Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 11:40:38 -0500 
From: "Jonathan T. Moore" <jmci+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: A&A - I think the AXIS may be able to :)

On 19-Nov-92 in Re: A&A - I think the AXIS ..
user oberland@vax.sonoma.edu writes:
>P.S. Question:
>What would you do if you were UK in the following situation:
>2i, a, 2f, b in UK
>-UK sea zone has sub and transport in it(ENEMY)
> 
>1i in S. Africa
>(enemy)1f in lybia, 1a and 1i in egypt, 1a in syria, 1i in FrWAfrica
>(enemy)bs in syria(has control of suez), plus trans.
> 
>2i and 1f in India, plus transport
>30 income
>Based on my game, this is likely to happen first turn(It did, twice).
>WHAT should UK do for its turn to keep from being crushed?
>WHAT is their best strategy?
> 
>Any ideas would be useful.


Well, I've usually seen Britain do the following:

Turn 1: Don't buy anything. The reasons for this will become apparent by
the end of turn 2. As for attacks, I would most certainly take the RAF
and pound the sub and transport. The rest depends. If you plan upon
building an IC in India (which I personally am against, but anyway) then
don't do anything with the Indian forces. Otherwise, you should use them
to attack. I personally think that attacking Kwangtung is nice (landing
fighter in China), as it quite nicely delays Japan for a while. The
other option would be a naval invasion against either Syria or
Anglo-Egypt Sudan.

Turn 2: Buy one of the following sets of stuff:

Set 1: All transports
Set 2: Aircraft carrier + as many transports as you can afford

As for attacks, you certainly want to track down that German navy with
the RAF (if it is still in existence) and kill it. Attacks will have to
be limited to perhaps a strategic bombing run vs. Germany (unless you
need the bomber to kill some Nazi navy). 

The idea is: convince the U.S. to help you get Germany. U.S. builds all
transports (maybe some inf too). Then, on U.S. turn 2, he sends all
transports to Britain, and if Britain built the carrier, land 2 planes
on it. Now, Germany is faced with a pretty sizeable navy around the U.K.
and, in my opinion, now has two options:

(1) Attack the navy with the Luftwaffe. Not really advisable, except in
the case of a suicidal maniac. I've seen a navy like this wipe out the
ENTIRE Luftwaffe (my opponent had actually built EXTRA fighters, as
well).

(2) Start sending inf to defend the western side of Europe. Again, a
rather unsavory choice, as this really relaxes the pressure against
Russia.

Basically, Britain takes a beating early on until the U.S. can get to
Africa to purge the German presence there. After that, it's all over.
The Allies can just produce inf until they die and ship them over in
kamikaze attacks supported by the RAF. Germany certainly can't hold
long. This frees Russia to deal with Japan (all that is required is to
delay until Germany falls). Again, the Allies win.

I've watched this discussion about the new Axis strategy with interest
(as any dedicated A&A player would!). However, I have not seen anything
drastically different that would prevent the above Allied strategy I've
outlined. It seems that most of the discussion centers around what
Russia is forced to do, etc. With the no-attack rule, the game is
certainly closer, but if Russia can attack Eastern Europe on the first
turn, it's all over. Even with no attack, I can see how Germany makes
bigger gains than normal, but the big question is:

CAN GERMANY GET ENOUGH BEFORE THE U.K. AND U.S. BEGIN TO POUND ON BERLIN????

Jon


-----------------------------------------------
Jon Moore             (jmci@andrew.cmu.edu) 
 "What have I got in my pocket?" --Bilbo     
 "Let the truth of love be lighted,          
  Let the love of truth shine clear." --RUSH 
-----------------------------------------------