Posts made by EricB

Another KGF tip…

Use those starting AA guns in the US. They’re just sitting there doing nothing. Use them. Maybe you had the UK take France and the UK has a few units left in France. Have the US go drop another 10 in France behind them, and make one of those units an AA gun.

A warning though: Check to see if Germany can re-take France. If they can take it, how many units will they likely have left in France after the battle? If it’s low enough that the Allies can re-take it the next turn, then by all means throw everything in. It’s just a large trade. You’re exchanging UK and US units for German units and that wears Germany down. If Germany has enough where they can take it and then stack it so it can’t be retaken then be cautious and just drop a minimal number in.

For NW Europe, this is likely just 1 transport. For France, it’s more because it’s a 6 IPC value territory in the situation of a strafe. Sometimes Germany will have a lot that they can bring at France, but if they bring everything then it leaves them too weak elsewhere. For example, if they bring 25 infantry and some tanks to France to take it hard, then that would leave them too weak in Germany.

In that situation bring 3 transports to France to leave about 4 or 5 there. It’s too few for them to do a strafe because they don’t want to lose the income from France. It’s too many for a light trade, so you’re still getting your goal of a heavier trade.

You have to read the situation in Europe though. Sometimes it may even be worth it to have a negative net trade with Germany if it’s early game and Germany is pushing at Russia hard. It will divert units away from the eastern front.

@snoil If playing a KGF, bring everything to the Atlantic. If going KJF, bring everything to the Pacific. I play a KGF probably 95% of the time.

In most KGF games as the US, all you need to build is 1 carrier US1. Other than that, it’s all transports and land units. Sometimes you mix in a plane, but that’s a luxury buy. If Axis is investing heavily in air and naval units then more US navy is definitely needed. The priority is always taking and occupying land. Owning land is what gives you income to build more units. Water is worthless.

So, since land is the priority, then land units are the priority. Land units are the most efficient on land. Ships are the most efficient on water. Planes are less efficient but more flexible on land or water.

So you want to be building as many land units as possible. The large majority of these are going to be infantry because they are cheap so you can buy more of them. As the US, you have a logistics problem getting those land units somewhere useful, so you need transports. To move your transports you need surface ships like carriers with fighters, destroyers, cruisers, battleships to protect them.

Pound for pound destroyers are the best unit for protecting transports. Carriers with fighters are good too because the fighters can attack on land. Cruisers are alright, but over-priced. Battleships are situational and not ideal for an Atlantic fleet. Where I use a battleship is when I’m facing multiple fleets.

For example, as Japan if you are facing a UK fleet and a US fleet, then a battleship is pretty good because it gets a free repair, but for the most part they are just too expensive.

With the US you want to be up to around 7 or 8 transports by the end of round 2. After that reasonable people disagree on how many transports to have. I usually get up to 11 or 12. If the US doesn’t have France it’s 11. If they do, it’s 12. If I’m doing a Med shuck I might get up to 14. Some people keep it at 8 and build bombers.

@domanmacgee Yeah it’s a 100% KGF, and usually India can hold on until at least round 4 or so. If Japan goes for India it pretty much hands central Asia to Russia. Once the UK and US contain Germany, then Russia can focus totally on Japan. Eventually Japan will wear down Russia, but if Japan is building all tanks then Russia can hold them off indefinitely trading tanks for infantry.

The UK can also assist with Japan using the units that retreated from India and possibly bringing in more via Karelia.

Sometimes I get games where Germany just keeps coming at Russia despite the Allies being able to take Berlin. When this happens the UK or US takes Berlin and Moscow may fall as well. After that, the Allies build a Pacific fleet and go take Hawaii and Philippines, then either get Russia or India for the win.

A key principle to getting at least up to gold level is seeing what your opponent can do in response to a move you make. For example, say you are Germany and are considering putting a lot of units into West Russia. Look at how many Russia can attack you with if you do that. Count everything in range.

A lot of lower-level players will just attack something because that particular battle is favorable to them, not noticing what your opponent can do in response on their turn.

