@Black_Elk Gosh, 40!? I only have like 8 as each side post-placement games. No wonder I can barely stay in the top 100.

I should have mentioned the whole “resolve W. Russia first” thing in my other post, sorry. I thought that was just the standard operating procedure.

Also agree on Ukraine (and the opening turn in general) being very swingy. I’ve had things like the Ukr. Attack, the Attack on SZ2, Egypt, and the India Fleet Vs. IJN in SZ37 go extremely wonky and basically tilt the game in one direction or the other. In F2F tournaments bids usually fix this (either with an extra ART to Caucasus or an extra SUB to the India Fleet), but in AAO we don’t have that luxury.

Honestly, in AAO I haven’t had many games drag out long enough where SBRs would have helped. I’ve steamrolled most of my Axis games by Round 4/5, and as Allies the Axis have only really been getting within one tile of Moscow and sustaining their presence in games they were already going to win anyway.

@djensen said in New Patch - Huge QoL Improvement:

What’s QoL? Quality of Life?

Yes.

@Imperious-Leader said in All the Russian openings: For Begginers:

Don’t like taking UKR, Rather i hit and run. I value the 3 tanks et al with more value to USSR then killing a German Fighter/Bomber.

I don’t like taking Ukraine either in a F2F game, but in AAO most people stick with the default “defense profile” which means you kind of have to take the territory if you want to kill the Bomber. Killing that Bomber impacts a lot more than the USSR Vs. Germany front, so I think losing the Tanks is worth killing the Bomber for.

I’ve already argued with you in a different thread about Karelia. Since we’re talking about LHTE/42.3/AAO/whatever, I agree with you that attacking Germany’s fleet with the FTRs/attempting to defend Karelia is pointless.

@Imperious-Leader said in All the Russian openings: For Begginers:

Exactly. and the sub does not stack with the UK fleet. Germany wont buy a Destroyer early in the game and that sub can do alot of damage…Latter

I do actually stack the sub with the UK Fleet, I just have it submerge and avoid combat so it can potentially pick off the Cruiser Germany leaves behind or Transport in SZ5 (if Germany didn’t buy navy G1) later.

@theskeindhu said in All the Russian openings: For Begginers:

The point for Germany being that with 2 Bombers and the luck to never lose one, and 2-3 from Japan, they can completely destroy Russia’s income. This takes away any opportunity to counter strike, or build a big stack on West Russia as with both Japan and Germany knocking at the door of Moscow and no money, they crumble fast.

I don’t agree with Japan doing SBRs. If you’re committing your Bombers to that they need to be based in one of the Chinese territories, which puts them too far inland to pose a threat to an advancing USN. I see a lot of Allied Players making the mistake of sending the USN directly towards Japan. They really should be camping out in the Solomon Islands, then striking at Borneo/DEI/Philippines. That way they can drain Japan’s income and potentially land in India to bail out to UK if Japan’s stack in Burma is getting too big.

Just found this thread, so figured I’d throw my two cents in the ring, since Allies are more fun to play than Axis in this version (even if they have a much harder time winning).

Under LHTR (AKA “Gencon 3.0” or whatever they call it in AAO), killing the German bomber is the linchpin of the entire Allied opening, as you need the following chain of events to occur:

• USSR kills Germany’s bomber in Ukraine R1.
• No Bomber for Germany = Germany can’t reliably kill Egypt G1.
• Egypt surviving = UK gets an extra FTR B1 for use against the IJN off DEI (SZ37)
• Extra fighter for UK against SZ37 fleet = UK trades its entire Pacific fleet to take down half the IJN B1.
• Japan losing half its navy = Their offensive momentum is totally halted, giving the Allies a solid amount of wiggle room to play the game.

This necessity, coupled with the necessity of taking West Russia R1, as it is the most important tile in Russia in terms of what it connects to, means that you can’t expect to hold Karelia. Thus, I go for the following opening:

Karelia: FTR -> Ukraine, rest -> W. Russia
Archangel: All -> W. Russia
Moscow: Tanks + FTRs -> Ukraine, rest to W. Russia
Caucasus: All -> Ukraine

Despite this, you can and may lose the Ukraine fight. However, due to the default AAO Defense Profiles (WHICH YOU CAN CHANGE IN THE SETTINGS BY THE WAY, PLEASE DO THIS) being terrible, Germany by-default will lose the Bomber last, which means that pulling out after killing the Bomber is not usually an option.

