Med thoughts using Alpha plus setup

I was inspired by this thread….

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=29383.msg1050367#new

G1:

Purchase - 30 IPC
1 CV
1 DD
1 SS

Combat:

SZ110:
1 BB via SZ112
All Aircraft less the Tac in Poland and the Ftr in Hungary

SZ106:
2 SS via SZ117 and SZ118

SZ91:
2 SS via SZ108 and SZ103

SZ109:
1 SS via SZ124

Normandy:
2 Inf/Art via Holland

France:
3 Arm S.Germany
4 Mech, 1 Art, 3 Inf via W.Germany
3 Arm, 2 Inf via Holland
1 Ftr via Hungary
1 Tac via Poland

Yugoslavia:
6 Inf, 2 Art via S.France
3 Arm via Poland, Hungary and Romania
2 Inf via Hungary
1 Inf via Romania

Only thing to realistically note about this move is that if you sink all the ships in SZ110 and the BB is remaining, retreat to SZ112.

NCM:

Finland:
1 Inf via Norway

Bulgaria:
1 Inf via Romania

SZ112:
1 CR via SZ114
1 TT w/ 2 Inf from Poland to Norway
2 Ftr via SZ110

W.Germany:
All remaining Aircraft from France and SZ110

Unit Placement:

Place 1 CV, 1 DD, 1 SS in SZ112

End Move

Notes about this opener:

I like this opener due to the fact that provided the SS score hits in both SZ106 and SZ91 that you effectively eliminate units into England via Canada and help Italy in the Med.  Further, your SS are in a location (SZ106 and 91) that if the DD in SZ109 survives, that the UK has to choose one of the two to hit.

Your fleet in SZ112 has the following in it:
1 CV (with 2 Ftr)
1 CR
1 DD
1 SS
1 TT

It also has the possibility of a tipped BB as well as 3 aircraft to scramble out of W.Germany.  This will most likely deter England from sending its SZ111 fleet against your fleet.  The preservation of your fleet in SZ112 is paramount to allowing for SS builds on G2 and G3 to keep England in a defensive posture until the US establishes a presence of a fleet in Europe.

In example, the UK is going to have to face multiple SS from varied locations and it does not have enough DD to address them all, which enables Germany to establish a convoy on SZ109 as early as G2.  This convoy will probably survive until the 4th round before the US and England can remove your SS and fleet and regain control of the Atlantic.  This is beneficial to enabling a march on Moscow if the Allies cannot just waltz in with TT once the US enters the war.  Further, for every SS you purchase at 6 IPC - England has to spend 8 IPC on a DD to attack it with.  This creates a 2 IPC per SS advantage for Germany on top of any Convoy damage England takes.

The drawback to this is that Germany will probably not make significant headway into Russia until G4 - but it also enables Japan to work its magic of getting China under control while establishing an AB in Northern China to fly in its entire starting Air Force in support of your delayed entrance into Russia.  Many Japanese players will not buy into this tactic, but from an Axis perspective, If Germany owns Moscow then the fight is for Egypt - which Japan can assist with via its fleet sailing PAST Calcutta and into the Med.  A combined Japanese/Italian move against Egypt is almost impossible to stop - especially if Germany is providing air cover out of W.Germany once Moscow falls.

3.5 is just changes made to the original 3 setup. I was confused because I got cards from here saying that there was no italian destroyer and transport in 96 and I was just questioning if it had been removed. We have since marked those ships on our cards.

I do not like the idea of having Japan need all those territories for an NO.  There are so many avenues of attack, it seems hard to imagine Japan getting the NO for more than a round and if they did, then they would be in a position that they would not need it.

I feel it may be a better solution if Japan were to have an NO for Hong Kong (Kwangtung), Manilla (Philippines) and Kiangsu (Beijing).  The problem is, those are all victory cities, so wouldn’t Japan already be going for those?

Maybe Alaska would be better, since Japan actually did invade Alaska (Aluetian Islands) historically.

@special:

@JimmyHat:

So then perhaps a better poll would be what round do you switch to European front as the US?  It will be important to add that yes we all know all games are different, this is asking for an average.  For my latest game US turned to the Atlantic on turn 7.  After chasing off the Japanese fleet, then capturing and building an IC in Korea.

And what was the situation in Europe after that?

Still to be decided, this game is not over yet.  Germany has reached the German Soviet border and made sure to take and hold all german territories this past turn.(7)  Italy has been bringing 3 turns of 4 trn loads to Syria, a large Italian army is present in Iraq/Persia/Npersia and Most of Germany’s navy is in the Caribbean protecting panama and putting a threat out on the US coast.

@TheDefinitiveS:

So to get the topic back to victory conditions as I have not had a chance to look at alpha setup because im apparently banned from the larry harris website is it 8 out of 11 AND 6 out of 8 VCs or is it 8 out of 11 OR 6 out of 8 VCs

or

would be nice, esp since LH typo’d the original post…

And keep in mind that alpha is not the final setup. Larry has expressed doubts that something is wrong with alpha and is waiting for someone to “break” the alpha setup. Hopefully, at the end of all this, we will get a setup that is as balanced as possible