Ralph Boerke's Tribute to Axis & Allies
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Infantry: [Top]
These units can do little but fight and die. Massed Infantry can sometimes do the job alone but moslty they should be accompanied by Armour, Fighters or Bombers. These are used for defense or as fodder during attacks.
Dieppe: This tactic involves using a single Infantry, a Transport and one or more Battleships. In an Amphibiuos Assault the Battleships get a supporting shot. So this assault will usually get a hit for each Battleship for the cost of 1 Infantry landed.
Armour: [Top]
The Blitz is key. When first reading the rules I made the mistake of limiting my Blitzes. An Armour in a territory can attack an empty neighbour and return; it does not have to stay there as I mistakenly assumed.
Keep Armour safe from attack and protect it with Infantry and Fighters and an AAGun if possible. With its range it can be removed from any hostile neighbours while still being within range of attacking them.
Germany has most Armour and can use their range to try and break out of say Karelia and into Persia (assuming Caucasus is friendly or empty), and from there to Africa. Unfortunately the current A&A map does not have lots of room to maneuver and outflank an enemy but some of the expansion maps do.
The Fient: This tactic is useful to whittle
away at a neighbour without winning the territory.
Example: Ukraine (Germany) has 18 Infantry and 8 Armour; Caucasus
(USSR) has 18 Infantry. Germany attacks and should get 7 hits. USSR defends
and should get 6 hits. The second round of battle Germany gets 6 hits while
the USSR gets 3 or 4 hits. Now Germany retreats and reinforces the
Ukraine with 8 or more Infantry from Eastern Europe. The overall effect
of this is a greater loss for the USSR 14 Infantry to Germany's loss of
10 Infantry (12 IPCs difference).
The Fient gone too far: In the above example the German player could get lucky (unlucky!) and destroy 11 Infantry and win the territory on the second round. The USSR could have also gotten more hits and say destroyed 5 Infantry on the second round. Germany moves its forces into the Caucasus (8 Armour and 7 Infantry). If the USSR has a larger force in Russia it can then counter attack and destroy the German Armour. Especially if the US and/or UK can also throw forces at Karalia. In this way you can lose the armour that is so very important for any future offensives.
Fighters: [Top]
These are flying tanks. They can be the key to offensives by any power.
The Switch: For Germany a situation arises in which it must keep some aircraft in Western Europe to attack an enemy Fleet and Fighters on the Eastern Front to help defend the Infantry and Armour concentrations there. If a fleet does arise in UK home waters it can use all of its Fighters against this fleet. The return legs of the Fighters can switch and the Fighters originally in Western Europe can land on Eastern Europe and those in Eastern Europe can land in Western Europe. Similar situations arise for other nations, for instance, on a Japanese Aircraft Carrier. Here a Fighter can hit a US fleet and return to Manchuria while a Manchurian Fighter hits the fleet and lands on the Carrier.
Having a Fighter or two in a large Infantry concentration will raise havoc with the Fient as there will be no lopsided attacks. One Fighter in the Caucasus in the above (Armour) example will even out the losses (from 14:10 to 14:12 over two rounds).
Bombers: [Top]
These do the most damage on land and are eqaul to Battleships at sea. A Bomber supporting any attack will generally ensure that a hit is scored each round of fighting.
Strategic Bombing Runs [SBR]: Russia is the place for Allied Bombers. This allows the Bombers to attack Germany and also any new Japanese Factories on mainland Asia. Germany should base its Bomber on Western Europe where it can SBR the UK and hit any small US or UK fleets. Japan should base its Bomber on Manchuria which is as far from any US fleet as Japan (the island) is but is close enough to SBR Russia. If the US Pacific Fleet moves to the South Pacific then the Japanese Bomber should move to Burma - still within range of Moscow and to thwart any US agression.
Heavy Bomber Technology [HBT]: This is extremely useful for attacking an enemy fleet. You are almost guaranteed three hits for each Bomber attacking. This is the only Technology that I think is worthwhile. Long Range Aircraft is also useful, but more so if you also have HBT.
