How does European Axis handle J1 bringing America in?


  • I’ve only recently started playing the global version.  I was taking a look at what the J1 attack looks like… and I like every bit of it… but I’m confused on what Germany & Italy need to do to deal with the fact that America can immediately reply by landing a fighter and 2 ground troops in Gibraltar or Morocco on their first turn, and a strategic bomber, and whatever they bought on their first turn are not far behind.

    What should be happening on G1 knowing there’s a J1 behind it?  How should Italy prepare on I1, and what should Germany/Italy be doing from their second turn onward?


  • Realistically, for the first 3-4 turns it just means that SeaLion should be off the table and Italy won’t get very far, with the usual caveat that if UK screws up its UK1 buy, its still a valid choice (and if the U.S. doesn’t buy ships for Atlantic on US1, it might be a very good choice)

    A concentrated attack shouldn’t be coming until, what, US4 (if you’re completely empty on the Atlantic side of Germany) but US5 or 6 more likely, right?  So by then, hopefully, Germany has Russia stacked in Bryansk, you’ve taken Novgorod (or Ukraine if his stack isn’t a threat to yours) and are bombing Russia, and have about 7ipcs of theirs, so if the US/UK make a move towards Europe, Germany can dump a whole lot of inf/art all over France and W.Germany on the turn after he moves to Gibraltor.  Just always keep a destroyer handy as a blocker to keep him out of Denmark/Norway for an extra turn, if you have to and make sure Russia can’t destroy your Germany stack.

    So when the US/UK go to Gibraltar, Italy will need to buy infantry to make sure they’re not too vulnerable.
    If the US ground troops/UK fighters are lower in numbers, you can keep a couple of transports sitting in sz114 and a few planes in W. Germany so you can retake Norway.
    If their attack ships are weaker, you can stack sz 112 to prevent landings up north (especially if your battleship and cruiser have survived.  With 3 scrambling fighters and maybe even a carrier with 2 more fighters is pretty tough, but especially if you dump 5-10 subs there as casualty soaks in a desperate attempt to stop an invasion, but also useful to turn around and sink his fleet)

    An aggressive J1 means that if the U.S. is sending assets to Europe, you should be able to win on the Pacific side.  India around J6 or J7, then ANZAC pretty easily, if they don’t have strong U.S. help.

    /I’m a STRONG advocate for J1.  If you don’t, any money the U.S. doesn’t get just ends up with UKPac and ANZAC and Japan can handle anything except 100% U.S. pressure without giving up anything on the mainland because you can keep buying carriers and using fighters you already own to maintain SZ6 as a fortress.


  • J1 shouldn’t change Germany plans. Germany should be going into France, Sealion is done before it even began unless US plays so poorly that Japan is able to get its boots up US’ A$$. Italy still needs to put some effort into Africa in my opinion but defensive building will eventually be needed.


  • In most games Italy has 3 priorities.

    • Provide Mobile units on the Eastern Front to can open for German forces. (This can be accomplished by purchasing mech / tanks the first 1-2 turns depending on the board)

    • Defend Rome. This is kind of multi part. I would argue that a US landing force would be expected to have somewhere in the range of 5-7 transports if they are attacking early. Therefore Rome needs to have a substantial amount of defense on that territory. Furthermore, Italy quickly loses attrition battles from submarines and SBR so you need to defend the area around Italy. (You need air superiority in the Mediterranean so that you can scramble and defend your boats while destroying submarines.

    • Land in Africa again. Once the first two priorities have been taken care of, Italy should focus on a consistent means of bringing reinforcements to the North African coastline. Capturing these territories denies the allies landing zones and compliments the second priority of defending Rome and the immediate vicinity.

      With regards to a J1 attack, this plan doesn’t really change. A substanial US attack should not be expected before turn 4 because it would otherwise be vulnerable to local German aircraft.

      Defending the larger part of the European continent as Germany is a much more challenging task. I think the simplest suggestion I can give is to buy aircraft. Not necessarily bombers only, but enough aircraft that can be mobile enough to reinforce different parts of the continent at a moments notice. You can’t reasonably defend every single territory at the same time and attack Russia, so you just need to discourage the inevitable landing and respond when it does happen. Aircraft are the answer to that problem.

  • '19 '17 '16

    Put a bunch of artillery in France with some mechs in w Germany. You should be able to push off an allied invasion.

    Italy can usually afford a lot of infantry and may need them.

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