Slitherine

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The assignment of most of these US Entry options to their respective categories are pretty obvious. The only odd ducks are # 4 (the Bearn)

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The USA Foreign Liaison needs to perform an assessment of how well the war is going for the other major powers: China versus Japan, USSR versus Japan, France and Commonwealth versus Japan, France & Commonwealth versus Germany and/or Italy, and USSR versus Germany/Italy. In some cases the respective major powers will not be at war yet, so the assessment will be hypothetical (if war is declared). In either case the Foreign Liaison needs to measure the value (in CVs for the Allies) of providing assistance, choosing a US entry option in the corresponding category. Note that for most categories the options need to be taken in ascending numerical order.

The measured value of taking the entry choice and the criticality of the allied major power’s need are passed to the Grand Strategist which makes the trade off decision between helping an ally (or allies) versus increasing production versus entering the war earlier. The last is usually expedited by taking as few US entry options as possible. The value of increased production is determined by the Manufacturing Council with input from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is measured in CVs by multiplying the increase in build points by the average CVs per build point and that product by any delay (in turns). In some cases the delay has a ripple effect for the out lying years.

As an example, if China were being hammered by Japan, then the US might want to choose option # 1 (Chinese build aircraft) and follow that as soon as possible with # 9 (resources to China). If things are still going badly for China, then more help might be provided indirectly by hindering Japan with # 13 (embargo on strategic materials). Of course, some of these options cannot be taken if the US Entry Pool level is too low, which brings up the point that helping China might mean not choosing other options which could potentially decrease the US Entry Pool level. This is all very tricky stuff but the AIO should be able to quantify it and make a more reasoned decision than most players do over the board. It is primarily a decision tree problem whose goal is to maximize an outcome using expected payoffs for the various choices (decision branches).

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3.5.3 Commander in Chief
(...)
The options #13, (Embargo on strategic materials, -1 RP), #23, (Freeze Japanese assets, -1 RP), and #31, (Oil embargo, -2 oil and -NEI oil ) are taken as soon as reasonably possible. Option #26, (Relocate fleet to Pearl Harbor), should be taken but only after the choices #13, #23, and #31 have been made. #26 can be delayed until 1941 Jul/Aug.

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3.5.4 Foreign Liaison
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Option #15, (Resources to the western allies), is only chosen if the Commonwealth needs resources and convoys are available for shipping them.

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This increases in importance if the Commonwealth is transporting resources to the USSR and the USA has to replenish them for the Commonwealth factories to remain at maximum production.

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Option #19, (Resources to the USSR), is only chosen after: (1) Germany and the USSR are at war, and (2) the USSR needs resources, and (3) resources and convoys to transport them are available. Option #30, Lend lease to the USSR, is similar to option #19. It is much more attractive if optional rule #49 (which lets the USSR save markers as build points) is being used.

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Option #19, (Resources to the USSR), is only chosen after: (1) Germany and the USSR are at war, and (2) the USSR needs resources, and (3) resources and convoys to transport them are available. Option #30, Lend lease to the USSR, is similar to option #19. It is much more attractive if optional rule #49 (which lets the USSR save markers as build points) is being used.

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This increases in importance if the Commonwealth is transporting resources to the USSR and the USA has to replenish them for the Commonwealth factories to remain at maximum production.

This can't be done, because the CW can't receive RP when it is lending RP.

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There are two ways: (1) Accumulate enough entry & tension in the two pools to pass the option. This is certainly possible, though rather difficult if the good US entry chits have all been gobbled up by border pact draws; and (2) arrange for as early a war as is possible against Japan.

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At the request of Harry Rowland, Chris Marinacci set up a probaility distribution instead of a limited number of chits. Therefore, there are an infinite number of chits available. What this means is that the probabilities for what chit you draw doesn't change as you draw chits. You could draw 7 (lucky) straight 6s or 13 (unlucky)straight 0s. It does change every year, the same way it does in WIF FE.

I am going to stay with that decision for MWIF.

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If you give resources to Canada, then they have an extra resource to send to Britain and that needs a convoy.

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ORIGINAL: composer99
Now, having determined that the option of options is War Appropriations Act, what are the next-ranked options in terms of priorities?

2. Option 22: Gear up Production
If War Appropriations is the principal objective of the US' entry manipulation, then this, as its direct prerequisite, is the next most important option.

3. Lending Options to European Powers
Namely, options 15, 19, 27, and 30. Being able to lend resources to the CW and to the USSR, the two other Big Three Allied powers, is pretty key, and probably among the most important options the US will play after seeing to its own production.

4. Screwing Japan Over
Options 13, 23, 26, 31, 36 (if you can get away with it), and maybe 40, 41, 43. Since one of the easiest ways to get into the war is to make Japan declare war on you (either to port strike your fleet & invade Manila or at the very least avoid having your subs run rampant through their convoys in your own surprise impulse), then these are pretty key. Just not necessarily as key as your own production options and helping the other Allies out.

