Need help as Axis in Alpha +3

[Alsch91]

@Spendo02:

Factor in some blocking and you can delay the arrival of US units by at least a turn, possibly 2 giving German Controlled London time to mass up some Inf.

This is why Italy needs to ignore N.Africa.  Once you allow the US to get an IC anywhere in Europe, the tides change for the Axis.

I don’t quite see the connection here, Spendo.
Considering the Brits are out of the picture, why not take the North African territories?  It’s not terribly difficult.
If you’re thinking that US could take Morocco and then place a naval base there, that’s a solid point.  It leaves their land forces vulnerable, but it’s a good point.

And Rocmonster-
How can you compensate for the loss of 150 IPCs in Russia?  I don’t doubt for a second you could take all of Africa given enough time, but frankly I don’t see how you could make up for that quickly enough.

[theROCmonster]

I am not saying do this early on. This move of taking africa can’t be done till at least T9-10. 150 is a lot of money to take away from Russia, but what you have to realize is Russia can’t really go many spaces past moscow with their massive infantry arty stack because then Germany can then just do a blitz with all their 2 move units and take moscow behind the massive infantry stacks back. With Italy building all infantry Germany can build 100% for Russia for at least 10 turns. Making 600 IPC’s worth of ground units roughly going toward russia on the buys alone, plus the units germany starts with.

[Spendo02]

I’m saying its more valuable to take the European Neutrals (Yugo, Greece, Bulgaria) in the first two turns for Italy because you don’t expose your Trn to the UK navy.  Especially if I2 you are placing an AC in SZ97 and landing 2 Ftrs on it.

I3 is kind of a slack turn for Italy as you are buying Trn to move the remaining units from the Neutral crush into Egypt.

You may be facing a situation where you have no units in N.Africa at that point due to no reinforcements and the UK playing aggressively there.  If you engaged in a staring contest, all the better.  You can still take take Tunisia if you want, Algeria at most.  I wouldn’t suggest Morocco because you would have to divert too many units to defending it from a US landing and potential US Naval Base.

Basically you aren’t even considering N.Africa until at the earliest I5/I6 because Egypt is your goal and not the NO for controlling N.Africa.  You’ll get a NO by taking Egypt anyways (due to S.France and Greece under Axis Control).  Really, you  just waste resources and fall into a trap if you try to take N.Africa as it spreads you too thin because you can’t advance and defend your flank without giving up control of Yugo and Greece.

Let the UK take your sole territory worth any IPC in Libya.  You’re more than making up for it with other territories that are harder for the UK to reclaim.  You get the added bonus of not having to take and defend Morocco if you decide to disable the Naval Base in Gibraltar which will be Public Enemy #1 for the US if you disabled Gibraltar.

In a nutshell, you don’t even worry about N.Africa because once Egypt falls, you have Iraq to take which is a NO for the Axis, and you have the remainder of Africa to race across with IPC producing territories that are much easier to defend and take than wasting the resources taking and holding until much later in the game.  Besides, with Egypt in Italy’s hands, you enable Germany to ignore Moscow’s 10 billion infantry chipped up and just push right after Leningrad and Stalingrad for the VC win before the US really threatens much more than London.

[Young Grasshopper]

The UK startup units in the Med and Africa are formidable even if London falls, I agree that the Italians should still proceed with caution after sealion.

[Alsch91]

@theROCmonster:

With Italy building all infantry Germany can build 100% for Russia for at least 10 turns.

I’d disagree with this.  A concentrated Allied force will neutralize Italy, forcing it to turtle in Northern/Southern Italy, and reducing its income to nothing beyond inland territories.  It won’t be able to lend much of a hand to Germany for as long as 10 turns, I’d say, especially if Germany isn’t helping to slow down the Western Allies with any sort of Atlantic investments.

[theROCmonster]

1st turn I build AC/DD/Sub. This is enough to really hurt the allies in the atlantic for a while. Granted after a while the allies will overwhelm Italy, but it takes time.

[suprise attack]

Use every avalible resorce to hurt your enemy and take out as many pieces as possible as early as possible. Bomb the hell out of Britian and then Russia,  take the British money and use it against Russia and for homeland defence.  In our last game where the allies lost all three axis were knocking on the Russian door.  It was ALPHA+2 and it was one on one (double boards set up) but i think the basic principals apply
  Keep a good frame of mind (lotto winner attaude) even after a bad set of rolls
  3 weeks ago I failed to take France on turn 1 The week before I almost didnt take it on 1 so the next week I hit it harder and failed two weeks went by and I was all three and I had some good dice and the Axis got it
  I havent played the latest 3 or 3.5 but from what i read it seems like it favors the Axis slightly more than the +2
good luck and if at first you dont succeed try,try again