Also, a common mistake they make is building way too many attacking units and not enough fodder units. You want almost all of your losses to be cheap infantry. Use your infantry to kill their tanks and you’re going to win. I play so many opponents that try to just rush at Russia thinking that will work.

If you can get sound tactics you’ll get to at least high silver and probably gold.

@snoil I find the game favoring Allies. If the Allies target Germany, Germany is in a lot of trouble. I also get Allies mostly when I choose ‘No Preference’.

I think at the lower levels the game favors Axis, and at the higher levels it favors Allies. To play Allies well you have to have the different countries work together, which requires a lot of coordination.

Building a bunch of tanks in India with Japan is a bad idea. It’s really easy for Russia to hold this off and trade infantry for tanks indefinitely. I see it a lot though. Tank spam in Asia from Japan. It doesn’t work in my games, but maybe it’s working against weaker Allied play.

I just beat a guy who was going all out with the air units. He was Axis and built 1 or 2 air units for both Germany and Japan almost every turn. By round 7 he had around 25 air units. Even with all that, he never once sunk a transport. He finally resigned in round 11 but it would have probably gone to round 16-18. It can be a longer game when they play that way because you have to build so much navy that it really slows down the transport movements.

Against such a strategy you really have to combine the UK and US navies. The best spot is unloading the transports to Finland and coming around the back. Another option is sending them all to France, but it’s hard to stack France when Germany has so many planes. What you really have to do is build up a big stack in Karelia, then when it’s big enough move to Belorussia. Eventually you can move it to Baltic States.

You want to make sure to come from the east also because you need to make sure that Germany doesn’t get income from West Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Karelia. Also, if Japan is really threatening Russia, troops are close by to help out there.

That’s the guy I just resigned a game to! I resigned in round 1 because I saw he had a platinum ranking. I was playing as Russia and lost the Ukraine battle and lost a lot in West Russia too. I had no chance to even get started. This guy may be cheating.

If you are doing a KGF strategy, dealing with Japan isn’t the top priority. You’re just trying to slow them down and distract them. With the UK in India, don’t let Japan stack Burma. When they go in with land forces, hit them back. Have artillery in India.

I buy 1 of 3 options with the UK in round 1.

1. Carrier, Transport, 2 infantry, 1 artillery.
2. Carrier, Destroyer, 3 infantry.
3. 2 Fighters, 2 artillery, 1 infantry.

Option 1 is if there’s minimal threat to the UK fleet. Germany builds a med carrier for example, loses fighters or moves them east. 3 or fewer planes in range.

Option 2 is if there are 4 planes in range. I’m not risking a transport.

Option 3 is if there are 5 or more planes/subs that can hit Britain. Build fighters in round 1. If they move away you can build a fleet in round 2. If they add more planes like building bombers, then wait until round 3 for the US fleet to arrive before building a navy. If Germany’s building that many planes, their army will be thin.

Basically I’m saying don’t focus all your attention with the UK on Japan. UK needs to be hitting Germany. It’s closer and easier to hit. The goal of the British in Asia is to harass Japan and delay them. Keep them occupied with India if you can. If they ignore India move up to Persia to block them from stacking Kazakh. A Kazakh stack is dangerous because it threatens Caucuses and Russia forcing Russia to abandon Caucuses.

With Russia, their job is to kill lots of Germans in the first 3 rounds. Don’t sacrifice troops but make Germany pay if they are overaggressive with Russia in a KGF. After the US and UK are landing in Europe just defend with Russia against Germany. Shift 90% of Russia’s focus to Japan and let the UK/USA deal with Germany. If Germany is stupid enough to keep attacking Russia and spreading themselves thin, they’ll collapse even faster.

With Japan, try to keep them out of any territories bordering Russia. If Japan is ignoring Russia mostly and focused 100% on India, move some infantry down to India. If it takes until round 5 for Japan to get India you’ve done your job. If I see India’s going to fall, I pull back the troops to Persia, then Kazach or Caucuses.

If Russia’s struggling use the UK forces to back up Russia. Russia has to stay alive. If Russia is fine, the UK India forces can head to Europe to take out Germany.

The USA should be totally focused on Germany.

