Axis & Allies (2nd Edition) Strategy Articles-9

Patience Pays Off

Players are often faced with a single naval unit that seems to offer minimal usage, and decide they’d rather go ahead and eek what little value it offers out of it right now, rather than being patient.

For example, if through a combination of skill or luck the UK player still has his Indian transport a few turns into the game and Africa is already won by the Allies, the UK player may be tempted to just bring a couple of African infantry up through the Suez Canal and join in a larger attack that may be going on in the Ukraine or Caucuses.

However, while that may offer some marginal value right now, what is the German player going to do on his turn?

Two fighters and a bomber are going to easily wipe out that undefended transport and the potential threat it might have remained will go with it.

Consider instead that the UK player uses that transport instead to shuttle troops out of Africa and into Asia. Meanwhile, it sits there in the Red Sea, constantly posing a threat to Southern Europe that the Armada off the coast of England could never cause. The entire game, the Germans will be forced to keep a few infantry in Southern Europe as a result of that threatening transport. If it weren’t there, Southern Europe would be perfectly safe, and could be left completely empty, freeing up those troops for other duties.

Similarly, a US transport off the coast of Western Canada poses a threat to the Soviet Far East, not to mention Japan itself in a couple of turns (should the Japanese fleet decide to flit off to Africa).

So when you have a single remaining naval unit in a certain theater, resist the temptation to just throw it to the wolves, as you’ll often find it can serve a far better purpose just lurking around and waiting for its day in the sun.

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Axis & Allies (2nd Edition) Strategy Articles-8

Empty the Islands

The Japanese, UK and US all have island countries with infantry stuck on them. Most players will try to evacuate some of the infantry, but won’t get to all of them.

How many should you try to move and when?

Obviously an infantry defending the Solomon Islands is doing the Japanese much less service than it would if it was sitting in Manchuria where it could actively participate in battles.

The Japanese should do their best to empty their islands, particularly Wake and Okinawa (the ones that are only one space away from Japan). That way a transport doesn’t waste a turn out at sea. It can go one space, pick up an infantry, move back a space, pick up another infantry from Japan, and drop them both in Manchuria.

The other islands are a little bit trickier. You have to consider your opportunity cost. You are only going to be able to average moving about one infantry a turn in trying to get to those distant islands. It can be a good strategy still, but only do it when you ended up having to purchase one transport more than you could use (there just wasn’t enough money to buy the transport and additional infantry, so you just bought the transport). Then, rather than have that transports turn completely wasted, you can send it out to collect a couple of infantry on some distant islands.

It also helps make it an easier decision if the UK evacuates the infantry on Australia. Then moving a Japanese transport down to the distant islands allows them to capture Australia along the way, making it a more profitable venture.

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Axis & Allies (2nd Edition) Strategy Articles-7

Keep the Pipeline Flowing

“Amateurs discuss tactics, professionals discuss logistics.”

Just as you should coordinate a 2:1 available infantry to available transport ratio in your purchases as the Japanese, UK, or US player, don’t waste a great purchasing allocation by making a dumb move.

If you are planning on having a transport back at your capitol for the beginning of the next turn in order to carry across another load of infantry, don’t forget about it as soon as you start planning combat moves and see a great opportunity to use your transport and a couple of infantry to take some backwater location that doesn’t really matter.

If infantry are waiting to be transported, it’s an indictment against your abilities as a player if you can’t maintain the mental logistics to keep the pipeline open and have transports ready at the docks at the beginning of your turn.

This means you won’t be able to make as many creative opportunistic plays. It may mean you don’t garner a couple of extra IPCs on certain turns. What it will mean though is you’re making every turn count. Infantry that aren’t on the front are a waste. It does you no good if your US transport fleet is out island hopping around the Pacific and a stack of infantry is sitting in the Eastern US waiting to go to Russia or France.

It’s incredibly easy to get sidetracked, and veteran players are no exception. In some ways, veterans may be more easily sidetracked because they are more likely to see openings and opportunities that a newcomer wouldn’t. However, you must remain disciplined. The US player may see what seems like an ideal opportunity to take Eastern Europe. However, the unforeseen cost of making that move is that those US transports will get stuck in the Baltic Sea for a turn before they can make it back. One precious turn in the sequence is lost and US infantry have to wait back in Canada or the US and unable to cross over to Europe.

