German Sub Strat.

This post pertains to A&A Europe 1940 (not global).
This is my thought on how to best obtain the necessary 8 victory cities for the Axis player.  Your targeted cities will be: Paris, Cairo, Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad.  The vast production capabilities of the allies (once America is at war) puts you on a very strict time table for your conquest of these cities.  It is essential that you use submarines and German air power early in overwhelming numbers to smash allied navy. The objective being to delay landings in Africa, Italy and France and give Operation Barbarossa (invasion of Russia) time to come to fruition.    
G1 Purchase: 3 Submarines 1 strategic bomber.  Place in SZ 112 and WG
Military operations:
Attack SZ 106 with 2 Subs
Attack SZ 109 with 2 Subs
Attack SZ 110 with overwhelming force (in case U.K. scrambles 3 fighters).  Bring 3 tacticals, 3 fighters and your strategic bomber.  
AttackSZ 112 with battleship, cruiser and sub
Invade Normandy with 2 Inf and 1 art
Invade Southern France with 2 tanks and 1 Mech
Invade France with all other military units that can reach it (including 2 tanks from Southern Germany)
Invade Yugoslavia with Romania, Slovakia/Hungry and Southern Germany
Walk into Bulgaria
Walk into Finland
If you win all battles (and you should) you will have 71 IPCs purchasing power on G2: up 14IPCs, additional 10 from 2 National objectives, 17 Plunder from France and original 30 IPCs.  You should notice that i did not attack the British cruiser and battleship in SZ 111.  This is done deliberately. I have concluded that these ships can not escape destruction on G2 or cause many problems for Germany on UK1.  These ships do not have a destroyer present, if they engage your subs simply submerge them using you first strike option.  It is possible that UK will avoid Taranto (destruction of Italian fleet) and will merge the SZ 91 and SZ111 fleets along with a purchase of ships in SZ 110.  You desperately want them to do this because it will be annihilated on G2 and it will save the Italian fleet. If UK proceeds with Taranto, simply mop up remaining UK fleet on G2 and proceed to choke England for 11 IPC of convoy disruption each turn (-3 SZ 106, -6 SZ 109, -2 SZ 119).  It is important to note that U.S.A. cannot even begin to help relieve this income loss untill UK5 since the US goes after Englands collect income phase.

G2
Puchase: 5 submarines, 5 tanks, 2 mech Inf, and 1 Inf (71 IPC).
The invasion of the U.S.S.R. will take place on G3.  Spend this turn moving ALL (DO NOT INVADE GREECE. LEAVE ITALY TO HANDLE IT) available ground units to the Eastern front.  You will get one shot, and only one shot, at successfully invading the Soviet Union.  Left overs from France, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Finland and the 5 tanks you purchase will make up the vanguard of your offensive, which should be directed towards either Stalingrad or Moscow.  Attack in a southernly direction.  This is done because it has more IPC value than does northern Russia, and there is no need to attack archangle because your subs will cut that convoy as well.

Continue building 6+ subs a turn as well as ground units.  Your objective from this point on is to continue cutting allied convoys and disrupting allied troop transports. You should have untill G6-G9 to capture Russia before the Allies become to much to deal with. Whatever you do, do not let an allied fleet mass in SZ 91.  From here they can simultaneously threaten northern italy, southern italy, Normandy, Holland and Africa.  Italy’s role should be nothing other than capturing Greece, and Egypt.  Don’t screw around to much in Africa, it is a major distraction.  Remember, you need to capture 8 cities before the allies overwhelm you and no VC’s exist in Southern Africa.  Italy should build a large fleet and coordinate attacks with Germany against SZ 91 when the allies move there.

The attack on France is assuming you are using the alpha 2 set up where Germany has 2 extra planes to attack France with.  If this is not the case, you will need to bring extra forces from other battles to compensate.

To Rock’ N Roll. Your questions about the strategy are good ones.  The aim is to delay the U.S.A and severely weaken the U.K. with a large German sub force.  On average i have 13-18 subs by the time America advances their fleet on USA 4 and the battle tends to go In Germany’s favor.  If you believe the U.S. fleet to be to strong, simply withdraw your subs to Germany and recall the Air force from the Eastern Front and coordinate a air/sub strike against the fleet.

As for your comment about the Russian front, i think you might be over estimating Russia’s fighting ability.  German U-Boats will have cut the Russian convoy and German land forces should take the valuable territories of Southern Russia.  It is not uncommon that i will be producing 60-70 IPCs with Germany while Russia is receiving anywhere from 12-24 IPCs.  If the US is delayed by your sub force, i have found that Russia can fall fairly easily. Don’t get me wrong though, this is simply a German strategy and not a fool proof way to win the game (i don’t believe that exists).  My goal is to strangle Britain, isolate Russia and delay the U.S. fleet. Occasionally the U.S. fleet has thrashed my sub force and forced landings in Europe and ultimately win the game.  But, i have managed to even pull some of those games out.