@crockett36 Totally cool with that.
Posts made by GuamSolo
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
I think it is just important that the UK takes out the Italian ships - even if over a couple of turns. If they aren’t, then the Med is difficult to deal with and the US when it gets there must engage in a big battle whereby casualties will force the US to replace ships needed to protect transports thereby delaying shucking into Europe - giving Germany more time to get to Russia. So, back to Taranto UK1. That might be the easiest solution because the Italian fleet can be attacked piece meal.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@M36 Just to be fair to Crockett36, I have seen a more recent video where he criticizes moving the English fleet to combine with the French ships for the reasons being stated in the last few posts. He does offer a different move - consolidating the English fleet next to Malta where fighter can be scrambled in defense, and where they can land in the event of an Italian retreat. I think Crockett’s goal is to let the Italians come at him in his combined fleet strength and fighters defending at a four. Here is the video link to this:
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@M36 Here’s a link to Crockett36’s English strategy where I got some of the Med UK Naval moves.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@Argothair Those are really good thoughts @Argothair especially regarding assigning countries to new players based on their personality type. The reality is that these new players are new friends of my son who is a freshman in college. I hosted the game for their spring break. My son played Germany so the two experienced players were split.
Here’s the funny part of the story…I did talk about strategy with my allied counterparts. When Germany made their first thrusts into Russia I coached Russia on hitting the Bessarabia stack because the German units were spread across the whole of the Eastern front evenly. With the air units the German player can’t predict where the Russian would strike. He wiped out the Bessarabia units.
Later, I had to leave the game for half an hour. The German player consolidated everything with a thrust into one territory. On Russia’s next move he tried to hit it with his air units and tanks and not enough infantry. When I walked back into the room everything was on the battle board and the other allied players were telling me, “We told him not to do it.” He lost nearly everything and what could be retreated was destroyed on the next German turn leaving them next to Moscow.
The Russians had a stack of infantry in Lenningrad up north but couldn’t get them to Moscow on time now that the Germans were close. But this is were you just have to roll with it and let new players learn and enjoy the fun of the game. And that’s not to say I can’t learn from games like this as well - because my son/Germany played really well and had UK on the ropes despite what other allies were doing.
I think the ship builds in Canada is a great counter move that you suggested. You can bring them over on the same turn you purchase and drop ships next to London. What we ended up doing was swinging the US fleet we had parked in 91 up to relieve London - while at the same time sneaking a group of transports to Rome and taking it while the Italians were busy in Egypt.
In the end we lost 2-1 using YG tournament rules.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@M36 On UK1 I took out the Italian ships in SZ96 next to Malta with one destroyer and a fighter. With that SZ cleared of enemy ships I moved the remaining UK fleet in the Med to SZ93 where they merged with the French cruiser and destroyer. I then landed 2 fighters on the carrier that combined with the French ships in SZ93. The tactical fighter that starts on the carrier was sent to Ethiopia to take out the Italians there.
London fighters were lost in scrambled defense of UK fleets and the Med fleet was lost when the Italians hit SZ93. The issue in that battle became order of casualties because a hit to the carrier meant the planes would have nowhere to land if the Italians only fought for one round. Which they could do and then leave the remaining ships for the Germans.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
I can also add that the UK went with a middle earth tactic and had help on the way to Moscow if the Russians had stayed in the game even just one more round…
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
By ‘landlocked’ I meant that there was no Royal Navy present and not enough UK aircraft to help. G1 took out 110 and 111, built an airbase in Holland and parked a small German fleet with an aircraft carrier in 110. I had a round of destroyer builds in 109 but the Luftwaffe just took it out. By UK 2 the Med fleet was gone primarily to one sided rolling. I saw Crocket36 combine the UK Med fleet with the French destroyers off of the coast of Southern France. This worked for me once before, but in this game it went terrible. The Italians rolled hits with nearly every roll in round 1 of the battle and the UK landed one hit… Order of casualties was tough because the Italians took Southern France first which meant I couldn’t take a hit on the UK aircraft carrier because the 2 planes would have nowhere to land and die if Italy withdrew. So Italy ruled the Med investing in ships each turn while the US was kept out of the war for as long as possible. The UK would have been fine in the long run, but the game was lost early when the (novice) Russian player threw a lot of his forces at a concentrated stack of German Armor/Infantry in Western Ukraine. Russia lost 85% of his attacking forces in the battle and ultimately opened the door for Germany to Russia. The trouble with new players is knowing how much to coach vs. letting them play their own strategies out while not controlling it too much so that they don’t have fun. UK would have recovered in a longer game, but the first two rounds really set them back.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
I played a game this week as Britain and the axis won. It was a learning game though as all the players were new except for Germany (and myself as UK). The German player just throttled UK and land locked them. The game is hard to assess in terms of strategy because the newer players are either too cavalier with units or turtle for lack of experience. But the UK struggled so I’m interested in any UK ideas that other players employ.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@crockett36
Eventually - when time permits of course - I think it would be great to see you sitting in front of the map and summarize it all while walking people through the board. But I don’t say that to take away from any of the work you’ve done. Blessings! -
RE: We need an allied playbook.