It is absolutely critical to keep the pipeline pumping. Build lots of transports and infantry as Japan, UK and US and coordinate their activities so you have just the right number of transports as you have infantry needing to be transported each turn. Unless it is of utmost importance and mission critical, do NOT interrupt the flow of infantry through the transport pipeline in order to capture an insignificant territory that on the following turn would keep you from moving even more infantry into a frontline position.

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Axis & Allies (2nd Edition) Strategy Articles-6

Transport Math

You’re playing Japan and have 1 usable transport, 3 infantry in Japan, and 27 IPCs. What should you buy?

Well, assuming that it’s not round 16 and the US isn’t about to invade with a huge army to win the game, this comes down to a simple calculation of transport efficiency.

You want to have one transport for every two infantry, and you have to buy now, knowing what your moves and intentions are this turn, likely responses by the Allies, and what position that will leave you at the beginning of your next turn.

Well, it’s easy if you take it incrementally. First you have too many infantry for your existing transports, so you want to go ahead and get one more transport. That leaves you with 19 IPCs. You now don’t have enough infantry, so pick up one more. That leaves you with 16. A set [one transport and two infantry] is 14, so that leaves you with 2.

But wait a second. You still have that one infantry on Okinawa and another one on Wake. You almost forgot to include those, and they are easy to pick up, since they are both just one space away from Japan.

That means that you can put back two infantry you had already mentally committed to, so you now have perfect transport/infantry sets and 8 IPCs left over. Go ahead and get one more transport. It’s not perfect optimization, but as close as you can get. Besides, if you continue to have too many transports, you can send one of them on a mission to pick up those useless infantry on those hard-to-get-to islands like the Solomons, Carolina, New Guinea, etc.

The net purchases you should make: 3 transports, 1 infantry.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, you’ll start your next turn with four transports and six infantry that can be picked up and moved ashore this turn.

It may sound like a purchasing strategy that is very deterministic and that leaves little room for creativity - that’s because it is. Remember, most Axis & Allies games are not won by creativity, but are slugging matches won by the player with the most patience and biggest stack of infantry surviving at the end of the battle.

This transport/infantry mix should be your purchasing strategy for Japan, the UK, and the US. Russia and Germany have it much simpler – just buy infantry.

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Axis & Allies (2nd Edition) Strategy Articles-5

The Dark Continent

It’s round 3 and the last German unit just got killed in Africa. The German navy has been dead since round 1, and Algeria and Libya are now in Allied hands and will most likely remain there until the end of the game.

Sound familiar? Probably, unless you were playing a game with a German player who actually had a long term African strategy. Axis lights usually get turned off all too quick on the Dark Continent.

You may be asking yourself, “What is a long term African strategy? How can you maintain a German presence in Africa when your fleet is dead and you can’t reinforce?”

It’s simple. Don’t lose your fleet.

“How?” you might ask.

The answer will surprise you.

Buy a transport on turn one off of Italy.

It really is that simple. Well, that and manage to keep a minimum of one transport down there from then on protecting the German battleship and maintaining a naval presence in the Mediterranean. That fuels Germany infantry going into Africa, and allows Germany to maintain an ongoing battle with the US and UK for Africa at a minimum and in many cases allows them to take over all of Africa and hold it.

That can be a shift in 11 IPCs from the Allies to the Axis (considering that the alternative is often a loss of Algeria and Libya and those 2 starting Axis IPCs).

It all starts with buying the transport on round one with Germany. The next step requires a lot of discipline for the German player.

Don’t move your battleship or transport on round one. By all means transport a couple of infantry over into Africa, but resist the temptation to use your Italian fleet to supplement your offensive operations.

You may think that it’s foolhardy to not use such assets, but sometimes patience pays off.

In this case, keeping your fleet off Italy allows you to transport two infantry to Africa undeterred, dropping them off in Livya. Plus, the transport that you build gets to go right alongside the other two naval units, giving you a nice cushion for the forthcoming British attack (if they even attempt it).

Moving your fleet would not only deprive your transport in production of the ability to be built alongside the battleship, but also open up the fleet to either British fighters which could land in Gibraltar, or the fighter coming from India.

Meanwhile, your troops in Libya should NOT attack Egypt. Feel free to blitz down and back to scoop up FEq, or take WAf, but don’t leave your tank exposed with less than two infantry alongside defending it.

