Absolutely fantastic game tonight, even if it’s not over yet (we’ll be picking it up next week). As a challenge, I decided to take both Axis countries and face off against my three friends, each taking an Allied nation.
The opening round was quite crucial and I feel that it largely succeeded for me. As Germany, I used the tanks quite effectively, neutralized Britain’s naval forces in Italy, and concentrated my spending on only ground units. As Japan, I pulled a surprise maneuver and took Alaska. I daisy chained this invasion to take the Western United States on round two, and eliminated the U.S. Navy in the Pacific.
The Allies were definitely thrown off by the first two rounds. I was able to distract the U.S. from getting into the Atlantic naval game by hitting their homeland. This delayed help to Britain in their naval zone and allowed me to prevent them building effectively in it for three turns. Russia did pretty well though and played an extremely conservative game. However, it’s the Russia-Germany conflict that proved to be crucial element of the game.
I hadn’t expected Russia to build up a force of nine armor units, which decimated Eastern Europe. While I was able to retaliate and strike back and destroy his armor units, this cost me a lot of units myself and Germany never got back into the ground game.
This led to me having a path to attack Russia in Karelia, which I now believe is a mistake. Simply put: the moment Germany attacks Russia in Karelia, that’s when Germany overextends itself and starts to lose the game. Predictably, I wasn’t able to hold Karelia when the British liberated it and then that led to a subsequent invasion of Eastern Europe. Then the Americans got away with Western Europe and even took Southern Europe. Instantly, Germany was surrounded and doesn’t have as large a stack of infantry in Berlin as it could’ve had.
As it stands now, Japan’s still distracting the U.S. quite a bit, but also knocking on the door of Moscow with two factories pumping out tanks. I believe in two turns Moscow has an outside chance of falling. The question is if Germany can hold out for that long.
Looking back, I think Germany’s goal should be to expect to lose Finland/Norway and the Ukraine while holding the line with a strong block of infantry in Eastern Europe, maybe even landing their fighters there for defense, too, if it’s not risky. Additionally, Germany should seek to build 1-2 transports in Southern Europe and send over a tank or two infantry to just take territory in Africa and pester the British, maybe even diverting some American resources away from the northern Atlantic sea.
Another idea I’d also considered was getting German troops into Asia via transport and taking some easy territories that couldn’t be recaptured. This would give Germany a cash buffer in later turns when Western Europe falls.
I will say that the Russian strategy of buying four tanks on the first round worked very effectively and pushed Germany to stay defensive. Any German offensive tactics should be low-cost and done with the idea to delay invasion as long as possible while stockpiling infantry in Berlin.
Slowly, I’m developing a strategy for Germany, which I’d argue is the toughest nation to play in the game. I feel like the opener is strong, but the midgame is still really weak for them. They have no obvious moves and any territorial gains turn into weaknesses that spreads resources thin.
Going toe-to-toe with Russia is a mistake, even if they both mutually destroy each other, Germany still loses because the U.S. and Britain are ready to swoop in. Russia can afford to lose. Germany can’t.