We continued our game last night and it’s developed into a very interesting game. Both sides have some significant opportunities; both sides also have areas where they are really in the weeds.
Jason went for an all-out kill on the USSR. Virtually everything built by both Germany and Japan has been deployed against Russia. As a result, and as you have no doubt guessed, the Soviets are just about done. We just finished the Fall 1942 turn and Moscow is surrounded and out of supply. Peter has three factories in the Urals or he’d be completely out of it – as it is, he’s only building with 41 points. Moscow will fall next turn and then Jason will finish mopping up fairly quickly after that.
The downside is that since he focused so much on the Soviets he hasn’t built much for the IJN – just one CV. As the US, I now have 3 CV’s (2 Pacific, 1 Atlantic) and a CVL on the board (and have 1 CV in the 3 box) so I’m almost at parity. If we can hold on long enough I think the US can almost immediately go on the offensive once Jason declares war on me. Unfortunately, I tried something last night and got a little too cute. I got an extra card from the loss of Stalingrad, which got me to 43 points of cards, so I only built one additional factory this last turn so that I could get a few more units started when I went to war, presumably at the start of next turn. I had already drawn three 2’s and two 3’s so I thought the odds were with me. Naturally, you can probably guess what happened – I drew the last 2 and a 4, so I’m at 49. Of course, this means that I can’t go to war next turn, so he’s got one more turn to prepare before he has to hit me. I have my CV’s covering Hawaii in a zone adjacent to the east, and can move the CVL there next turn as well. I also strategically redeployed a bomber and a heavy bomber to Hawaii so if/when he hits me I may be able to get in a good counter-stroke. A lot will depend on whether he adds his third carrier to the attack – if he does, I’m not sure I want to risk fighting at a disadvantage in fighters. His third carrier is southwest of the Marianas though, so my assumption is that he’ll take Rabaul and Guadalcanal. We agreed to a house rule for this game that Japan can only invade Port Moresby from the Coral Sea, so it’s safe for a turn, and I’m going to see if I can get Peter to strat 3 infantry there.
Overall, my feeing is that by Japan focusing so much on being a land power I’m probably going to be able to achieve dominance in the Pacific fairly quickly. Peter is planning to strat his British CV’s to the Indian Ocean, so even though they can only carry 1 fighter each it will give us overall more carrier-based air than Japan (9-7).
Normally with Russia about to go down I’d say the game’s over. However, last turn Italy also went down (this has raised a couple of questions that I’ll ask at the end of this). We used the alternate surrender rules and Britain spent the last 3 turns or so keeping Italy demoralized. We were able to take Sicily and Milan and one of the North Africa territories to get him to -5. Jason had taken Greece and Crete, but had unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint) used some German infantry when he took Greece, so he didn’t get the “Italian only” bonus. We spent the next year in a war of attrition. He took Milan back to “un-demoralize”; we took something else to knock him back to -5. We assumed at some point he was going to have to draw off some ground troops from the Russian front, at which point we’d have had to find something else to do because we couldn’t have matched him if he’d gotten serious about Italy – but he never did. He sent some fighters, which created a lot of problems, but only a few infantry and an 88. Last turn Peter took Tripoli and Sardinia; that got us to the -8 we needed and Italy surrendered. Germany has troops in Milan and the Heel, Venice and Rome are unoccupied, and the rest of Italian territory is in the hands of the British.
If - and in this game, given what Jason has accomplished as the Axis that’s a BIG word – the Axis lose I believe it will because of Italy. Jason had an incredible advantage in the Med and never really tried to take much advantage of it. What do I mean by this? Well, when France surrendered, we rolled for the ships. We always roll them in the order of size, so it goes transport, the destroyers, cruiser, and battleship. On the transport Peter rolled a one. OK, a pain, but it happens. On the first destroyer, a six. Hurrah - one for our side. Then he rolled – and I kid you not – a one, a one, and… a one. Three straight ones. Needless to say, those ships came in REALLY handy for Jason when he brought Italy into the war. He was able to really pound the British fleet in the med. Fortunately Peter immediately started a CA and a BB when the rolls went this way, so he was able to make up most of his losses. But after one ground combat in North Africa and the big fleet battle Jason never really tried to follow it up. The Italians took the territory west of Cairo, but Peter got it back the next turn. After that – it was like Jason just lost interest in that theatre. He relied on Italy to be able to fend for herself. The problem was that Britain had built a factory and rolled through western North Africa very quickly, as well as taking Ethiopia and Syria, so he was up over 50 points, and there was no way Italy was going to be able to compete with that. Jason could easily have sent 10-12 infantry/grenadiers and a few armor down there without making much of a dent in his East Front onslaught - and that would have been the end of that. But, as I said, it never happened. In addition, we have a nice-sized contingent in western France that he’s going to have to deal with. German production is – well, humongous – so he is starting to fort up, but he can’t just leave that lodgment in France indefinitely. If he doesn’t clear it before the US can start sending a bunch of stuff over it’s going to be difficult to push the Allies out.
So, any opinions? Should Peter and I fold, or is it worth fighting on? As I said, normally with the USSR in such sad shape I’d say it’s time to start over. But with Italy gone and Japan weak (or at least, weaker than I usually see them) in the Pacific, I’m thinking we might be able to hold out long enough to for US production to make itself felt. The US is at 145 (before quartering) and has two factories in the 1 box and one in the 2 box, so in two turns I can be at 160. I’ve also occupied Iceland. As I’m writing this it occurs to me that if he makes a Pearl Harbor attack this turn he’s only got 4 fighters to do it with. If he attacks, depending on what’s left it might be worth attacking him with the survivors of PH and my adjacent fleet in a combined air/surface action. If we mutually destroyed each other I think I’m in better shape than he is – I have a CV in the 3 box (2 next turn) with another CV on the East Coast, plus we have the two British CV’s – he has nothing on the build track. I think it could become interesting in the next couple of turns – IF we can hang on.
Here are my questions:
1) Does the Italian factory in Milan fall into German hands or is it considered damaged? The rules say that when a territory with a factory is captured the factory is damaged, but say nothing about surrender. I can see it going either way on this.
2) Can Germany strategically move units into the unoccupied Italian territories? My assumption is no, he can’t because he won’t own them at the beginning of his turn, but since Italy was an ally I can see this argument being raised.
3) Something else I’ve never asked but have assumed – can you load aircraft onto transports and then strategically redeploy them to a friendly territory? I’ve always assumed you can since it says for strategic moves you can put two of any unit on a transport, and this was done routinely in the war. This gains you an extra zone of movement to redeploy the aircraft (which sometimes makes all the difference).
4) In one of the Axis counter-attacks, Italy used a demoralized armor along with some German infantry against some British infantry. We have always played that if armor that is out of supply attacks a territory with no defending armor or AT guns, they attack at 3 – they have a +1 for no enemy armor, and a -1 for being out of supply. Is this correct?