5. Battle of Atlantic
Options 11, 16, 20, 25, 29, 32, maybe 38, and even more maybe 50. It's an unfortunate fact that in order to ship your lend-lease around, keep the troops in North Africa & the Med in supply, and in general make sure that the sea lanes of communication from the US to Europe are secure that you'll have to do something about the dreaded submarine. Helping the CW deal with the U-boat menace by taking part of the burden off its shoulders helps it defend the key sea areas around Britain proper, as well as the sea routes of lend-lease to the USSR.

6. Assisting China
Options 1, 9, 17, 24. You'll probably pick many of these options despite their relatively low priority because of their reasonable entry requirements and their 40-50% tension ratios (especially when you can jack up the tension with the fleet in Pearl Harbour). But unless Japan is threatening to get multiple hexes on Chungking it's not particularly urgent.

7. Everything Else
Options 4, 7, 28, and maybe 33, 44, 46, 48. Granted, you'll almost always pick 4 (Intern Bearn) because you'll get a free TRS out of the deal, and you'll generally pick 7 because of the whopping tension roll it gets, but the others are pretty low priority, either because they're in the neighbourhood of other, more critical options (such as 27 or 30) or you're not likely to need them before you go to war, or the chances of you playing them before you go to war are basically nil.

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ORIGINAL: Froonp

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If you give resources to Canada, then they have an extra resource to send to Britain and that needs a convoy.

I was rather talking about lending OIL to the CW into Canada, thus saving the Tankers to ship to UK, no need of them. The Oil is stored in Canada, and then (next turn) units can reorg on this oil using regular CP (supply lines).

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I have no particular argument with your priorities here. It does depend on the quality of your opponents though. If the USSR player (or Chinese, or Commonwealth) is having no troubles because of inept play by the German (or Japanese or Italian) then the various assistance packages the USA can put together may not be needed. To put this another way, if the Chinese player is a novice (trying to learn the game), the Chinese support options might become a very high priority indeed. Priority items #1 and #2 are locked in place, regardless. There is actually a priority 0 item, which is to never risk being denied the right to declare war because you have emptied the entry pool - and beyond.

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ORIGINAL: composer99

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I have no particular argument with your priorities here. It does depend on the quality of your opponents though. If the USSR player (or Chinese, or Commonwealth) is having no troubles because of inept play by the German (or Japanese or Italian) then the various assistance packages the USA can put together may not be needed. To put this another way, if the Chinese player is a novice (trying to learn the game), the Chinese support options might become a very high priority indeed. Priority items #1 and #2 are locked in place, regardless. There is actually a priority 0 item, which is to never risk being denied the right to declare war because you have emptied the entry pool - and beyond.

So far, so good. Of course, we are trying to work here from the standpoint of the US AIO, so I guess the AIO would need to calculate the needs of its allies. Hopefully a novice Chinese player won't be much of a problem, though. I can't imagine too many humans wanting to play China and leave the US as a computer-controlled ally; nor will the Chinese AIO simulate a novice player (we hope).

Supposing the priorities 0, 1, and 2 are pretty much inviolate, the US AIO should take into account the following things when choosing options:

(1) Does this option help the US get to its gear ups or going to war?
(2) How many bps of losses has each of the US' allies taken this past turn?
(3) How many objective hexes has each of the US' allies lost this past turn (2 or more in a turn (1 for China) is a major crisis and something should be done to shore them up pdq)?
(4) Will this option help the Allies press the attack or defend against Axis threats?

So, the US should generally only choose an option in a given turn if it assists in (1). The highest priority is to choose options that assist Allies who are facing situation (2), or that hinder the Axis forces responsible for that situation. If that situation has not occured, the US should choose an option that will help the ally who has lost the most build points this turn (3); finally, the option should be chosen based on its general boosting of Allied military flexibility & capability (4).

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There is actually a priority 0 item, which is to never risk being denied the right to declare war because you have emptied the entry pool - and beyond.

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ORIGINAL: c92nichj

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There is actually a priority 0 item, which is to never risk being denied the right to declare war because you have emptied the entry pool - and beyond.

There was a strategy done in WIFCon one year which pretty much ignored US-Entry US was unable to decalre war against the EuroAxis. was succesfully done and the allies won a big victory.

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ORIGINAL: hakon

In fact, we tried to tempt Germany into the same mistake in our last game, but after a long consideration, they didnt take the bait.

As long as the western allies are in a position to take belgium and the netherlands and russia is in a position to conquer Rumania and ally Bulgaria, denying Bessarrabia is very dangerous for Germany, even if it means that the US can never dow the western Axis.

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Allies won a big victory how?

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If this is done, Germany can do 1 out of 2 things to stop the bessarabia claim:
- DOW yugoslavia in impulse 3 of S/O, and align Rumania at once (my favourite in any case).
- Set up strong enough againt belgium/france to threaten an early conquest of france in the case that france attacks belgium/holland, ie stop tem before they can set up behind the dyle or even the rhein. The best thing would be to knock out belgium in impulse 3 of s/o in this case.

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ORIGINAL: c92nichj
As germany sets up lasts it should be possible to see if the wallies are setup for this strategy.

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ORIGINAL: composer99
Correction: Off to a Christmas party, THEN when I get back on to the actual objective break-downs.

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You're planning to go to a Christmas Party and THEN work on writing a strategy? Don't drink too much Eggnog or your name might be Husband E. Kimmel