For the Siberia guys, there’s more flexibility with what you can do, but you at least want the Kazakh guy going to Szechwan, move the Ural guys to Archangel, move the Novosibirsk guy to Moscow and to consolidate the guys in Yakut/SFE/Bury. I like to stick them in Yakut, but you can go for Buryatia if you’re planning on a KJF for whatever reason.

After the opening, as Black_Elk said, the strategy depends on the ebb and flow of the game. Things like how Germany/Japan are playing, how dice rolls are going, etc. This determines whether you build 1-2 TANKs with your land units, or all INF/ART. I don’t agree with the notion that the Soviets should be buying FTRs ever. Leave the expensive units to USA/UK.

Finally, I personally find Strat Bombing worthless. Bombers are expensive and don’t pay for themselves until a point where the game has usually been decided one way or the other anyway. For the price of the Bomber you’re gambling IPC value on, you can buy 2 SUBs, 4 INF, 3 ART, or 2 TANK, based on your needs. All of these options are blatantly superior to a Bomber. The only thing that’s worse for you value-wise is probably a Cruiser, lol.

EDIT: I’m specifically talking about purchasing a BOMB. Bidding for one is perfectly acceptable due to how the bidding rules work. An extra BOMB in Russia’s opener gives you much better odds in Ukraine, and you then have the ability to keep the Bomber alive for other roles on both sides of the map.

This is the forum for 1942 1st edition. In that game, Germany has 40 IPC as their base income, as the map is 1:1 with Revised.

In 1942 2nd Edition, the problem you are describing exists. The reference cards say 40/30 for Germany/UK while the true values are 41/31.

Just want to say that a new patch dropped today. It sped up things like combat and the pauses between phases/button presses considerably. I was able to play a turn just now in like 3 minutes, where before it would take 5-7 minutes.

Keep up the good work, @JuliusBorisovBeamdog and Co.

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog Which leads me back to my question. Do you know what the required rating for each tier is?

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog If there’s no minimum rating required for each tier, and no fixed number of users in each tier, what determines the tier I end up in then?

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog Ah, so it’s just ELO. I’m already familiar with the concept thanks to Chess.

I’m guessing my progress slowing is probably because, now that I’m about 7 games in with each faction (not counting placement games), I’m no longer gaining/losing as much rating per-game, in addition to players having naturally high ranking. I’ll just keep chugging along, then.

For vanity’s sake, do you have a rough estimate of what the ELO Thresholds are for each league/segments of each league? I’m currently ~#180 as Axis and ~#89 as Allies.

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog specifically @'ing you because you might be able to give a quick answer.

tl;dr Wins in Gold League and below = jump 40 ranks, Wins in Platinum League = jump 10 ranks and then trickle down ~1-2 ranks/day. Need advice on climbing the ladder faster than I fall down it.

Finally broke into Platinum League with both my Allies and my Axis the other day. Yay. With my new placement comes a question, though. Is Platinum League set up in a fundamentally different way from the lower leagues?

When I was plowing my way through Silver/Gold Leagues (Yes, my Axis got seeded into Silver initially. Laugh if you want.), winning a game would effectively bump me up ~30-40 ranks. This made grinding the ladder an easy and casual experience, as I’d run one Axis game and one Allies game at a time, and simply wait until both games were won to join my next two games. Going at this leisurely pace, I was able to hit Platinum with Allies in like 2 weeks, and Platinum with Axis in about 3 weeks (I got an opponent with Axis who literally abused the 24 hour clock to make all of his moves at the absolute last second, that was some BS if I’ve ever seen it).

Anyway, now that I’m in Platinum League, I’ve noticed that my progress has slowed to a screeching halt! Winning a game now only bumps me up about 10 slots, and with each passing day I slowly trickle down in the leaderboard. I mean, it makes sense that I would trickle down as other players win games, it’s more the minimal bump for winning that confuses me. I’m undefeated currently as both factions post-placement matches, I imagined that I would keep my momentum in gaining ranks until I started actually losing to skilled players. What do I need to do to rank up faster? Do I just need to play more games simultaneously?