In my '42 edition, Germany seems to have more options available, all over the place.  But I don’t get to play that one very often.  Most of my games these days are on gamesbyemail, playing the “old school” A&A.  Germany needs the money from Africa to contend with the Allies until the cavalry (Japan) arrives, but the Med fleet seems to be vulnerable to a persistant UK player, unless you want to go sinking more money than you can afford into it.  In my last 10 or so games, as the UK, I usually find a way to sink that fleet early enough that Germany’s money is always crippled.  As Germany, I seem to either lose the fleet or spend too much money on it, which leaves me crippled in Europe.

I was just wondering what some of you do as Germany to keep the fleet intact without buying more than a transport the first turn or two (in order to keep chugging out the infantry).  I can’t seem to spare more than one plane to go after the sub in the Eastern Med on the first turn, and if it misses, then the sub runs away.  So the next turn, the UK can send a bomber and the sub, which have a good chance of sinking both transports in the Central Med before the battleship finishes them off.  I can build more transports then, but I’m spending a lot of money, and the transports aren’t getting anything over to Africa in the meantime.  Plus, the UK player can be building another bomber, moving fighters, or other means to finish the job.  Once the fleet is gone, it’s hard for Japan to grow fast enough to make up for the UK having money.

Well, as far as my understanding goes, our PURCHASES weren’t crazy, as you wondered at the end of your reply.  We weren’t buying Russian Bombers to circle overhead and drop bologna sandwiches on them!  If you’re trying to say that the idea of slowing down Japan with ICs in Asia isn’t good in '42, then okay.  I’ve only played 4 games of '42, so maybe it’s not viable in that edition.  In the old-school edition, ICs in Asia just to slow down Japan seemed to work pretty well, as by then, our Atlantic fleet was set up well, and we could send enough aid to Karelia that Russia could just turn around and fight off Japan while the UK and US ground down Germany and waited for an opportune moment to land elsewhere.

Regardless of all of that, I’m still wondering what Japan usually does with their Pearl Harbor fleet, and is it better for the US to try and hit it right back, or just let it go?

Well, I can’t recall the exact moves and buys, but we weren’t doing anything crazy.  I think the first turns were pretty standard, if you’re going with the Asian factories, that is.  Russia bought mostly infantry with a couple of artillery or tanks.  UK bought the India factory and saved his money, and the US bought the Sinkiang factory and some kind of boats for the Atlantic.

After that, Russia just kept buying land units, with more infantry than art or tanks.  The US and UK bought enough land units for their factories, and then the rest went towards Atlantic navy or air force.  By turn 3 or 4, the Japanese navy was rounding Brazil, and we had to kill that off, followed by a German navy from the Med, and by then we were too late to help Russia.  In the east, Russia never sent any units after the first round, as we were keeping Japan effectively bottled up.  So Russia wasn’t losing money out east, and he wasn’t wasting units out there either.  Granted, if he had been able to hold off that last German assault, I don’t think Germany had much following it, and was going to have to defend his shores, so things might’ve swung our way then.

I’ve not seen a strategy article or any posts about what the Japanese Pacific fleet does after the Pearl Harbor attack.  My friend still hasn’t won as the Allies, but he’s getting annoyingly good with the Axis.  I think it’s because he likes to be aggressive (I mean, crazy aggressive!), and this works well with the Axis.

The last couple of games we’ve played face to face, he (or his Japanese ally) have taken the Pacific fleet right around the tip of South America as fast as possible after Pearl Harbor.  He sends everything, except transports, that’ll reach, and with the battleship 2-hit rules, he usually doesn’t lose anything killing the carrier and fighter at Hawaii.  Unfortunately, this fleet’s arrival, coupled with lots of air force and minimal navy builds from Germany have forced the US and UK to spend a lot of time trying to establish control of the Atlantic - enough time for Germany to crush Moscow.  By the end, we’ve killed all the navies, but we’ve spent so much money on the units to do it, that we don’t have enough transports to get an effective attack on Europe in time.  The German air force kept us from landing in Africa long enough for the Japanese fleet to get there, and then we never could make it until it was too late, and we just needed to get to Europe ASAP.

Since I haven’t heard much about this problem, I was wondering what usually goes down in your games, and/or what you might do to counter it.  I’ve submerged the US sub at Hawaii to then harrass the Japanese transports (to some success), so maybe I need to leave it in the battle, although I don’t see how it’s going to do much good there.

I haven’t tried throwing everything the US can at the J fleet after Pearl Harbor, because I didn’t think I could win, and I felt I needed to get the US planes somewhere east where they would help with defense.  Maybe I should just do that, knowing I’ll probably need to replace it all, but slowing J down from advancing east?

Also, the last game, we were effectively keeping Japan in check with the India and Sinkiang ICs, but maybe those just siphon away too much money to constantly stock?  But then, Russia would have Japan quickly knocking on their back door.  We were at least just staffing them with land unit purchases, not expensive fighters or anything.  But even freed from sending ANYTHING at all east, Russia could not hold off Germany.

Sweet, that’s exactly what I was looking for.  Thanks!

I thought so, but do you know where it says so in the rules or somewhere in an errata that I could show to the guys we’re playing?

If the UK only has one carrier, and it’s floating around in the Indian Ocean, does that mean the UK player cannot build a second carrier up near England, since he’s out of carrier pieces?

Holy crap, I never thought to look for such a place as this back when I first played a few games of AA in college, but I’m glad I found it now!

This past year, I saw the 42 edition on a shelf for a good price, so I decided I needed a copy of AA in my collection.  Unfortunately, I’ve only gotten to play it a couple of times.  While I much prefer to play it in a FtF setting, I also realize that’s not going to happen too often.  I was wondering what sites you guys use to play online, whether for a real-time game or a PBEM style.  I figure PBEM would be my best bet, but I might be able to swing a real-time game here or there as well.