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Issues, Bugs or problems: Russian fighter attack from Vladiwodstock going to Honshu get 8 oppfire even there are no Japanese forces in the sea area (but a large Allied fleet instead). Is the oppfire rule not checking for nationality properly?

I had the same pb with a russian plane being fired on by the WA in northern Persia.

Game type: Axis (me) VS 1 Human (allied, russian, chinese)

Scenario: 1940

Game difficulty: No special modifiers (all defaults)

Victory level: 1942 allied surrender


Key turning points or deciding factors: 1) Overwhelming German Sub power wiping the Atlantic clean of ALL allied shipping 2) Powerful Tac-Bombers that where immune to AA that wreaked havoc on the Soviets 3) Rapid sealing of the Med by taking Gibraltar and Suez 4) Sweden conquest fueling three more resources per turn

Issues, Bugs or problems: Opfire by friendly nationality

later!

Mike

Excellent Mike, you pulled off "Operation Sphinx".

Mike,

nice one, but weren't you getting 2 of those 3 ressources from Sweden anyway ?

CharonJr

Game Type: Me (German) vs. AI No Auto Vic/ No Time Limit
Scenario: 1940
Difficulty: Challenging
Victory Level: Decisive Victory (took all allied territory)

Final Score:
Axis: 6242
Allied -591

Summer of 1957

This was pretty interesting. It was basically over when I took out Russia using a two pronged Lenningrad/Caucuses attack but it still took a LONG time to take out US. Had tobuild navy from scratch.

Then hunting down every little island was brutal not to mention keeping garrisons in all of Russia and US. I gave up on garrisoning China!

Hey Charon!

On Sweden: Yes, but I factored in the "long haul" so to speak in my overall German strategy. (didnt expect a surrender) In a 28 turn game, that one extra resource will mean one of the followin;

28 milita
14 infantry
9 tanks
9 uboats

etc...etc...

See my point? I take the view that every single resource must be cherished for the longest possible time. From an economics point of view (I guess since I teach that and history!) I plan from turn one my economy and the route I want to take. I dont deviate from that supreme goal. Maybe short deviations for a particular mission, but nothing grand. Additionally, there is no "guarantee" that you will always get those free trade resources in the late or mid game due to allied intervention or Soviet. Also, Sweden has a population of one, which means I get 3 resources for a 1 infantry garrison, where Norway requires one garrison for a 1 resource. Also, Sweden is effectively immune to attack unless the allies make it through Norway and/or the Baltic.

From a "safe" standpoint, the Free trade is probably the better route. I, however, have never been known to "play it safe" [;)]

Thanks for the comments!

Later

Mike

Hiya Mike,

I am a firm believer in the economic side of wargames, too, since I studied economics

But if you factor in the ressources it takes to take/hold Sweden and repair its ressources I am not sure if it is worth it.

The Allies can easily take Norway and use it as a staging area for an attack on Sweden, and IIRC Sweden is in range of heavy bombers from England so basically it would have to be garissioned fairly heavily (infantry with flak/fighters) and those forces will not be available for an invasion of England/Russia.

30 supplies for ressource repairs = 6 PP
28 supplies to surpress the partisans = 6 PP
1 Infantry = 2 PP and 2 pop
2 flak = 4 PP and 4 pop

Unless I forgot something you would trade 28 ressources over time against an initial investment of about 13 PP and time for building troops which will be bound there in addition to 5 more PPs over time. A discount factor (not sure if this is the porper translation) of 5% will mean a break even between the investment and the payoffs.

Now the interesting question is what a "fair" discount rate would be.

And then there is the factor of an Allied invasion of Norway->Sweden. The same could happen even if Sweden is not taken by the Axis (and as the Allies I would seriously think about this in order to prevent the Axis from getting the 2 free trade ressources), but then they would lose supplies for attacking a neutral country twice instead of once and have to assign forces for the invasion which will be lacking elsewhere.

So basically it is down to a "I don't know" for me

CharonJr

Taking Sweden means those resources count for victory. Getting them by Free Trade means that they dont. Its the same thing with Spain...better to take it and get the points and position.

I've seen people trying to take all the neutrals they can to up their point total and then they only need to take a minimal amount in Russia and win before the Allies can really get up to speed. There are quite few 'easy' resources out there: Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, North Africa and then Turkey. After that, you dont really need a whole lot in Russia to get the win (assuming Japan does a quick grab of the SRI).

Personally, I think that the US should get involved 1 turn earlier for each neutral over say, 3 that Germany takes. This would put some real consequences on merrily trouncing them all while the bulk of the Allied power sits neutral. I hardly think Russia would have sat still while Germany carved up the Baltic or that America would have kept quiet if Germany was closing off the Med and truly preparing to dominate the world (as the auto-victory seems to imply).

