• Hello my fellow A&A maniacs.

    I am unsure if this has ever been discussed but it appears to me that the conquest for Africa is a monumental waste of time and resources for Germany and their push to victory (overrunning USSR). Are there others out there who share this belief?


  • I think attacking Egypt is too vital to pass up on turn 1. If you don’t get rid of the equipment there, it will be used against you to devastating effect, not to mention some of the Indian navy can pass through the canal to make your life difficult should you wish to return to Africa at a later date. Past that, I don’t really know if it’s worth the resources you spend to take Africa once the Allies land a sizeable number of troops there.


  • Mr Tri
    What is vital about Egypt? Not the 2 IPC’s or subsequent 1pt IPC’s which might follow immediately? The B Asia fleet going to the med and running from India, that should make J’s undefended tranny happy? How about the 8 ipc (in material) G saves (by the way if you must tran G1 units to Africa send 1 inf & 1 arm not 1 inf & 1 art but that’s another discussion) for the fight w/USSR and the following turns worth of material IPC’s G sends east against USSR and not to Africa? Would G like to make a stand in UKR w/3-4 fig or possibly place them all in w.euro for upcoming naval battle vs. having them sit in Libya? How about saving your atlantic sub when you send your the sub & G med fleet to attack the B battleship?
    What devastating effect will the B egyptian arm, inf & fig create? It seems that Africa is simply a distraction which deviates G from it’s ultimate goal, overrunning USSR. I look forward to anyone’s comments.


  • I will always attack the Kwangtung transport with the Indian destroyer. But not taking Egypt lets the carrier and transport to go throught the canal, which creates problems. You don’t have to send the whole fleet through…

    The Britsh fleet in the med will consist of a destroyer (which you didn’t kill), a carrier, 2 fighters, and a transport. This threatens Southern Europe so you’re actually forced to deploy units there, which is very annoying as they can’t be sent to Eastern Europe in one turn if thye’re infantry. This also threatens Western Europe, and also gives the British more material with which to destroy your Baltic and Med navies as they try to link up.

    Going into Africa also forces the Allies to do something about it, either a landing in Algeria or some troops from India. If they let Germany run free with whatever units invade Egypt, then the Allies will probably lose. You don’t have to send more than the first turn’s worth of units if you don’t want to, but it’s a cheap price to pay to make them do something about it.

    It seems that Africa is simply a distraction which deviates G from it’s ultimate goal, overrunning USSR. I look forward to anyone’s comments.

    Africa happens to be your only valid way of expanding IPCs. Germany will not be able to go offensively against Russia if the Allies are played well. You need to delay/distract the Allies, that is your main goal as Germany, and a turn 1 invasion of Egypt will do that quite nicely. You save a sub, an infantry, and an artillery, but give the British a carrier, transport, fighter, tank, and infantry to work with? I don’t think so.

    The extra 2 land units you save by not going into Africa on turn 1 is not worth the advantage you’re giving the British. I can see you making arguments for not further reinforcing Africa, but I have yet to hear a logical, convincing argument to skip a turn 1 Egypt attack.

    by the way if you must tran G1 units to Africa send 1 inf & 1 arm not 1 inf & 1 art but that’s another discussion

    Bad plan by the way. Sending a tank there rewards the British even more if they counterattack with Indian troops.


  • what about a german fleet link off france g2.  i have though egypt with the 2 land units, 2 fig and 1 bomb if ukraine fig survives.  risky but should capture with 1 armor, might lose 1 fig though, traps dd in med for later .


  • Mr Tri,

    G would need to go after B DD in med w/AF, also would need to land an inf in Gib to avoid B AF counter attack but I didn’t think I needed to get that specific.

    S.Euro B attack is silly. Unless G makes poor first round purchase (min 10 inf is a MUST) there will be enough units to go around. A few in S.Euro is hardly catastrophic for G.

    In Revised, the G 40 IPC’s are more than enough to take on USSR. Contrary to your argument that this is the only valid way for g to accumulate IPC’s it is the hemorrhaging of IPC/material which the allies can afford and G can’t which is the primary reason not to invade Africa.

    If G is to invade Egypt you need to send the 1 inf & 1 arm because arm now defends on a 3, can blitz through undefended terr. Can counter attack a landing in Algeria, can accumulate more IPC faster if they survive B counter attack.

    I have just reviewed a game between NCSC & Octo (you posted here as well) which Octo attempts a few of these concepts (failure to drop a inf in Gib was a large mistake on his part). So I guess some others out there are at leasting willing to avoid this G standard move. I appreciate your thoughts Tri.


  • It’s tempting to just ignore Africa and focus on the main objective that’s how I like to play for the most part. However I think that taking egypt G1 with 2 libya guys and 2 transport guys plus AF and BB is worth it for a couple reasons.

    1.It prevents those forces from heading east to stall Japan.

    2. I like to transport 2troops and use BB on Caucus on a later G turn

    3. I will have 2 to 6 german troops heading east to help J with the British

    So I agree that all Africa is a waste of time you will just end up losing it later, with the caveat of G1


  • Perhaps we should simplify the question further.

    What would do with the German fleet in the med?  Attack the British Destroyer (thereby allowing the invasion of Egypt)? or Attack the British Battleship (thereby denying the British 2 Battleships in the Atlantic)?

    I have nightmares about the British having 2 Battleships, and I can deal with Africa in my own wierd way.

    Or have you another method for dealing with the Battleship at Gibraltar?


  • Err use the Atlantic sub + some fighters to take out the battleship.


