Africa Front

@ABWorsham:

As the Germany player, how committed are you to supporting the war in Africa? Do you resupply? Defend the Atlantic coast from a ‘Torch landing’? Target India? Or focus on the English Channel and the Eastern Front?

I take Egypt and those units should be enough, along with the ones in Libya, to hold Africa for a while, until the US liberates it. Torch can be deterred in the short term by stacking France with planes which can hit SZ12 and Alg. India should be left to Japan. Germany’s primary focus is the eastern front

@ABWorsham:

As the Germany player, how committed are you to supporting the war in Africa? Do you resupply? Defend the Atlantic coast from a ‘Torch landing’? Target India? Or focus on the English Channel and the Eastern Front?

Africa: Send in tanks and stuff plus the Libyan army, do a lot of blitzing through Africa, don’t do anything unless the Allies think it’s smart to attack Algeria your planes and navy can take care of a fleet
India: Thats just crazy
English Channel: I don’t think you need to worry about a Baltic navy, if the Royal Navy comes to the English Channel, the Luftwaffe can destroy the Royal Navy.
East Front: The Air force, and plenty of tanks can destroy the Russians, especially with Japanese support out in the East.

I always attack Egypt G1, usually with bid units and the med fleet, and my next move is dictated by the Allies. Did the UK counter? What parts of the African coastline, if any, do they threaten? Did they land Algeria? If it’s countered, I’ll retake Egypt if I can hold it. If Egypt is just threatened, I’ll make it a priority to hold Egypt with my expansion as secondary. If Algeria was landed, I’ll grab what territory I can and then evacuate the Afrika Korps back to Europe or through the Middle East. If the Allied forces in Africa are weak, Germany can often hold Egypt with Japanese support.

Unless the Soviets leave an opening, I position all of my surviving planes in range of Seazone 12 to deter Torch, even if its only a bluff. If I really want a deterrent, I’ll send my Baltic ships out to z7, forcing the UK to attack it.

It’s a little naive to say “the Luftwaffe can destroy the Royal Navy” because competent Allied players won’t give Germany a nice navy to sink. When I move up to the English Channel, I’ll have enough ships that I would LOVE to see Germany try. Germany’s fighters are almost always too precious to throw at Allied transports that will just be rebuilt.

Russia won’t roll over dead to be destroyed by German air and armor. I fully expect my opponents to stack West Russia and stay ahead for the first few rounds in the arms race - blocking a German move to Karelia or Ukraine. Germany’s goal in most games is to weaken Russia by advancing to Karelia or Ukraine and at least threatening a move on West Russia/Caucuses. This will wear them down and will ease Japan’s advance.

I recently played as Germany with no bids.  I just invaded Egypt on G1, then focused my purchases for the “German Lurch.”  Due to some fortuitous submarine rolls and the US focus in the pacific, I actually managed to secure all of Africa in about 5 rounds, while Japan invaded the mainland.

But, we still lost due to the enormous US navy in the pacific which threatened to invade japan’s Kwangtung and Manchuria factories, thereby allowing Russia to invade Germany.

:(