Very good point about getting closer to autovictory without involving the US/Russia this way.

CharonJr

My 2 current games are no auto-victory. It does seem to change the stragey a bit and turn it more into a strugle for strategic positioning. Will probably play all games this way.

Hummm, hard to picture teh Axis winning without Autovictory in PBEM.
Of course against the AI... lol!
I tried beating up Sweden once or twice, against AI, but found it took too many troops which could be better employed elsewhere.

ORIGINAL: CharonJr

Very good point about getting closer to autovictory without involving the US/Russia this way.

CharonJr

you should read my AAR above [:)]

Hummm, hard to picture teh Axis winning without Autovictory in PBEM.

All they have to do to win is survive until fall46, not really all that hard to picture.

Game type: PBEM
Scenario: 1940
Difficulty: Advanced Supply On, Auto-Supply, otherwise defaults
Victory level: Decisive Axis Victory
Key turning points: (1) Taking Spain/Gibraltar (2) Taking Suez
(3) High German tank tech (4) German U-Boats
Points: I'll have to get this from my opponents
Last Turn Save: Ditto

Game type: AI
Scenario: 1943; I played Japan only
Difficulty: Challenging
Victory Level: Marginal Axis
Victory Points: 2585 Axis to 2501 Allied
Key turning points: The Wallies seem to content themsselves with picking off my transports. Only on the very last turn did the Wallies take Wake Island from me. I held Rabaul, Truk, Gilberts, Marianas, Bonins, Mandalay, Rangoon, and SRA all the way to end.

Game type: pbem

Scenario: 1940

Game difficulty: advanced supply

Victory level: autovictory Axis
Points awarded for each side: Axis - 4458 Allied - 1594

Key turning points or deciding factors: Quick Axis capture of Gibraltar. Invasion of Russia with both Japan and Germany taking huge amounts of ground.

Early D-Day in 1941 destroying Western France with the u-boat fleet inside to prevent auto-victory happening early, retreat from the German East Front to respond to allied threat. Too fast counter attack of Russia with many units against high tech Germans and Japanese following capture of Russia. English invasion in Gibraltar and Italy leading to Italian surrender prior to US entry.

End game: insuffient American ground troops to hold a beachhead after Russia was taken out. Late US entry because no Chinese non-coastal province taken.

Issues, Bugs or problems: No bugs encountered. The way you will be moved out of Russia or China with the WA after liberating them is annoying though, it makes it possible for the Axis to get an autovictory with very small amounts of troops left.

Game type: pbem

Scenario: 1940

Game difficulty: advanced supply
Victroy level: Axis autovictory

Points awarded for each side: didnt save the last file

Key turning points or deciding factors: Succesfull Sealion, taking out WA threat early. Destroying most of the WA transport capability.

Issues, Bugs or problems: autovictory prior to US entry probably has too low number of points because only a few territories in Russia are needed if you can take all undefended WA territory.

Game type: pbem

Scenario: 1940

Game difficulty: advanced supply, no end date
Victory level: Axis victory, player gave up

Points awarded for each side: dunno
Key turning points or deciding factors: Early u-boat war. Succesfull Sealion, taking out WA threat early, Japanese/German combined offensive in Russia with very high tech German tanks against inferior Soviet material.

Issues, Bugs or problems: If people do not invest in similar technology good tanks cannot be stopped in any way.

Game Type: AI (I had China/USSR/WA, AI had Axis)
Scenario: 1940
Game Difficulty: "Challenging", with Adv Supply and Auto-Supply and Fog of War ON
Victory Level: Total Allied Victory
Score: Allied 7033, Axis 101
Key turning points: Won the Pacific War first, in early 1945; had to assault West Germany about 3 or 4 straight turns with both Sovs and WAllies before I finally took it in late '45 or early '46.
Bugs: At one point, it seemed the game had a pathing problem with strategic movement of supply from the US east coast to Russia (lend-lease). It would deliver 2 trucks, then say illegal move; but if I moved the cursor back to the USA, I would be able to deliver two more trucks. A minor irritation.

Type: 1x1 pbem

scenario:1940, advanced supply, no auto, no area supply

Result: Axis decisive victory

Methods employed: axis teched up/built tac bombers. took over the med, Hitting with 10 plus bombers/round the few fighters i could put up couldnt stop it. Took england with 1 militia and a paratroop. only declared war on russia/usa in F42 and won the game by autovictory in like Su43 or Sp43. Russia in particular totally overpowered the germans, but needed another round to prevent the autovictory - despite taking romania...

bugs: for some reason after turkey became allied and a WA fleet was in the black sea, a german/china combat marker appeared in instanbul and wouldn't go away (or do anything other than stay there)...