A&A Global 1940 Essays: Barbarossa (Germany)


  • Axis and Allies Global 1940 has received surprisingly little attention on this blog. Hoping to rectify this error, I plan to post a series of essays on the game to assist fellow G1940 fans.

    Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union) is essential for German victory. Therefore, one of the biggest questions that the German player must answer on their first turn is when to invade Russia.

    For a start, Germany must consider several other factors. One: how many casualties did Germany suffer when conquering France? This may seem like a small point, but it’s not. Barbarossa will claim all of Germany’s IPCs for six rounds at least, depending on whether or not Japan attacks Russia. What this means for Germany is that France will be poorly defended, and therefore vulnerable to an Allied landing. Germany has a minimum of 4 infantry, 2 artillery, 3 tanks, and 1 fighter with which to attack France. This force should be supplemented by the 3 tactical bombers from Western Germany. If you like, you can add the 3 German infantry and 1 German artillery from Western Germany. That should be more than enough. The fighters and bombers can land in Slovakia/Hungary, where they can link up with some tanks (hopefully!) Which brings us to our next point: purchases.

    Purchasing for Barbarossa
    What should Germany buy for Barbarossa? Five tanks are a good purchase, but is there something better? One very useful combined arms rule is that when a tank and a tactical bomber attack together, the tactical bomber attacks at 4. Here’s some math: 2 Tanks+Tac.bomber+Artillery+Infantry=30 IPC’s worth of units. Two additional infantry may be substituted for the second tank. What this combo offers: Great cannon fodder for the masses of Russian infantry. In addition, this combination provides strength through combined arms tactics, and offers the same 5-6 units as the above. However, this combo is heavily reliant upon combined arms. If the tac. bomber and artillery are destroyed, the combination is effectively reduced to a handful of infantry and tanks vulnerable to Russian attack. If this combination is used on G1, the Germans should build it at least twice more, on G2 and G3 (assuming Germany’s income is not up to 60 IPCs). Another issue is that this combination is not particularly versatile: it has a fair amount of offensive punch, but is weak on defense. Germany has one big advantage when purchasing for G2: It should have a 19 IPC bonus from conquering France! Ultimately, here’s what Germany should buy on it’s first three turns, with regards to Barbarossa*:

    G1: 2 Tanks, 1 Tactical bomber, 1 Artillery, 1 Infantry

    G2: 1 Minor Industrial Complex to be placed in Finland (see below), 2 Tanks, 1 Tactical bomber, 2 Artillery, 2 Mechanized Infantry

    G3: 1 Strategic Bomber (to be placed in Finland), 2 Mech. Infantry, 2 Artillery, 2 Tanks (to be placed in Finland), 1 Tank

    Special Moves
    There are some moves that Germany has to make for a successful Barbarossa:

    1: ANNEX FINLAND! This is critical! If you follow the hints in this article, you will have 8 infantry, 1 artillery, 2 tanks, 1 fighter, and a strategic bomber in Finland. Use your transport in sea zone 114 to transport 1 infantry and 1 artillery to Finland. With this force, you will be equipped to threaten Leningrad.

    2: Land your France air units in Slovakia, and then distribute them so that you have one tactical bomber (at least) in Finland, Slovakia, Romania, and Poland.

    3: Move your Germany infantry into Poland, and then move your three Polish infantry south.

    4: Annex Bulgaria. This isn’t necessary, but it’s an extra IPC and 4 extra infantry, so you might as well do it.

    5: Do not attack Southern France or Yugoslavia with your Greater Southern Germany units. They are too badly needed to reinforce Romania and Slovakia to waste on minor battles! (And besides, the Italians need all the income they can get, so you might as well let them have it!)

    Any extra income can be used to prop up the West, or to buy a bit of extra infantry.

    What To Do In Russia:
    So, for a start, divide the front into three immediate objectives:

    Objective #1: The North. This consists of using the forces in Poland and Finland to attack Leningrad via the Baltic States and Karelia, respectively. Depending on how quickly you can capture Leningrad, you may want to divert a few infantry to take Archangel, as that will sap the Soviets of 5 IPCs of bonus income.

    Objective #2: The Centre. This one is a little harder to accomplish. Use your forces in Slovakia/ Hungary to capture and hold Eastern Poland, Western Ukraine, and Belarus. Then, send your forces either north to Leningrad or south to the Ukraine, depending on the situation.

