Tuesday 13 December 2011

Alpha 3 Completed (Sort Of)

30-November Ray and I started a game with me as the Axis and he, the Allies. The opening round found the Germans destroying the entire UK home fleet but mutual destruction in Paris left it in the hands of France.
Meanwhile Japan prepares to head straight down to India. The Marshaling boxes came in handy.
The USA stages their fleet off the coast of Queensland while still Neutral, seems hinky but a check of the rules and it appears all good. Prior to the invasion of India Japan developed jet fighters and it's a good thing because I got 12 hits in the first round, UK countered with 10 hits of it's own. Japan took India but lost a ton of planes. By Round 4 Germany decided to hit Leningrad instead of UK
The US brings a huge fleet to the Sea of Japan but I am in range to hit it back next round. After all is said and done I am left with 2 damaged battleships.
Germany holds the north in force but USSR is very strong in Caucasus and Moscow, they also invade Korea and crush. This spells the end of the Japanese mainland campaign. This was the scene when we had to call it for the week to continue on the 11th of December.

The Germans moved a huge fleet down to Bessarabia to make a push into Caucasus and Stalingrad. Russia spends 6 bucks on a sub in SZ6 which costs me 6 in convoy disrupts including the French Destroyer off India. That destroyer also sunk 3 Italian transports and the French fighter from England hit 3 German transports. The French did pretty well in this game. The Soviet money spent in Korea, I believe lost USSR the time they needed but cleared out the last remaining Japanese in Manchuria and eventually China passed Japan in income holding 37 IPC at one point.
Meanwhile ANZAC was sneaking up to India and took it leaving one Artillery and no UK collect income meant Japan's re-take gained nothing.
Italy never did get into Egypt but Germany came into Moscow hard and took it. USA amassed a huge fleet and took a few shots at the Infantry pile in Japan. After Convoy raids Japan was left holding less than 10 IPC 2 rounds in a row.


Germany, after collecting from Moscow holds 120 IPC while Japan has 5. I believe in 2 rounds Germany can take Egypt from south Russia. Ray's ride showed up so we had to call it. No sense continuing as we can't play again until 8-January. With Germany's cash flow they can easily defend their 7 Victory Cities and swoop down to Cairo.
Axis win.


This is, of course just one game. Many people think the game is skewed towards the Axis in this rule set however I think this particular game could have been saved by the Allies spending less money in the Pacific. Once Japan was on the ropes and only holding the home island the USA should have been pumping all income into Europe. Russia should have left Korea as a stronghold and spent all money in home defense, if they did Germany would have been one or two rounds behind in taking Moscow and the Allies would have had a better chance.