@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.

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.

@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

@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.

@crockett36 in face-to-face games without a battle calculator, the game is relatively even and historically accurate to a surprising degree. It takes a long time for players to be experienced enough to find the meta that allows the Axis to consistently win in a game without a bid.

The move towards Hawaii is indeed the worst option between the possible openings for Japan. The United States has enough income to overwhelm the IJN after a few turns, forcing them into a long retreat back to more valuable targets. American air units built to expel the Japanese from the Eastern Pacific can be rapidly pivoted to support an invasion of Western Europe.

Tizkit’s comments

1. agreed
2. agreed
3. agreed, he can start convoy raiding right away
4. definitely agree
5. not really necessary since he can’t step forward with 7 inf, but I would prefer a tank over a mech. Essentially same defense and much greater attack. You are always short on attack as Russia
   6)agreed
6. The cruiser ship block in 114 is very essential.

Additional: you can leave the planes in Moscow and still reach everywhere on the Western front. It allows you to land in Yunnan if there is some miracle and you can support Yunnan on turn 2. Sometimes I rush a mech and tank to Sikang on R1 and then return them back to Moscow if the dice are not looking good for China.

@crockett36 Thank you for your service.

FYI: This will be my last week of playing this game until mid-January.

That did not go as plan. Was going to strafe and retreat, but the dice disagreed.

@crockett36 triplea_37451_8 RUS ALT.tsvg

I would have been more conservative with my units, but it is a tough choice. Pulling units back towards Moscow will be critical if the Allies become so focused on the Pacific.

No problem to make the edit. I can also change that if I take my turn before you.

With the split stack of infantry, it was a good time to destroy half of the Russian army.

I also didn’t pass up a chance to destroy the last Russian plane as I know it is almost impossible for you to replace. Without that flexibility to support the many theaters of operation, Russia has little ability to counterattack and achieve positive trades after the German counter-counterattack.

With no remaining Allied fleet in the Atlantic, I can abandon all defense of the western front.

triplea_37451_7 alt.tsvg

I would have moved my Anzac fighters to Hawaii to free up space on your ships for American planes later. Might not be critical as you have so many carriers and so few American planes. You got diced in that battle, but I don’t think it was a wise choice to begin with as you desperately needed the planes and I didn’t really need those ground troops.

You are in a difficult situation as the Allies are forced to abandon any threat in the Atlantic to counter the Japanese growth. That allows Germany to reclaim lost ground in Russia in the coming turns. Not much you can do there.

I think the sacrifice of the American transports heading to W India is too great. You desperately need those in the theater and you did not achieve enough with that move. India will not fall and that 35 PUs are desperately needed elsewhere.

The weak Pacific fleet is very vulnerable to the IJN. Too many ships were sacrifices in the Sea of Japan previously. Hawaii is in serious danger of falling in a couple rounds after the fleet moves to Midway. Be careful of your moves this round as the Pacific situation is dire.

@crockett36 I did a quick Russian turn before looking at what you did. I tried to keep more of my stack together to push to Novogrod next turn. I don’t have enough forces to push all the way to Sweden, but I can make it annoying for the Germans for a few turns before turtling down in Moscow. Your split of forces gives too little power in either direction. You will have to retreat back to Bryansk soon.

I also started returning my forces from China to help with the rest of my army. The few troops going on an expedition will get slaughtered when Japan wants to.

triplea_37451_7 Russian turn.tsvg

@crockett36 is game still alive?