first completed game thoughts.

[craigbear]

I am nearing the end of my first full game, solo, and have had some random thoughts.

1. USA should not build a factory... but should build out synthetic oil. I have been playing using the Oil rules and have found that the allies actually lose production near the end game (44 on) because they use so much oil. So my new built factory has sat unused while I have been using oil to support units rather than production.
2. My general USA build strategy at start was oil and factory. No more, I think I should start with two battleships and save the remaining BP and then 2 more and a factory in Nov/Dec... this will set me up to start the big ships and CV in Jan/Feb 1940. I need to watch my ship builds until '42 anyhow, to keep up the gearing to time to build the large BBs and CVs early in the year.
3. Fighting up from the toe of Italy is hard. I think I should have tried a Salerno/Taranto landing area after getting onto the toe. I used a couple offensives to get 2 or 3 hexes and lost a dozen units.
4. I ran out of units from the USA to invade with. I tended to scrap inf for the longest time, but now realize a 6 that can invade is a pretty decent unit. On a side note, I think I overbought the various specialty units. Had a hard time even getting them to the front. They are nice, mind you, especially the arty.
5. Winter rocks for the USSR. I had an inkling, but it is really good...
6. Every Allied major power is about a year behind where they were in real life. I think lack of heavy BBs really hurt my efforts in the pacific as I had to be overly methodical as the USA. Them and more promptly built CVs and better light ships would have helped (again too much on specialty land units). This also hurt my A/C builds as the USA.
7. I should have used more super-combines as the USA. That would have let me move my assets forward more quickly. More TRS and AMPHs should also have been completed... even crappy ones (4-2 AMPHS and 4-3 TRS) would have been useful.
8. Really felt the lack of ground units with Germany, even with the force pool all built out. I think I put too much in the West after D-day, and this hurt me in the USSR, especially in the South.
9. For Germany, getting Yugo as an ally is not all that great... it really slows you down against Russia as your Rumanian front is rather tepid and this allows the USSR to only have minimal holding forces on that front for some time.
10. Can the Wyoming (starts out in the repair pool, I believe) serve as a Pearl force when that option is chosen? I should have build her just for that purpose. As well, if I had built the better BBs earlier, I could have transferred the survivors of pearl and all of the 4 move BBs to the Atlantic where they would have been much more useful.

Those are my thoughts for now. Started with 4.XX but ended up with 3.2 version. I really wish the current version were playable for a whole game.

[craigbear]

Meant to say 2 BBs and an oil, not a factory in my 2nd point.

[michaelbaldur]

I never build factories with usa, they have plenty.

also, the allies as a whole, have so many unused factories. in UK. China or France

so, as an alliance it is wasted BP

[rkr1958]

I am nearing the end of my first full game, solo, and have had some random thoughts.

Congrats! Have you ever though of doing an AAR, even an abbreviated one, on your game? I'd be interested.

4. I ran out of units from the USA to invade with. I tended to scrap inf for the longest time, but now realize a 6 that can invade is a pretty decent unit. On a side note, I think I overbought the various specialty units. Had a hard time even getting them to the front.
7. I should have used more super-combines as the USA. That would have let me move my assets forward more quickly. More TRS and AMPHs should also have been completed... even crappy ones (4-2 AMPHS and 4-3 TRS) would have been useful.

I don't scrap any US or CW land units.
In our just completed 6-player PBEM game, I as the US, played 20 O-chits between turns 19 SO42 and 36 JA45 (18 impulses). 14 of those, or 70%, were super-combines. The remaining 6, or 30%, were for doubling land attacks. My CW ally played a total of 7 O-chits during the entire game, all of which were for super-combines.
As the USA I will only scrap 2-mover TRS and as the CW 2 & 3 mover TRS. Never Amphs. And I concentrate on building sea lift early and through the game. I've found that nothing is more frustrating than having a lot of land units sitting in the USA and unable to deploy to Europe or the Pacific due to the lack of sea lift.

9. For Germany, getting Yugo as an ally is not all that great... it really slows you down against Russia as your Rumanian front is rather tepid and this allows the USSR to only have minimal holding forces on that front for some time.

Not following, doesn't having extra units help not hurt Germany vs the USSR? Not to mention no need to garrison Yugoslavia when aligned vs conquered.

10. Can the Wyoming (starts out in the repair pool, I believe) serve as a Pearl force when that option is chosen? I should have build her just for that purpose. As well, if I had built the better BBs earlier, I could have transferred the survivors of pearl and all of the 4 move BBs to the Atlantic where they would have been much more useful.

Yes, any SCS (i.e., BB or CA) with a first cycle cost of 2 BPs counts.

[Courtenay]

See the 1998 Annual for a good example of how to do US prewar builds. The key is to save build points early, to get gearing limits up for the start of '42. I don't build as many CVLs as the author of the US article does, but the key is to have 5 Essex class CVs laid down J/F '42, which lets you get them S/O '43. Until they arrive, you really just have approximate parity against the Japanese navy, and it is hard to do much against them.

The 1998 Annual is available here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 5&t=247060

[craigbear]

About my comment re: Yugoslavia...

It depends if Germany allows or denies the claims of Bulgaria and Hungary upon Russian claims being accepted by Rumania.

Most likely, Germany allows the claims... in this case:

"Germany can declare Rumania aligned with Germany during any Axis declaration of war step if Germany has declared war on the USSR (not if the USSR has declared war on Germany), is at war with Yugoslavia, or controls Belgrade."
Note the Yugoslavia requirements.

However:

"Yugoslavia
An Axis major power that controls Athens can declare that Yugoslavia is aligning with it during any Axis declaration of war step if:
 Yugoslavia is neutral; and
 Italy, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania are all Axis controlled."

So the normal case is to allow the Hungarian/Bulgarian claims (as there are fairly stiff penalties for not doing so). If you are working to get Yugo as an axis minor, Rumania has to be in the war... however, this requires the Axis DoW the USSR.

The upshot is that to get Yugo in these circumstances, Rumania must first DoW the USSR without giving the Axis player any opportunity to place units prior the the surprise impulse in Rumania. Which means the attack from that direction will solely be with Rumanian units and fairly easily to withstand. This means that the USSR has a stronger flank and can defend its west more easily.

At least that is what happened in my game.