United Kingdom -underrated in all ways


  • If you try to search the Internet and forums like these, you’ll find very few strategies and very little discussion on the UK. Most seem to view the UK as merely an American airbase in Europe, and restrict the British role in the game to helping Russia, and bombing Germany once in a while. Some even say that there is no point in fighting for Africa for the British, and that it should concentrate entirely on Europe (even though Africa accounts for 1/3 of the UK’s income). I think that the UK is underrated, both concerning her strategic possibilities and how fun she is to play. Along with Germany, the UK is the most interesting country to play on the board.
    At the start of the game, the British Empire is still vast. However, it is under pressure on all fronts and British forces throughout the world are spread too thin to defend it all. But, if you play the UK right, and your allies are co-operative and helpful (As the Allies should be to each other), you can re-establish the British Empire as the dominant world power. Here is a strategy that I have found works very well:

    1st turn
    You have to convince the Soviet Union to send one of its aircraft to Egypt-Sudan and the other to India, on the condition that you move your planes to Soviet territory. This will prevent Germany from taking Egypt-Sudan the first turn and will greatly help India build up to confront the Japanese. The Soviet fleet must also move into the North Sea, of course.
    When it is your turn, build an IC in India, and spend the rest of your money on a fighter and an infantry. If you have the fleet to do it, capture Norway. You don’t want such a beatiful country to fall into Stalin’s hands. After that, move your infantry in Persia into India, your infantry in Syria into Egypt and your infantry in South Africa to Kenya-Rhodesia. Also persuade the United States to move at least one infantry from Singkiang into India. The Japanese should not be able to take India now.

    2nd turn
    Build an aircraft carrier in the North Sea in agreement with the USA that they land two aircraft on it. Build 3 infantry to defend India. In this round or the next, you should also be strong enough to move into German-occupied Algeria or Libya.

    After this, continue to reinforce your India fortress and it should be safe. Throw the Germans out of Africa and continue building a strong navy for the assault on continental Europe. You should also help the Soviets with aircraft.


  • I agree that with a little luck an adroit player can turn Britain into a real monster, but I do see at least one problem with your proposal. By splitting the soviet airforce between AES and India you’re again spreading your forces too thin. Concentrate on one or the other. By splitting your airforce between the two locations, instead of consolidating them in one teritory, you reduce the effectiveness of your potential defensive capability in both territories. If you like an IC in India fine, but make sure you can hold it. With both Soviet fighters, plus the American Infantryman and the American fighter in SingKiang, plus what ever British fighters you can move through Karelia down to India you can hold it for a very long time. Alternatively, both Soviet fighters plus British reinforcements from India will make it well nigh impossible for the Germans to take AES before the Americans can land reinforcements in Africa.


  • I think it is a good strategy except for the splitting of the two fighters. Instead move them both to AES and have the US retreat into India from Sinkiang and China. That should work because no one will ever invade india on J1. However, the fighters flying to AES might be a problem because on G1 AES is normally taken. So you want to the fighters to Syria-Iraq if AES is taken. Then from there launch a campaign to retake Afrika und invade Italien.

    :-? Bad Desertfox, giving advice that might work against you as Germany. :-?


  • Even if the US is willing to retreat into India, the US’s turn if after Japan and if Japan sees an IC in India, she will go for it with all she’s got. After testing my strategy, I now see it might be wise to concentrate solely on India, and re-take Africa from there, but the Americans can’t get into India before the Japanese can, and the Russians aren’t always too co-operative :P


  • i too like the more “think about your own power and country instead of becoming a mindless slave for the greater good” funnier. Its less effective but makes it more “real”

    oh if the trn in suez survives you can ferry 2inf from Australia to India.

    The weak point of your tactic is that i cant see how you can hold an fortify India, retake Africa, Threathen Europe and help out Russia all at once.

    if the germans have a mediteranean fleet in place any attempt to retake africa from India wont get you far. Italy isnt threathened either.

    so either you try to sink the nazi fleet at high ftr cost which you desperately need for defence and flexibility or you move with your fleet in which case i would gladly sack the german fleet with yours at a much higher cost for the brits because i can use my full airforce.

    ok german turn ferry 2inf to libya. build 1 or 2 trns. then on german 2nd turn i can attack Egypt with 7inf arm and airforce.

    Im not saying tactic is bad, an agressive approach helps. But i think its too much for the brits and you spread yourself too thin. I would focus more on India. You can still annoy the germans by landings in algerya though, forcing them to set up defences in order to stop you from blitzing back africa.


