@steiner the mountains do look great, and you should be pleased with them!!

i find subs to be quite fickle. They serve a very niche purpose. Their lousy defense makes them, at best, cheap soaks. Their convoy ability gives them a higher util, and planes not being able to hit them without a destroyer is also an interesting ability to be capitalized on! I like them if the US needs to be convoying aggressively, I like them if japan is light on destroyers, i like them if italy has a tenuous hold on the Mediterranean. the abilty to sub/bomber strike with the US if they don’t have gibralter is nice. I only buy subs with the germans if i think i can keep the UK low on income for a few turns, i only buy them with the japanese if i need to soaks to maintain parity w/ the US in the pacific. Occasionally w/ ANZAC if i can get away with convoying spice money (but would rather just take the terrirtory). I can’t ever remember buying subs w/ the UK or USSR. I keep telling my opponents that if china gets a territory with sea access they immediately get sub pens, but they never believe me.

@simon33 if i don’t DOW on J2, i typically do it J3, but, even if i don’t do it J3, the US is restricted on movement through T3 as the declaration of war does not occur until collect income phase. so, if my german ally took some bad dice in europe, i can effectively buy him 4 turns of no US intervention, and i just try to look menacing in the pacific. (thats my best menacing)

well, as you can see, we are going for kill the ANZACS in peace and quiet.
Japan pulled in 91 IPCs last turn, and hopefully have the ANZACS down to 3 IPCs a turn. The US did not add any navy to the hawaiian sea zone, i added 2 destroyers, 1 sub, 1 Fighter, and 1 TB. Hoping the jap armour divisions begin to pressure the factory in egypt and my european teammate can push back the allies!

Just started, ANZANC to go on T1. 31 IPC bid to the Allies. 1 Destroyer in 110, 1 in 112, 5 men in various parts of Africa. I rolled very poorly in Paris, but otherwise, i’ve done alright. T2 will be naval base on kwangsi by the japs, and with the german 68 i will probably go 1 SB, 12 inf, 5 half tracks. This stacks Normandy, Paris, West Germany, and gives me troops to shuttle to Norway. the 5 half tracks will head to the front. I feel my 2 tanks leftover in paris (the math was 95% with 7.5 units remaining) leads to a shortfall at moscow. the upside is all the UK fighers and French fighter that started on england and scotland got knocked out. 12 infantry is not very aggressive, but i like to stock up on germany T2.

may not do DOW w/ Japan until T3 too keep the US off of europe.

@Wizard you can get the SB from the UK in the fight, and several planes and ships on SZ97, even if the italians and germans coordinate to get a full 3 plane scramble, it is still something like 55/45 UK win and you wipe out all those planes. Italy doesn’t have the ability to replace the battleship, and the cruiser likely won’t be replaced either. You severely hamper italy’s ability to branch out and get its income up, and if they can’t get the UK navy out of SZ 97 by the end of their turn, then all those ships get to roll convoy dice as well.

I’m slow rolling this game to let my opponents build up.

As it stands, it is the start of ANZAC T2. Germany sits w/ 49 IPCS, Japan @ 43, and Italy at 24.

Italy plans to buy an ACC and TT on its turn to have a real navy. We cracked back agains the leftovers of Taranto with much success, and as UK is going w/ a persia complex, i think i can get the italian income up a bit before the US does its thing. Japan built a NB on kwangsi, and will continue building more ships while shucking 6 units a turn to southeast asia. with 43 IPCs, i’m looking at 5inf, 1 art, 1ACC and 1DD. Germany with 49 will most likely get 7 infantry, 1 art, and either 6 half tracks or 3 half tracks and a SB. the other possibility woulb be 9 inf, 1 art, 3 half tracks and a sub. I do have 4 SBs currently, but wouldn’t mind a fifth. 2 TTs in the baltic are allowing me to keep troops rolling to finland in the hopes of a T5 leningrad crush. I’m trying to win but still giving them a chance. any opinions of which of the 3 germany/japan buys sound the most fun? T4 will most likely be an all out japan DOW and germany may or may not declare war on the USSR. not sure if i will stew another turn for the 5 IPC bonus!

@taamvan so, you think i should J2 DOW on USA or UK/ANZAC(thus all the western allies as the US gets to come in free) Also, i never thought about a NB on wake, that is particulary unfriendly!

@Sire-Fred ya, and I have all of my starting luftwaffe +1 additional SB purchased on G1. Russia can attack my whole stack in the middle, and its basically a 50/50, but my mobile units and planes make it rough for them on the crack back.

My problem with J2 Dow is that I get in theory + 7 income by taking kwangtung and Borneo. I can kill 53 ipc’s worth of English units. I can kill seven ipc’s of Anzac units. I can get Dutch Indochina for plus 2 ipc’s. I will get Plus 4 I ipc’s in Chinese territory that I would get no matter what. I get plus two ipcs because I can take the Philippines from the United States because they get to come into the war for free by attacking the UK unprovoked, so this means that I am up 15 I PCS for territory but I lose my 10 IPC bonus for not being at war with the US. the United States then gets a $30 bonus because I attacked them unprovoked an additional 20 ipc’s for National objectives. anzac will get + 10 ipc’s for their National objectives this virtually eliminates any advantage I got for killing the English naval units in the Dutch colonies. the United States then uses its bonus income to buy transports and hit the Mediterranean of an already weakened Italy. This then makes the Germans have to bail out the Italian slowing my march to Moscow. Can I assume that J2 Dow makes more sense if I had more transports in better locations?

@superbattleshipyamato this makes more sense!

@franklin_cain i’m a big fan of the halftrack!

ya, i just went and checked the board, china doesn’t have any 2 IPC territories, so no complexes in china.

@superbattleshipyamato If you’re going to go complexes, i like the options of 1/2 tracks. They don’t have the same punch, but still have decent defense, and you rely on the rolling death ball of japanese air force to do the real damage. That saves you $6 a turn to be put into navy or more planes. I haven’t played in quite awhile, but i don’t ever remember really putting complexes in china. there is so much more to be gained by controlling the islands and the coast. That’s what i remember anyway!

@squirecam It slowed the game down. Japan didn’t go all out because the first two times they declared war early, germany got smashed with that bonus. We probably weren’t as good as we are now, so maybe that is really the issue, but when you see germany get plowed twice, it makes you wary. Our games ended up with a lot of posturing and slow progress.

@erocco my groups games were much more enjoyable keeping the 30IPC deterrent in place!

@shadowhawk My group played with 30 IPC bonus in global not understanding it was eliminated in global. The games with the 30 IPC deterrent were much better than without.

@taamvan said in We need an allied playbook.:

@squirecam

Out of position to do what? They are not needed on UK1-3 to defend UKP, and Japan is usually so tough that 2 planes and a few ships don’t project much threat.

Those planes ARE in position to defend the SB, TB and any other fighters that survive Taranto. One of the worst things that can happen to UK is to win taranto and then land the planes where the Italians can and should wipe them all out because there is only 1 or 0 infantry to protect the planes.

i’ve gone away from Taranto because of losing the planes even if you win, but this is a very interesting scenario utilizing UKP for territory and protection!

@marshmallow-of-war I used to play every saturday, did so for 4 years, 2-4 hours at a time. Games lasted 2-6 months. It worked out well, and had a good time!

@steiner the mountains do look great, and you should be pleased with them!!