Back from the holidays. Just in time. Please add me to the OOB tournament.

@trulpen yeah, BM is much tougher for the Japanese in China. I waste way too many men trying to suppress the rebellions. I hate it when an American bomber knocks off the lone defender and a Chinese soldier pops up in Tibet.

I had an unusual game where the Axis captured Egypt early. The Americans focused heavily on the European operations and the Allies were steadily making progress on that side of the map. I built up the Japanese air force and sent it on a suicide attack into Moscow around turn 8. Stripping off 15 infantry Allied units in Moscow can change a battle from a 95% chance of losing into a 95% chance of winning when the Germans get their turn. It also means that Germany will keep their air force intact, allowing them to reclaim any European victory cities if necessary.

The best part of this strategy is that the extra Japanese planes can hold the Allies at bay for several turns, forcing India to cower and Anzac + USA to be more conservative with their fleets. All of the planes can raid Moscow from a base in Sichuan, meaning that only one turn is required to setup the pivot from Pacific to Europe.

Of course the Russian AA’s shot down half of my Japanese raiders and the German tanks had their turrets pointed backwards, leading to an abrupt and unhappy end to a genius strategy.

@crockett36 Normandy should be left completely unoccupied by the time the Allies have a sizable landing force. As you mentioned, there can be considerable devastation to any Axis force situated in that territory and it cannot be reasonably defended without diverting from the main goal of crushing Moscow or heading into the Middle East/Egypt. Normandy or Norway will fall, it just is a matter of on which round and whether the Axis will be able to retake it with a counterattack of ground units supported by planes. France is the best place to have the Axis counterstrike infantry/artillery. Mechanized units can help counterstrike from W Germany. Usually, though, a wave of UK fighters add enough defensive might to Normandy or Norway to ensure that the Axis are unable to strike back.

Aircraft carriers and subs are the best investment for the US as they have dual purposes of defending the fleet and attacking/convoy raiding. Build enough destroyers to prevent German wolfpacks from roaming the Atlantic

If you are new to the game, whoever is better will win with either side. Usually one person has a very defensive personality, focusing more on not losing than pushing towards a goal. That will inevitably lead to defeat as the other person finds weaknesses and builds an income advantage.

It takes a large number of matches to have the natural Axis advantage manifest itself in face-to-face games. Don’t worry about the imbalance until you are able to predict what happens during the first six rounds of gameplay based just on the first round of dice rolls and spending. Fun game for both beginners and masters.

@martin It was a pleasure to play against you. You had quite a few successful moves surprised me and inflicted huge headaches, like that lone infantry recapturing India.

@Omega1759 I do think that the Axis will be forced to leave Gibraltar soon because defending it starts distracting Germany from the even more attack into Russia or Egypt. I think that he will be gone in another two rounds. Still, that is a huge amount of extra income for Italy during this time.

I have no idea why the UK Med fleet ran towards India. I don’t see what it will do before it inevitably goes back to the Med. The 5 PU bonus for no Allied ships in the Med is a killer bonus for Italy.

You don’t have to fully stop Japan. India and China will inevitably fall no matter what you plan. If you have ANZAC ground troops supported by American planes, you can prevent Australia from falling easily into Japanese hands. Have a couple tanks or mechs that can prevent a beachhead forming in Western Australia. Those planes can shuttle back to Hawaii if he tries to have an amphibious assault to capture that victory territory.

Uncontested in the Pacific, Japan will eventually be able to win in that theater. Still, it takes a surprisingly long time to get to that point so hopefully you can start shifting spending to that side of the board once you got the European Axis powers weakened. You just need to hinder their income by capturing Normandy/Norway and convoy raiding Italy with a big stack of Mediterranean subs. At that point Russia+UK can do most of the maintenance work to hold back Germany.

A single dice roll during the first round can easily be a 20 point swing, such as a German plane hitting or missing the Allied ship. Bad choices such as being overly conservative in the attack plans can have even more long-term consequences. Despite this being a tutor game, so many decisions still fall on the shoulders of Avner. Differences in skill levels will soon be apparent from the game play.

