My favorite invasion of Germany is through Western Europe, with units from Spain along with an amphibious assault.

The most important piece, for every country, has to be fighters. INF are necessary for everyone, to absorb hits, but each country’s fighters represent mobility, a strong attacking unit, and a strong defending unit.

LOL

Didn’t mean to offend, Guest…. You certainly were correct, I just can’t think of any reason in the world to fly over it…

Guest is right on points 1 and 2, however, Planes from the UK can:
Uk –> UK Sea Zone
UKSZ --> Baltic
Baltic --> Germany
to attack Berlin without flying over the WEu AA gun (Same movement as flying over WEu).

I think that there are a couple of things that you MUST do. I believe that Germany made a mistake by leaving that sub alive in Egypt, and leaving their transport alone. Take it out. Use the sub. I’d also take the 2 UK fighters and the bomber and go after that battleship, in order to protect your fleet, when you do decide to build it. Both fighters can land in Gibralter. You have a shot at holding Africa for the whole game (or forcing Germany to spend lots of IPCs to take it from you) if you can wipe out that transport and the battleship. I’d let the US build the carrier in this situation (German fleet in range of your air, Germany still has all of their air), along with 2 transports (don’t bother landing the Russian fighters on the carrier. Wait until US2 and have them land their owr fighters on it). The carrier and 2 transports should be plenty to discourage attack by the German bomber.

I’d probably buy one of the following:
2 fighters, save 6
a fighter and a bomber, save 3
2 bombers, save 0
1 fighter, save $18
1 bomber, save $15.

I don’t like the idea of an India IC with the UK, unless Japan gets off to a bad start, so I never build it this early. In this game, I would probably move the 1 INF from Syria to Egypt along with the fighter in India. Move the India transport to Austrailia to collect the infantry down there and bring them back to India (or to Africa if India falls on J1).

But, I think that the real issue here is that Germany has given you a chance to keep them out of Africa for the whole game, by leaving the transport alone, and by leaving the rest of their fleet in the Western Med without taking Gibralter. Sure, you’ll probably lose a plane (or 2), but Germany will lose so much more…

If the German sub retreats, it has to go west (as the SZ to it’s east will be involved in a battle on your turn), well within range of the US air. All the Russians have to do is take Caucusus (I assume that’s what CARC is) back, and the Allies are in excellent shape.

US1:
How big does Japan take Hawaii? Since the UK didn’t build a carrier, your fighters are free to strike back at the Hawaii Sea Zone, along with your bomber, battleship, and the transport (fodder). You’ll likely lose most of these units (try to save the bomber, keeping a fighter as well is a bonus), but if you can take out some of those expensive ships, Japan will either have to take their chances, leaving transports undefended in the Sea of Japan, and there’s a good chance they’ll never have quite enough to go to Africa in the late game. If you don’t like wasting your airforce, move the transport southeast 1 seazone, and the battleship to the west side of the panama canal. This should allow you to swing the battleship to the Atlantic. If you’re going to hit Japan back at Pearl, I’d buy 3 fighters (and build the carrier on UK2), otherwise, 1 carrier, 2 transports, save $2.

R2:
Take Cauc back. I’m actually debating how to do this given your board setup… Probably:
2 INF (Kar), 4 ARM (Novo) to cauc.
2 INF (Kar), 2 Fighters to Ukr.
I might hit Finland from Kariella as well (too bad your ARM weren’t in Russia), depending on how many of my purchased INF I want to build in Moscow and send East. A lot of other players like to let the US take Finland though, to build a tank factory. I like the extra $2 that Russia gets for the whole game, though.

I can’t speak for R2 in East Asia, but I’ve found that going on the offensive with the Yakut stack is almost always a bad idea. It’s usually best to just hold your ground there until the USUK arrive to help you out.

Also note that as far as these boards go, I’m not terribly experienced with the game. This all sounds pretty good to me, but I’m sure that someone will find a problem with it, and they may be right.

Still a newbie, and playing RR, 2 Hit BB without a Bid… I think that Japan first can work… This might not be possible with a bid into Libya… I think that I’ve finally got a handle on the shuck-shuck, and I’m looking for something different…

USSR1: Stack LEN & YAK. 2 INF MOS to Novo. Boats to NOR. Build 2 INF MOS, 6 INF KAR.

UK1: If Germany hit AES, take them out (IND INF, FTR, INF SYR, BMB UK). Otherwise, pull out of Africa (AES, SYR INF to IND via. TRN, AES ARM to PER). 2 FTR to KAR regardless.
If the Gib BB is alive, buy the CV, 1 TRN, 1 INF, move the BB to NOR. Otherwise save $30.

US1: Buy 4 Subs. Counter attack HAW with BB, TRN, 2 FTR, 1 BMB and sub from HAW if it had the chance to retreat. If we’re not going to win Pearl III (we shouldn’t), try to retreat 1 FTR to WUS.

Place subs in WUS.

USSR2: Build up the stacks. 2 INF NOVO to SIN. Take FIN with Air, minimal #s of INF.

UK2: If we didn’t buy the CV rnd 1, do it now, along with 3 trn and some INF. Otherwise, buy 2 TRN, and fill them. Save extra $$$ (aiming for a FTR). Land whatever we can in Finland.

US2: Buy a carrier and a fighter, and an TRN. If what remains of the Jap fleet is exposed to the subs, hit it. Otherwise, just let them sit.

USSR3+:
Keep the stacks. Try to hold Kar, Yak, and Sink (with help from Brits in Ind).

UK3+:
Alternate landing INF in Africa and Fin. Whenever (if ever) $$$ allows, buy an extra fighter for LEN.

US3:
Take Wake. Build a couple TRNs, take INF from EUS to fill them. Buy a bomber.

