Posts made by Herr Rommel

Indeed it does touch Northwestern Europe.

What’s Russia doing during all this? Are they turtling up right away or attacking all out? If Germany doesn’t put a significant investment into destroying Russia, then their initial Eastern Front forces will be overwhelmed after 3 or 4 turns.
As for the US, destroyers and a couple of aircraft carriers loaded with Britain’s and America’s starting fighters should be enough to make Germany think twice about Atlantic domination.

Have you read the thread that Black Elk made on Russia? That will help out a lot with Russian gameplay.

Even if Russia doesn’t smash Ukraine in R1, can’t they simply retake Caucasus R2 while simultaneously deadzoning any German reinforcements from entering Ukraine on G1?

I am currently working on a mod in TripleA that will do this. Germany owns Germany, Italy, Poland, and Libya. Britian owns, in addition to its regular territories: France, Northwestern Europe, Norway, Morocco, and Algeria. Russia owns Finland. Japan only owns Japan, Manchuria, Kangitsu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Caroline Islands, and Formosa. Britian owns all Japanese territories that weren’t mentioned here, except for Wake Island, Kwantung, and the Phillipines, which are owned by America.

On round 1, Russia and America are out. That means that they will get no money, they can’t move units, and they can’t be attacked, with the exception of China. Americans in China get to move, attack, and be attacked normally. Also, Japan gets to attack the Americans on Wake Island, the Phillipines, and (on J3 or J4) the navy off of Pearl Harbor (which will have at least 2 battleships). On Round 3, Russia gets to join. However, Germany gets to attack Russia in G2. I’m not sure whether to let America join in round 3 or 4. It depends on how much firepower Britain gets to wield in the Pacific and India initially, and how much they can maintain pressure on Japan.

Britain starts out with no cash to spend on B1 simply because they would have a mountain of cash from all the territories. Plus, the Axis need to have a chance to beat Britain back in the first few rounds. Germany and Japan will start out with 50 bucks (to represent their massive military buildup relative to the Allies.

Unit count in all Axis territories will basically double to give them much needed initial firepower. Germany’s navy will be beefed up, mainly in SZ5. There will be some extra navy in the Med just to make sure that they have a shot in Africa. To balance that, the subs off the coast of America will be removed, as well as the British navy off America as well (so Britain can’t storm Africa).

I already have some idea for the initial situation in Japan. They will start out with enough land units, navy, and transports to either gobble up Pacific islands or storm China, but not both. Plus, there is the Indian and Australian navies to deal with, not to mention the threat at Pearl Harbor.

My goal is to be semi-historically accurate, because some accuracy has to be sacrificed in order to make the game playable and fun, and also because the map wasn’t designed for historic realism.

One thing I’d like to do is to give Japan incentive to attack Pearl Harbor the turn that America begins to play, but I don’t know of a way to give Japan good incentive to. I think I might give Japan a reward for destroying the battleships in Pearl by giving them some money or units if they do.

I would appreciate and welcome suggestions for pretty much anything in here. I want to make this work and have it at least as balanced if not more balanced than 1942.2.

I know this: Germany and Japan would need some beefy armies and navies in order to stand a chance.

I would assume that the a failed invasion would automatically place the neutral and its army into the other side’s possession. For instance, if the allies try to storm Afganistan, the Afgans would probably join the Axis because now the Allies are the enemy.

Be careful how the rules are crafted for neutrals. Some countries can take advantage of this and seriously screw the other side over (Sahara, Himalayas, and South America).

I would say that Neutrals should get twice the amount of infantry that they are worth (assuming you are assigning them values). Some may have to get extra simply because of their strategic placement. For example, Turkey should get some extra consideration. If either G or R can ferry troops from Turkey to Southeast Europe, or vice versa, then the other side is screwed over majorly.

Love this! This will give me the flexibility I need as Japan.

One thing I like to do is steamroll China and Buryatai J1 and then shuck 6-7 troops per turn to Yunnan, mostly inf and art. This frees up Japan to purchase one fighter or one ship per turn. Usually, Japan maxes out production right when India is about to be taken. If America decides to casually build in the Pacific a few turns in, simply buy a fully loaded aircraft carrier, and either he is goaded into a naval war and let G go, or he is too intimidated and stops trying.

Of course, if UK ignores India, there’s always the possibility of a Buryatai ferry service, especially with a Manchurian factory throwing out tanks.

By the way, is there any way to safely maintain Indochina when India is maxing out tanks every round (assuming killing India ASAP is #1 priority)?

There are only 8 Industrial Complexes set up at the start of the game. Usually, less than 3 are built throughout the game. Your 12 ICs should be enough.

I like when the SS general proposes that purple tanks are luckier than black ones. Only Hitler would listen to “Nazi Science”.  :roll:

@Jagula:

Hello,

I’m new to this forum, lots of great stuff in here.  I used to play a ton of Classic back in the day and from absorbing Don Rae’s essays, able to win pretty consistently with either Axis or Allies.  Recently an old college buddy of mine bought Spring 1942 2nd edition so we’re both trying to learn this different board.  I’ve been reading a lot of these posts and strategies as well as downloading and reviewing some of the forum AAA games.  At this point I routinely crush the Hard AI when I play as the Allies with or without a bid, (I normally go with a KGF strategy where I transit UK/US fighters into WRussia, hold the line at India, lock down Africa, and SBR Germany while I wait for the fleets to converge off the coast of France).  I’ve just tried playing a new game where I play against myself to see how to overcome that KGF Allied strategy with Germany and I’m having trouble.

