Spring 1942 - Bunnies' Guide to the Quick Caucasus Grab


  • How To Grab Caucasus In Four Turns Or Less

    Assuming roughly average dice -

    On Germany’s first turn, produce at least five tanks.  (Without at least five tanks, you won’t be able to pressure Russia enough for this to work).  Don’t move into a position that will allow the bulk of your forces to be beat up easily by a Russian attack or strafe.  On Japan’s first turn, try to land as many fighters as possible on French Indochina (or at least so the fighters will have range to land on Ukraine on Japan’s second turn).  On Germany’s second turn, move everything you can into Ukraine (often using the German transport), and move air in range to threaten Caucasus.  On Japan’s second turn, fly fighters in to Ukraine; you should usually be able to get at least 4-5 in.  (The sixth Japan fighter is often used at the US Hawaiian Islands fleet on Japan’s first turn so can’t make it into range by Japan’s second turn.)

    Russia can stack Caucasus, especially with Allied fighters, but doing so will inevitably leave West Russia weak.  This allows Germany to move into West Russia on Germany’s third turn combining any units from Karelia and the units from Ukraine.  This leaves Japan’s fighters on Ukraine vulnerable to a UK attack; that can be offset by leaving some German infantry there.  (But the emphasis must be on stacking West Russia).  Japan’s third turn should see all fighters land on West Russia.  From that point, Russia must retreat to Moscow or lose it to German invasion, which sets up Germany’s fourth turn invasion of Caucasus, then Japanese reinforcement.

    There are rather a LOT of weird things that both Japan and Germany can do to set up variations on this theme (for example, you don’t REALLY need FIVE tanks if you end up with a second Mediterranean transport at the beginning of G2), but the basics remain the same - Ukraine to pressure West Russia and Caucasus, forcing retreat from West Russia, followed by West Russia to pressure Moscow and Caucasus, followed by control of Caucasus.

    Weird things?  For example, Germany can produce 8 tanks on G1 and ignore UK control of Western Europe.  Etc. etc.


  • This has the same goal as the Case Blue strat but the problem here is that you are following a set pattern of movements that can be blocked by the Allies.
    G only has available its starting units + 5 arm to move to Caucasus on round 3. The rest really depends to Soviet moves and buys - with the correct ones moving into W Russia on round 3 may be suicide. Another possibility to defeat this is to allow Germany to take Caucasus on round 3 and stacking West Russia with the Soviets instead. You block any infantry reinforcement through Ukraine and then isolate Caucasus and smash it.


  • Case Blue is about the G1 break of West Russia and the subsequent economic / unit balance advantage of Germany over Russia, isn’t it?  I’d say control of Caucasus is one of incidentals of Case Blue rather than the focus.

    As far as following a set pattern of movements, I do not see that as a problem.  If you are making an omelette, you will do things very much the same, with slight variations.  You will not perform outré modifications such as attempting to heat your skillet using only the body temperature of your cat’s tummy, for the simple reason that it doesn’t work.  The outline I gave is the safest method that applies maximum combined Axis pressure quickly, and I did so giving clear and simple instructions for both Germany and Japan.  A slogan, as it were, rather than an operations manual.

    As far as being an “infallible move” - well, let me be clear.  I do not say “Look, here is this thing that you have never considered, a sacred beast before which you should bow down in unthinking worship”.  Of course Russia MAY be able to block this sequence of moves and prevent Germany from grabbing Caucasus.  Even in the event that Germany DOES take Caucasus on G3-4, that should still be far from ending the game.

    But having played rather a lot of games recently and having observed a deplorable lack of coordination between German and Japanese forces, I am positive in saying that this series of moves is something that players should have ready in their arsenal.  Most players I’ve seen that command the Axis just sort of push tanks at Russia and hope for the best.

    A couple of specific comments on Hobbes’ reply -

    1.  Dice results can mean G4 control of Caucasus is questionable.  The sort of dice results I mean are NOT immediately obvious to what I call “the casual player” - for example, Russia ending R1 with three units on Ukraine and nine units on West Russia is considered “pretty normal” by a lot of players that think to themselves “a chunk of dudes on West Russia and a few on Ukraine, nothing unusual about that.”  Casual players in my experience don’t realize just how improbable it is that Russia should end the turn with that much power surviving.  This sets Russia up in turn for a much stronger second turn.  Similarly, other small battles in which Russia keeps an extra infantry after taking control of a territory, or Germany loses an extra infantry even when successfully taking control of a territory, can make a big difference.

    2.  I recently played a multiplayer game in which I deliberately flew Japanese fighters to an underprotected Caucasus.  In that particular game, Russia decided to attack Caucasus, and even got a little lucky in doing so, retaking it as expected but keeping one more survivor than it would have on average.  Still, Russia ended up being so weakened that Germany reclaimed Caucasus next turn (Russia couldn’t recapture it), and along with Japan pushing from the east, the Allies ended up resigning.  What I’m getting at here is two points.  First, Germany and Japan CAN still win after the loss of a major combined force in some situations.  Second, although it can generally be costly to press a quick attack on Moscow, it can cost the Allies still more.

  • '12

    I like that scenario and try to set myself up for just that, perhaps a round of delay.  But after being able to sit in Caucus for awhile I found it a task to keep Caucus reinforced enough to stave off a combined attack from the allies.  Rushing tanks in helped but I often become a bit tank heavy.  I suspect it was because I was moving my navy against Australia and Africa too quickly as Japan.

    Early co-ordination with Japan is key, wait too long and British tanks/airpower can pin the combined axis force in as the Jap air-force is a sitting duck without the Germans.

    I also agree many axis players fail to realize the flexibility of having the Japanese airforce fly in for around of defense and to fly in reinforcements in the case of a combined Brit/US attack against the Germans.  Being able to factor in 4+ Jap fighters to one of several German defensive points against a 1-2 Brit/US attack really lets Germany lean forward.

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