• No Operation Sea Lion this time…and Britain ended up cleaning house as a result.

    Germany decided not to go after the UK, focusing instead on the “easy” targets on the Eastern Front, including an invasion of the Middle East via amphibious assault from North Africa (bypassing UK forces in Egypt) to close the Suez. This ended up illustrating how important Gibraltar is as the destruction of Britain’s aircraft carrier by German U-boat attack (as always happens) did not end in the destruction of its fighter, which was able to land safely.

    With fighter support in the Mediterranean (and a safe airport for the UK bomber), it is remarkably easy to take Northern Africa with a Canadian landing party. The Kriegsmarine falls (again) to the British navy (hail, Britania!) and it’s all but over from there.

    India denies Japanese expansion into the south Pacific, causing Japan to make the hasty decision to land forces in Alaska. Despite IJN support, Japan loses half of its warships in the US counterattack (as well as Alaska). The Battle of Midway will be fought in the following turn and cost Japan most of its remaining warships.

    At the end of Turn 2 we have the IJN reduced to a single carrier and fighter, Norway has been successfully taken by USA (with a bomber landed in Iceland), and France has been liberated by British tanks out of North Africa, where two UK bombers are being fueled and ready for Turn 3. The Middle East has been reclaimed, and while Russia has lost both Archangel and Karelia, they’ve taken Manchura (with Soviet tank and air support) to make up the difference). Japan is in Szechwan (one infantry unit), but the USA maintains an infantry presence in Asia (two units, bolstering the Caucasus).

    Axis powers offer unconditional surrender before the beginning of Turn 3.

    I don’t grok why folks feel the Allies are underpowered in this particular edition. Even if Japan had retained its naval forces, it’s difficult for me to see how Germany could have recovered and pushed back with enemies on all sides and no help on the way from the Japanese (assuming the USA plays conservative in the Pacific theater and keeps the IJN occupied). Committing to Operation Sea Lion early (rather than worry about Russia) still seems like the best option for Germany, even at the cost of the Kriegsmarine which…it would appear…faces inevitable defeat. This occurs even in games the Axis won; however, in those games Germany was able to rebuild its navy in the later stages of the game.

    Please tell me what we’re missing here.
    8-)


  • Hi Black

    Some general comments for you, which I have deliberately pitched that way in an attempt not replace the fun of your freewheeling games with playing by rote.

    G and J start with a considerable unit advantage. Their task is to make that count before the allies income advantage takes the game away from them. The fall of R is enough to bridge that gap.

    G can take out the UK navy west of Suez G1. While the allied response will kill the G navy (as you realise), G air if placed appropriately will delay US / UK attempts to land troops in Europe or N Africa.

    G’s opening deployment on the eastern front, however, affords R some short term opportunities and patience may be required to consolidate an unstoppable drive on Moscow.

    J can help significantly with the attack on R. J ground unit builds are only 2 moves from the Caucasus.

    Hopefully that gives you enough to experiment with without giving you all the answers.

    Cheers
    PP


  • @ Private Panic:

    Thank you for the info…and for leaving some things for discovery. I appreciate that!

    You wrote:

    G’s opening deployment on the eastern front, however, affords R some short term opportunities and patience may be required to consolidate an unstoppable drive on Moscow.

    Pretty cryptic (unless I’m extremely obtuse); this is one puzzle we’re trying to unravel. We’ll work on it!

    You also wrote:

    J can help significantly with the attack on R. J ground unit builds are only 2 moves from the Caucasus.

    My only comment is that two turns feel like an eternity in a game where things can turn so quickly. Of course, at this point we’re only thinking one move ahead…thinking two or three moves ahead? Not quite there yet!
    :wink:

    Thanks again. German air support in North Africa will certainly help slow down the Allied invasion! Looking forward to trying it.


  • Hi again Black. Half the fun is learning the best strategies by trying things out. Certainly more fun than reading long complex exposition on this forum! :-o However, a couple of clarifications:

    @Black:

    You wrote:

    G’s opening deployment on the eastern front, however, affords R some short term opportunities and patience may be required to consolidate an unstoppable drive on Moscow.

    Pretty cryptic (unless I’m extremely obtuse); this is one puzzle we’re trying to unravel. We’ll work on it!

    Depending on R1’s moves, G may need to pull back slightly. For example if R sends everything to West Russia then any force G can get into Karelia, Caucasus or Ukraine is at R’s mercy. It may be best for G to wait a turn and simply put everything it can into East Europe.

    @Black:

    Thanks again. German air support in North Africa will certainly help slow down the Allied invasion! Looking forward to trying it.

    Sorry - I did not mean air in North Africa - which would be a serious distraction from the Russian front. I meant sufficient air in range of whatever fleet the allies can deploy. Examples (from memory) being that fighters in France can get to the North Africa sea zone and a bomber in Norway can slow US attempts to stage naval and ground units via Canada. Initially, such placements can often be made while still being in range of the Russians. As Germany moves towards Moscow it won’t want its fighters to remain in France, but any delay in allied landings across the Atlantic is worth having.

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