Nation Weaknesses and How to Expose them

good thoughts…

here’s page 5 of AAR manual…

WHICH POWER SHOULD I PLAY?
That depends on how you like to play. Each world power has different strengths and challenges.

The Soviet Union
is weak economically and faces immediate threats. Still, it has a
strong starting position and can make quick gains early on.
If you relish the prospect of a massive land war, the Soviet
Union may be for you.

Germany
is strong economically but surrounded on all sides. It begins
close to key victory cities and can win very early if not
immediately turned back. If you want to be the focus of
attention, Germany may be your best choice.

The United Kingdom
holds the most territory in the world but is greatly spread out.
It faces attacks by land, air, and sea, but it can deliver all
these types of attacks as well. If you want a balanced force,
consider the United Kingdom.

Japan
starts in control of most of the PaciFic, with footholds in
mainland Asia. Its massive Fleet can strike at all three Allies,
but it needs to be wary of spreading itself thin. If you look
forward to a serious naval and air campaign, try Japan.

The United States
is the strongest economically, but it begins far from the action.
It must gear up to get its troops mobilized or it will be
contained in its own hemisphere. If you want to play patiently
but forcefully, consider the United States.

2 Countries need updating, plus you need to add the other 2 countries in too:

Italy
This nearly insignificant nation spends all game pissing off the UK and America. 
If you like being a pain in the ass, and want very short turns, consider Italy.

China
This joke of a nation only plays during the first 3 turns, and spends her turns retreating
what few forces she has.  If you have to go somewhere and can’t stay for the whole
game, consider playing as China.

Japan
Starts with the most powerful navy and airforce, but has a weak income from her starting
board position.  However, after only 3 turns Japan will be more powerful her ally Germany
and her enemy the United States.  If you like to play as an unstoppable and invincible clock
ticking til turn 6 for the death of Russia, consider Japan.

The United States
Starts with few units and is far from the action.  Has a larger economy than the UK, but
smaller than Germany and smaller than Japan after the first couple turns.  If you love
thinking through the logistics of transporting ground units across the atlantic, consider the USA.

@Veqryn:

2 Countries need updating, plus you need to add the other 2 countries in too:

Italy
This nearly insignificant nation spends all game pissing off the UK and America. 
If you like being a pain in the a**, and want very short turns, consider Italy.

China
This joke of a nation only plays during the first 3 turns, and spends her turns retreating
what few forces she has.  If you have to go somewhere and can’t stay for the whole
game, consider playing as China.

Japan
Starts with the most powerful navy and airforce, but has a weak income from her starting
board position.  However, after only 3 turns Japan will be more powerful her ally Germany
and her enemy the United States.  If you like to play as an unstoppable and invincible clock
ticking til turn 6 for the death of Russia, consider Japan.

The United States
Starts with few units and is far from the action.  Has a larger economy than the UK, but
smaller than Germany and smaller than Japan after the first couple turns.  If you love
thinking through the logistics of transporting ground units across the atlantic, consider the USA.

Quite humorous!  +1 Karma

@Veqryn:

2 Countries need updating, plus you need to add the other 2 countries in too:

Italy
This nearly insignificant nation spends all game pissing off the UK and America. 
If you like being a pain in the a**, and want very short turns, consider Italy.

China
This joke of a nation only plays during the first 3 turns, and spends her turns retreating
what few forces she has.  If you have to go somewhere and can’t stay for the whole
game, consider playing as China.

Japan
Starts with the most powerful navy and airforce, but has a weak income from her starting
board position.  However, after only 3 turns Japan will be more powerful her ally Germany
and her enemy the United States.  If you like to play as an unstoppable and invincible clock
ticking til turn 6 for the death of Russia, consider Japan.

The United States
Starts with few units and is far from the action.  Has a larger economy than the UK, but
smaller than Germany and smaller than Japan after the first couple turns.  If you love
thinking through the logistics of transporting ground units across the atlantic, consider the USA.

Great.Simply great  :-D Another good karma  :-)

@BadSpeller:

:-D                            :-D
                         :-D                         :-D :-D
                         :-D                            :-D
Another     :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D                  :-D
                         :-D                            :-D
                         :-D                            :-D
                         :-D                         :-D :-D :-D

whys is the right side longer than the left? :lol:

On my screen, it is even.

On your quote it is not.

I don’t know why.??? :?

@bugoo:

One thing I have been thinking about alot lately is all the varied limitations on each of the nations and various unique ways to exploit them.

