Can the Allies ever win?

[Caelenbash]

I've purposefully only played games as the allied player and a good number of them too, both against the computer and actual players. I have yet to win one game as an allied commander, and I don't think that i'm that horrible of a war gamer. Is it this just my experience? I've seen a number of threads elsewhere discussing this very issue.

If you have any tips (other than roll better), they would be much appreciated.

[Roland, Frisky Cow]

#1 play the Larry Harris Gencon setup, or whatever it's called. The base game out-of-box setup has something like a 75% Axis win-rate. It's super broken. All ranked games use it.
Long story short Larry Harris setup buffs UK starting position so it's much harder for Germany to take out the whole Atlantic on Turn 1, and much harder for Japan to take India Turn 1 or 2.

Assuming you're doing that, and still losing...

A LOT of games come down to purchasing decisions. With Russia, no navy, no air... or Germany will steamroll you. With USA/UK, you need to pick whether you'll be focusing on Germany or Japan-- the initial military superiority of the Axis is too strong too play a balanced game between Pacific and Atlantic. A typical game progression is the Allies triple-pounding one of them, while the other acts as a 'doom clock' to eventually capture Russia.

Another common mistake is overextension. you don't have to capture territory every turn, especially as Allies. You start with more income-- you just have to stay alive long enough for that money to compound into a numerical advantage. Wildly attacking into Eastern Europe every turn will get Russia killed.

You will frequently have to give ground to eventually win. Trying to stand their ground on West Russia or Archangel when Germany has amassed everything on Ukraine/Belorussia will get Russia killed. Instead, you will often find that you can have a much stronger defense (a full turn of production) one space back on Caucasus or Russia, where Germany has a longer supply line and can't reinforce as easily.

Strafe! This is an attack where you DON'T intend to capture the territory. You attack with everything you have against a stack of infantry, with the sole intent of killing most of the infantry, and then retreating. When I lose with Germany, it's almost always because I ran out of infantry to shield my high-value tanks. With Russia, you can frequently knock out 5-6 infantry, then fall back, keeping Germany too weak too attack, and too spread out to defend properly. meanwhile you get to hold onto your high value pieces like tanks and planes, and attack again next turn. Once again: the goal not being to kill Germany outright, but to stall their advance such that the natural economic superiority of the Allies kicks in and your numbers become oppressive.

Don't forget your teammates! Being islands, UK and USA are more than able to leave their capitals virtually undefended. Russia is a lot stronger with 5 friendly fighters sitting on it. UK's fleet is a lot stronger with a Russian sub.

[montrealsteak]

The best way to learn allies play, for a new player, is to watch YouTube videos by The TTG Guy and Quintin.

You want to learn the Finland Shuck and Med Shuck for KGF. The TTG Guy has a lot of videos demonstrating the Finland Shuck and Quintin has one for the Med Shuck.

If you want KJF, watch The TTG Guy's match against Battlescotch. Battlescotch does a good KJF.

Most players have watched these videos and now I find it very difficult to win as axis.

[Caelenbash]

Hey, thanks for the input. I have not played the Larry Harris set-up. I will check it out.
The ranked play essentially seems useless having to play with the broken, base set-up.

I do usually focus the U.S. east or west, unless I'm experimenting. I either buy all infantry, throw armor into the mix for the USSR, neither seems to work great, eventually they get run over before I can make any headway elsewhere.

I've definitely not been very aggressive as the allied player as losing any key territory is pretty much disastrous and they NEED defending.

Strafing is something I didn't think about. I will give that a try!

Do you happen to know if the online games will eventually allow for more than two players (or is it my luck only being paired with a single opponent)?

Thanks again!

[Roland, Frisky Cow]

I meant to say ranked does Larry Harris, so its a lot more even than custom. Since you said you were playing VS ai I assumed you werent doing ranked ;)

All custom games can be up to 5 players, but ranked is probably going to stay 1v1

[pkealey]

I'm having the same problem as you Rassilon5. I just play solo against AI and prior to the last big update I found it quite easy to win as either Axis or Allies. Since then I must have played at least a dozen games as the Allies and have lost every time.
I have been very defensive as the Russians, only purchased a couple of fighters and concentrated on building up infantry, armour and artillery and still get steamrolled by the Nazis (with a bit of help from the Japanese in late stages).
As the US I've started off concentrating on the European/North African area but usually this means Britain loses India at some point and even though I can make great inroads in the Pacific when I eventually turn my attention there, it is always too late to stop Germany and Japan winning.

[pkealey]

It seems like the AI cheats too. A couple of times I have been surpised when vulnerable units have been attacked when I thought they were out of range of the enemy. Today I played a game, only to lose again (actually I quit after 21 rounds because I was in a hopeless position). Towards the end a US transport and destroyer were sunk by a Japanese battleship which I knew was out of range. The damned thing moved 3 areas instead of 2 - at that stage I gave up.

[VaBhodi]

Honest, blunt take.

Playing against the AI does nothing but reinforce foolish gameplay. To improve your game, you need to play against improved players. Take your lumps. Every loss is an education.

IF you are buying planes early with USSR, this is exactly why you are losing. Period.

As USSR, you need ground troops to hold back Germany until UK and USA can get rolling. 1 fighter = 2 inf/1 arty.

It also doesn't help when you basically neuter yourself as an offensive power by getting all your tanks killed in Round 1.

For the same reason USSR becomes a monster when Axis players are buying boats and planes early vs. me. MANY games where USSR has more AP and IPC than Germany by Round 6-7 and is going on a Red Army Rampage.
(Start vid at 1 hour mark.)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1098197190

[Clionerd]

Originally posted by VaBhodi:

Playing against the AI does nothing but reinforce foolish gameplay.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1098197190

I agree. It's good for learning some basic game mechanics and basic board distances (what's in range of what), but the AI is very predictable and has some big blind spots. The AI playing UK has no defense against Sea Lion in Round 2, for example.

Same applies to having a computer player in a multiplayer game. If the computer is your ally in a game, a skilled opponent will know exactly what your ally will do.