Battleships: [Top]
Battleships are the most powerful units at sea. They should be protected as a lone Battleship can be destroyed by a Sub or Fighter or Bomber; and thus they will provide protection for the fleets that protect them.
Amphibious Assault [AmAs] - Shore Bombardment: To whittle away at an enemy you can land one Infantry in an AmAs. The Battleship almost guarantees a hit against any defenders. With more Battleships you can get about a hit per Battleship for the loss of only one Infantry landed. In the Xeno Expansion with Half-Battleships that attack at a 3 a group of a few Battleships and a few Half-Battleships accompanying one Infantry on one Transport can do serious damage to any defenders for the loss of only one Infantry [The Dieppe].
Remember the Shore Bombardment is only applicable if the Battleship did not have a naval encounter before the AmAs. So even an enemy Submarine can foul the Shore Bombardment (As is evident in the initial Mediterranean Sea Zone off of Egypt - with a UK Submarine stopping the German Battleship & Transport from doing an AmAs with SB).
Battleships should always be accompanied by smaller ships. Alone they can be picked off by a Fighter or two or a Bomber which would result in the loss of a, relatively, inexpensive air unit to an expensive Battleship (12:24 or 15:24).
Fleet Concentration: It makes sense to have one large fleet rather than two smaller ones when there is an enemy fleet in the same ocean. When the fleets engage the larger fleet will have more power to inflict hits on the enemy. Lone units are useful at times, i.e. Transports picking up and dropping Infantry somewhere, but these units are easy to destroy and could also be used in the large battle to take a hit or even inflict one.
Lone Battleships are great targets for enemy airpower with a 2/3 chance of returning a hit when they sink and thus a good chance of getting a 9 or 12 or 24 IPC advantage for the attacker.
Carriers: [Top]
Must always have Fighters on it to be the most powerful unit on the board.
Carriers should be stationed by friendly islands so if they are attacked the Fighters can be saved by landing on the island. Otherwise the Fighters would be lost before the Carrier (defender choses what units to lose) and the strength for the counter attack would be removed.
The Free Ride: The USA could land a Fighter on a UK Carrier and during the UK's turn the Carrier can move two sea zones and on the following US turn the Fighter can travel four more. Thus giving the US Fighter the extended travel of ten spaces when it normally only has eight. Can be useful when Fighters are needed for defense somewhere or for an attack and can sometimes save a turn in getting there.
Submarines: [Top]
Submarines are good for defending the fleets and are especially good for attacks.
The Sneak Attack: To use this you must wait for the enemy to come into range or move up to an enemy that does not have any Submarines of its own. Submarines when used in mass as part of a large fleet will cause lots of damage on the first round as their victims do not get to return any shots. I usually see this in the Pacific when a US fleet will have around four to eight Submarines and the Japanese will also have four or more Submarines just to keep up their fleet strength.
Strategic Withdrawal: Withdraw the Submarines
from a defending fleet so they can attack the following turn and use the
Sneak Attack factor. This option can be useful when both sides have many
Submarines.
Example A: 4 Submarines vs 4 Submarines. The first round the attacker may
get 1 or 2 hits and the defenders might return a hit. The defender then
withdraws all of his remaining Submarines. The next turn the defender becomes
the attacker and gets the advantage of the Sneak Attack.
Example B: A large fleet with 2 Battleships, 1 Carrier, 2 Fighters, 4 Transports,
4 Submarines is attacked by 1 Battleship, 2 Carriers, 4 Fighters, 2 Transports,
7 Submarines and 1 Bomber. The defender can withdraw his 4 Submarines and
can use these with nearby air power to attack whatever fleet units the
attacker has left on the defender's next turn. This does require some thought
as to what advantages there are in keeping the inexpensive Submarines in
the battle to take hits or to save them for a counter attack later in which
new forces can be brought, namely, air power, but also any other fleet
units in range.
