Elven - 10 transports! I like it. Economically, two of those transports might be a carrier for me… but if you handed me a game with 10 japanese transports on the board, I’d be pretty ok with that.
To everything else you said… yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. And I don’t mean that facetiously; we just think alike.
BJCard - G4 talk! Very fun to talk about.
Firstly - the reason for delaying: it’s all about creating an unstoppable infantry/artillery force, and making Russia pay you 5 IPCs per turn to feed wheat to the new troops you’re mobilizing :-D
J4 brings a similar benefit - 10 IPCs per round for not attacking F Indo, + paralyzes the US and their economy. Back to Germany and a G4 Barbarossa…
Basic basics - Germany has the ability in this game to create a dominant fleet in SZ112. Add a few ground troops to Normandy, and a decent amount of fighters defending the fleet (carriers + airbase W Germany), you can hold out for a long, long time against superior allied fleets. And just when they think they’ve got you, you add a carrier (best) or an airbase to Denmark (ok). Or a single destroyer in the English Channel. Creating and maintaining this fleet presence keeps the allies out of Norway and Normandy, and keeps forcing them to buy non-transports and non-land units to overcome your ever-growing Kriegsmarine/Luftwaffe combo.
The only way to win the game of Axis and Allies (other than surrender) is for your opponent to get land units to your capitals/victory cities. The more non-transports and non-land units your opponent is buying, the better. I’ve never seen a victory city taken by a nice looking group of fighters. You have to put boots on the ground. There, I italicized the whole d$#%^d paragraph, because to me it’s that important.
So the German fleet/air achieves something terribly important - keeping large quantities of men from landing on your shore… the US keeps buying non territory-taking subs/destroyers/planes to overcome your fleet… good!
But the second (and more rewarding) part of the SZ112 spiked shield is this: it buys you an amazing amount of time to isolate and dismantle Russia, piece by bloody piece. Important components:
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Buy in the correct proportion. 6 infantry/artillery/mech infantry/2 armor/fighter/destroyer is a 56 IPC buy I can really, really sink my teeth into. This kind of a purchase, from G2 forward, gives you a crazy amount of versatility and flexibility in your decision making. You can be all things against your enemies, as needed - growing navy, growing air force, lots of infantry for both offense and defense, artillery for punch, mech infantry to needle behind enemy lines, and armor to carry the Wehrmacht to victory in Moscow.
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Take Novgorod as soon as possible, of course: for obvious economic reasons and for the purchasing power. This should never be in question, based on what you start the game with, unless Russia sells out to keep it, in which case you go south and make them wish they had stayed in the middle of the board.
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In the meantime, you’ve pooled a good sized infantry/artillery glob… this will be able to muscle into Belarus and then attrit Russia relentlessly.
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And my favorite part: using an ever-growing mechanized force/aircraft to encircle Moscow, both north and south, and feast upon the Russian hinterlands. It is great fun to send a couple armor and a couple mech past the giant Russian monolith and take economy all around the perimeter. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to get away with it, even when the person I’m playing knows it’s coming… because the large German infantry/artillery force makes the infantry-based Red Army static, and predictable.
So yes there is a wall of Russian infantry waiting, and yes it is bigger than the Geman forces lined up against it… but if you’ve been purchasing well, your defensive value is better than the Russians can handle… and when Russia holes up and still has 60 infantry, guess what? Next round, through attrition there’ll only be 56… then 53… then 48… etc. My mechanized forces with the help of Italy make a mess of any relief coming up through the Caucasus region… and Russia will fall. Maybe turn 11, or 12, or 13, or whatever.