I recently read and would highly recommend Ian Toll’s “Pacific Crucible” and “Conquering Tide” covering the war in the Pacific.  I especially liked the insight into what was going on in Japan in the lead up to war, as well as the leadership and strategy on both sides.  A very good read, but for those looking for an order of battle level of detail this is not the book for you (does have some of the horrors of war stuff - - but not overdone).  After reading these I went on to read Six Frigates, also by Toll, which turned out to be the best of the three - - about the founding of the US navy.  Has a lot about post revolutionary war politics in addition to the naval battles and commanders, which I found really interesting but might not be everyone’s cup of tea.  I would also highly recommend the “The River War” by Winston Churchill an account of the re-conquest of the Sudan.  Well written with a dose of dry humor (no surprise given the author) and includes a detailed description of the battles (including order of battle and troop strengths).  Very interesting to read the book and think about who is writing it at the same time.

I few thoughts for your consideration on Italy.  Since a G1 sacrifices killing the UK navy in sz 110 for killing Russian infantry, you are generally not making any naval builds with Germany or Italy because you are usually just too weak to accomplish much with them and they distract from the land/air build up you need.  With that in mind I would not scramble against Taranto, and on I1 I would use the remaining navy plus the air force to clean out Sz 97 (forget the French fleet) this conserves the German air force for more important battles later.  On the German side I like using two subs to take out the cruiser in sz 91, but the COW opening attack on sz109 has merit as well (plus the usual attacks on sz 106 and 111).  Sending a sub to sz 125 to block lend lease for a turn is also worth considering since using it in the sz 111 battle probably just preserves the German battleship with one hit, which the French cruiser and plane will kill on F1.

Your thoughts on North Africa are dead on.  I would use your remaining transport to start shuttling troops back to Europe (with the tank in the first load).  This is another reason I like taking out the UK cruiser in sz 91on G1 and using the Italian navy to clean out sz 97 on I1.

Be sure to send your two tanks east on turn one for can openers in Russia.

Set up to take Yugo (which should be weakened by the G2 strafe I mentioned in my first post) and Greece on I2 (using your air force and the troops you are shuttling back from Africa). This should give Italy enough production to defend itself and Greece (a UK landing there can a royal pain with the German army deep in Russia)

If the US shows up with a large invasion force in sz91/Gibraltar and there are no fighters on Gibraltar, the Italian bomber can strat bomb the naval base and keep the US out of range of Italy, West Germany, Denmark and Norway for a turn.  Very situational, but can be very helpful in the right circumstance.

Good Luck tomorrow

Loonytrain, let us know what you ended up doing and how it worked out.

Simon is correct that if the Allies respond appropriately a G5/G6 capture of Moscow can be stopped.  Part of the fun of doing G1 (particularly if your opponents are not used to it) is that they may not respond appropriately (or appropriately enough).  A G1 often presents a chance to knock out a clump of units because the retreat needs to happen a little faster.  The same is true in getting UK planes to Moscow.  Taking Moscow on G5 is very doable if there are no UK planes (should be somewhere around 23 units left). With 6 planes (1 tac) it drops to an unacceptable 7 units left. If you wait until G6 when the Bulgarians and Fins can reach Moscow (along with an additional 3 tanks built in Ukraine) then you are back to about 23 units surviving against 6 UK planes, and the surviving amount goes down by about 3 for every UK fighter added.  Here I am talking about a J4 scenario where you bought 8 bombers on G3/G4 and lost one to Moscow strategic bombing AA fire.

In my view G1/J1 is primarily a Pacific strategy, and G1/J4 is primarily a Europe strategy.

