"Tan Skies" How to Defeat the UK Fighter Stack

  • '17

    (I’m an average player, so everything I say here…take it with a grain of salt).

    I’m starting to see experienced allies players really spam out tons of UK fighters. It’s like “Dark Skies” in reverse. I call it “Tan Skies.” I’ve seen UK players buying 3-4 fighters 3-4 turns in a row. It’s a really good allies strategy!

    I just lost a game…partly due to losing an important battle on turn 5 at Bryansk. The Russian player didn’t have to move back due to already adding a stack of UK fighters.

    I had two options…move my stack to Smolensk to force the Russian stack back to Moscow…or hit it at Bryansk. I chose to hit Bryansk because there were 3 more UK fighters read to come up from Persia and like 5 at Egypt. My odds were about 68%; not great, but I really got diced. By Turn 7, there were 16 allied fighters added to the Russian stack at Bryansk, and another 5 in Moscow for interceptor defense. Virtually impossible to defeat this.

    The speed with which UK players are getting fighters to Russia leads me to two Courses of Action (COA) we should consider more often:

    1. Sea Lion: Us Axis (favored players) need to re-think executing this strategy more often. Too many times were letting UK players get away with only placing, 2-3 infantry/1 fighter on London, or just 2 fighters there.

    2. Get Cairo: Germany could invest the required resources to get Cairo. This also shuts down the UK fighter spam, and simultaneously leads to more NOs.

    Either COA isn’t great…but at this point in time, we need to get the UK player(s) honest again. Knocking out Moscow on Turn 6 or 7 is not happening anymore.

    What say you?

  • '16 '15 '10

    Bryansk stack is great if it can be pulled off.  It slows down Axis momentum for a turn.

    The way around it as Axis is consolidate your main stack to Belorussia on G4.  So if Allies stack Bryansk, Axis goes to Smolensk.  After Allies retreat to Moscow, Axis moves to Bryansk.  Now Axis has the advantage because the Axis army is between Moscow and the Middle East.

    Your opponent lucked out winning the 32% battle, but it was an unnecessary risk on your part.

    When I first started playing Global I assumed that Axis were screwed if they didn’t capture an Allied capital in the first 10 rounds, but now I know better.


  • I 100% agree with Zhukov’s thoughts.  The northern route to the Middle East is often faster, especially if Russia is getting huge amounts of help from UK.  If you have some Italian canopeners, they can’t split they would have to have seven or eight blockers in Smolensk to prevent a possible fast moving raid from Belarus to Moscow.  With a large group of blockers, the Germans just take Smolensk with minimal losses.

    Key to this plan is a large build of tanks & mechs on G2 and G3 since they can get to the combat zones in time to force retreat.

  • '17

    @Zhukov44:

    The way around it as Axis is consolidate your main stack to Belorussia on G4. � So if Allies stack Bryansk, Axis goes to Smolensk. � After Allies retreat to Moscow, Axis moves to Bryansk. � Now Axis has the advantage because the Axis army is between Moscow and the Middle East.

    In the game I described…I marched to Leningrad first with the majority starting German infantry/art. My G1 purchase was 1 bomber, 3 artillery / 2 infantry. A game played just before the one I described, I did stack in Belarus. Allies stacked in Bryansk. I then moved to Smolensk in order to push them back to Moscow. I shouldn’t have rolled the dice.

    I used to buy 6 artillery and 2 infantry G1 and march towards Bryansk through Belorussia…then G2 mechs/tanks, G3 mechs/tanks…G4 hopefully buying on Ukraine and Leningrad and air on w. Germany or Germany. I’ll try going back to this route again. I usually bring Italians for can openers…ect in order to get to Stalingrad or Caucasus, ect.

    I stopped doing this southern route lately I think mainly due running into KGF opponents and believing that I needed to get the 1st NO very quickly. I thought my southern route was broken. Also, I don’t think Sea Lion is off the table if I buy all ground G1…It’s actually been beneficial for me one time for a successful Sea Lion, defending against Russia and hitting London.

  • '21 '20 '18 '17

    If the Germans have a fleet, they can attack up north from SZ 112 (threatening Karelia, Novo, Arch, Nemestia), there has to be a specific LZ for the fighters to cross which you can threaten or deny as long as you have attacked them on G2 or G1.    Fighters crossing the med have a slow time of it.    Maybe some help can come in the form of making it more inconvenient for the UK fighters to get into Russia in the first place?

    I also dislike blowing the Russian NO by having allies hanging out in Russia before its abs necessary, but that could be pretty early in the game.

    “Sea Lion”  if the USSR has a fleet and Novogrod, they can keep this threat alive for a long time.  No matter what I want to do with UK, I usually end up buying 6+1 and bringing as many Canadians across as I can.  If I lose any significant ## of fighters, UK has to continue to worry that Germany can bring wave after wave of attackers, which keeps me conservative.  This is why the Gibraltar air base or crossing to Russia early would be difficult;  I don’t have enough fighters to protect UK and project threat.  Once they cross to Russia, they cant cross back…

    “Get Cairo”  That sounds awesome but with a UK bid of 10, its not going to happen.  If Germany and Italy build/rebuild navy and try to control the Med, that’s a subtle win for the Allies.  Navy is resource intensive and takes away the armor punch described by the other posters.  Without an added commit, I just don’t see how the Axis can take Egypt at all, there are just too many UK pieces around there.  Germany can fly or bring ships down there but its a 1 way trip, into a dead end trap, and its away from the critical path (Russia)

    “Tan Skies”  you are on the right track;  if UK has 6+ fighters it is kicking butt, if not, it feels cornered and powerless.  The key for the axis is to do the strongest opener that doesn’t invite any scrambles, then the UK navy is dead and Germany has most of its air left.  The UK also doesn’t need to lose any (many) fighters during its opener, other stuff can take the casualties.  Its especially good if the airforce from Taranto lives to fight another day (by avoiding the Italian counterstrike, we hope 1 sb 1 French inf 1 tac 1 fighter on Syria?)

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