US4+:
Set up airbase on Wake. Send rogue TRNs to start picking off Japan’s islands. Land in SFE or FICB as Jap placement allows. Use subs to continually harass japan’s shipping. Japan will be forced to either commit $$$ or their fighters to defense of their TRNs. SBR Japan with bombers not needed to disrupt their shipping. Maybe tech from time to time, as everything except Jet Power/Rockets would help out here (and picking up rockets just means building 1 TRN EUS to take an AA to FIN for $3.5 off Germany every turn)…

Russia ought to be able to start pushing back at Japan at this point, as the UK retakes Africa. Germany will have a TON of INF in Europe, but they should still be confined to the continent. As Japan loses her islands, ground to the Russians, and $$$ to US bombing, her economy crumbles, and she is forced to concentrate on keeping Japan out of Allied hands.

The US should be able to afford to (with a Factory on FICB, India, or the Philipines) outproduce Japan while at the same time sending ARM west through Asia to Russia. US should have enough force built up to take Japan by turn 10 or so…

This should make for a LONG game, but I think that it would be interesting to play it out… My rotation for the US/Russia isn’t for another week with my local group, but if I can talk Britain into it, I’m going to give this a shot… I guess that the worst that can happen is I lose badly, but we’re not playing for money (that would be interesting at the level of play I’ve seen demonstrated here), and bragging rights generally change hands week-to-week anyway…

With a German bid of INF into Libya, they’d be able to quickly push units through to Syria/Persia, and meet Japan in India… I think that they would come together about 1 turn too soon to for this strategy to be effective…

What’s everybody think?

Yeah, cable modems are the best… Just upgraded from dialup after 2 years of hesitating… I knew that once I got one, that was $40 per month for the rest of my life, as I’d never go back to dialup…

I do have to say though, it’s a well spent $40…

I’ve been following your games with Cystic Crypt and Darth Maximus (until it ended anyway)… Very well played, on both counts… I certainly still have a lot to learn… And I’m interested by your opening in your current game with DM… I’m looking forward to seeing it played out.

Are you always logged onto this server? You seem to be the first to respond to most everything posted here recently…

I hit a couple of local hobby shops, but none had chips that were small enough to not get in the way. I found a couple of sites that deal in selling components for games to manufacturer/independent game publishers, but I haven’t received a response from them for a couple of days… I got the impression from both of their sites that they were in the business of selling thousands of pieces at a time, and wouldn’t want to deal with my request for about 100…

Thanks for the reply…

– Shiny

Has anyone been able to find additional chips for A & A? What I’d really like is som additional red chips and some chips of a third color, to represent 10 units…

Thanks in advance…

What I like to do, if the fleet somehow manages to hang around more than a couple of turns (you need at least 2 turns worth of additional INF in Africa), is park it in the WMed SZ AFTER the USUK make their landing in Africa. We play with 2 hit BBs, this may be useless without that, as the BB doesn’t represent nearly as much strength when a single hit will take it down…

From WMedSZ, you’re with striking distance of the UK fleet. The UK has to choose:
Divert their fleet to deal with yours, or let you come at them next turn… If they come after your fleet, unless they’re landing INF into Spain, that’s 1 turn’s worth of INF you don’t have to deal with in Europe.
Divide their fleet, leaving hordes of transports in the UKSZ without their precious carrier to protect them. Sure, there may be a BB there, but that only takes 1 shot per round…
Wait and let you come at them with the fleet… If they do that, you come at them next turn with the Med BB & TRN and ALL of your air force. You’ll lose the BB, TRN, and probably a plane or 2, but you should be able to take out a handful of TRNs… With really bad German dice or excellent USUK dice, this is suicide, but its worked out well for me in the past, with what I consider to be fairly average dice…

If you can come in with 5 ftr, 1 bmb, the BB, and the tran (assuming 10 TRN, 1 CV, 2 FIT on CV, and retreating remaining air when there are 2 or fewer TRNs left):
60% chance of killing 8+ transports.
73% chance of killing 7+ transports.
85% chance of killing 6 + transports.

You should have 1 or 2 FIT left 48% of the time.

At this stage in the game, I would consider that a fairly even trade… The UK player should be strapped for cash, so they’ll probably elect to kill off US TRNs first. This means another “burp” in the US supply of INF to Europe. You should find time during that burp to build another FIT or 2 without sacrificing defense. It should also open things up a bit for Japan on the Russian front…

If you’re playing the Axis alone, you can plan ahead for this by swinging JAP 4 FIT, 1 BMB over to EEu the turn before, and they can finish off the remains of the fleet. They’ll likely lose most of their airforce as well, but the rewards are great Assuming that there are 4 TRNs left after Germany’s attack, (all UK), they will likely not build any additional transports (can’t do that AND fill them). With Japan 1 BMB, 4 FIT, there is a 80% chance that they will wipe out ALL of the transports. 33% of the time, 2 or more of their planes will survive, and 51% of the time, one or more will…

At this point it the game, Japan can most easily afford to replace their planes, and Germany has bought itself enough time to rebuild SOME of their planes… The Allies are decimated. The UK will be unable to produce sufficient TRNs to pose a threat to Germany for a couple of turns. The US can afford to rebuild, but only if they allow the supply liine “burp”.

I suppose that the truly forward thinking German would add a sub to the mix, building it in time to get it into position in WMedSz with the BB and TRN. If you could drop 2 in, things could be truly awful for the Allies, as you should come out with most of your airforce intact (although I think I’d lose 2 FITs before I lost the subs… No chance to shoot back is nice when the subs hit…

With the sub you have a 75% chance of killing 8+ TRNs with 1 + fighters left. 56% chance of doing so with 3+ fighters…

Alright, somebody correct my #s for me…