  • Atl G sub, med Battleship and a few fgt’s can take out the B battleship without taking a loss! G tran drops a man in gib to prevent B AF counterattack. G can move their baltic fleet into atl or keep in baltic threatening a possible invasion of UK following turn. Drop most of G AF in W Euro & watch B squirm.


  • I know your move looks clever, but any UK player worth his salt can defend his capital easily. What do you do with that little med fleet after taking Gibraltar? You aren’t going back to Africa because now there’s a carrier, destroyer, and transport off of Egypt, and going up to the Baltic is worthless since that fleet is dead unless you reinforced it.


  • if you hit egypt as i suggested with bomber 2 fig and inf/arm it blocks the canal and with three trannies in range of uk he has to defend capital which changes his strategy if only temporarily, this also disupts the usa fleet, when you link off france you have lots of options.
    the last game i played )far too long ago, total withdrawls) i retreated to the med with hwat was left of my fleet after sinking uk and usa fleets, this gave me shielding in southern euro as well as tran support to africa if wanted or over to caucasus.  i don’t know if this is an “optimal” stategy since i have only played a dozen games or so but at least it is different


  • I think taking Africa as Germany is rather important.  The few IPCs gained may not seem like much, but it is not only a few extra German infantry each turn (enough to defend Western Europe) but also that many less for Britain.  After favoring taking out Egypt on the first turn for a long time, I am now inclined to try the CV build in Baltic on G1 (using Med BB and N. Atlantic sub to take out Brit BB, and two fighters to kill Brit destroyer in SZ 15) and going for Egypt in force on G2.  I have not yet seen a game where the British then sail Indian fleet to Med on B1–how much would this prevent/delay Axis takeover of Africa?


  • i would say africa is always a good one to try getting……i mean in the long run all those extra ipc’s will help you and it cuts off the oceans as previously mention. of course this doesnt mean you should invest alot of reasorces in this but its alway a good thing to shoot for i would say. take on persia right after and you can focus a german navy to the pacific to hold the fort…as long as germany has an airforce the navy isnt too essential.


  • @trihero:

    I know your move looks clever, but any UK player worth his salt can defend his capital easily. What do you do with that little med fleet after taking Gibraltar? You aren’t going back to Africa because now there’s a carrier, destroyer, and transport off of Egypt, and going up to the Baltic is worthless since that fleet is dead unless you reinforced it.

    Thanks for the clever comment Mr Tri. To answer your question the G med fleet (now +  1 sub) can either attack newly purchased B navy, or US navy w/AF, if in striking distance, or can turn on your B asia fleet in the med & attack. Although I would question the dec to move the B asia fleet to the med abandoning India? Either way G isn’t wasting resources in Africa and I think mixing the game up for the Axis is important from time to time. You may want to try it against NCSC sometime as he seems to have everyone’s number.


  • Does anyone think keeping the BB and a transport in the med for landings in the Caucuses is worth while? I like it for the bombardment obviously but also for the fact tht you can bring troops from southern all the way to caucuses


  • i know i do al, if you link your fleets off france and then bail to the med when uk/usa are ready to wipe you, you can have 2-3 trannies then you could move 6 inf from southern euro to ukrain/caucasus.  more likely you have one maybe two but the flexibility is nice.  another plus to a med fleet is dropping grunts off in africa/mid-east to disrupt the material flow across north africa.  with germany it is all about buying japan that extra turn or two before you have to curl up and get hammered.  i have had germany in the 50’s for several turns and still had to cover up from the 1-2-3 combo eventually because all three of them go before germany gets another turn and once they figure out how to coordinate their assaults it becomes a losing proposition. i love it! punch all three allies in the face so they can’t see straight then duck!
    if uk/usa aren’t carefully aggressive (?) moscow goes bye bye from germany and if they aren’t aggressively careful(??) then japan gets the prize.  but both axis have to really have their act together because i don’t think they can recover from and significant blunders the way the allies can


  • I agree with you guys, having additionnal transports in the med gives you a lot of flexibility. After the first waves of infantry, it is really tedious to get newly bought infantry to the front, but with those transports it’s quite easy to go straight to caucasus in one turn (instead of three by foot).

    I like to have 3 trannies in the med after 3 or 4 turns. The reason is I don’t buy anything else beside infantry and artillery (except the occasionnal fig) after turn 3. With those trannies I still have a lot of mobility and I’m able to defend against an invasion. So if the allies are about to offload on my coast, my inf stay put, but otherwise, they take a trip on the med  :-).

    This always depends on what the allies do. If the US goes atlantic heavy and head for the med to take my fleet out I won’t spend a dime on additionnal trannies, but otherwise I find it a sure bet.


  • So Gent’s, what is your G1 buy if you end up w/3-4 G trans in Med at some point in the game?


  • i don’t know about 4 trannies but a g1 ac and hit egypt, g2 baltic trannie and take gibraltar then link off france g3.  i only see it happening if uk/usa are very cautious, more likely your med fleet stays in med and your baltic fleet comes out and might survive.  you could do g1 ac+trannie and take gibraltar round one then link on g2.  puts alot of pressure on uk since you have 3 trannies that can hit london for g2 or link and threaten his fleet.  just keep buying fighters and take them as casualties, especially if usa fleet/air are still out of range

    caspian sub talks about 2-3 trannies g1 for a link, they think it will deter uk from hitting fleet, i think i would still do it even knowing my air is toast to trim that fleet down so i could handle it the next round

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