Withdraw from Airpower: Subs can retreat from a battle against Airpower. If a Fighter or Bomber attacks a lone Submarine or a small fleet that has one or more Submarines in it, the Submarines can withdraw leaving the Fighter to 'win' the battle against an empty sea zone or against the remaining small fleet (Transports)
Block: a Sub can intervene between the main body and an attacking fleet. I like to use this in case the US tries the Nimitz Plan i.e. moving its fleet up to the Gulf of Alaska sea zone (touches Western Canada and Alaska). Here the US Fleet is out of range of the Bomber on Japan and out of range of the Japanese Fleet around the home island and is still within striking range of Soviet Far East [SFE] where it can drop off a land force. What Japan can do is send one Submarine (or Transport) into the Alaska sea zone (touches Alaska only). This Submarine will die when the US Fleet moves there or if the US Fleet only sends airpower against it. But the attack or reinforcement of SFE will be delayed by one turn and Japan can use this time to purchase more naval units or move land forces to prepare for the landings.
Transports: [Top]
Transports are the key to naval strength. What good is the US Fleet if it controls the Pacific but does not take any territories? Infantry and Armour must be protected and brought to the enemy islands and territories.
A Fleet with many Tranports can effectively defend against enemy air attacks. A Fleet with Submarines instead of Transports would be less effective in air defense at the same cost.
Block: See the Submarine Block. Here the Transport at least gets a shot at any attacking air power. The cost of this unit is alos 8 IPCs.
AAGuns: [Top]
AAGuns are good for defense against air attacks.
AAGuns can be moved. Germany should move the Southern Europe AAGun to Eastern Europe especially when Karelia is in German hands. So long as no Bombers exist in Africa or Gibraltor the S.E. Factory should be ok. In this way Germany protects its zone of supply from Western Europe, Germany, Eastern Europe and Karelia from any UK attacks involving air power. If the UK or USA does move a Bomber within range of the SE Factory the AAGun can be moved back or a new one purchased.
AAGuns do not fire at enemy units during the enemy unit's non-combat move.
AAGuns can be transported.
I find that AAGuns are not that great of a combat weapon. The psychological factor of 'what if they destroy one of my attacking aircraft?' is what may discourage an attacker. This element of uncertainty can make an attacker over commit or under commit his forces.
Luck is useful whether attacking a territory with an AAGun on it or defending with one.
Factory: [Top]
Factories are called Industrial Complexes by Milton Bradley but I adopt the term factory for any new ICs and Industrial Complex for the original Factories.
Placing a new Factory is very useful and is a necessity for Japan. It should place one or more Factories in one of Manchuria, Kwangtung, French Indo-china Burma, or India. If Japan is sending many troops from Japan via Transorts then placing a factory in India is good for a number of reasons. Close to Africa. A second route of supply against the USSR. If it is captured by the Allies it becomes the UK's factory and the UK is usually preoccupied with Germany and can not afford to spend too many IPCs on new units here. A similar Factory in Burma or Manchuria could become the property of any Ally. Kwangtung is furthest from Russia meaning any UK Bombers can not return from a SBR on Kwangtung, but also means that Japanese forces need one more turn to make it to Russia.
The US can place a new factory in Sinkiang or China but these territories can only produce 2 new units per turn. China is very close to the heart of Japan and would be hard to defend against Japanese expansion. Brazil does not give the US any benefit.
The UK can place a factory in India (see the India Gambit). Another good local is South Africa as this territory can send 2 Infantry or Armour per turn towards the Mediterranean and from there to India or the Caucasus. However if Germany or Japan get a hold of this then Africa would be lost. The territories of Eastern Canada and Australia are also locals for UK factories. Australia would divert UK resources away from Europe and would require US fleet support. Eastern Canada can be useful to build a fleet somewhat further from German airpower. Egypt is similar to South Africa but very close to Germany for SBR and possible invasion by Germany.
Germany does not require a New factory. It would be great to capture a Karelian or Egyptian Factory or even one in India or South Africa. If Germany gains most of Africa and needs to reinforce it then germany can think about a factory in Africa. However two Transports can allow germany to convoy 4 Infantry to Africa and also allow Germany the option of moving these ships (most probably along with the original Battleship and Transport) to other locals, such as, Caucasus or Brazil.
The USSR likewise should not require a new Factory and would benefit by capturing a Factory but it should plan with its allies to allow the power with the most income to cpature any Axis Factory or IC.
To the Next Chapter: Art of War
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