General Allied Strategy

[John D.]

Ok- So after years of playing this game, I have some thoughts/advice on a winning approach to the game for the Allies.

The Allies be a bit more difficult to play because of the need for cooperation (kind of the like the real war).

There seems to be a need to moderate the amount of early aggressiveness for the Brits. It is very tempting to lauch offensives before the US gets involved. More times than not, I have seen this lead to a depleted British army, when it was needed most to retake critical victory points. What usually happens is a premature amphibious invasion of the continent, which the Axis then react to and stall, or even worse, completely destroy, because because of a lack of reinforcements to hold the area on the following allied turn.

As far as Russia is concerned, as of this writing, I am still in favor of building offensive units early on. I have seen too many games where the Russians were pocketed and/or paralyzed because they had massive stack of infantry, AT Guns and forts, but had no offensive punch. I think a balance is needed.

By the way, just because I write these comments, it does not mean I will follow them...

John

[RandR]

You are correct about having a mixture of offensive & defensive weapons. The need for the logistic's trail to continue the fight after that initial contact is also vital. The Russian masses & the after the D-Day invasion resupply are crucial. Along with one of the Allied players reminding their side that VICTORY POINTS REALLY ARE IMPORTANT!!!! It may be awhile before I get the opportunity to show you how JAPAN gets invaded though! (:-)

[John D.]

I look forward to it! The game has proven that the US Pacific can be the most challenging theater. The trick is the balance of resources going to Europe vs the Pacific and taking back crucial victory points on time.

John

[RandR]

The allies made that decision in WWII. It was Southern Europe & Africa 1st. Probably to secure access to the oil fields. This area was considered the soft underbelly of the 3rd Reich too. Just don't tell the people who fought there it was soft. Then the Western Europe invasion so the Russians could see light at the end of the tunnel. Finally the leftovers went to the Pacific until Germany was near defeat & the full industrial might of the US was in full gear & wasn't even close to its peak YET. In the games I've participated in, the German player left the Atlantic alone and focused his efforts on the RUSSIANS and loaned the GERMAN air force to the Italians frequently & provided them some table scraps in land forces. Obviously, this strategy works well as both games resulted in Axis victories.

[John D.]

I think that was Tim's favorite strategy. Was he playing Germany each time?

Of course there is a counter strategy for that - there is pretty much a counter strategy for everything!

The trick is to try to figure out how the other side is approaching the game and then play accordingly before it is too late...

John

[Mark]

The Italians got Turkey to trigger in both of those games at GeCon as well - Germany with Turkey on their side makes it very challenging for Russia - had Turkey not went Axis in those games - they may have ended very differently - especially in the last game that Bob played the U.S.

[RandR]

It was probably Tim, because it was the same guy at ORIGINS & GENCON and was the German player both games + the game that was stopped because of the severe casualties Germany took from the NEUTRAL countries at the beginning of one game. Tim focused his efforts on Russia and provided quality & quantity assistance to the Italians when appropriate.