If your playing with no Russia Restricted, then I go 3 tanks/3 infantry and build up for a smash on EE providing the German player has no more than 11 Infantry. If Germany cant leave at least 3 planes in EE on turn one. I would seriously consider the attack. The point is to weaken the aggressive German player from doing too many thing at once
For germany i always buy tranny for Medd and rest infantry. That protects my fleet ( i either take gibrater and egypt which saves it from UK bomber)
With japan i rather have floating ships than factories. I buy 3 tranny and 2 men. 16 IPC can carry 4 men, where 15 ipc can build 3 men in asian factories. Eventually this horde of infantry needs “iron in the glove” and i only build that factory in India so i can shuck tanks to africa or Russia quicker. But that would be after i am established in Asia.
He already said Russia Restricted though, IL
In Classic, IC’s are generally a much later purchase (a way to get INF to the front fast for a final push on Moscow) due to original IC’s being unlimited production.
Russia Restricted at least ameliorate the lop-sidedness of the game.
I think a suitable bidlevel would be 9-10 , given RR.
A bidlevel of 9-10 is not such a bad balance, I think.
But it was years since I played Classic, so I might be a bit off here.
I think RR pushes it down to 18 or so from 23.
T,
By about UK3, the UK and USA will both have operational invasion fleets of of about 3-4 UK trns and 4 US trns.
US can then just march 8 inf to ECan for transport on US4, US5, and on and on.
After 2-3 rounds of UK and US inf reinforcement from Fin/Nor into Kar, Ger will not have enough income to produce a valid attack from EEur.
UK can also add 2-3 ftr in Kar for defence.
UK4 starts the Big Hurt by spending $3 and invading Spain. Then US reinforces w/ inf & fighters.
The combined fleet can now hit S.Eur.
A massive UK invasion can at least weaken W.Eur for the US5 follow-up.
Ger has too many places to defend at this time and would need to retreat, exposing Ukr and E.Eur to USSR invasion. Even worse, UK and USA can overwhelm the minimal defenses where Ger retreated from E.Eur. opening the Rus armor to attack S.Eur.
The point is, eventually, with $80+/round on ground and naval transport purchases, the Allies can exploit multiple attack vectors into greater Europe. ~$380+ spent by the Allies vs <$200 spent by Ger over 5 rounds. This automatically puts Ger on defense, and Ger has no mathematical way of minimizing the attack vectors short of taking Kar on Ger1, which is often a risky gamble.
yea Spain is the trick that make the allies have more options. They just hold Karelia and attack places like Spain, while the Germans can only hold out for so many turns. Japan does much better in this version IMO. And their attack is more focused and easy to implement. I dont see KJF working too well in this version. I have seem many attempts all fail ( i was Japan).
I wish people went back to this version more. It has not lost its charisma.Its still a great game.
Everyone has made good points so far on this topic. A couple questions for all who’ve responded:
Even if the US/UK is able to amass this large force by turn 4 or 5, Japan should be taking out Russia by then anyways right?
What is the Axis strategy then? If Germany is essentially doomed from the get go should they just take a shot at Karelia?
Would a plausible strategy be to have Germany continually build airforce and/or ships to keep the seas clear? As was said in an earlier posting of mine you can take out all the seaforce in the area without losing any planes (one fighter should be the worst that happens really). Turn 1 you could buy 2 fighters and 2 inf, and save 2 ipc’s. Now you should have 7 fighters and a bomber. Second turn you should have 38 (you definitely gain 2 in Africa, usually 4) and you could buy 2 more fighters, 4 inf and save 2. If you go with the plan of buying a carrier in the UK and placing the American fighters on it they will be taken out easily. If you go with the plan of waiting for the UK’s 2nd turn to buy and then stocking the sea with 2 carriers and 4 planes, Germany gets another turn to buy. So they go with 2 fighters and 4 inf again. Germany will be able to attack the UK and US ships with 9 fighters and a bomber; certainly enough to take them down. So let’s say with 2 trns, 2 carriers, 4 planes that the allies shoot down 6 fighters (that’s fair right)? We’ll even say 7. At the end of Germany’s turn they have 4 fighters (counting the two they purchased that turn) and a bomber and the UK and US have no ships. If you land the fighters in Eastern Europe and stack most of your troops there Russia will still not be able to advance towrads Germany and will have to deal with Japan coming in the back door. At this point the Axis are well in control of the game.
Thoughts?
Germany is the Anvil and japan is the hammer.
Japan should be taking everything on the map 3-6 IPC a turn for like 3-4 turns.
J1 3 tranny , 2 inf
Take Hawaii by invasion ( 2 infantry) and bring everything except the bomber.
Bomber and fighter and 1 man go after the far Chinese territory
the rest including 2 planes and men goto the other Chinese territory
NCM planes to Manchuria and land some island guys in FIC. Pick up island guys as much as possible
J2 you build equal men and tranny in order to max out the capacity of transports. Calculate possible men from islands. dont waste money on tranny that wont have a job to do or buy extra men that you don’t need when they can be brought from islands
On j2 Hawaii fleet attacks Australia and on turn 3 it goes to India. On j2 you may leave behind the Australia tranny to take Zealand.
A factory should be bought by turn 3-4 depending on Russia. Place it in India ( first choice) or FIC (second choice)
Bring the AA gun over to protect from bombers.
Also forgot you need to leave one tranny on j1 in the japan zone because the 3 tranny build will protect it against the US sub that may retreat from combat. Ill take 4 ones against 1 2 anyday. That tranny brings over 2 men to protect manchuria (along with your planes)
This is all from memory from last century but it never failed me.
You can’t possibly attack Rus with Japan in 4 rounds… If you have optimal results with the axis it still takes you 3 turns to get to novo! You can’t bring enough inf to think of taking Rus on round 4…
For your plan to buy airforce or ships with germany, its doomed… Russia walks over Germany with ease, because the UK will keep wiping out German ships, then the US keeps dropping inf in Eur… => Game over!
For your other question about going 2 trans 3 inf as initial buy for Jap:
You need cannon fodder and inf provide just that. You can’t take Russia with just tanks… Give a mathematical example here. 2 tanks take out one inf, 3 inf take out one tank on def => Russia spends 9, Japan 10. So you gonna lose a lot of value with just buying tanks.
I think a bid of 12-15 was enough for RR. Because you don’t lose ukr and Manch on round one, so 12-15 is sufficient…
My optimal Ger 1 move with RR (no bid) would be:
Lab sz: tran vs fig (WEu)
UK sz: 2 trans, bb and a sub vs 4 fig and a sub
Gib sz: BB vs 1 sub and bomb
Jor sz: sub vs tran and bb
Egypte: 1 inf and 1 arm vs 3 inf and 1 arm.
Then pray you only lose 1 fig, its the best you can hope for…