If you are doing G1/J4 your goal is to take Moscow on G5.  To do this you need to send everything east, and your builds are mech and armor on G1/G2 and mostly bombers on G3/G4.  On G2 slingshot the German mech/armor from France to Slovakia with a strafe of Yugo.  Start strategic bombing Moscow on G3.  The effect of all of this is to put an overwhelming force in Russia and limit his ability to respond.  The other effect is that western Europe is thinly held with just enough to beat back UK landings.  You cannot afford to have the US show up in Europe before G5 when you take Moscow and more importantly drop a large land unit buy into western Europe.  Having Japan wait until J4 means the US goes to Gibraltar on US4 and lands somewhere on US5 (after you have done your defensive build on G5).  Japan spends it time beating up on China and Siberia (the Japanese player may feel a little frustrated because his fighting capability will be under utilized).  On the other hand the psychological and economic effect of an earlier Moscow fall is hopefully worth it.  If you release Japan early, the US will show up in Europe too soon and Germany will be forced to divert resources from Russia at the crucial moment and the move on Moscow will likely flounder.

In a G1/J1 I think the primary goal is to distract the US into sending an inordinate amount of resources to the Europe side, hopefully leaving Hawaii or Sydney vulnerable early.  If this happens, then its a game winner because in a J1 taking Calcutta is usually a foregone conclusion.  Even if the US does not skimp too much on the Pacific, the earlier presence of US help in Europe, will force Germany to slow its initial blitz of Russia to defend Europe.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means as Germany you are going to shift gears to a more standard and methodical approach to Russia.

Going G1/J2 just seems to give up the advantages of J1 and just gives the US a turn to get ready for war.

Going G1/J3 is like being half pregnant, you have lost the advantages of an earlier J1 or even J2, and the US will wreak havoc on Europe before Germany is ready. The only good thing is you would get the jump on an almost certain UK/ANZAC DOW on their turn 3, thus denying them a big haul of NO’s (but if you don’t like the prospect of a much stronger UK/ANZAC then you might as well do J1)

Are we still playing?

TripleA Turn Summary for game: World War II Global 1940 2nd Edition, version: 3.6

Game History

Round :11

Purchase Units - Russians
            Russians repair 1 damage on 1 factory_major; Remaining resources: 29 PUs;
            Russians buy 2 artilleries and 7 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;

Combat Move - Russians
            2 artilleries and 6 infantry moved from Samara to Novosibirsk
            1 fighter moved from Russia to Novosibirsk
            1 tactical_bomber moved from Russia to Novosibirsk
            2 infantry moved from Smolensk to Archangel
            1 fighter moved from Russia to Archangel
            2 infantry moved from Bryansk to Western Ukraine
            1 fighter moved from Russia to Western Ukraine
            20 infantry moved from Bryansk to Ukraine
            10 artilleries moved from Bryansk to Ukraine
            1 infantry moved from Vologda to Urals
                  Russians take Urals from Japanese
            1 armour moved from Egypt to Tobruk
                  British take Alexandria from Italians
                  Russians take Tobruk from Italians

