• I apologize if this has been discussed already (I didn’t see anything when I was searching the message board), but Curious what everyone thinks about proactively pulling out of London on UK2. Ive been thinking about the cost of such a move and I think it balances out and may even put me in a better position down the road, especially if Germany looks like it is preparing for Sea Lion.

    Defending London can be a pricey proposition, especially if Germany is throwing everything it has at you, but I’m asking myself is it really important to keep London? If you invest heavily to defend at all costs, you end up with a lot of IPCs potentially trapped. Yes, by retreating you’re guaranteed to lose your banked IPCs when London falls, but there is a good chance you’ll lose them anyways, especially if Germany is committed to Sea Lion. You have to ask at what cost do I try to defend?

    Bringing the US and Russia into the game early is a wash when you look at the 20 IPCs and 9 IPCs they get respectively. Germany does gain the 8 IPCs for controlling England and Scotland, but Germany no longer gets the 5 IPCs for not being at war with the Soviets so a net gain of 3 at the end of the day. To me getting my fighters and bomber out on UK2 along with whatever navy survives out on UK1 is worth more than 3 IPCs a round IMO.

    To prepare for my evacuation, on my UK1 buy I would invest in S Africa a fighter and tank to help push north and take out the Italian presence in Africa and meet up with my other troops in Egypt. With my remaining IPCs I’d buy 4 infantry to put in England so When the Germans do invade on G3, I’ve moved out my fighters and bomber already and hopefully take out a few German fighters with the 5 AAA (consolidate from Scotland) and make a dent into the German landing force with my 8 infantry and 1 MI left behind. This is all based on a G3 Sea Lion and getting a UK2 buy before London falls, where I’d have 34 IPCs to spend. Once again I would invest in SA two bombers and another fighter to bolster my fire power. If I’ve managed to not lose any planes in the Med on UK1 my combined air power would be 8 fighters, 1 TB and 2 SB, more than enough to cause significant disruption in n Africa and the Med. I would also have attacked the Italian fleet on UK1 to weaken their position in the Med.

    Knowing the US could liberate London if I want to go that route, it seems to make sense to get as much out of London so I can use them more effectively elsewhere. Thoughts?


  • @jscam74

    This would be a fantastic tactic to use in a game, if only it allowed for Germany to spend their IPC’s accordingly on a proper Sea Lion invasion.

    To put simply, the UK reacts to whatever Germany does. If Germany goes for London, then the UK prioritizes London. If Germany goes for Africa, then the UK prioritizes Africa.

    All it would take for me to get you to pull out EVERY single unit from London would be to employ a fake Sealion attack of mobilizing the classic Sealion build of an aircraft carrier and 2 transports, because this build screams Sealion at the UK player, I’ve pretty much just told you I’m going to do Sealion. You pull out of London without Germany even having spent the 49 IPC’s on 7 transports to bring units onto London, only having to take 3 transports worth of units to secure London and Scotland, not spend anything to do it, and keep all their said units alive for Barbarossa and potentially Afrika Korps.

    This wouldn’t be cost effective even the slightest, the British really can’t afford to hand London to Germany like this because frankly, even if you get the German player to spend those 49 IPC’s on a bunch of transports they won’t end up using, the whole key factor of defending London is to make sure Germany at the very least has to fight for it, giving up something to compensate for another factor whilst not taking away from the preexisting German army just is not a cost-effective method, each player of the Allied team should be doing absolutely everything in their power to whittle away the German War Machine as much as possible. It’s their duty to make sure that whatever strategy the German player attempts to employ that the Allies should make damn well assure that Germany costs dearly in another aspect to which they did not do.

    That’s the whole idea of Sealion, when Germany sends 10 infantry and 10 armory and a crap ton of the Luftwaffe to the British Isles they are doing so at the cost of really setting themselves back with the inevitable invasion of the Soviet Union, let alone the fact that the Soviet Union will be put in the position of going on the offensive.

    Just my thoughts though, personally I’m not one to give something up without a fight as the Allied player, since being able to cut away from the inevitable Axis success is always the #1 priority as of early-mid game.

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