Is sealion mandatory for high level play?

I don’t. Russia is the target.

@Sgt:

Just curious for those of you that play with high level people in Global 40. Playing as many games as I have I have noticed that if your playing  veteran players Germany needs to activate sealion or at least fake sealion. Otherwise Uk is able to purchase without pressure. Does anyone else find this the case that Sealion is almost mandatory?

You don’t NEED to do Sea Lion, but its a fun option to have.  A lot of players do a hard blitz for Moscow, including with their G1 buy, but the other option is:

G1 buy 2 bombers, send 2 subs after the destroyer/transport at Canada
IF UK1 is anything other than 6 inf and 1 fighter for London and did the Taranto raid so all they have is 1 French fighter and maybe the 1 fighter from Scotland, you can do Sea Lion.  Other obstacles include the bomber/fighter from the U.S. and if the U.S. buys 4 bombers on US1 they can get to London before you do Sea Lion.

G2 max buy transports (9 or 10).  Move enough infantry for 1 each on the transports.  I leave 1 German blocker in Finland and move the other 6 to Norway, then use the 2 inf from Denmark, and get the other 2-3 from Germany.  3+ artillery, and fill the rest with tanks.  Take Normandy.  You should also have about 20 inf, 2 art in Romania, and anything Italy can send you.

G3 time for the invasion.  IF the U.S. or U.K. has anything that might sink your fleet of transports, buy a carrier or more to build in SZ110 using Normandy factory.  If U.S. has transports at Gibraltor and you’re worried they’ll take back London, let them and you build 5 inf and 5 art in Western Germany.  Why take London and collect 30 ipcs once when you can do it twice?

As for Russia, anything not going on transports to London moves to Romania to try and force Russia to take Scandanavia and Poland.  G3 you can buy inf in Germany so they can’t take that.  If Russia can easily wipe out your army in Romania from Bessarabia OR has a large enough army for Poland to threaten Germany proper despite your buy, retreat to Slovakia because on the next turn you’ll have help.  If it’ll be a close battle, leave them and Italy or German fast movers can kill any remaining Russians.

on G4 you buy what you need to have full transports again, rest is fast movers.  Sink the Russian cruiser.  Your Fleet goes to SZ112 unless you’re worried it will sink there, because…
G5 your 10 or 11 transports can now reach every territory on the Baltic sea and even Karaelia and Archangel.  Your fast movers can take back Romania if Russia attacked there instead.  IF you have spare transports, you can even send more troops to London so U.S. can’t liberate it.

If it goes well, on G5 you can have London locked down and retaken all of Scandanavia and Poland, and have taken Novgorod.  Your base should be 53 ipcs plus 10 ipcs in bonuses.  It’ll take another turn or two to finish kicking Russia back down but UK has zero income and those transports can move a lot of cheap inf/art to Novgorod quickly from Germany/W. Germany.

Since Russia can’t attack until later turns I find it fun/challenging to go for Sea Lion.  I’ll buy a carrier on G1 and usually a strategic bomber.  The bomber is to keep pressure on G.B. and keep them from having the resources to reinforce London as well as limit what they can to in Africa.  G2 I’ll start building transports and recalling as many tanks as I can and having infantry in place for the amphibious assault.  G3 is building whatever else is needed as well as another bomber.  G3 I’ll hit Scotland with a force of 6 tanks and 6 infantry.  G4 I’ll hit London with those 12 units from Scotland as well as 6 more tanks and 6 more infantry from Germany using the transports.  Depending on what G.B. has to defend I’ll fly in as many bombers and fighters as necessary to make the assault successful.  Russia is hitting my on the eastern front by that time but if I’ve timed it all right and the dice are in my favor I’ve taken out G.B. by the end of G4 and can turn my attention to Russia.  Italy is there to back me up on the southeastern flank as well.  Then I’ll start building three infantry in London every turn to defend while taking out the surviving tanks for use against Russia.

Hopefully I’ve remember most of the details correctly and it seems to work out pretty well most of the time.

Sea Lion should only be on your mind if UK sends their fleet and air force away from London, otherwise your end target should be Egypt.