Combat - Russians
            Battle in Novosibirsk
                Russians attack with 2 artilleries, 1 fighter, 6 infantry and 1 tactical_bomber
                Japanese defend with 3 armour, 1 infantry and 1 mech_infantry
                    Russians roll dice for 2 artilleries, 1 fighter, 6 infantry and 1 tactical_bomber in Novosibirsk, round 1 :  6/10 hits
                    Japanese roll dice for 3 armour, 1 infantry and 1 mech_infantry in Novosibirsk, round 1 :  4/5 hits
                    4 infantry owned by the Russians , 3 armour owned by the Japanese , 1 infantry owned by the Japanese and 1 mech_infantry owned by the Japanese lost in Novosibirsk
                Russians win, taking Novosibirsk from Japanese with 2 artilleries, 1 fighter, 2 infantry and 1 tactical_bomber remaining. Battle score for attacker is 13
                Casualties for Japanese: 3 armour, 1 infantry and 1 mech_infantry
                Casualties for Russians: 4 infantry
            Battle in Western Ukraine
                Russians attack with 1 fighter and 2 infantry
                Germans defend with 1 artillery
                    Russians roll dice for 1 fighter and 2 infantry in Western Ukraine, round 1 :  0/3 hits
                    Germans roll dice for 1 artillery in Western Ukraine, round 1 :  0/1 hits
                    Russians roll dice for 1 fighter and 2 infantry in Western Ukraine, round 2 :  1/3 hits
                    Germans roll dice for 1 artillery in Western Ukraine, round 2 :  0/1 hits
                    1 artillery owned by the Germans lost in Western Ukraine
                Russians win, taking Western Ukraine from Germans with 1 fighter and 2 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 4
                Casualties for Germans: 1 artillery
            Battle in Archangel
                Russians attack with 1 fighter and 2 infantry
                Germans defend with 1 armour
                    Russians roll dice for 1 fighter and 2 infantry in Archangel, round 1 :  2/3 hits
                    Germans roll dice for 1 armour in Archangel, round 1 :  0/1 hits
                    1 armour owned by the Germans lost in Archangel
                Russians win, taking Archangel from Germans with 1 fighter and 2 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 6
                Casualties for Germans: 1 armour
            Battle in Ukraine
                Russians attack with 10 artilleries and 20 infantry
                Germans defend with 1 armour, 1 factory_minor and 1 infantry
                    Russians roll dice for 10 artilleries and 20 infantry in Ukraine, round 1 :  7/30 hits
                    Germans roll dice for 1 armour and 1 infantry in Ukraine, round 1 :  1/2 hits
                    1 infantry owned by the Russians , 1 infantry owned by the Germans and 1 armour owned by the Germans lost in Ukraine
                Russians win, taking Ukraine from Germans with 10 artilleries and 19 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 6
                Casualties for Germans: 1 armour and 1 infantry
                Casualties for Russians: 1 infantry

Non Combat Move - Russians
            2 artilleries and 6 infantry moved from Russia to Samara
            1 fighter moved from Novosibirsk to Russia
            1 tactical_bomber moved from Novosibirsk to Russia
            1 fighter moved from Western Ukraine to Russia
            1 fighter moved from Archangel to Russia
            1 infantry moved from Bryansk to Belarus
            2 infantry moved from Bryansk to Smolensk
            2 infantry moved from Bryansk to Ukraine
            1 artillery moved from Bryansk to Ukraine
            1 infantry moved from Russia to Bryansk
            2 aaGuns moved from Bryansk to Ukraine
            2 mech_infantrys moved from Russia to Bryansk
            1 armour moved from Russia to Bryansk
            1 infantry moved from Smolensk to Vologda
            1 infantry moved from Bryansk to Smolensk

Place Units - Russians
            2 artilleries and 7 infantry placed in Russia

Turn Complete - Russians
            Russians collect 25 PUs; end with 25 PUs total
            Objective Russians 2 Spread Of Communism: Russians met a national objective for an additional 9 PUs; end with 34 PUs

Well its the end of 1945 and you are doing alot better than the historical axis (conversely I am doing alot worse than the historical allies)

TripleA Turn Summary for game: World War II Global 1940 2nd Edition, version: 3.6

Game History

Round :10

Combat Move - French

Non Combat Move - French

Turn Complete - French

TripleA Turn Summary for game: World War II Global 1940 2nd Edition, version: 3.6

Game History

Round :10

Purchase Units - ANZAC
            ANZAC buy 2 fighters; Remaining resources: 0 PUs;

Combat Move - ANZAC

Non Combat Move - ANZAC
            1 fighter moved from 42 Sea Zone to Burma
            1 fighter moved from India to Burma
            2 fighters moved from Iraq to India
            1 fighter moved from New South Wales to 42 Sea Zone
            1 destroyer moved from 62 Sea Zone to 42 Sea Zone
            1 infantry moved from New South Wales to Queensland

Place Units - ANZAC
            2 fighters placed in New South Wales

Turn Complete - ANZAC
            ANZAC collect 10 PUs; end with 10 PUs total
            Trigger ANZAC 1 Control Original And Malaya: ANZAC met a national objective for an additional 5 PUs; end with 15 PUs
            Objective ANZAC 2 Control Strategic Islands: ANZAC met a national objective for an additional 5 PUs; end with 20 PUs