis vs. 2 allies, with each allied player picking a country, and sharing the third. That way coordination is forced, and most importantly: everyone gets 2 turns a round, instead of one player getting three and the other two getting one each.