From there, you should do your best to keep the Allies from being able to bring enough units to bear against your Med. fleet by moving it back and forth in a game of cat and mouse. If one or both of your transports get killed, buy at least one more. You should always have at least one, preferably two. Two transports alongside the battleship are a necessity to survive the potential first round attack by the British.

It also helps to keep some German fighters in France in order to strike down at any Allied transports that drop Allied ground forces into Africa. The German bomber can reach from Germany itself or somewhere else.

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Roadblocks: A Cunning Rule Exploitation

It may not sound very courageous or courteous, but you should play with every trick the rules allow and a nice roadblock can sure be a game winning move.

For instance, let’s say that you have a couple of transports off the coast of the Western USA, and the Japanese fleet and a stack of Japanese infantry are in Alaska. It looks bleak as the Japanese will be able to knock out your two transports and then do an amphibious invasion with a large army. The US will get an opportunity to build troops to defend the Western USA, but that of course detracts them from their strategy to focus on Germany.

But wait, it will eventually detract them, but doesn’t have to on this turn.

Those two transports can be turned into very effective roadblocks. One can be moved off the coast of Midway and the other can be moved into the sea zone off the coast of Western Canada.

The Japanese player will be frustrated and may decry the historical inaccuracies that force his huge fleet and invasion army from being held up by a pair of seemingly insignificant transports, but that’s life – or at least, that’s the official rule.

Roadblocks can work just as effectively on land, as a single infantry in Caucuses can keep a few German tanks from blitzing through and taking Russia with the help of air support.

So whenever you can, don’t forget to trade space for time, and slow down the attacker through the effective use of just a single lowly transport or infantry.

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Factories: To Build or Not to Build

Objective: Maximize troops on the ground quickly

Easy enough to state, but what’s the best way to achieve this goal?

Two schools of thought are transports and factories.

Factories give you the advantage of building closer to the action, and are equally adept at producing premium units such as tanks, as they are infantry. However, this comes at a price of 15 IPCs, added vulnerability to strategic bombing, and less flexibility.

Transports give you the advantage of greater flexibility, greater infantry throughput, invulnerability to strategic bombing, and naval cannon fodder. However, this comes at a price of being further from the main action and exposure to conventional attack by enemy navies and airplanes.

So what’s the best route? Does it depend on the player or the situation? Well, like any strategy it is of course somewhat dependent upon the situation, but not as much as you would think, since the decision to build a factory is usually in the early stages of the game, when the game has changed the least amount from the starting positions, allowing pregame strategies to still be fairly intact and useful.

The real answer: transports.

Transports are better because the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Axis & Allies essentially boils down to an infantry war, and transports allow you to get more infantry on the ground quicker.

Let’s look at two classic situations:

1. A Japanese factory on the mainland. For the same number of IPCs, you could essentially have 2 transports. Those two transports can bring over 4 infantry a turn to any spot along the Asian coast. The factory only allows you to bring 3 infantry a turn and they always have to arrive at the same location, with no flexibility. That alone is sufficient reason not to build it, as stacks of infantry are going to be what eventually bring about Russia’s defeat.

If you’re still not convinced, consider this: the US and UK are very likely to have their bombers based in Russia. That means that you are going to be forced to build or bring over an AA unit to defend the factory, or the Allies will get free strategic bombing – not something you want to allow. That AA unit is either 5 IPCs you shouldn’t have to spend, or a wasted turn by one of your precious transports.

Furthermore, if Germany doesn’t have a good strategy for Africa, then it falls to Japan to do something about all those African IPCs that the Allies would otherwise have a lock on. A swarm of transports about Japan offer a much greater projection of power potential to take Africa than a Japanese factory.

2. An Allied factory in India or China.

This can be a bad idea for a number of reasons.

First is pure mathematics. Japan can pump every IPC into efficient use in Asia. By efficient I mean self-sustaining infantry stacks, and not expensive tanks that are economically wasteful. This means that either the Allies are going to spend too many IPCs on inefficient, expensive units to try to hold Asia (and as a result lose to Germany), or Japan is going to take China and India.

So, if you know the factory is either going to get taken, or you’re going to have to waste your IPCs on fighters and tanks, then why give the Japanese a good factory that they can then use once they capture it. Building a factory only temporarily prolongs the inevitable, and gives a useful asset to the Japanese.

