Title: Unfinished game
Date: December 14, 2008
Special Rules: NOs and Tech were used, 1942-game.
Victor: Maybe the allies would have won if we continued, but this wasn’t too clear.
Game Length: 5 hours, about 5 rounds
Bias: The Axis player was slightly less experienced, so he opted for playing with the (probably stronger) Axis forces in 1942
Description:
As the Allied player, I decided to take a huge gamble. I wanted to keep Moskow and her three IC, to keep the Germans at bay and to take my ‘No Allied troops’-bonus. Therefore I decided not to send any UK-troops to Karelia. Even worse, as the UK I didn’t see the point (yet) of building a IC in Asia or Africa. Instead, the Russians were attacking German fighters and armor whenever they had any opportunity of doing so, using almost only infantry and fighters. Once they conquered Finland-Norway, they got the opportunity make attacks the German player was forced to react upon. Germany was cashing out quite a lot of money, but they had to spend it fighting the UK fleet. They sacrificied their entire Luftwaffe at G1 or G2, but failed in a tied sea-battle. After this battle, the Germans only built three more fighters, but gave up fighting the UK-fleet. This fleet counted at UK-5 three or four battleships, an equal amount of transports and some smaller defensive ships. This forced the Germans to allow huge openings in their defenses, enabling the UK to attack Morocco, France and even Poland… grabbing the NO and thus even more IPC’s. By the end of our 5th turn, UK and Russia were all around 40-45 IPC. A 44 IPC Russia is definitly dangerous on the German-Russian front. As a side-note: no SBR were executed after Germany shot down two British bombers at their very first attempts. As for the research: Germany and Russia both went after some research (four tokens each), but all failed.
In Africa, a weak Italy managed to gain 16 Ipc/turn (by one national objective). After a tied battle in Egypt, the Axis forces were left with nothing but an armor and the reinforces the Italians could send in. The Germans didn’t bother building a new transport after hers was sunk.
Italy could be stopped in Africa rather easily by UK-forces from Morocco and Sovjet forces from the Caucasian.
On the Pacific front things were much more messy. After an agressive J1 - which got my Indian navy wiped out - I got into the defensive. The Australian fighter had to get to India on UK1, whereas the Chinese held out quite well against Japanese attacks every now end then. In the end, the Japanese managed to break through Northern China with some infantry units, whereas Chinese forces occupied Kwangtung in an attempt to hurt the Japanese monster.
The US - her fleet left alive at J1 - started to build a considerable fleet, and pulled back her Atlantic ships. At US3 or US4, 3 battleships, 2 AC, 7 or 8 destroyers and some defensive ships tried succesfully taking over Solomon and Caroline, threatening the Philipines which it never made.
Japan was forced to focus upon her fleet, building destroyers, submarines and battleships at an equal pace. She managed to take over two Sovjet provinces, but didn’t got any further than that. Due to my eagerness to destroy the Japanese fleet, my navy got completely wiped out near the Carolines, leaving the Japanese with her three battleships and a cruiser. As for the IPC’s, Japan was around 40, equal to the US, which shortly before reached heights of over 50.
As the US, I heavily invested in tech, hoping to create a war of attrition by means of a tech race and naval build-up. I got at US3 Improved Naval Shipyards and at US4 Long range aircrafts. At J5, the axis gained heavy bombers. Up until the fifth turn tech development didn’t influence the game too much (Japan could only field one bomber in the battle of the Carolines), but it would definitly become more important should we have continued the game. Due to a lack of time however, this was not the case.
By the end of the game, Germany was severily weakened by constant Russian pickings and UK attacks. Italy-Germany lost their African campaign, whereas Japan gained superiority in the Pacific, but lacked the ships and an Asian IC to be ably to conquer her recently lost islands - which would buy the US time to build up a second Pacific fleet.
Observations/Recommendations:
I believe a focus upon NO can actually turn tides in this game (at least as far as the 1942 setup is concerned). Both me and my younger brother were never to keen for a KGF, and were both used to the Milton & Bradly version. Up until now, we both believe in a balanced game (with the US going Pacific). This may have influenced our gameplay - which relied heavily upon naval build-ups.
Not building any IC as the allies didn’t hurt too much for the first turns, given the strenght of Russia, which could easily free up infantry and her airforce (which was bigger than the German) to strike against some Japanese forces.
The three IC Russia is blessed with proved crucial for her succes. She was ably to place troops wherever she wished upon her entire front, whereas German infantry had to move slowly from Germany onwards.
Eager for our next game next weekend (with another experienced player),
Andy