  • A few days back, I played as the UK, with a very selfish American player and a Russian player who was less than smart (Luckily we managed to convince him NOT to attack Manchuria :P). Anyways, I went for the India gambit, and reinforced it as much as I could in the first turn (Without any help from my allies and with no forces in Africa to draw from). The Japanese player, realizing what a danger an enemy factory in India represented, attacked with everything he got, as most would. However, he had terrible luck with the dices and I crushed him. But he did manage to take Singkiang later on, and when the American played asked me for help to re-take it, I did. However, that weakened India and the Japanese attacked again, and this time managed to take it. At this point, I had lost all of Africa -Madagascar, and the American player, pursuing a policy of completely ignoring Europe and using all his money on a fleet to crush to Japanese, refused me any help. When I tried to build a fleet at home, the Luftwaffe dealt with it swiftly. In the end, the Allies actually won, but it turned out to be an absurd and quite boring game.
    So my question is, when the Allies are playing in a manner in which co-operation is very limited (Some would say that is very stupid, but we are very competative and like it that way), how can the UK player do good, without expecting any help from her allies?


  • Go for Afrika (I like spelling Africa Afrika) instead of india. Build an IC in SA, or if possible in AES. Ignore india except to withdraw from it. Afrika is worth more than india and is more easily reinforceable. Build a carrier with one aircraft off of the SA IC and bring the sub and BB in the Med to Cape of Good Hope. From there build aircraft on UK and move your large fleet up to Britain where you can build Trannies and men for D-Day. (Save some money from turn one so you can by the Carrier and ftr on B2 in SA)


  • But wouldn’t the South Africa IC be worthless after I seize Africa, and exposed to both Japanese invasion and strategic bombing?


  • The IC would be proctected by three inf and atleast one ftr by J1. (They would be taken from India.) So UK1 buy 1 IC in SA and 2 inf (to keep an invasion of the British Isles at bay). UK2 buy 1 AC and 1 ftr. UK3 buy another ftr and 2 tanks. UK 4 buy 2 ftrs. Then prepare for an invasion of Europe after Afrika has been protected. (An invasion from Libya into SE with help from America would be nice.) Build 3 trannies UK5 and 4 tanks on UK6 and then launch the Invasion on UK7.

  • 2007 AAR League

    Haha, I love Norwegians :D. The British are underrated and I love your strategy. In fact, I’ve seen games when the British flag has flown over Berlin and Tokyo.


  • Britian is way underrated as they alone on the Allied side can dictate tempo to the Axis. I love getting British HBs in order to take Berlin. When this happens the Uk usually dominates the world.


  • So no-one here sees any problem in Britain abandoning India and using everything they have to secure Africa fast?


  • Nope why should they its like cutting off a finger to save the hand.


  • So no-one here sees any problem in Britain abandoning India and using everything they have to secure Africa fast?

    Well GB basically has a choice as to which one they want to keep. I don’t believe GB will be able to keep both, so which to choose? I generally pick Africa for the following reasons:

    1. Africa will provide about 3X the ipcs each turn that India will.

    2. Once secured after an early German romp, Africa can almost always be kept for the entire game, whereas India will always be threatened (until eventually taken by Japan :( ) This is because a good UK player will sink the German Navy and Germany cannot afford to rebuild it. Japan is too far away from Africa to sucessfully take it as the UK will be able to see Japan coming and can counter. Also this is not the best move by Japan as for the Axis to win, Japan must send almost all of its resources into Asia to help Germany with Russia.

    3. By focusing on Africa, the UK player weakens Germany (rather than slowing Japan down with holding India). This will lead to Germanys collapse sooner and the UK will be able to capitalize with taking W. Europe and possibly Germany, S. Europe, and/or E. Europe as well. With this kind of cashflow, the UK player will then have the money to go after Japan, even though Japan is far away.

    Of course if you want to play a different game, concentrating on India can be a viable strategy for UK. The US/UK should be able to kick Germany out of Africa eventually anyway and even when India falls to Japan, it does have the advantage of slowing Japan down.

    Its just not the most efficient warplan for Britian.


    1. Africa will provide about 3X the ipcs each turn that India will.

    And don’t forget that the African Ipcs are most likely to be German rather than Japanese. It makes a big difference to have Germany at 30-33 as opposed to 39-42. 3ipcs(India) makes little to no difference to the Japanese in the grand scheme of things. I see big problems with a Japan first strategy primary among these are that Germany can get too big and walk through Ukr, Cauc and eventually take Karelia. If there are no masses of Allied troops preparing to take WEuro/FinNor then the Allies are in big trouble even if the push against Japan is succeeding.

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