A best strategy is always dependent on a situation and the counter strategy your opponent is using.

personally I think a German strategy of sealion or strangling britain through convoy is the most effective.

I also think A USA strategy of 100% pacific is very effective but not if germany goes sealion.

Italy should always focus on control of the med. africa and the middle east (in alpha +2) if you are playing oob I think the best thing italy can do is can-open for Germany. Russia strategy is pretty straight forward.

Japan is extremely complicated as there is so much to be done, it really depends on the situation on the board. India smash, Kill america first, kill australia first (less of an option in alpha +2), all out China/Russia etc.

Anzac needs to be as annoying as possible, usually done with lots of subs.

An Indian fleet always seems to be the best for Uk Pac. at least early in the game but only if there will be at least a moderate sized american fleet.

China needs to be annoying by spreading its forces out and keeping the fighter alive.

Uk London is tricky, I have experimented with building planes each turn and it seems to be pretty effective but assuming there is no sealion threat the best thing to o is probably build ground units in S. Africa and a fleet in canada.

the brit rule sounds fun

After 3 turns France should be allowed to collect half of the ipc value of the territories it controls on the European board. It then would be allowed to place units on London or until a french factory is captured, they would not be allowed to build their own factories until Paris is retaken. This would represent the free french forces that were very active during the war.

These are some rules that I think could add some new balancing elements to the game while also keeping with historical accuracy.

1. I think that for every turn that the allies control northwest Persia, persia and eastern persia russia should get +3 ipc’s per turn. this represents the allied movement of supplies through Russia.

2. This is not my idea but I heard of a rule where you can use artillery that are adjacent to a complex/airfield/naval base to attack them like a strategic bombardment

3. For every turn that Karelia and archangel are controlled by Germany they get +3 ipc’s. representing the stopping of the murmansk run.

4. Tech dice reduced from 5 ipc’s to 4 ipc’s per roll, represents the technological achivements made with jet fighters and radar etc. seeing as noone uses them at 5ipc’s perhaps even reduce the cost to 3 ipc’s.

5. Battleships reduced cost to 18 ipc’s, Aircraft carriers reduced to 15 ipc’s. When a ship is damaged it costs 1 ipc to repair when adjacent to a naval base.

6. If Germany is +30 ipc’s and italy is +20 ipc’s without national objectives Spain and Argentina Becomes pro axis, if the allies control all territories adjacent to Turkey for one full turn Turkey becomes pro allies. If spain becomes pro-axis Portugal becomes pro allies, representative of the political climate in 1940-1945.

7. If the allies take finland they get +4 infantry immedeitelly, representative of political climate.

8. Allied bombers strategic bombing Japan proper will do +4 damage instead of +2 , representative of the fire bombings.

9. Japan gets +5 ipc’s for every turn it controls all Chinese territories, representative of national prestige.

10. +2 ipc’s to Italy and Germany for control of Romania (only available once all allied powers are at war) representative of Ploesti oil fields.

11. after 3 turns France collects half of the income of its combined territories (european board only) and may place units on London, represntative of the free french forces.

I understand the implementation of all of these rules may unbalance the game but I believe that some of them are viable and should be implemented

I voted invade japanese islands but honestly you should be building mostly subs and the occasional transport/destroyer. I just played a game where America and India really dropped the ball on containing the japanese fleet and the 3 or 4 subs that anzac was able to produce per turn kept the Japanese fleet in check and basically saved the dutch east indies and everything in that area.

I think it is an interesting point to add a dutch faction, but a little unneccesary as the game is complicated as it is. We could also see a bulgarian faction, finnish faction, Romanian faction (which I would actually like to see), belgian faction, polish faction, Czech faction…etc. but seeing as the only countries of these that had a colonial presence at the time of the war were the belgians and dutch perhaps we could incoporate the two into one faction. I think the idea of giving them brazil is a little too far fetched. I think the territories owned by the belgian/dutch should be:

1. Angola
2. West Indies
3. Dutch east indies
4. Belgian congo
5. Suriname
6. Sri Lanka (on lease by the british)

delpoyments would be
Angola: 1 infantry
West Indies: 1 infantry, 1 airbase
Dutch east indies: 1 submarine off of Java, naval base on java
Belgain Congo: 2 infantry
Sri Lanka: 1 Destroyer, 1 infantry, 1 naval base
1 transport on a sz bordering London

Special rules:
the dutch forces can only deploy units on India or London, their income will be half of the value of the territories they control (7 ipc’s at the beginning)

National objectives:
The dutch will gain 2 ipc’s for every territory of the dutch east indies that the allies liberate or commandeer.
the Japaneses lose 2 ipc’s per turn every turn that their is a dutch sub within 4 spaces of tokyo representing admiral Helfrich    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Emil_Lambert_Helfrich

Germany: takes control of Bulgaria and yugoslavia during setup 1infantry on yugo, 2 on bulg.
italy: takes control of greece and places two infantry there during setup and adds one infantry to their forces in ethiopia (anti-dutch congans)
Japan: add 1 DD and TT to SZ 6, National objective +3 ipc’s for no dutch ships in the pacific (east of malaya, west of new zealand)  (seazones that include areas west of malaya/east of NZ are not included)

I think this is a better  balance, I firmly believe that the dutch should not have control of Brazil or any industrial complexes, I think Sri Lanka is a more suitalbe addition then brazil because the Dutch had a small colony there and the British may have accepted a deal where they leased it to the dutch in place of the british taking ownership of the east indies.

