• I was recently looking at (and responding to) the thread about what to do with the 12$ at the start of each sides turn. Eventually this thread led to a bit of a dsicussion over what to do with the German fleet in the Med. Some use it to take out destroyer in Gibraltar and others use it for Middle East push. I am relatively new at this game (I’ve played it about a dozen times) and I was wondering what people’s thoughts are concerning the Middle East. Some people say going after middle east oil is a waste of time. So I am just wondering what everyone out there thinks about this. I always try to get the mideast oil because it has an effect of 16$. 8 to germand and 8 away from the allies.

    To go or not to go after middle east oil. That is the question. Why? or why not?


  • If the game took longer to reach moscow (more than 8 turns or so) it would be worth it.
    The problem here is simply the fact that it doesn’t pay for it’s self for the resources needed.

    For this example a lot of stuff is assumed.

    You will probably need to take an artillary and man off of north italy (kill the malta fighter) which costs 7 ipc’s. The next turn you are lucky if you can get egypt (Doubltful you will since the uk can block with the fleet. Assuming this, we will suppose you can take egypt the next turn. Great, you get 1 ipc, the allies 12. This money goes into effect turn 4. The next turn you take syria also. ok, +2 more (allies -2) Total gain 7 ipc’s. Now it’s turn 5, you have +7 from oil, but subtract the 7 for forces needed, for all your efforts you have gained nothing so far, and you don’t get the benefit of killing the destroyer with the fleet (50% you lose a sub) More importantly, you don’t get to move the fleet to the atlantic to harass the allies. The second hit on your battleship can only be used once. It’s turn 5 and you have nothing yet from all of it, and you didn’t get to transport stuff on africa to europe (a valuable move to maximize tank output in later turns) So you don’t really get ahead until turn 6 when you should be taking moscow, or about to take it. You also lose valuable moves.

    Another thing, the money the allies had to pay comes from usa. In my opinion the usa’s cash isn’t worth as much as germany’s. Therefore, overall it’s a waste. The only good thing, is you kill a fighter. The bad thing is the allies have an easier time landing in france, and to kill the destroyer in strait of gibraltar, you send a sub (you can’t take a convoy worth 3 now) So, the allies gain 3 ipc’s early on. Cash early is worth more than cash later… there are other reasons too, like the men taken from europe early on can’t pressure russia to trade belorussia in the mid-game which is important.


  • One game when my friend was Germany, he used his 12 to place in Africa, easily took out the oil lands, and was knocking on Russia’s back door. He won that game due to bad luck on the Allies’ part, but he did have all the oil lands. I think those extra IPCs (not to mention threatening Russia) were pretty helpful to him.


  • I think it is more worth while too use the med. fleet to attack allied forces in the alantic.


  • In the first round take 1 artillery + 1 infantry on the transport and amphibious assault libya and move your battleship and destroyer in for offshore support while attacking from Tunisia as well (all ships should be in the Central Mediterranean sea zone). If Britain attacks your battleship, destroyer & transport on their turn with their fighter, destroyer and transport, you have the edge in defense numbers (4, 3, 1 vs. 3, 3 & NA) + the fact that it takes 2 shots to take down a battleship, so in essence its 4 vs. 2 and you should win this battle almost every time. On the 2nd turn, if Britain does not attack, pick up an artillery or infantry from Greece as well as the infantry from Crete for an amphibious assault on Egypt. You will have to use your battleship and destroyer to take out the British destroyer and transport, but again you have the attack numbers advantage (4, 3 vs. 3, 1) as well as the 2-shot battleship, so it is 3 vs. 2. Bring all of your forces from Libya to bear on Egypt along with the aforementioned amphibious assault. In subsequent rounds use your remaining forces to push through the middle east to Russia. This middle-east strategy does not seem very popular on the forum, but moving the German battleship, destroyer and transport to the Atlantic and leaving the British with all of their naval and ground units in tact will allow them to take Germany out of Africa rather quickly and force Germany to leave defensive forces in Greece and Southern Italy that could be used on the Russian front. You can move the German naval units to the Atlantic once the British navy is gone or continue to use them in supporting amphibious attacks on Palestine and Syria (if the British have not already vacated these areas). Taking Britain out of Africa has 3 benefits: it allows Germany to leave places like Greece and Southern Italy completely undefended and to shift those units to bear on Russia, it takes money directly out of the allies pockets and lasts longer than attacking the convoys and it will eventually expose the Russian southern flank and force Russia to shift valuable units to Caucasus for defense. I will admit, it does take time to get through the Middle-East to Russia, but I’ve used this many times and I’ve always gotten to Caucasus without fail.

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