    Objective #3: The South. Use your forces from Romania to capture the industrial complex in Ukraine. Strategic bombers can be helpful here!

    Once these three objectives have been achieved, the forces in Leningrad/Archangel should take Volgoda, the forces in the centre should take Smolensk, and the forces in the Ukraine should take Volgograd and Caucasus. Taking Bryansk would be helpful, but only take the territory if you can hold it! The goal is to outnumber the Moscow defenders, so that if one force is destroyed, the other two can successfully attack.

    Mopping Up
    Once Moscow has fallen, you should transfer units to the West as fast as possible! However, some of the ‘south’ forces may head down into the Middle East, to gain some extra IPCs and, if possible, activate Iraq. However, that’s for another essay…

    Next time, AxisAndAllies1940 will cover a German naval strategy.


  • Welcome to AA.org, but I’m surprised that you are having trouble finding strategies on this site. You should look up some of Young Grasshopper’s u-tube videos, he has some pretty awesome “essays”.

    No disrespect but I see several flaws in you approach. This strategy seems a bit outdated to me for G40 (although it is a very historic 3 pronged attack). To me you are concentrating too much on the north, and won’t have the forces to push into the middle and/or south. A three prong attack will probably just get one of your stacks ambushed in a hit and run by the Reds.

    I think that buying a minor IC for Finland G2 would also attract the attention of the USA to target mid game. Plus it takes too long to help IMO. G1 activate Finland, G2 buy minor IC, G3 build some inf/art, G4 invade Karalia and buy mech & tank, G5 hit Leningrad. I think that a second transports (maybe a 3rd) in the Baltic does pretty much the same thing with fewer complications and better range. Plus you can attack Leningrad much earlier.

    I get how you like to use the combined arms tanks/tacs, but I would caution you about your Paris attack using those tacs. There is an AA gun in Paris, so most people don’t use any planes in that attack anymore. Most people would use all the German planes that can reach to attack the UK navy around England, and maybe fly a ftr or tack down to Rome to help defend the Italian navy (scramble).

  • '17 '15

    I try to never use planes when invading France, I don’t want to do that AA gun there any favors


  • @WILD:

    Welcome to AA.org, but I’m surprised that you are having trouble finding strategies on this site. You should look up some of Young Grasshopper’s u-tube videos, he has some pretty awesome “essays”.

    Unfortunately, YG removed almost all of his content a few months ago, including his G40 strategies. So you won’t find much strategy content there. However, I can recommend Siredblood, GeneralHandGrenade, Hunter Jones, Variance Axis and Allies for good strategy content. (That list is by no means all the A&A channels, there are many more good, albeit smaller, channels that you can look for)

    On the OP’s strategy, I don’t see a reason to place a mIC in Finland considering you generally get one in Leningrad one or two turns later that is both free and closer to Moscow. And if the Russians decide to stack in Leningrad, no big deal you just go round them and force them to retreat, otherwise they lose their capital. Leningrad is a bad spot to retreat from if you’re Russia (it’s 3 spaces to Moscow as opposed to 2 from Belarus, Western Ukraine, and even the factory in Ukraine itself) so it would be rare to see the majority of the Russian army in Leningrad as Germany starts its advance into the USSR.

    With Paris, I would much rather use my planes against the British Navy than risk AA fire in a place I’m gonna take without my planes anyway. The Paris battle is upwards of 95% in favor of Germany if they send every ground unit in range to Paris and no planes. Even if you’re being a little greedy and you’re going for southern France or Normandy at the same time you will still take Paris 9 out of 10 times without planes.

  • TripleA

    Guess someone did not like my playbook :(

  • '19 '17 '16

    I also am confused by the Finland factory. It is no closer to Moscow than Berlin.

    You can put a factory on w Ukraine without it being vulnerable to counter attack. Rostov is also possible, but more tricky to defend.

    If you want to retake Norway, buy transports. It’s faster.

  • '17

    If you can’t find anyone to play with, then go to triplea and start playing online with other folks. Some of the commenters here are on there, but others are only playing triplea through the forum (not live). Not live triplea is more of analysis type play where they have the time to really study their purchase and moves.

    Regardless, (not disparaging you), but I think that you’ll find that the purchase order you suggest in your thread won’t get you Moscow. Really, the only to get better is to just play the game. It’s fun for me to play completely new players too as they actually do come up with different ideas that add to my “kit bag.”

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