I figure that if Britain is turtling back everything they can into London then they will not be able to reinforce any of their colonial possessions, every time I have played the cruiser off Gibraltar is destroyed by a German sub so I would suggest doing this with your sub that can reach. Then the Italians should be able to take the british and french fleets out piecemeal since the combined Italian air and naval capacity is greater then that of the combined british/ french. I also assume that you bring to german planes down to assist in S. Italy since they can do nothing against the british fleet. This will dissuade the brits from attacking the Italian fleet, and even if they do they will get hammered. by turn two I think no matter what happens (unless your rolling is terrible) the Italians should have the med. all to themselves. This may require you taking Trans-jordan to keep the destroyers from S. africa out. I have seen this whole operation done a couple of times now even without a sealion threat and with a brit ic in egypt, it is actually fairly easy.

So I have been reading some threads about a strategy of America devoting all or most of its resources to destroying Japan first rather than focusing on the Western Axis. I have used it once before and done very well in destroying my opponent. Unfortunately I have not seen any people posting about a way to counter this “invincible” strategy, so here goes, bear in mind I have not tested this at all and I prefer to give general outlines victory rather then specific buys and movements.

Germany turn 1:

do standard turn one moves killing France and taking Yugo, allow Italy to take Bulgaria and southern France and allow Normandy to live. Use all available aircraft and ships to kill the British fleet entirely, it is very important that they are destroyed. Everything is secondary to destroying the British fleet and of course taking France. Create a somewhat strong defensive barrier on the Russian Frontier and build standard SeaLion units.

Japan turn 1:

If you have the fortune of knowing in advance that your opponent will be using a Kill Japan first strategy then I would advocate attacking the first turn but seeing as this is most likely not going to be the case (the German first turn moves should always be the way I described them, I believe Russia is a secondary target) then I would do some standard attacking moves into China and perhaps attacking russia if he presents a good opportunity. Leave French Indo china alone and move a strong but minority of your fleet south to be prepared to engage the Brits and take the money islands.

build ships

Italy turn 1:

Assuming Germany sent a couple of planes to defend your fleet (the one’s that cannot engage the British fleet) then you should have a good fleet left after Britain attacked, and if they did not attack then you will want to consolidate your fleet and attack the British or French fleet but not both. move forward in Africa taking Alexandria and Tunisia (try and take Tunisia with as few troops as possible) If it is possible to invade Malta or Gib. do so but it is not extremely important to do it this turn. attack any territories that you border that are weak, perhaps Greece. Build a fighter or save your money.

Axis turn two:

okay so Germany will continue to build a fleet to threaten Sealion assuming the Brits shored up on London to prevent your turn 2 invasion. Take whatever remains of France and continental Europe, DO NOT ATTACK RUSSIA. and send a few planes to help destroy any British ships within range. Japan will continue to build ships and a large fleet, if Hawaii has been reinforced by the US then now is the time to attack! otherwise bide your time a little more, you want them to present you with a tempting target. continue your work in China but keep losses to a minimum and do not overextend yourself, if you went for russia then keep some pressure on them but dont devote too much, build more ships. Italy will hopefully finish off the british fleet in the med. if they are still left and have gib. by now, if Egypt looks more inviting then take it but be sure that you can have Gibraltar by the end of italy’s 3rd turn. move forward in Africa. Italy want to be able to have Egypt, Greece and Gib. and the med. clear of enemy ships by turn 3, this should be simple with Germany threatening Sealion.

Axis rest of the game:

Germany will control London by turn 3 and continue to build a large fleet, build a few tanks also to keep Russia from attacking you and keep them building defensively. build a llarge fleet and threaten America along with Italy, Itlay will dominate Africa and pressure Russia and India through the middle east making lots of money. Japan will trade ships with America and AnzAc and India while keeping them out of Japan proper, this is how the axis need to play. Then Germany can threaten America enough to take Washington or force them to divert forces.

NO way! This game is just becoming interesting! I have played many games where London has been taken and retaken. The most detrimental effect it has on the war is in Africa where the Italians will clean up. With Russia pounding on your back door and America only getting stronger you will not be able to compete in naval strength, within one or two turns the american player will have a bigger fleet and have the ability to take back London whereupon the German player will have to shore up his defenses on the atlantic wall, letting Russia have a field day.

The simple fact is that Germany is far from victory if victory is to be attained at all, in fact it will be up to Germany’s allies to distract the American fleet and Harass Russia if Germany is to be able to survive and win this war.

You need to go balls out to kill the british fleet, and the scotland fighter cannot scramble to sz 110. You might be able to spare the eastern europe planes to attack paris but I would prefer to send those to S. Italy to protect the italian fleet.

As for Japan and Italy, I like to leave the strategy specifics to the player because a lot can change with regards to what the allied players do for the first few turns and where they will be spending their money. This is especially true of Italy due to their 8th position in the turn order. The main thing Italy needs to do the first turn is keep their fleet alive, which is difficult against an experienced British player.

As for southern France. It is not a big deal of Britain/France retake it, the germans could easily take it back on their turn, and by then Normandy should be a cake walk. Also the British will probably want their fighter in Normandy back in england after the beating the RAF and RN will have taken by the germans.