cosmic encounter

Cosmic Encounter is one of those old games that keeps coming back for more. Currently, it is being produced by Fantasy Flight Games. One word of warning, I have an older version of the game. This means that some of the features and aliens that Fantasy added to the game I have not played with. In the game, you take control of one alien race, and five home planets. Your goal is to to colonize five other planets. This can be accomplished by invading, or negotiations. The alien races add another level of complexity, as each race has different powers that change the rules of the game. that’s only the beginning. when its your turn, you flip over an ‘order marker’ this represents the planet system you can invade. when you invade, both the player you attack and yourself can ask the other players if they want to ally with you. allies supply additional ships to add in combat. the number of ships present affects the overall outcome of the battle. so, the more allies, the better. the other factor in battle is what card you play. each player has a hand of cards, some of which are attack or negotiate cards. when you attack, the player you attacked and yourself play a card. the cards range from a value of 4, to a value of 30. by adding the value of the total number of ships on your side to the value on the card you plaid, you get the value used for combat. highest value wins.

closing axis and allies

Everything that isn’t situational I think I covered, so this is the last post an Axis and Allies. The one thing to remember is to play a power that fits your style. If you like to be the center of attention and influence everything around you, play Germany. If you like naval power, play as America, Japan, or Britain. If you like smaller empires, play as Japan. For more options, play as America. If you like to be under fire, play as Britain or Germany. You don’t want someone who uses fleets primarily to play as Russia, or do you?! likewise if they don’t use fleets at all, you don’t want them to play America. People do best if they play a power whose strengths they can understand how to use.

naval power – invasion

if you are looking to invade somebody, first you need your protective fleet in place. then you build transports, and load them up. use 1 infantry, 1 tank per ship. keep in mind that you can also bombard if you have battleships or cruisers attacking from the same space. this is why 1 battleships are better than 2 destroyers, they can attack the land as well as the sea. if you already have enough transports, then build bombers. bombers can stop your opponent from producing any units, which makes water locked England and japan easier to invade.

naval power – protection

the most important part of a nation’s power in axis and allies is the naval power. without naval power, three nations are forced to build factories to place units onto the mainland. in addition, the transports used to move troops are defenseless. this means naval power is divided between transports, and ships. so the question is what to build in terms of a navy. Russia is the only power that can get by without a navy. the reason is that a navy is only useful if you have one already, otherwise it can be destroyed easily. 5 ships are harder to sink than 1 ship. so the question is what to build. first, you need ships to protect your transports, and after y0u have a defensive force, you need at least three transports for your troops. my preferred unit to build is the battleship, because of the 4 power, and it takes two hits to destroy it. another possible combination for 20 IPC’s is a cruiser and destroyer. submarines are not useful for defense, because they can’t attack aircraft. it would be embarrassing if you had 20 transports destroyed by one fighter because the only protection was 50 subs. subs are good for attacking an opponents fleet however.

america

America is the most flexible of the allies. it can chose one of three battle plans first; send all of your forces to Germany. second; concentrate all of your forces on japan. third; a mix, send a majority of your forces against one power, and a weaker force to keep the other in check. what strategy you use depends on the circumstance. if Germany is building a fleet, and not going for Russia, take the second plan. if japan takes an interest in you, but Germany is not building a fleet, take the third. whichever side has the least resistance, attack. if you face a strong resistance, send a small force to protect that flank. and if you face no resistance, on either flank, attack Germany.

Britain

with Britain, what you do depends on two things: how much of your fleet in the north survived the Germans first turn, and weather you still poses Egypt. if you still posses Egypt, then move your fleet around India into the Mediterranean. this will give you naval dominance in that area. if your navy is still around, attack the northern German fleet. your eventual goal is to get troops into German territory. give up the eastern territories, you probably can’t get reinforcements to them if you don’t build a factory in India. and that would make japan attack India mainly.

russia

when playing Russia, you must attack Germany as fast as possible. pour all of your resources into tanks and infantry. your goal is to force Germany to put his resources into fighting you, so that Britain can attack his western flank. if Germany is allowed to stop Britain in the oceans, then you have lost the war. build tanks if Germany has not made much ground in your territory, and swarm the field with infantry if Germany is attacking Moscow. the key is to last as long as possible against Germany.

japan

as japan, do not expect to be making major gains against anyone early on. the most powerful territory that you can occupy is India. if you are playing a domination game, then japan may be able to attack America, but that is not going to help in the short term. if you just stand idly by, Germany is going to fall. so what can you do? you must attack Russia in the north, and America in the pacific. if you can apply pressure to one of America’s fronts, then it will be harder for them to concentrate on Germany. attacking Russia may force him to pull troops from Germany to defending against your attacks. after you have managed to bight into Russia, then you can take china and India. your long term goals will be to neutralize all threats to your rule in the pacific, and start attacking America.

germany

the basic strategy for Germany is to beat the Russians into submission. without Russia, the axis will have more economic power than the allies, and can easily win. their are two main ways to do this: 1. attack Russia and only Russia to overwhelm his defenses quickly. 2. build up a fleet to prevent England from attacking you while you go for Russia, then take down Russia. the first plan is very risky, as it allows England to attack Germany. the second is not as risky, but allows Russia to make some gains against you. but after 3 or so turns you can start pushing Russia back to Moscow.

two sides

the game of axis and allies is played with 5 powers: Russia, Germany, England, Japan, and America. Germany and Japan form the axis, and the others from the allies. the axis has the advantage of a larger starting military, but the allies have a better economy. so the axis will try to attack quickly, while the allies will try to fight a war of attrition. whichever succeeds, will win the war.


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