My end target is Moscow. Only Sea Lion if the UK gets to cute withe their buys and moves. If baited, I may take the bait and hope it really backfires on the Allies.

@Ichabod:

My end target is Moscow. Only Sea Lion if the UK gets to cute withe their buys and moves. If baited, I may take the bait and hope it really backfires on the Allies.

If UK does something really stupid like move their airforce away from London, move or don’t repair Home Fleet, and if London isn’t beefed up with infantry, then Sea Lion is pointless.

If you don’t go Seal Lion on G.B., what do you do to keep them in check (besides sinking as much of their fleet on G1 as possible) while you tackle Russia?  I would think pouring on strategic bombing runs.

@Caesar:

@Ichabod:

My end target is Moscow. Only Sea Lion if the UK gets to cute withe their buys and moves. If baited, I may take the bait and hope it really backfires on the Allies.

If UK does something really stupid like move their airforce away from London, move or don’t repair Home Fleet, and if London isn’t beefed up with infantry, then Sea Lion is pointless.

I am confused by your comments. When London is NOT beefed up is when I would consider Sea Lion. It is really nice to have all of Germanys tanks leftover.

I think Sea Lion is mandatory at a certain point. Otherwise no creditibility. UK will just completely disrespect Germany with its moves and buys.

The threahold may or may not be less than 6 infantry / 1 fighter placed on London to go Sea Lion for some. But allied players out there are testing what they can get away with.

Glancing at the battle calculator, if Germany can bring 10 transports (10 inf, 5 art, 5 tanks), 2 each fighters and tactical, 4 bombers… not unreasonable and hopefully they’d have 1 or 2 more fighters/tacticals, but.

UK can easily add 6 inf, 1 fighter, 5 U.S. bombers, 1 U.S. fighter, and 1 or 2 loads from Canada, and maybe a few inf on UK 2 if they can afford it. (yes, this assumes a J1)

Looks like a total of 14 inf, 1 mech, 1 tank, 4 fighters and 4 bombers is where it finally drops to 50/50.

That means if the UK loses both its Scotland fighter and sends one down for Taranto, and Germany sinks the transport in Canada, then its 100% up to the U.S. (if they’re in the war) to get the fighter and 5 bombers to London, otherwise Germany can take London 99% of the time.  Even then, Germany could probably do it anyway pretty easily if they ignored the UK fleet in the med and had close to all 8 of their fighters/tacticals.

I think most experienced players won’t let the US land 5 Bombers in London.

No J1 for me; most likely a J2 DOW or J3 DOW if Germany drops transports.

I don’t think J1 DOWs are as common as they used to be. Often China becomes a problem and like you mentioned (5 US bombers), there are ways to take Sea Lion off the table.

The whole point of Sea Lion is to get to London before US can and thus forcing US to liberate London over invading Italy.

@Ichabod:

I think most experienced players won’t let the US land 5 Bombers in London.

No J1 for me; most likely a J2 DOW or J3 DOW if Germany drops transports.

I don’t think J1 DOWs are as common as they used to be. Often China becomes a problem and it like you mentioned (5 US bombers), there are ways to take Sea Lion off the table.

In your experience against the J1 DOW, do you move Chinese forces North or do you try to contest the Burma road as long as possible?

Most likely stack Yunnan with every Chinese ground unit and contest the Burma road for at least 2 turns. The reason being is that on J2 Japan has no troops except maybe 2 ground on Hunan. Almost guaranteed to chip away some planes from Japan if Yunnan is attacked.

If Japan doesn’t attack, than the UK and ANZAC can add to the stack on turn 1-2 before Japan has enough troops in position for turn 3.

@KGrimB:

In your experience against the J1 DOW, do you move Chinese forces North or do you try to contest the Burma road as long as possible?

What do you do?

@Ichabod:

@KGrimB:

In your experience against the J1 DOW, do you move Chinese forces North or do you try to contest the Burma road as long as possible?

What do you do?

Normally retake Burma with existing forces and place new units in the North starting T2