Thanks to you both for a great game. That was one of the better learning experiences I’ve had in a long time between seeing your different strategies GoodCap and being able to discuss strategy and tactics with Napalm. Thx esp to you Ryan for your patience with my issues with a few of the rules and letting us team up on you! Napalm and I have played 3 times previously always as opponents and I have learned a lot from him as well- esp late game strategy. These games were the 1st time we had the opportunity to work on the same side and discuss realtime strategy which was a great experience.
Since you guys shared some great tips and strategies you learned I’ll chime in with my opinion as well. First of all it was awesome to see Goodcap effectively slide troops into India and effectively throw the might of the US into the eastern theater early game. Those are a few strategies I’m looking forward to incorporating into my next game as the allies.
Secondly I agree with GC that “pulling more money off the board” is a fundamental strategy in all these versions. I “mentored” a bit with an opponent via Ambition (an IOS based AnA game that unfortunately is no longer viable). This was one of his core strategies and this guy was a statistical board gaming major in college (I didn’t know there was such a thing) and said he actually used spread sheets to track the economics of each countrys buys and losses throughout the game. I will put in my own footnote here that although “pulling more money off the board” is clutch, I believe there are key territories and situations that one must go against this rule to effectively win, esp as the allies. One of the advantages of the axis is that they are more centrally located on the main continent so normally they have an advantage getting units into play over the allies- this means the allies usually need to maintain their economic output advantage to remain competitive- unless they can get more factories on the main continent.
Which brings me to my last point. I believe allied victory really depends on creating/holding onto continental factories and getting as many troops into the continent as possible. I think the allies can win without india but its a lot harder and I would counter that holding onto it is a good strategy. I also strongly believe that keeping troops coming into Norway (or better yet straight into northern russia) is critical to an allied victory as it keeps german troops out of the russian front (or adds to russian defenses). It also keeps the threat of invasion of western europe up which further draws germans from the russian front. I agree that getting a US factory in norway is a nasty and effective trick. I really do believe that you had us on the run for a bit there Ryan due to your early game strategy, a few bold and lucky moves, and just solid game play. I woefully said as much to Nathan but he really kept up the faith. I think if you would have kept the pressure on europe and started dumping brits into north russia you would have won. As you mentioned the long path for the US through the ME just wasn’t enough to reinforce russia. It was interesting as I worked through the battle calculator so many times when I pressed the main german wehrmacht against russia there were only a few units protecting a counter attack from 1-10 odds to 50-50 odds. Even with those large groups of forces just a few more units can make a bit difference on the odds. Not having the national objective where russia only gets a bonus if there are no other allied troops on russian soil really allows the US and brits to help russia- which I think you did very well with air power but could have done more with/earlier with ground forces.
Anyway as i said that’s just my opinion and this was a great opportunity for me. I’d love to play with one or both of you guys again. I will be spending almost the entire last half of august traveling for work- a lot of hotel rooms. I’m gonna try to get a hold of a laptop and set it up on AnA if you are interested.