All righty then! Finally here it is. American Defense of Karelia & Russia. This paper actually will cover a few other tidbits as well, but are linked closely with the main strategy. BTW, no this is not some bizarre Don Rae (build an IC on Brazil strategy), nor does it rely on allies needing to play a game of 0 bid. This paper applies to both rr/non-rr, and tech/non-tech. It is a solid strategy and one which even a lot of oldschoolers do not carry out properly.... so here I present you with....
Ok I am going to be honest here. USA needs to shuck-shuck. Surprised? Well, not only this, but she also needs to have a few planes. It is often optimum to have 4 USA fighters, (but no more)! The reason for this will be explained later in detail. BTW, bombers are ok, but don't buy an extra one if you don’t have too, as you will see later they suck for defense and are not too crucial in this game.
Step #1. Ok obviously we need trannies, we need a fleet that can also withstand Luftwaffee attacks soon. Many people start this off differently. Personally, even if the game involves no kamis, but G bomber is on West Europe, I’ll buy mostly infantry maybe a tank, and wait till round 2 when I wrap my battleship from pacific before I slap down 2 or 3 trannies. 3 USA transports in-front of that G bomber is quite a gambit, and I've been burned more than one time with that ‘gamble’. Of course, there are other options, it's all a matter of taste/situation, and how much you want to risk.
Well here is what you are going to do. Infantry, infantry, and more infantry (obviously). Infantry before planes. Keep a tank or 2 each turn on USA/East Canadian soil. Along with 1 or 2 infantry on West Canada. This helps to keep Japan off from doing a pesky Alaska attack, also I prefer to keep 1 infantry on Alaska, never leave it open, since he is guaranteed to get it free and doesn't have to spend planes or use 2 infantry to take it.
The primary objective, is Karelia first. Pile as much infantry into Karelia. However, I can understand if USA/UK needs to diverge to help get rid of the German/Italian armies in Africa. Once this is taken care of usually only UK needs to shuffle to Africa now and then to show the Empire of Japan the same treatment Rommel got (hopefully Rommel is out for good,) though keep in mind even if the German/Italian navy still exists, it may not be necessary to waste planes on taking her out.
“The Best Defense is Offense”. Well this is somewhat true in this game. What USA is going to do is shift a few infantry each turn into Russia. These infantry are going to serve the purpose of USA’s offense for most of the game. The trick here is, you need planes to pull it off.
What Japan is going to do is try and take Russia’s borders. Naturally, Russia will attack, though she only has 2 fighters of her own (often less). There are 3 borders there, and that’s considering no need to take Ukraine if UK is doing the swapping over there. She sure could use help. Even if USA does not actually take the territory in a battle at these border attacks, at least she will cut down bordered infantry making Russia's job much easier. In the best case scenario, Russia wont have to do any attacks at all here. Often it’s smart for her to put 2 or so infantry on Caucasus, and let her hit Persia if nothing else to do. This can allow UK to concentrate on other attacks on her turn (usually Ukraine and Africa).
Now we will discuss the 4 fighter routine. Here is why. Often USA has a battleship in North Atlantic, if Germany is high on air, UK will also have her Battleship in the Atlantic too (if survived). She still has flexibility with her aircraft carrier and thus is free to move it to Africa, but mostly she will go to Barents or Baltic and drop off infantry to Karelia. This is where the magic number 4 comes in handy. USA should keep 2 fighters on Russia at most times, the other 2 on carrier. This allows all 4 fighters to help aid in the border attacks. When the dust settles, the 2 originally from the carrier can land on Russia, while the other 2 still have enough petrol to land on the British carrier. Thus, you are making effective use of your fighters by having all attacking each round, and still having 2 defend that precious carrier. And sometimes the other 2 on Russia adds a little defense if things get too risky for a while with a Japan gambit.
Of course, there are exceptions, sometimes you may have 1 UK fighter, or it may be best to have 2 UK fighters on that carrier, it depends on the situation. In that case, extra fighters on Karelia may not be too bad, but don’t over due it! When it comes to defense, nothing will beat an infantry purchase.
