1. Germany allows the Allies early progress in Europe in exchange for later African IPCs. Germany fueled by African IPCs and a significant and constant threat to Africa is a major problem for the Allies.
“And if you spend too much ipc to avoid this, you’ll maybe conquer Africa - but on the expense of Eastern Europe, Norway and eventually Berlin…?”
No, not really. UK has less IPCs to fuel its attack; Germany has more to fuel its defense. Norway should always fall quickly anyways.
Besides, the German fleet isn’t dedicated to Africa. The idea is not for Germany to try to load up Africa; that’s just crazy talk. If US loads Africa, great, Germany loads to Europe, and US is stuck walking through Africa. If US doesn’t load Africa, great, Germany maintains control of Africa. If US loads Africa a bit, Germany lets the Allies take a few early gains, and takes back whenever it pleases; with a big threat on the Algeria (west of Africa) sea zone, US can either build a fat fleet (delaying it), or transport via Brazil (also delaying).
2. 5 UK air have a hard time vs 2 battleships 2 carriers 4 fighters. That’s with the Japanese fleet sailing through the Suez on J2, which is hard to prevent with an AC/transport buy for Germany.
3. “I find that the german navy often goes from being a threat . . . to being outnumbered and outcornered in just a few rounds” of course, but I bet you are probably not used to playing a G1 Med carrier (possibly plus) buy strategy, which plays out a lot differently than 5 inf/5 tank or even early Med sub stall buys.
I’m not going to say that G1 Med fleet purchase is the bomb diggity. But it isn’t some stupid noob strategy either. The key is the J2 movement of battleship/carrier through the Suez; how can UK try to stop it, how can Germany and Japan try to make it happen. Everything else comes from that.