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog I started playing first as Allies because I hadn’t played the 1942 edition before. I have played the original version a lot in the past. When I played that, the Allies had a big advantage. I didn’t really know this was a different version until I started playing it and saw all these new unit types. I thought Allies would be easier, so I started with that. Didn’t know it had an advantage for Axis. Seems ahistorical.

@Eqqman Yeah that’s why I think a very quick attack by Germany poses the biggest risk to the way that I play as Allies because it takes some time for the US to get a big force in Europe. Maybe I could just bypass Morocco in round 2 with the US and just land in France/NW Europe with the 2 starting transports (if they weren’t attacked in round 1). It’s only 4 units plus whatever the UK could muster, but it would at least give Germany something else to think about.

I probably have to adapt my play to that very quick strategy by Germany. Typically I play for the long game. I knock Finland/Norway/Morocco/Algeria/Libya/Egypt/Transjordan away from Germany. Then, if Germany stacks Western Europe I take away Karelia/Belorussia/Ukraine. If they stack Karelia I take France and stack it, then start trading Italy.

But if Moscow is on its heels in round 4/5 from all tank builds, then that strategy hasn’t had enough time to bear fruit. Probably would need to hit Europe even earlier, send fighters from the UK to Russia, and pull out of India if necessary.

I’ve played plenty of games where Germany builds a few infantry and 4-5 tanks per turn, and I can defend that. Typically they try to tank blast into Caucuses and I put a big wall in Caucuses with a 3 nation combined force. Then, they either blast into that wall and lose, they retreat back to Germany when the main force arrives on its doorstep, or more likely I see a resignation because they realize it didn’t work.

I think that strategy does probably work a lot with Germany though because whenever I’ve beaten a player trying to do that, I look at their record and oftentimes they have a winning record, so I bet it works a lot. Lots of tanks coming at Russia is dangerous, and if you don’t defend it right with Russia you’re going to lose. That used to happen to me in the first few weeks I was playing this game.

One strategy that I think may pose some problems for me to deal with would be Germany building all tanks. I’ve heard that Cow does this. As the Allies, typically I have the USA not attacking anything in round 1, just building up. Round 2 is usually when UK takes Norway and I have the US take Finland and Morocco. It’s important to take both Norway and Finland on the same turn if you’re going in with unprotected transports. If Germany has fighters in Karelia or any bombers this isn’t possible and a naval escort is needed.

Round 3 there’s usually not much of an attack from the US as most of the transports are sailing back. Usually there’s 1 or 2 available to maybe hit NW Europe or drop in Finland. Round 4 is typically the big round where the large US force arrives in Europe. If Germany doesn’t have a big stack of units on France then it’s going down. If they stack it big, I land in Finland. If the stack is that big in France, it can’t be that big in Karelia if Russia was hitting them hard.

So, Germany basically has 4 rounds to try to take out Russia if it’s going to. I think defending against all tanks would be dicey because the US can’t get there quick enough. Probably the best block to that would be the UK helping from India and pulling out of India. If Germany’s going all tanks, then Berlin cannot hold out that long. Would be interesting if Moscow and Berlin both fell. I’d take that as the Allies and trade Moscow for Berlin.

@Eqqman I had this almost exact scenario happen yesterday. I left 1 artillery, 3 tanks in Ukraine after 1 round attacks. I pulled in the AA gun.

Germany attacked Ukraine with a lot of land forces, moving their air to western Europe. They attacked with 7 infantry and 5 tanks and lost 2 infantry in the battle leaving 5 infantry, 5 tanks.

Russia 2 I attacked with everything from West Russia and Caucuses. What I like to do there is strafe attack it and not take it. Ideal situation is to leave a tank or two and take out all that army. This is in a KGF situation BTW. KGF I’m trying to kill as many German units as possible in the east. Germany is never going to take Russia in KGF. I’ve never lost Russia to Germany in KGF in any game ever. Only to Japan.

So, in that battle after the first round of battle Germany lost 5 infantry and had left 5 tanks. I ran the battle calculator on it for 1 round and it said Germany had a 90% chance of surviving the next round, so I attacked for a 2nd round. Germany lost all 5 tanks and I took the territory. I’d prefer to retreat back to West Russia in that circumstance and bring new re-enforcements to Caucuses/West Russia from Russia and new builds. It’s not the worst thing to take Ukraine there.

