1. The Rush – A quick knockout blow!
I start with an exception to the general principles that I am going to discuss. The reason being twofold, one to avoid the “Yeah, but what about this?” line of questions and two since a Rush occurs early in the game it seems appropriate to address it early here too. We can note that the Rush may use some of the Principles we are going to discuss but that is not the focus of the Rush.
A Rush is when one side (the attacker) chooses to do an all-out attack to eliminate the other side (the defender) before the other side has time to build up their defenses. The idea is to attack the defender with all your original troops on the board that can get to the defender very quickly and to focus on building offensive units that can get to the defender very quickly too or, better yet, at the same time as the original units on the board to overwhelm the defender before they have time to build up their defenses. Hopefully, to further increase the effectiveness of this strategy, the defender will be surprised by this strategy and will have been working towards a long-term strategy and will be overwhelmed by this quick knockout blow.
There are three possible Rush scenarios in the Global 1940 game; all by the Axis. The Romanian Rush, Sealion and the India Crush.
Romanian Rush is when the German player builds a major industrial complex on G1 and places it in Romania with the intention of taking Moscow on G6. While in the short term this is a loss of up to 10 infantries on the attack of Moscow, due to the Romanian complex being 2 spaces closer in distance to Moscow than the Germany complex the German player can provide greater OFP and more HP total units on a G6 Moscow attack due to being able to build a) more expensive slow movers on G2 (artillery) and more expensive fast movers (armor) on G4 that otherwise would not be able to get there in time.
Sealion is where the German Player tries to capture London via an amphibious assault. This is possible because the UK industrial complex limits the total defending build to 10 units at a time and Germany goes first in Turn Order so they have one more Turn to prepare than the UK does. The only lacking unit the Germans start the game with are transports; they already have all the ground and air troops needed for the capture of London. With the large amount of money they gain on G1 building a bunch of transports on G2 is a definite Rush possibility.
India Crush is when Japan goes all out for India ignoring or minimizing any China attacks and money grab of the Money Islands. With a 3 transport buy on J1 the Japanese already have the ground troops, air units and naval units necessary to take Calcutta. This can be as early as a J3 attempt, though usually, a J4 capture.
With the defense of any Rush the best defense is recognizing it is coming and then acting accordingly. Since Rushes are usually an all or nothing adventure stopping the Rush, no matter how painful, will usually lead to winning the game.
Okay, enough with the Rush. Onto the Warfare Principles!
2. Money and Attrition – He who has the most… wins!
The basic concept of Axis & Allies is money, pure and simple. The game starts with so many units on the board. These units are basically your starting money already bought and paid for and placed on the board. Usually the Axis is even or ahead with these starting money units and has the advantage of theater position. Normally the Allies have a greater value of territories to start the game thus they collect more money than the Axis does each Round to start. So, the goal of each side should be to gain or maintain a monetary advantage. The overall mantra is simple; he who uses his money wisest will win. Basically, the general concept to gauge how well you are doing is if the value of units you destroy is A and the value of the units you lose is B and the money you collect is C then A minus B plus C needs to be greater than your opponent’s A minus B plus C equation for you to be winning the game.
Hold on. Based on this formula, A-B+C, if Power A is collecting $48 and buying 4 bombers a Turn (for Global 1940) and Power B is collecting $36 and buying 12 infantry a Turn and neither side is losing any troops then Power A is winning. In reality, we all know that is probably hogwash; Power B is being much more effective in the value it is getting for its money. So, while you should use the formula to gauge how well you are doing the mantra is, again, he who uses his money wisest will win. So, there are other things that must be taken into consideration to ensure the formula works. Those other things are the value of the units you are purchasing, your position on the board and who has the momentum.
a) Value of units: An infantry unit costs 3, an armor unit costs 6 while a bomber unit costs 12. Each has a specific duty on the board but a good bet is the Power that is buying the lower cost unit to accomplish their goal is going to win the game because of the cost of doing battle down the road. So, when you look at the formula, (A-B+C) it has to be viewed not only this Turn but the next one and the next one and the next one. If you are not buying the least expensive unit now to get the job done then it is a good bet that eventually your more expensive units are going to die in battle against your opponents less expensive units and suddenly the formula is going to take a turn for the worse.
b) Position on the board: For the Allies the US is going to account for anywhere from 35% to 50% of the money the Allies collect. However, they have the hardest time getting their troops into the theaters of conflict. Thus, if the money formulas are even then the Axis is actually winning since too much of the Allied money is “in the pipeline” still trying to get into battle. Basically, those units are not really on the board until they are in combat and thus don’t count as much as a unit in combat. In addition, the UK, USA and ANZAC need fleets to deliver their troops into the battlefield. Thus, they must build expensive units to transport the troops and even more expensive units to protect the transports from the enemy. Japan also needs a fleet however since they start with so many planes and ships it is easier for them to deliver ground troops onto the mainland than the UK, USA and ANZAC.
c) Momentum: If the Axis or Allies are losing the money war but are in position to knock out a Capital then the formula is soon going to change in their favor. If the Axis knocks out Russia or the Allies knock out Italy then suddenly the formula is going to change drastically so as I said the formula is just a gauge to determine how you are doing but it is not the sole consideration.
Keeping in mind the cost of units, position on the board and momentum the Player that spends his money wisely, consistently kills a higher value of units than he loses each Round, and collects enough money to have an overall monetary advantage versus his opponent‘s formula is going to win the bulk of their games.
So how do you consistently kill more value in enemy units than you lose? That is the key to the game and the next few topics.