I have compiled tables here to help the user realize just how important infantry are to help better judge land/air forces. If Karelia is looking like she’s got tones of defense in reserve, a player may be tempted to buy an extra bomber or so. Well, I am not going to say that this is bad, if you lost your bomber already, then I can understand even more-so of getting a replacement. Bombers help to extend that range, as well as give that extra 17% hit on their attacks vs. your fighters. But also important, is the fact that they can threaten lonely Japanese transports, as well as force him to waste 5 IPCs on an AA guns. Also don’t forget in a tech game bombers can really help if u decide to roll for tech (I’ll leave it up to the reader to guess why, if you can’t figure it out, you shouldn’t be reading this paper anyway).
All right, lets look at this one way, granted more offensive power will save you infantry ‘somewhere’ down the line. For example, if you do more damage in your first wave of skirmishes, you will get less retals, hence more infantry standing, which leads to less infantry being used up.
Now, however, lets look at the whole picture. 1 Flying Fortress is going to cost 15 IPCs, (lets eliminate IT tech shall we?). For that same value, we can buy an offensive fighter, with the added benefit of 1 infantry to boot. Sure, our fighter only going to hit 50%, vs. 66.6%, (eliminating attack of extra infantry, hehe), but in this case, the defense factor far outweighs the offense. Your bomber only gave a 0.17 retal per round on defense (assuming you put it on Karelia). Now that fighter if placed on defense is going to give you 0.67 retals, plus don’t forget the added infantry which is 0.33 retals. Thus, your defense with the fighter purchase buy is giving you 6x the amount of defense than that bomber. Don’t forget, the defense in this game is more-so important than the offense. Offense is nice but watch the defense!
Note: I will 'generally' try to prevent landing my bombers on Karelia unless I am 99.9% sure that Germany will not take it even with super lucky rolls. For someone like me, a bomber’s defense is assigned a value of zero.
So, as you can see, unless you really can use another bomber, stick with the fighter. However, now is time for the 2’nd debate decision. When to buy fighters, vs. pure infantry.
Obviously, if you have been paying attention, when you need to increase the defense cause Germany is bearing down on you with her Werhmacht stack and Panzer/Tiger tanks, you need to stack up Karelia with your infantry. Don’t overdue getting too many fighters, often these give a person a false sense of security. Here is why....
Sure fighters are nice on defense, but often this only applies to small stacks of units, as a stack increases, the fighters percentage of over all defense strength diminishes. A stack of 12 fighters may look impressive at first on Karelia, but often this is a poor defensive position. Each fighter has cost you 4 less infantry. These infantry can also defend just as well as a fighter, HOWEVER, there is a big significant factor in here. After each wave of battle, your infantry buy will give you 4 fodder tradeoffs vs. just 1 with the fighter. Not only that, but if you lose an infantry you still have 3 fodder left and able to retal, but when you lose that fighter it’s gone, you have no retals left, and you lose your territory. So you see, you’ll be wishing you had not overdone it with fighters when your near the end of a battle on Karelia, and Germany has 12 infantry left with mass tanks, vs. your stack of fighters with only an infantry or 2 left. Your going to lose 12 IPCs a piece!
Well, I don’t know how else to explain the general doctrine out to you. Keep a good balance with your planes and infantry. If your weak on Karelia, get more infantry, and only when Karelia is safe then can you get more planes if your force is weak. Planes will pay for themselves in just a few rounds, trust me. However, like I said, just don’t overdue things, unless your safe. Also don’t feel too committed, if you want to bring a tank or so over feel free to experiment. Sometimes mixed forces are the best ‘But not always!’. Also don’t forget having a lot of planes are very good for locking down territory which needs a little boost in support, such as pieces in Africa, EE, WE, etc. Keep your objectives open and don’t hold back from exploiting them.
There is only one problem with this strategy I have been using. In an RR game it tends to unit lock the game a lot, because a good axis player (with bid) can often hold on long enough to unit-lock the CD before allies have Japan pushed off the continent. However, this problem is with Hasbro, and not the actual strategic doctrine.
+ IRON__CROSS.... Y2K
Percentage retals from a 4 infantry stack (cost of 1 Fighter)
Stack Average = 1.33 retals Fighter = 0.67 retals
| # of Hits | % Occurence |
|---|---|
| 0 | 19.75% |
| 1 | 39.51% |
| 2 | 29.63% |
| 3 | 9.88% |
| 4 | 1.23% |
| # of Hits | % Occurence |
|---|---|
| 0 | 13.17% |
| 1 | 32.92% |
| 2 | 32.92% |
| 3 | 16.46% |
| 4 | 4.12% |
| 5 | 0.41% |