We saw this in the last tutor game where the initial 50 PU bid quickly vanished in value as the units were not used for productive attacks during the first round when such a large amount of units should have had a drastic course change for the initial orders.

@andrewaagamer The TUV benefit of the BB becomes even larger when the odds of winning is greater. If you know that eventually you will be able to force a fleet battle in the Pacific, and will be on the winning side because USA is doing either a KGF or KJF strategy, purchasing an additional BB or two could be wise.

If you aren’t absolutely convinced you will have an epic Naval battle with victory firmly on your side, stick with subs and destroyers.

Oops, airfield should have gone in Gibraltar instead of Egypt.

Here is a much more aggressive Allied first turn opener.

1. Japan can’t take China on turn 2 and faces a difficult time for the rest of the game in Mainland Asia. Killing the two troops in FIC is a huge setback.

2. The UK have a strong position in the Middle East and can build a factory there on turn 2, and a second factory on turn 3. A bunch of troops and planes will be flooding the area by turn 6 when Germany is trying to make a big move.

3. The Germans have to decide whether to attack the fleet in the Med (likely) or the one off the coast of the UK (less likely). The United States will be in place to launch a major Atlantic attack on turn 3 or 4.

UK1.tsvg

This game is not playing much differently than a normal match without a bid. I should not be in such a good position for turn 2. The additional 130 bid does not seem to have had much of an impact.

It1.tsvg

Looks like I will play the winner of this match. Not excited about that prospect as I have a strong suspicion that y’all are the top two players in the Playoffs and know both above my skill level.

Cya soon!

Definitely willing to re-match later this year when you are less busy at work.

@martin It was a pleasure to play against you. You had quite a few successful moves surprised me and inflicted huge headaches, like that lone infantry recapturing India.

IT7.tsvg

Game History

Round: 7

    Purchase Units - Italians
        Italians buy 1 artillery and 1 transport; Remaining resources: 0 PUs; 

    Combat Move - Italians
        1 infantry moved from Caucasus to Kazakhstan
        2 artilleries, 1 bomber and 1 mech_infantry moved from Caucasus to Kazakhstan

    Combat - Italians
        Battle in Kazakhstan
            Italians attack with 2 artilleries, 1 bomber, 1 infantry and 1 mech_infantry
            Russians defend with 2 artilleries
                Italians roll dice for 2 artilleries, 1 bomber, 1 infantry and 1 mech_infantry in Kazakhstan, round 2 : 0/5 hits, 2.00 expected hits
                Russians roll dice for 2 artilleries in Kazakhstan, round 2 : 0/2 hits, 0.67 expected hits
                Italians roll dice for 2 artilleries, 1 bomber, 1 infantry and 1 mech_infantry in Kazakhstan, round 3 : 2/5 hits, 2.00 expected hits
                Russians roll dice for 2 artilleries in Kazakhstan, round 3 : 0/2 hits, 0.67 expected hits
                2 artilleries owned by the Russians lost in Kazakhstan
            Italians win, taking Kazakhstan from Russians with 2 artilleries, 1 bomber, 1 infantry and 1 mech_infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 8
            Casualties for Russians: 2 artilleries

    Non Combat Move - Italians
        1 bomber moved from Kazakhstan to Southern Italy
        1 aaGun moved from Caucasus to Kazakhstan
        1 submarine moved from 97 Sea Zone to 98 Sea Zone
        1 carrier, 1 destroyer, 2 fighters and 1 submarine moved from 97 Sea Zone to 95 Sea Zone

    Place Units - Italians
        1 transport placed in 95 Sea Zone
        1 artillery placed in Southern Italy

    Turn Complete - Italians
        Italians collect 12 PUs; end with 12 PUs
        Objective Italians 1 Control The Mediterranean: Italians met a national objective for an additional 5 PUs; end with 17 PUs

Combat Hit Differential Summary :

Italians regular : -2.00
Russians regular : -1.33

You delayed the G8 Sea Lion, but I think I have the numbers to launch it on G9. Just need to make sure Japan doesn’t fall first. Not easy for them since you gave nearly 100% of USA money for the Pacific.

very tempting, but the dice hate my Axis air force. No intercept. I would lose every Japanese plane.

Is this playoff game over?