Best Strategy Games - Axis & Allies Strategy

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Utilize Your AA

Most players never buy anti-aircraft artillery and leave the ones they start the game with in their original territories. These units are not fixed in concrete and leaving them where they are can be a silly oversight and costly as well.

The Eastern US is likely to never come under air attack. I don’t recommend bumping an infantry’s spot on a transport, but there are many instances where an extra transport is sitting around with nothing to carry. Make use of it by bringing that AA to Europe. In the space of a couple of turns, it can free up an AA on the backside of Russia. Then, at some point in the future when Russia is making a stand against Japan, that AA can help defend a Russian territory against the likely massive Japanese air attack that will accompany any Japanese assault.

It takes a certain amount of coordination, but there really isn’t any good reason not to do it.

You may be worried about losing it to your opponent, but is that really a viable economic consideration?

Let’s assume that you have the option of risking an AA in a territory that will be attacked by 3 enemy planes. If your territory is lost, you plan on only counterattacking with land units. In that case, there’s no question about what you should do. Your AA will kill 1/6th of all attacking aircraft. For every 12 IPC fighter, that is an expected loss of 2 IPCs. Since AA only cost 5 IPCs, if your opponent is attacking with 3 or more fighters, your AA has paid for itself before the battle even begins!

Besides, a lot of players can get irrational when it comes to AA. Veteran players in particular that have vivid memories of losing lots of planes to AA fire, may hesitate before committing their precious planes into a battle that submits them to AA fire first. Any chance you can get of having a player make an irrational decision by being paranoid and “scared off” of an attack by the threat of AA, makes its effective use an even more important factor in the game.

This also eliminates the effectiveness of the one-round-pound, as no player wants to submit their planes to a round of AA fire without the intention of taking the territory.