Operation Underbelly (part 5)
Meanwhile, in Europe…
This depiction assumes your 3 “flex” infantry were placed in Georgia.
Essentially, what I feel the strategy in Europe should be, is to gradually build up a spearhead which can defeat NATO. This leg of the operation extends beyond the opening moves (and as such, is mostly just a hypothesis) so I’ll try and lay out the thinking behind it.
The frontline territories of this theatre are West Germany (opposite France) and Yugoslavia (opposite Italy.) As mentioned early on, one of our wider strategic goals is the securing of our “back-line” positions; controlling West Germany achieves this objective, because it blocks the strait into the Baltic Sea, thus protecting Poland and the Baltic States from amphibious invasion. Attacking West Germany on round 1 also serves to destroy all the valuable NATO equipment which begins the game there. But what about later in the game?
Since our focus with this strategy is in Asia, our unit output in Europe is a lot more limited. So, in order to create this proposed spearhead, we need to be constantly building forces along our frontline and coastal territories, but likewise always moving them towards the “tip” of the spear.
Every turn, we should be placing infantry in Europe, something like this:
4 inf - Karelia
4 inf - West Germany [or Poland + Baltic States]
4 inf - Yugoslavia + Greece [substituting in Romania, if one is under NATO control]
After our 1st turn, we’re not going to continue placing in East Germany; these essentially become “static divisions.” Instead, what we’ll be doing is moving our forces down from Karelia, to the Baltic States, then Poland, and onto one of our “frontline” territories. Now, you’ll notice that if we also place in Poland on round 2 (while moving our units forward) we end up with a solid infantry wall, along the Baltic coast; Karelia, Baltic States, Poland, and East Germany will each have 4 infantry on them (at all times) and this can be sustained simply by placing 4 infantry in Karelia each turn, and moving them forward as part of building up our spearhead. The next question is, where should this spearhead be positioned?
It is my suspicion that NATO will try and create diversionary attacks into either Yugoslavia or Greece, for as many turns as possible. This leads me to the conclusion that our aim should be to eventually rally Armor Group A and Armor Group B in Yugoslavia, as well as funneling our infantry towards this frontline territory (if even that means going through West Germany first, for a few rounds.) Having tanks here allows us to crush any landings in Greece, and then regroup; Yugoslavia is also what I consider the “keystone state” of Europe, since it borders such strategically important territories as Italy and West Germany, and is a gateway to the Balkans. However, marshalling our spearhead around the territory of Yugoslavia necessarily means abandoning West Germany – this is why we need to have our “Baltic Wall” in place (to defend our back-line territories) when we choose to make this move.
So when is the right time to do this? Well, if we place in Poland on round 2, we could conceivably vacate West Germany at the same time, but chances are, we won’t have the Balkans pacified that early (although it depends on what NATO does.) As mentioned before, it will take until round 3 (at the earliest) for Reserve Group A to be redeployed to Yugoslavia, so it might be wise to time it to coincide with that action (assuming that’s even what we’ll end up doing.) It also probably makes sense to not abandon West Germany until we’re in a position to take territory that can replace the income we’d be losing from such a move.
As a side note, I think it’s probably worthwhile to still place 4 infantry in West Germany, on the turn that you choose to abandon it. This is probably enough defense to keep WE from being able to liberate the territory, meaning that even if another NATO partner does so, they at least won’t receive any income from it.
At this point, we have to make another major decision: where to attack. It might seem the obvious answer is that we’re going to invade Italy; not necessarily. Since the US will be able to set up their shuck-shuck into France, the responsibility for defending Italy falls to the Europeans. If they’re focusing their defensive capabilities here (and not spreading token forces out to Norway or Indochina, for example) Italy can still be a tough nut to crack. The alternative? Switzerland.
If we have set up our supply lines (along the Baltic Wall) we should be funneling troops from Karelia, through Poland, Yugoslavia, and then into the Swiss Alps – while securely defending our back-line territories, and keeping NATO out of the Balkans. What taking Switzerland does, is allow us another centralized “keystone” territory, from which we now threaten both Italy and France; since we’re using exclusively armor in Europe (rather than air power) we don’t have to worry about the inability to land aircraft in Switzerland, once we capture it. This forces NATO to make the decision of whether to keep their forces split (allowing our single, unified force to potentially crush one of theirs) or, to rally in a single territory (likely France) and let us simply walk into the other (in that case, Italy.)
Obviously, taking either territory would be a huge coup; Italy in particular (I feel) allows us an excellent staging point from which to secure our back lines, and shore up our position for the continued offensive towards WE’s capitol. Unlike West Germany, it has a factory, so if our income is high enough (once we’ve captured India) Italy can start producing tanks, right on the front lines.
Also worth noting, is that by putting so much pressure on India, we’ve likely kept the British out of Europe – whether that be in Norway, France, the Baltic, or the Mediterranean. This should have the net effect of making this Europe strategy more likely to succeed. The India-focus might also weaken the US presence in Europe, particularly if they decide to shore up southeast Asia, while also trying to push into North Korea or Siberia.
Plan B?
Now, I feel that there is also a distinct alternative to this execution, which circumvents the necessity for the “Baltic Wall.” If the USSR controls Sweden, then NATO cannot cross the strait into the Baltic Sea (even if NATO is in control of West Germany.) However, this ultimately implies a strategy of making Norway the main focus (rather than Italy or France) which I think it shouldn’t be. Taking over Sweden allows you to abandon West Germany (i.e. in favour of Switzerland or Yugoslavia) but if you have been committing forces to Scandinavia instead of central Europe… what’s even the point?
I do think that once the India front has been subdued, you can look into purchasing a couple of heavy armor units in Karelia, to sweep through Scandinavia. But, I feel that this should only be done once the “Baltic Wall” has been well-established, and you can afford to supplement the coastal defense of Karelia with infantry drawn from Belarus or Orel (places where you otherwise would never bother placing units) once you have the income to do so.