Wow. Thank you Crocket for the time it took to think this through, both in strategy and in writing it. Plus I heard somewhere that you moved in the last year? And have 7 kids? So…that’s a busy schedule and you finished a great piece of writing.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@Kingme This thread is about an allied strategy to beat the axis.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
I’m thinking of ways to summarize, or outline the overall allied playbook. @crockett36 would you say something like this is a fair representation what you have laid out?
- Realize Strategic Objectives that will allow you to both nibble at the axis powers and build a shucking system. This can be deciding to station the Pacific fleet in Australia to threaten the money islands or Philippines as opposed to sea zone six. I draw this from your post earlier in this thread:
"The four most plausible targets are, in no particular order:
Queensland / Indonesia / Philippines
Sea Zone 6 / Korea / Manchuria
Southern Italy / Northern Italy
Norway / Denmark / Western Germany / Berlin"The US can’t go all in with units to achieve these objectives at the expense of building a shucking system. It must do both.
- Engage in economic warfare by taking away territories or national objectives that fuel the economy of the axis war machine.
This must also be guided by the principles you (Crockett) laid out regarding preserving allied units and sometimes allowing the axis to win with a goal of counter attacking. These principles stated were:
"Therefore the principles that guide this Allied US strategy playbook are:
to preserve the Allied starting units
to give ground where it is hopeless or prudent
to determine the place of the battle when possible"- Finish purchasing units needed to shuck troops into the European theater by turn 4 or 5. That guides the U.S. a lot. This also comes from your last point:
“Let me say it again, our logistical system of transferring units over water must be mostly complete by turn 4 or 5 at the latest so that we may match the industrial output of the Axis with our own.”
These are three of the best things said in the thread IMHO. As the thread gets longer I like to summarize the thread this way so that if I am teaching a new player they can see the main points altogether.
- Realize Strategic Objectives that will allow you to both nibble at the axis powers and build a shucking system. This can be deciding to station the Pacific fleet in Australia to threaten the money islands or Philippines as opposed to sea zone six. I draw this from your post earlier in this thread:
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@crockett36 said in We need an allied playbook.:
Let me say it again, our logistical system of transferring units over water must be mostly complete by turn 4 or 5 at the latest so that we may match the industrial output of the Axis with our own.
That is a very good point to give new players when they read up on an allied strategy.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@Argothair Solid thoughts on the neutrals as well.
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@Argothair Is the Spanish Beachhead used much by experienced players? I’ve always thought is was a poor man’s Normandy, like a fast-tracked D-day that requires less build up. It’s only been used one time in a game I’ve played in, but I saw Young Grasshopper post a pic recently where he used it. I don’t see any Youtube tutorials on this strategy by YG, GHG, DTroy, etc…
-
RE: We need an allied playbook.
@crockett36 Am I reading this correctly, you can listen to a thread?
-
RE: Axis & Allies: Solitaire variant
I’d be interested in this also–seeing as how I play a lot of solo games myself.