If Germany keeps coming at Russia turn after turn of course Russia would fall, but they cannot do that in KGF without losing Berlin.

I just started playing in season 2. Eventually climbed up to gold. The placement games in season 3 have seen a lot of crazy stuff, so I’ve seen it too.

Right now I’m 7-0 as Allies and headed for 8-0 as I’m winning my current match too. I expect games to get tougher. What does it take to get to Platinum? I’ve noticed that there aren’t any players ranked as Platinum. I’m ranked as #3 in gold right now. I’d guess that the gold players will play other gold players and eventually that’s how you move to platinum.

I don’t play much as Axis as I’m a new player. I’d like to concentrate on getting good as Allies first and later try to round out my game with Axis. I have played some custom games as Axis and won, but that’s against weak competition. I notice that I make a lot more mistakes as Axis because I have less experience with it.

From what I’ve seen, and this is totally generalizing…
Wood players use exotic strategies and make a ton of mistakes. I think these are beginner players new to the game.

Bronze players use a lot of crazy, unpredictable strategies and make a lot of mistakes.

Silver players use more sound strategies, but are missing key concepts of the game. They are inefficient with the moves and buys, and make a lot of reckless moves. I see a lot of overaggressive play from silver players and leave them vulnerable to counterattacks.

Gold players use good strategy and make few mistakes.

I haven’t played any platinum players yet, but I’d guess that use more advanced strategy and hardly ever make a mistake. I’d guess than when they lose it’s to another platinum player, and that a lot of their games would come down to dice rolls.

I have beaten 1 gold level player this season. He only made 1 strategic mistake in the game. I could tell he was a good player when I was playing him, and the game was much harder. When I checked his record, he was gold last season and only lost 1 game this season and that was to me.

I kind of like playing against those crazy bronze players because it makes it interesting. I can’t just follow a formula with them, and I have to figure out how to counter whatever they are trying. It’s always best to never underestimate your opponent. Whatever crazy thing they are trying has an advantage to it usually. If Germany builds a bunch of navy, I cannot just build transports with the US like I would like to do.

Yeah I agree. UK is fine as is. UK isn’t going to take on Germany by itself. The UKs job is to pick off the weak points in Germany’s defenses. Counterattack anything Germany leaves and just trade territories and support Russia if necessary. The main force to take out Germany should come from the US most of the time. The US can bring over 12 units per round and stack them in France or Finland.

Germany generally cannot defend both Karelia and France unless the Allies were very slow getting their transports going or lost a bunch of transports. Go for whichever one is weaker. Also, don’t just drop a mass of bodies into a dead zone to get wiped out unless Germany has very little air power. If NW Europe is undefended, I commonly just drop 1 unit there. If it has a single defender, then I use 2 to take it. Use the minimum to take the territory. Send the rest somewhere safe like Finland.

If Germany lost a lot of planes attacking a fleet, then you can land a ton in Western Europe to force big trades or if they refuse to attack, then it builds a big stack in France.

Another decent strategy I do with the UK is this: If I see Germany has 4 fighters in range of the UK sea zone after G1 and they’ve got something like 1 sub, 1 cruiser in SZ7, then I’ll buy 1 carrier, 1 destroyer plus troops for India. Typically I lose a ship to their cruiser in the battle and end up with just 1 destroyer, 1 carrier, 2 fighters vs the 4 fighters that Germany has. It’s a 50/50 battle. I’ll even take a 40/60 battle favoring Germany if it means taking out German planes. But just don’t risk transports. If you’ve got a transport in the sea zone, then the battle should favor the Allies or don’t do it.

Another tactic to get rid of some German planes is with Russia. If you attack Ukraine and the battle goes really lucky for Russia and you’ve got something like 3 tanks, 1 artillery left in Ukraine, then pull in an AA gun. Set it to die first in the battle. Germany either has to risk planes taking it back, or they have to bring in a lot of tanks to take it. Either you’re picking off their planes or their tanks.