I like Elk’s idea of going North to go South and working to stack Karelia as quickly as possible and then work south from there.  I also like the idea of maximizing Germany’s output of at least 10 units a turn out of Germany.  So assuming that Germany is buying an optimal infantry/artillery split the first two rounds, stacking tanks in Baltic states G1, and then gradually purchasing a fighter/bomber/tank mixed in w/ inf/art in around round 4 or 5, here’s my question:

If Germany is able to stack Karelia on G2/G3, while light trading Ukraine and Belo, WHAT THEN?  Specifically if the Allies are playing a strong KGF it’s right around round 4ish that they are able to land in France with around 6 units from UK, 6 more from US with the US pulling out its fighters from WRussia to reinforce France.  At this point the German tank stack is sitting in Karelia so they can’t hit France and the units bought in Germany the last round aren’t enough to dislodge that stack.  The German air can hit France, but it’s usually either not enough to kill the Allies in France without tank support.  It creates a tough decision for the Germans, do they withdraw their tanks back to Germany to then clear out France the next turn which would probably force the allies to retreat up to Norway at the expense of being able to threaten Russia with their tanks?  The other option I see is to keep the panzers in Karelia and either try to take W Russia that or next turn, (since it’s weakened by not having US Air support), try to move everything into Archangel to force the Russian stack out of W Russia, or some other move I’m not thinking of?  I guess Germany can build up the coast of France before round 4 to make it hard for the allies to land there, but that is at the expense of quickly stacking Karelia and using its fighters for Karelia defense.

In that scenario is best for the Germans to back out the tanks to Germany to threaten France, keep their air up in Karelia to defend against a Russian WRussia counter, while hoping that Japan can either take India by this point or try to pressure Russia by stacking Kazakhstan by going through China and just ignoring India?

Sorry if this sounds like a convoluted question, I can post the save file of the game that i’m playing against myself to better show what I’m talking about.

If you are doing optimal German buys, then you should have something like 4 inf, 4 art, and 2 tanks in Germany plus maybe an inf and art in Italy. Plus, you should have 4 fighters and 1 bomber in range. You should be able to beat the Allied army most of the time with that.
I’m not by any means an expert, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

This is a pretty neat write-up. I’d love to see more. I always get bogged down with not being able to get my units over to Asia to take India, even though my economy is big enough to shred India, China, and Russia.

I don’t think that I will build an extra 5 transports because if America invests even a little into navy, then that extra transport can’t snarf up the island infantry without an escort.

@InViriconium:

My standard buy on J1 (assuming all transports are alive) is 1 Transport coupled with some air, usually a fighter or two and remaining IPC on ground units to make sure transports are filled. Fighters just seems like the most flexible unit since it can both work in an all out Asian invasion but also help protect your navy if need be. Having 3 transports in total just seems like the maximum to me. Even with 3 I struggle to maintain all transports fully loaded each turn and also building enough navy to keep a US player who invests heavily into a pacific fleet. Buying more transports and sending them on far away missions like Australia or Africa on early rounds doesn’t seem to be worth it in my opinion. But somehow with this build I struggle to keep enough pressure on north eastern Russia and India if US pressures my navy. Anyone has any bright ideas?

If the US is using enough money to pressure Japan, then Germany should have some breathing room in which to take down Russia. If America pressures one country, then hammer Russia hard with the other!

@simon33:

I found the thread but it didn’t include a human readable description of what happened on R1.

I don’t get the comment about the 50-50 battle for West Russia? If everything is poured in, you have 12 inf 3 art 4 arm. Germany can’t dream of countering that.

Actually, Germany can. Russia usually loses two infantry in the W. Russia attack, so it only has 10 inf, 3 art, and 4 arm in defense. On G1, Germany can counterattack with 6 inf, 1 art, 4 arm, 6 fight, and 1 bomb. Germany has roughly an 80% chance of winning if they go all out and a 45% chance of winning if they attack until only air units are left.

I put 10-12 bid. This gives the Allies some options, depending on who I’m playing. I usually go one of 3 ways.
1. Give Russia 4 infantry to use as fodder for the Ukraine strafe and the W. Russia attack. It gives Russia about 1 or 2 extra turns to live.
2. Giving Russia 3 artillery for its Japanese front. This seriously screws the Japs in J1 if they want to make an assault on Russia.
3. Giving 2 infantry to Russia and 2 infantry to India. The two Indian infantry I use on an attack on Borneo on UK1. I can get away with this depending on who I’m playing.

Welcome to the forum.

There is a map called WWII v5 Second Edition in triplea. It’s the same map and scenario.

Let me explain a bit. The KJF I’m describing is the US going pretty much 100% Pacific and UK is cranking stuff out of India (example: 3 tanks per turn). I don’t know if that’s a standard KJF, but that’s how I nearly got trashed last game.
Here’s what I mean by the options:
1. Buying completely navy. Try to stall the US by having a naval arms race.
2. Build some navy while still throwing some troops at Asia.
3. Spam land units on Tokyo one or two turns before your navy gets crushed, so that the Allies have a harder time breaking it.
4. Continue as if the Allies aren’t doing a KJF so that Asia is a mess and maybe you have India when the Allies sink you fleet.

Just interested to see what others do.

I answered other. When I play, we usually have a capital as a determiner. For instance, if Moscow falls, victory is given to the Axis unless the Allies are making loads of money or have an army that will trash the Axis in the next round. It can shorten the game by up to 1 hour.

Welcome to the forum Hcw001.

Honolulu makes the victory city count 13.

@Cow:

Rommel I made my scientifically proven starting setup changes.

I know about those. I love them, but I meant a whole map redesign (example: China has 3 territories). That would be even cooler.