Another reason that some players try this strategy is they don’t have a better alternative and want to do something to slow Japan down. The solution is Russia. Get Allied units into Karelia quick to relieve the Russian troops and free them up to deal with the Japanese. Russia is much more suited to fighting in Asia and as long as the US and UK are focused on containing Germany, Russia can start to put lots of pressure on the Japanese.

The conclusion is that whenever you think a factory might be a good investment, consider other ways to get units into the area, through transports, reallocation of other troops, etc.

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Infantry: Cannon Fodder or Solid Math?

Cold hard facts of math make infantry the best choice

An old (and now obsolete Soviet Cold War joke):

Two Soviet infantry generals were meeting at a café in Paris. One asked the other, “Say, did you ever hear who won the air war?”

Grunts on the ground may not have the sex appeal of a strategic air wing, or a tank corps, but they’ll decide the outcome of the battle time after time.

It’s a cold, hard, mathematical fact, that infantry are hands-down the best buy in the game. Simply put, the side that sticks to the infantry plan the best - wins.

Let’s look at the numbers.

An infantry costs 3 IPCs and rolls a 2 or less on defense and a 1 on offense, a tank (and tanks make by far the most generous comparison) cost 5 IPCs and roll a 2 or less on defense and a 3 on offense.

Let’s assume each side has 15 IPCs to spend, and Player A buys 5 infantry, and Player B buys 3 tanks.

Example 1 – Player A attacks Player B:

At the end of round 1:

Player A attains .833 hits against Player B with 5 infantry trying to rolls 1s.

Player B attains 1 hit against Player A with 3 tanks trying to roll 2s or 1s.

It looks promising for Player B doesn’t it? After all they got more hits. Remember though, they have fewer units to lose.

After six rounds the battle is over. Player A still has 2.3 infantry standing on average, and the tanks are long gone.

But what if the battle is the other way around? After all, tanks are best on offense.

Example 2 – Player B attacks Player A:

At the end of round 1:

Player B attains 1.5 hits against Player A with 3 tanks trying to roll 3s or less.

Player A attains 1.667 hits against Player B with 5 infantry trying to roll 2s or 1s.

Both classes are units are here at their best (infantry on defense, tanks on offense) and the higher number of hits are a clear reflection of that.

After only three rounds the battle is over. Player A still has 2.8 infantry standing on average, and the tanks are long gone!

As you can see, infantry outshine tanks on both offense and defense.

The reason is simple: infantry provide cannon fodder. They may be cheap and only provide meager firepower, but they absorb a hit just as easily as a costly tank, fighter, or bomber.

Imagine if you were told you could buy a unit that had 0 attack and 0 defense, but could absorb a hit, what would that unit be worth to you? Even stingy estimates are that it should be worth at least 1 IPC. So in essence, 1 IPC of the 3 IPC cost of an infantry, is buying you that hit absorption ability. Similarly, 1 IPC of the 5 IPC cost of a tank is buying you that same hit absorption ability. That in effect reduces the “true” cost of the offensive/defensive capabilities of those units to 2 and 4 IPCs respectively. Now, would you rather a 4 IPC tank, or a 50% cheaper, 2 IPC infantry?

Most would rightly prefer the 2 IPC infantry, making infantry the clear winner and favored buy.

Some would argue that a tank has a special ability that infantry don’t. Tanks can move 2 and blitz through unoccupied enemy territory. That is true, but how often does a blitz movement win the big battle for you? It’s the huge 30+ units against 30+ unit battles in Russia, Karelia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Germany that win the game. A supertank that could move 5 wouldn’t do you much good at that point.

Also, don’t forget that infantry have a special ability of their own. They get to double-up on transport movement. You can carry 2 infantry with your transport, but just a single tank. That can make a big difference when you’re trying to maximize the use of your transports to get land units into key areas or make critical amphibious attacks.

Now, to be fair, a few tanks to deliver the final knockout blow are optimal at the very end, particularly if you’re buying them to take part in the big Armageddon battle that will take place on your next turn and is two spaces away from your industrial complex. But it’s better to buy too few tanks too late, than too many tanks too early. If you’ve ever seen mathematical analysis of battle outcomes given certain armies, it is truly amazing the difference that just a single additional infantry can make to the battle. When in doubt about what to buy – buy infantry!

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