New to the game - Basic Questions

[Joseignacio]

If you lose Gibraltar in the board game you have lost unless your opponent becomes suddenly incompetent. Period. I guess in MWIF it's the very same.

I mean, it doesn't mean that you cannot keep on fighting and destroy the axis. You can but after the historical date, which means you lose. Or if you are playing with a date limit, yo will very probably (98%?) not meet enough VP locations when the time comes.

Gibraltar lost means the Med becomes an Axis lake, allowing easy conquest and transport of West Northern Africa and easyly Middle East which can easily mean aligning petrol producing countries (Persia? Irak?), plus it places the CW in a very difficult situation if the Jap player simply cut supply in the Red Sea, in this case, Egypt is doomed.

It also means the Yanks will have to treiner all through Northern Western Africa before a possible attack to Italy. And the restrictions for ships crossing Through Tangiers are huge...

Italy lives one more year, producing for Axis, with increased resources from Africa,this is also an advantage, and the Axis can spare teh units that usually are sent to garrison Italy for this period and use them in Russia or elsewhere.

It can give the Axis one complete year more of oxygen, more or less, before their defeat.

[juntoalmar]

Jose, maybe Axis turn to Gibraltar after a bad campaign in France, being already late for Barbarossa. This happened to me on a Third Reich game. Barbarossa didn't happened and USSR declared the war at Germany eventually.

[Mayhemizer_slith]

In our current game

tm.asp?m=4061938&mpage=1&key=

Germany took Gibraltar, but we will see how it ends. It took quite a long time and Axis lost quite a lot units.

[Courtenay]

If the Axis wants, they can almost certainly take Gibraltar, barring ridiculously bad luck. (In my AAR, the Axis did have ridiculously bad luck, and lost horribly.) This by no means assures that they are winning. The time and effort the Germans put into taking Gibraltar are time and effort that they aren't putting into other things. They question is how much they had to pay to achieve that success.

In the four player game that Mayhemizer is playing right now, I think the Allies are currently winning. In one over-the-board game I played, the Axis took not only Gibraltar but he whole Med, and almost made it Irag. The US came in very early, though, and the Germans got very bad garrison chits, (the US was getting the good ones) and was unable to declare war on the USSR until after the US had invade Spain in 1942, and had retaken most of it. The Germans player resigned in 1942, as he saw himself trapped between the US and and the USSR.

[paulderynck]

With the Allies I have lost Gibraltar and won the game in MJ45. I have also lost Gibraltar and lost the game due to running out of time, but there was one particular turn on the Russian Front where a turn ended on a 1 just as the whole German line cracked open. It might have gone differently. WiF is like that.

[brian brian]

I have seen the Allies come back from losing the UK...

The game is a game of time, not units, or anything else. The amount of time is fixed. Allied casualties don't matter and you don't get any reward for having a big Fleet at the end.

[Joseignacio]

Sure they can come back, but as you said it's a game of time and Gibraltar, in my experience (maybe other players agaisnt other rivals may have different experiences), makes the allied have to spend one more year to crack the germans.

Of course anybody can win with this handicap bui in a game as balaced as this is, it would require your opponent to be wide under your level or huge amounts of luck.

For me 1 year more of course doesn't mean that the allies wont win which is what an unexperienced player may see (we know that the allied always wins if time is unlimited unless he is a retard), but we also know you need to have a certain numbers of VPs at the end of the game and sometimes is about 2 months whether you win or lose. 1 year makes it too unbalanced.

[ashkpa]

edit out.

[IBender]

I think I have naval invasions down pretty well, especially understanding weather + sea + notionals work. Appreciate the advice and the rules combined made it pretty clear. With that said, one aspect I am unclear on is how supply works for the invading units. What kind of forces should be in my invading group? HQ + couple units, and how supply really works for the invading force. Going through the rules and I am 50 / 50 on fully understanding them.

Thanks in advance

[AllenK]

Playing with Limited Overseas Supply, it shouldn't initially be a problem for invading units as the TRANS/AMPHS they invaded from will become part of the supply chain (assuming other sea zones traversed have CP's in them). You need to make sure you put a CP into the sea-zone before turn-end, unless you plan to leave at least one of them at sea.

I haven't played without LOS, so don't know about that.

[Courtenay]

For the invasion itself, you do not need an HQ, as the invading units will be on the coast, and can trace directly to the sea area they are invading from. (And from there, trace sea supply as normal.) If, on later impulses, you want to move inland, you will then need to either land an HQ or have captured a port. If there is no inland (you are invading an island), then an HQ will never be necessary.

[IBender]

That helps a lot. Is the following also true: If playing with Limited Overseas Supply then I will need to ensure that 1 "free" or 1 extra" convoy point is in that connecting zea zones to ensure that the units are supplied? Otherwise they are out of supply?

[Courtenay]

No. Any CP will do. It may carry resources or build points, as well as supplies. A TRS or an AMPH will also work; however, TRSs and AMPHs in the zero box will have to return to base a the end of the turn.

[IBender]

Awesome!

[IBender]

This is a random question that has been on my mind for a good long time now, I just havent taken the time to figure it out really so I figured I would put it up here. Italy in the beginning of the war doesnt seem to have much in the way of production. (its possible I havent set up their convoy points correctly..am unsure on this) I think, if I recall correctly that the first couple times for production, they only have like 4 points to spent (again unless I am doing it wrong) This doesnt seem to be enough to do much with. If this is a correct number of points, how can a country like Italy ever build something like a synth plant? Again I havent looked into this really yet as I seem to just spent what few points they get on something I can get fairly quickly anyway.

Perhaps even a better question might be if anyone has a picture showing a good italian convoy layout to maximize production?

Thanks for advice on this.

[Joseignacio]

Italy does have few points. The only way that the Italians do something is that the Germans give them resources, or much better, build points, since the GE production is more efficient producing. At first GE doesnt have enough resources for their own factories but, aftere invading Poland, France (Spain gives one extra resource then) and the Balkans they usually can spare some.

But anyway, Italy produces so few because of it's efficiency, I believe at the beginning it gets build points= 0,25 * resources. later on, the ratio will change to 0,5, 0,75 and 1 and ths will change as years pass.

It may look crazy to give points to Italy when you want to build up Armor armies, Luftwaffe and wolfpacks, but the Italians need to defend the Med, plus they have some very useful units, like frogmen and others sometimes better than GE, like some early navals, plus they can garrison France for you if necessary, but don't get carried away, cause Italy ends surrendering and those italian units in italian land get demobilized...

[IBender]

That was very insightful. Thank you that helps a lot.

[Joseignacio]

[:)]

[IBender]

Regarding Oil....I am trying to understand it better. Specifically I am watching japan and usa. Japan started with 4 oil, then I spent 1 now have 3 then I spent 1 now I have 2 oil. Yet the convoys from usa are set up correctly so that I get the oil. I believe it was mentioned there is a delay in getting that oil? Can someone explain this better and point me to the rules explaining it?

Thanks

[Centuur]

It's a matter of timing.

The rule book is written in the sequence of things to occur. The sequence of play is that first the units are reorganised (using oil available to the player at that moment), after which the final production phase comes. Oil coming out of trade agreements arrives during the final production phase and is therefore not available for reorganisation.

This was clarified in the FAQ of the board game:

Can CW use Persian and Venezuelan oil
to turn face-up oil dependent units? Or do
they must first convoyed to somewhere to
store for one round?
They must be convoyed to friendly territory
in one turn (you trace from unit to oil, and
you may not trace supply into neutral
territory) before they can be used in a later
turn. Date 12/05/2008
13.5.1: You can only use your own oil to flip your units
face-up.