How do you respond to Sea Lion threat as UK?


  • So suppose Germany makes an initial purchase of 1 carrier, 3 transports.  He places them in the Baltic and leaves 4 inf and 4 arm in Western Europe poised to attack UK.  How do you respond as UK?

    What about a purchase of 5 transports, leaving 6 arm + 6 inf poised to attack?

  • 2007 AAR League

    Que?

    UK can’t buy 5 transports on UK1. It would cost $40, and UK only has $30 to begin with?
    And what 6 arm + 6 inf are you referring to? UK do not start out with that amount of forces anyway?  :?

    Confusion…  :?


  • Move your fleet into position to block an easy landing (maybe forcing them to lose a transport or 2 if they attempt it), buy some tanks to place for when (if) they break through.  If your fleet is out of reach, buy a ton of infantry.  If you dont have a fleet, then your future isnt looking to bright with the UK.


  • @Perry:

    Que?

    UK can’t buy 5 transports on UK1. It would cost $40, and UK only has $30 to begin with?
    And what 6 arm + 6 inf are you referring to? UK do not start out with that amount of forces anyway?  :?

    Confusion…   :?Â

    He’s asking what to do if Germany buys 5 transports.

  • 2007 AAR League

    Build infantry and have America reinforce Britain with whatever it can!!!

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Buy 5 Infantry, 3 Armor

    Move 1 Armor from E. Canada to England

    Keep your fleet in SZ 2

    You now have 8 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 5 Armor, 2 Fighters, 1 Bomber on England.

    If you are still paranoid, you can put 2 infantry, 1 artillery, 1 armor, 1 fighter, 1 bomber on England on USA 1 and 2 more Fighters from Russian Caucasus to England on Russia 2.

    Though, I highly, HIGHLY doubt that Germany can possibly bring enough crud to England to punch through 8 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 5 Armor and 1 Bomber.

  • 2007 AAR League

    Can Russian fighters reach London from Caucasus?  I don’t have a map in front of me, but my recollection is they can’t.


  • I dont think they can.


  • Russian fighters from Caucasus can’t reach UK on R2.  If you have fighters in Russia, they can reach.

    The best way to counter this is as Jen has said - namely build land units.  But you will have to reinforce with US ground units, because if Germany buys 5 Trns on G1, you can expect that all surviving fighters and the bomber will land in WEur and be available to air support on G2.  If you are playing a FIDA bid, then Germany should bid 16 and place another transport in sz5 before R1.  That makes for 7 transports carrying 7 Inf, 7 Arm, with up to 6 fighters and 1 bomber in support.  Actually, with a bid of 16, you can give all the extra IPCs to Germany and have 8 transports after buying 6 on G1.

    Interesting attack.  It’s all or nothing and Germany might take UK but then has left nothing to hold off Russia and the US likely retakes UK on US2.  I’m not sure if I would try it, but some who like high risk attacks, might find this enjoyable.

    SS


  • With maximum Allied defence (except the Russian fighters), the attack in almost 50-50.

    Germany would attack with 8 inf, 8 arm, 6 ftrs, 1 bmr.  UK would be defended by 9 Inf, 2 Rtl, 6 Arm, 3 Ftr, 2 Bmr, AA.  My odds calculator says it is about a 46% chance of success.

    SS


  • Anything below 50% in life is considered failure, even in this game.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Yea, I forgot to add in Ukraine, that was my bad.

    And actually, the odds are MUCH worse then what SS is reporting.

    Why?  Because while he has the raw numbers close to correct (My Calc says 48% Attacker, 51% Defender, 1% Mutually Destroyed) he forgot the opportunity cost of no builds for Germany in round 1 for land defense and the removal of almost 100% of his post Russia 1 and Russia 2 surviving units.

    Also, at the end of Russia 1, Germany should be reduced from 9 starting Armor to 7 starting armor, so it would be impossible to invade with 8 Infantry, 8 Armor.  You’d have to go with 8 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 7 Armor because the Armor in W. Russia and the Armor in Ukraine are most likely already destroyed.  Though the differenece between 8 armor and 7 armor, 1 artillery in this case makes almost no difference. (0.1% change in advantage of the defender.)

    And afterwards, assuming Germany edged out with a victory, Russia is faced with Germany with 6 Infantry plus 30-35ish in builds due to not having anything else available to use in attacks that rount.

    That means Germany, who now holds England, is faced with a Russia earning in the mid 30’s income herself and an American liberation of England immenant.

  • Moderator

    Sealion on G1 or G2 is fools gold.  :-D

    As Jen pointed out a 5 inf, 3 arm buy will work as will a mix of air and inf then add in the US support.


  • Is a transport purchase on G1 a winning play?  There is still the benefit of forcing UK’s hand and making them buy land troops in England rather than an IC or a navy.  So is it worth it?

    I use it occasionally as Germany and it seems to work out pretty good.  Of course the threat in UK is always countered, but it does delay the allied fleet buildup, and it allows you to shuttle lots of infantry to Karelia.  Or are these benefits not worth spending an entire turn on the German navy?


  • If facing 5 TRN, build all land units, but sacrifice your TRN and BB from SZ2, as well as teh USSR SUB, to SZ6.

    Then Gemany has to fight through the Allied Fleet first before they even reach UK.

    UK will be out a navy, but so will the germans (except for TRNs which will be dead almost immediately after the Sea Lion attempt), UK will hold, and from there it is just a matter of rebuilding fleet and hammering the Germans for a few turns until they break.  Russia will do rather nicely during that time also, especially if the Luftwaffe dis in the Sea Lion attempt.


  • if germany builds that many tranny’s….game is OVER. firstly…the Allies will certainly re-take england thanks to american aid…but i highly doubt they could even take it anyways…defense always has the advantage. furtherm ore…the more germany throws at it…the worse continental europe gets for germany. send airforce? go right ahead lol that AA gun will make the Luftwaffe into nothing…in the end…even if germany takes it…they’re finished in Europe. Russia now has secured all her first round territories, America is still untouched, Britain…well…Britain is living in shock.  just imagine how good the Russian player must feel though, they have Karelia still, Archangel is untouchable for 2 turns minimum, Ukraine is in their hands (either by R1 or R2) west russia is taken, Belorussia is taken, Eastern is in serious trouble and the balkans is next to go…thats 7 IPC swing in favour of Russia…not to mention whats gonna happen next turn n the turn after. you’ll be looking at Germany holding onto dear life with Southern Europe n Germany…down 13 IPC’s (Eastern taken…Balkans taken) TO THE RUSSIANS!!! that means that russia is up 13 IPC’s (w/o japan’s takeaways).

    if germany was to do anything of that sort…they would have to sacrifice the AC for 2 tranny’s…gives you more mobility with troops… and u can move them to Karelia and norways quicktime

    Overall…i’d laugh at this Axis strategy…your asking for an Allied beatdown on Germany. If germany manages to hold England for more then 2 turns though…then the tide has turned in a huge way.

    Feds 10


  • Well I wouldn’t go that far…  If Germany does succesfully take England, then they get around 38 IPC.  This would be an extra 12 inf to drop down in Europe.  Plus you would seriously delay any invasion attempts of the mainland.  US would have to retake, but UK would still be in constant danger and would eat up a lot of US resources.  In the meantime you could probably drop down a build of 12-16 tanks, or 16 inf, and start marching East.  This would be enough to at least turn the tide of the Eastern front back in Germany’s favour.  So I’m not saying the chances are great, but if Germany does take UK, I feel they have a nice advantage.


  • First, you should join the Yahoo group “caspian sub”, and read Policy Paper 13 (ish).  It describes a possible and implementable threat on London by German transports.  It’s really pretty good.  But BE SURE TO READ THE LIMITATIONS LISTING, because there are circumstances under which you shouldn’t even try any kind of Sea Lion (Russia fighters at Moscow is one)

    Second, with either carrier/3 transports, or a 5 transpot build, Germany is dead.  There are different ways the Germans can take advantage of a super heavy Baltic naval build, including holding Norway and using it as a reliable fighter base, helping to protect Western Europe, and bridging infantry straight from Germany to Karelia.  Also, Germany can do a very strong Atlantic stall, and any UK plans are delayed because of the forced defense of London.  But these advantages are far outweighted (in my opinion) by the fact that there are no German infantry builds on G1, which are really needed pretty badly in the initial turns.

    Say that first turn, the Germans had an African bid, so can afford to take Anglo-Egypt without using the Mediterranean transport, and that the Med transport instead heads west along with the German battleship and unites with the German Atlantic sub and perhaps 1-2 German fighters to attack the UK battleship at Gibraltar (also say the Germans take Gibraltar with 1 infantry for various reasons I will not go into here).  Also say the Germans built 5 transports in the Baltic.

    Now, I am going to ASSUME that Russian fighters are NOT in range of London.  I am going to assume that the Russian fighters are parked at Caucasus.  See following.

    The German threat on London on G2 is 6 transports from the Baltic (say it’s unstoppable), and 1 transport/battleship support shot from the Mediterranean that can be stopped with a Russian sub.  (Say that the Russian sub joins the UK battleship/transport on Russia 1; the Russian sub can then go to the sea zone west of Algeria on Russia 2 to block the German battleship and transport from helping in the battle).

    So, as Germany, you can count on 6 inf 6 tank 5-6 fighter and a bomber.  Let us assume the best case scenario, that Russia did not take any territory that had a German fighter in it on Russia 1.  (You COULD also say that is NOT the best case scenario, because Russia committing enough forces to take a territory with a German fighter in it has its own particular problems).

    Now, the UK can see the attack coming a mile away.  So it builds 5 inf 3 tanks and moves over the tank from E. Canada.  This is not enough against a determined German attack, so the US can send in its two Eastern US transports on US1.

    So now the attacking force is 6 inf 6 tank 6 fighter 1 bomber.  Defending force is 2 bomber (1 UK, 1 US), 9 inf (2 start in London, 5 are built on UK1, 2 come from the US), 2 art (1 UK, 1 US) 5 tank (1 starts in London, 1 from E. Canada, 3 built), 3 fighter (2 UK, 1 US), plus AA gun.  Count the artillery as infantry for the purposes of defense, and you have

    6 inf 6 tank 6 fighter 1 bomber

    vs

    2 bomber 11 inf 5 tank 3 fighter AA gun

    Ohit 46, dhit AA gun plus 51.

    Now there’s this whole balance thing with the AA gun, because if you attack and lose 2 or more fighters to AA fire, you are attacking 40 into 51, and if the opponent chooses to kill the bombers to be safe, Germany is probably not going to take London, and the Germans will be out their starting infantry build AND two fighters, which is just too much to recover from, I believe.  If you even lose ONE fighter to AA gun, the chances in London are still not that great.

    Only after calculating the possible straight out losses due to the AA gun should you start to calculate the possibility that no German air will die to AA and the subsequent attack on London.  But even then, you’re sending 46 at 51.  Not bad at all, given the skew of the units.  But hardly a sure thing, or even close to a sure thing, considering the fact that Germany sacrificed its entire first turn build to get that point and took an enormous chance in even trying to invade London in the first place.

    At this point, I will mention that if the Russian fighters were in range of London, Germany will fail any invasion attempt of London.  Pushing the 51 up to 59 skews the London attack so far in favor of the Allies, well, let’s just say it’s pretty skewed.

    But of course, the Germans do not have to butt heads against London at all.  They can potentially unite the gigantic Baltic fleet with the Mediterranean fleet on G2, and use that fleet to cruise around making trouble for the Allies.  But if the Germans unite the fleet, those transports won’t be used to bridge infantry from Germany to Karelia, making the German front that much weaker.  And really, there is only so much Germany can do with those transports.  Trying to invade the US, trying to mess around with Brazil, setting up a threat by transport drop to Archangel, protecting Norway/Western Europe - all nice, but those do not really offset the fact (I believe) that Germany doesn’t have those early reinforcements against Russia.

    What are the POSSIBILITIES of a G1 heavy transport build?  What possibilities for victories exist with that plan?

    First, the US is forced to build ground reinforcements to UK on US1, because of the possibility of 5 MORE German transports on G2.  So the Allies cannot really go turbo KJF in response to Germany’s transport build.  If Germany decisively takes London, then switches to pure infantry for Berlin and Rome, Russia WILL be knocking on Berlin’s door, but will be forced back.  So combine the fact of the mighty German fleet with the fact that the US is pretty much forced to sacrifice two transports early to reinforce London, and the game becomes at least playable for Germany.  Since Japan cannot be immediately threatened, and Germany’s Atlantic game is strong, the Axis can make a play for Africa, and try to stall the Allies out in the Atlantic and/or Pacific until Moscow falls.

    The problem is, though, that Russia has so much early territory that it has to be slowly pushed back from, so it can use the advance time plus resource gain to build even more units that Germany has to fight through to win Moscow.

    Second, is the G2 transport build, or the Canadian Shield (Caspian Sub paper 14, I think, be sure to read the LIMITATIONS on the paper).


  • NewPaintbrush

    ^^ can we get the condensed version of that post ^^

    Sheesh  :-D :-) :|  :-( :-P :evil:

  • Moderator

    @Novosibirsk:

    NewPaintbrush

    ^^ can we get the condensed version of that post ^^

    Sheesh  :-D :-) :|  :-( :-P :evil:

    :-)

    Sure.  Sea Lion scare doesn’t work against a good opponent.

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