Hey everyone!
We haven’t played AA in months, if not years, and decided to play AA-1914.
We played a total of 3 games (the latest one being today) this Summer.
The games have been great experience, and reignited our love of Axis and Allies. We plan on playing more!
We love the 2 movement for land units, which allow for a faster pace. We enjoy the 1 turn attack/contested territory mechanism… However, after our third game today, I feel like the CP are too strong (with the tournament rules). The ability to move troops by 2 instead of 1 allow Germany and AH to funnel so much troops toward Russia and it feels like there aren’t any counterplay to a crush Russia first…
After reading a little on the forums, it seems like the Allies should be stronger… So either the allies are making dumb moves, the CPs are lucky with the dices, or the allies are giving up too early.
In all 3 games (rush Russia + stall the western front), without optimal purchases/moves (assuming those exist), the Allied felt the game was quickly out of reach. Some common points :
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Russia always fall due to Political collapse. In our last game, Russia fell as quickly as turn 3 with the political collapse rule. In our first game, Russia turtled and died. In our second game, Russia turtled and tried to push back, and died. In our third game, Russia decided to hold his territories, and died.
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Italy is useless, or not very usefull. Italy tries as hard as he can to hold Venise and can only survive because AH decided to kill Russia. AH matching Italy reinforcement and sending the rest toward Russia and it feels like Italy CAN’T punish AH. France usually has his hands full trying to take back his territories
What should Russia do? Concentrate troops in Poland and taunt the Germans? Abandon his frontier ? Should Russia invade Ottoman (contesting Mesopotamia and having British troops take over from there)?
What should Italy do? What can Italty do? Bring back the 2 troops he has from Africa? Send them and help UK contain Ottoman?
Would appreciated any suggestions (or links toward past answers)!
Thanks 
Warning : long wall of text about today’s game.
Today’s game was a rollercoaster of emotions :
AH first turn : Attack on Serbia and Romania. Due to VERY poor dices, both attacks failed. AH finished his turn by moving most of his troops to Galicia.
Russia (turn 1) : Feeling that the RNG is with us, Russia launched a small counter-attack with his troops from Sevastopol killing some AH units, but failed to take the territory. Russia concentrated his troops in Poland. This is where Russia made a CRITICAL mistake. He moved some troops in Ukraine, in reach of AH own troops.
Germany (turn 1) : This was probably the worst German turn in a long time. Never have we seen dices being so bad…
Germany FAILED his attack on the UK navy. He rolled 1 hit on his first turn of combat, and received extensive damage.
Germany failed his attack on the UK troops in Africa (again, a mistake : it’s probably better to just hang around, without engaging UK). Germany decided to engage Poland with his troops from Prussia and Silicia. It was a massacre for the Germans. The dices were unfavourable and Russia rolled extremely well, inflicting SEVERE damage to the infantries of Germany without sustaining much in return. Germany’s attack on Belgium and Lorraine were pretty bad too.
Germany ends his turn by moving most of his troops toward Russia, and hoping that he has enough to hold France a few turns.
Things were looking really good for the Allied forces. The only good battle from Germany was sinking the Canadian navy.
However, on turn 2, AH spotted Russia’s mistake and sent his entire army there to crush the small Russian army in Ukraine (maybe 8 troops?). The game was pretty much over then for Russia. We read and re-read the rules and knew it was over for Russia. AH, on turn three, would only need to attack Moscow and even without taking it, it would be a political collapse.
So CP had terrible rolls on their first turn, but due to 1 mistake, Russia was gone from the game on turn three. We were pretty salty… (I was on the Allied team).
The allied felt the game was desperate and decided to try to bring Ottoman to a political collapse with daring attacks on 3 different territories (with 1 italian transport and British troops from Persia + Transjordonia but failed). Mesopotamia + Ankara were successfully contested, but Smyrna survived UK attack and killed off all of his troops. The Allied conceded the games. The troops that crushed Russia were already on their way home. AH took the glory of claiming Moscow. Germany captured only Poland and kept 2 infantries to steal whatever they could. The rest of their troops were already backtracking toward the western front.
(Russia only built Inf this game, was that a mistake? He only fell back, and never counter-attacked)