For example, Germany’s biggest weakness is its production limit.  Unless G builds an IC they can only build 10 units a turn, and to complicate this G1 is a really bad round to build said IC.  Because of this, even when making large amounts of cash, Germany is really pressed when trying to stack france, trade territories, build up to take russia, and keep enough air units to threaten allied fleets.  It seems the best way to exploit this weakness is to force G to trade a large number of territories every round, and/or to bombard the crap out of them.

Italy is limited mainly by income.  It is difficult to gain a large income with Italy and to sustain it.  It is interesting though how Italy can really help make up for germany’s weak point by building inf for france and/or trading a territory or two for them.  I think this is why in a KGF it is so important to reduce Italy’s income quickly with a strike on Africa and/or SBRs.

Japan is just plain slow.  This is why so many players ignore her.  Japan cannot truely threaten Russia until turn 4-5, same with a true threat in africa or a polar express.  The really funny thing is that buy building in the pacific as the US you negate Japan’s weakness as you allow her to have an effect on the game much earlier than she normally could.

Russia just doesn’t have any time.  She is pressured on turns 1-4 by germany, and after than by Japan, making it very difficult to get offensive.  It is too easy to overextend with too many units into china, or toward India, or pushing against Germany.  It is also difficult to defend so much territory thanks to the can opener threat, and Japans 3 approaches at you.

The UK is so spread out, and while you have alot of cash turn 1, in the mid game you really struggle income wise, this makes your turn 1 purchase so very important.

US I think is similar to Japan, except you don’t get much stronger as the game goes on like Japan.

Any thoughts?

Germany’s problem is production and getting a decent supply line to the USSR in time

US and UK is the fact that they have to sink so much in boats to be effective, essentially throwing away like 75% of their income.  UK is also spread out and can get hit very hard by te axis

Russia has the problem of starting with no offensive firepower, being stuck on land next to Germany/Italy which it just simply can not match in production, has to be VERY CAREFUL about not spreading the line to thin, has to worry about a double hit with Italy/Germany (so it may not be able to lay down 1 or 2 man buffer zones).

Italy is simply a sidekick

Japan has time issues, getting to Russia at a relevant time

OK, my five cents on how to expose weaknesses:

Germany: weak in number of troops, this should be countered by killing infantry ASAP and to outbuild the Jerries with USSR and UK especially. Counterattacks by the Russians is the way to go, especially the first three turns. Landings by UK at the Baltic coastline is a nice way to disrupt the infantry chain as well. Needless to say, threatening France and splitting reinforcements between both fronts is a game-winning strategy in mid- to late-game.

Russia: weak in IPCs and vulnerable ICs, hinder any expansion and try to take territories. This means Karelia especially where you can hinder Soviet control of Scandinavia and threaten the Archangelsk bonus. An early build of a chain of infantry towards Karelia is dangerous. Later you can take Caucasus which will cripple Russian economics, even a trade of that area can make it difficult for the Russians since they might get short on IC placement sites.

Japan: doesn’t have many weaknesses, basically logistically in the deployment of units on the mainland is the only thing. So if you can do some timely counterattacks versus Siberian, Chinese territories and India that can earn you valuable time. Retreating India’s troops to Persia and then attack back is nice, also Russian counterattacks with air support is good and one or two fighters really come in handy.

UK: navy and IPCs are both very vulnerable. We all know about knocking out the UK navy from A&A editions past and it still applies. Even more important though is to negate the Egyptian NO and grab Africa ASAP. If you take Southeast Asia and most of Africa UK will be down to 20 or so IPCs and that’s really crippling!  :-P

Italy: navy is what keeps the Italians dangerous, so hitting it early is the way to go. If you can get at it before they build a CV that’s perfect, so even a suicidal attack by US or UK can be worth it if that means your ally can finish the fleet off. This means turn 2 or 3, not later! After the fleet is destroyed then Africa lies ripe for the taking, Italy’s economy is miniscule and UKs economy secure, a key to winning the game.

USA: long supply lines and a split-up front. If you can make a heavy attack at mainland USA it can easily disrupt the build-up vs. Europe and that should be a goal of Japan. Polar express not as a game-winning strategy but as a tactical move. Also when you take Midway or Hawaii they can serve as landing bases for bombers that are built in Japan and that strike at the West Coast. If you’d rather send the bombers towards Russia, you might still have made USA spent valuable IPCs on its Pacific fleet, the last laugh on you!  :evil: