I agree with the shield and sword statement. It is my experience that Germany on its first turn should buy a transport for Italy and all men. Regroup your tanks and all your infantry into Eastern Europe and plan to take Karelia on turn 3 if possible. Turn 2 can work but can be costly. Germany should buy mostly all men on turn two and three as well and move them into Eastern Europr so as to overwhelm Russia and get ahead of their infantry total. Once Germany has more infantry than Russia attack Karelia with men and tanks only, save your planes. From Italy send two full transports every turn into Egypt and Trans Jordan until you secure the Suez and subsiquently Africa. Meanwhile Japan hits China, and India and then all out Russia, while still maintaining suppremacy in the Pacific by staying one step ahead of the US and as someone else mentioned take out as many US and UK ships as possible while not over commiting your fleet and only losing the cheap expendable replaceable pieces. An IC is a good idea if you are sure you can hold it: Manchuria is good to go after Russia, but can be reinforced by Japan transports anyway, FIC is safer but India is the best of both if you can capture and hold it, because it is two squares “a tank blitz” away from Caucauscus and Trans-Jordan and you can move fleet through the Suez if needed and assist Germany in conquering Africa as required. Not to mention taking precious money away from the UK. Japan would then purchase three tanks every round for India (or FIC) and keep that up until Russia falls. From India or FIC you can also launch a strike on Australia and New Zealand to further hurt UK. If UK buys an IC on India, Japan MUST capture it at all costs or UK will get the upper hand and its game over. If Germany and Japan hit fast and hard as a unit first at UK to bankrupt and “stall” them and get the valuable money they need and at US to “stall” them, then maintain that stall on both of them and go all out Russia so as to hit Moscow on the 5th or 6th turn from both sides, the Axis will have an IPC victory easily or if using victory cities (AA50 and new) or complete victory rules they will be on their way to world domination. :-)
German Strategy question: Fighters to Western Europe?
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I’ve been perusing strategy papers from various A&A revised resources cough Caspian Sub cough and I noticed that a commonly referenced German strategy for beginning players is to station most or all fighters in Western Europe. I’m wondering what the logic is behind this move… I believe that I read somewhere that it is to “defend against naval attack”. I don’t see how it could accomplish this, since a ship can be three squares away on one turn (and thus out of the fighter’s attack/return range) and then adjacent on the next turn, therefor able to offload tanks and infantry right into your expensive fighter planes. Now Bombers, I can see, since their effective range of 3 means that they can attack any naval threat at least once before it gets to offload, but the fighters just confuse me.
Are they intended to just sit in the territory and actually be the frontline defense? Without tons of infantry that seems crazy, as your opponent gets to trade infantry for fighters. Anyhow, I’m sure I must be overlooking something. If necessary I’ll look up the reference where I read this, but hopefully someone can clear this up. Where do YOU park your fighters on your first few turns as Germany?
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With all those fighters and a few infantry the allies would lose that landing unless they had a massive landing force.
With the fighters in Western Europe they can attack any naval unit that is anywhere near Europe or Northern Africa.
So yes they do a good job of keeping the navy at bay without fear of losing the fighters to a landing.
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don’t forget, fighters defend on a 4, 5 if a jet, which makes it the most defensibly capable unit on the board. That’s a plus also when defending a territory.
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Epicurus- I would strongly recommend that you tithe 1 or 2 Infantry per round to W Europe, keeping an advantage over the total amount the allies can bring at all times. German Fighters should NEVER be placed in a position to be killed- but a stack of Infantry with Fighters as a backbone is one of the best defenses possible.
Think of it this way- you’re forcing the allies to move carefully at sea while also being able to attack Karelia and Norway and return to France after the battle. If you need to attack deeper into Russia, you can set up a chain- for example- 3 Fighters in W Europe, 2 in E Europe. The 2 Fighters in E Europe can attack the Ukraine or Belorussia and fall back to France, while the Fighters in France can attack Norway or Karelia etc. and land in E Europe. If you hold Karelia it’s even better- you can now hit Archangel and W Russia and land in Karelia, while the Fighters parked in Karelia can attack and end up defending France.
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Yeah you don’t defend with just fighters…you stack infantry so your fighters are well-cushioned and wreak massive havoc on attacking forces…
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Yeah you don’t defend with just fighters…you stack infantry so your fighters are well-cushioned and wreak massive havoc on attacking forces…
I most certainly agree. In fact, that was probably the source of my confusion.
Anyway, it makes sense in light of the tactic of sending a few infantry per turn to support the fighters there, which makes Western Europe both a good staging area for fighters and also a very imposing defense. Thanks for the clarification!
P.S: Very quick and well-informed response! I’m impressed with the forum.
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Well I realize you don’t just use fighters alone, you use them in conjunction with inf as powerful back up. :wink: