Posts made by Colonel Mustard

@Panther Good point. Thanks!

You bring a BB and a loaded Transport to an undefended Sea Zone bordering an enemy-held territory.

You declare an Amphibious Assault, bombard the territory maybe taking out a defending unit…

And then retreat, before unloading.

A free bombardment.

Legal by the book?

@Cornwallis They sent a couple waves of fighters first, it’s just 2 stops to Egypt through French West Africa. They landed a large land force there turn 8, it would have been too much to overcome in Egypt, especially as bad dice in Moscow left me with a lone occupying tank (and some bombers, see below). He should have taken Gibraltar which I held with only a couple Italian inf., but I think he didn’t want to lose any transports to S. Italy bombers.

G9 was the battle of Moscow, and also my Sea Lion build. I think his miscalculation was missing the 6 Bombers from Bryansk, who landed back in Germany after Moscow. They made the difference in London. He’d left his London factory damaged, focused on building Egypt forces. So in UK9 he could only add 6 inf and a Tank with his 41 IPCs. That gave him a total of about 17 land units in London which my 11 landing units plus air power wiped out. G9 and G10 blockers kept his massive relief force from being able to reach London from West Africa.

The pace of the game, basically sitting down to do one turn each week, may have helped take his eye off the ball. The Axis never out-produced the Allies in IPCs the entire game.

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris Inexperienced for sure, and big error in Pacific as I held Japan back from DOW until turn 3, with the idea of keeping the Americans out of the European war while Germany wins it for the Axis.

Japan’s delay meant they were on their back foot the entire game, never approached 50 IPCs and by the end (round 10) Anzac was almost producing as much as Japan and the Chinese and PacUK were out of control.

Reinforcement air from UK (both theaters) into Moscow stalled its capture until G9, and heavy American reinforcements in Egypt coming through sub-sahara would have made it impossible to take.

Axis was saved only by my opponent taking his eye off the ball in UK. I added dd’s and subs here and there in the mid rounds to the German fleet holding the channel. A quick transport/troop build G9 left him unable to respond to G10 Sea Lion, which held and ended the game.

At the end of the day, you were right, Italy’s success after the failed Toranto led to Axis victory.

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris Thank you ABH! Current game just started - Italy survived Taranto (on dice) and captured Egypt, Trans-Jordan, into Iraq and Syria. This is a global game so Allies sent planes in from Calcutta to support a firewall at Persia; add tanks churning out of S. Africa and the writing’s on the wall for Italy’s Mid-East/Africa force going into turn 4 but they’ve tied up UK Europe pretty well (every 3 tanks is a couple of planes not built) and will hold Mare Nostra through turn 4.

It’s reassuring to hear from such an experienced player that no matter what I were to do Italy is generally destined to shrink into a defensive posture - I can see that my current 28 IPCs will be the high point for Itay.

At this point rather than reinforce the doomed expeditionary force I think I’ll commit all to defense of the mediterranean coast.

@Stucifer @trulpen Thanks for your ideas. It does seem inevitable that post-successful-Taranto, Italy is going to be in a defensive crouch.

Tagging trulpen in case he receives the alert wants to add any thoughts.

@ampdrive it was 7 inf, 2 art, 1 fighter and 1 tac. First round wipeout of Yugo forces. Goal was to swing those 6 inf through for a G2 DOW. So this threw off my timing. I went ahead G2 DOW anyway and he turtled, at G5 I did not have the forces to take Moscow; delayed until G7. That gave time for Normandy landing and, embarassing as it is to admit, a surprise 1-2 Denmark - Berlin punch by USA and UK. I am a new player so I didn’t see that coming.

@AndrewAAGamer New player here, congratulations on retirement! I eagerly look forward to your further insights!

@Cornwallis I had several battleships and a destroyer, cruiser, and loaded carrier. Three
bombers and a couple fighters on Iwo Jima, but I used them all on the Japanese home navy. Didn’t strat bomb because I was concerned to do it with no escorts. Many mistakes.

@shadowhawk Yes, looking back, I was overloaded with BBs (of which I was enamoured when I first started playing) and did not have adequate DDs nor any Subs coming up in support. I felt invincible with the heavy ships. Lesson learned!

Lost a P40 game with this strategy. Mid-game Allies were winning, having flattened Japan’s rise in IPC production and were outproducing them and gaining back territories, and I felt like I could start the endgame to take the home island.

I set up Iwo Jima as US forward base to attack Japan, with a Naval base. (As noted no need for air base with Strat Bombers). He max-bought subs, which (being inexperienced) I didn’t see coming - so I attacked them on my turn and wiped them out, it was that or give up my shiny new naval base and turn tail back to Hawaii (which would have been smarter).

That unfortunately left me sitting in his waters for the strafing counterattack by air force racing back from China and a couple nearby DDs. I had no DDs remaining, so his next round sub buy deployed silently under my wounded navy. I limped back to Iwo Jima where he sank what was left of my fleet before it could be repaired. I lost what was an easy win, if I’d been patient.

…went too well. This is an essential move to spring 6 inf and 2 art from Germany to Romania on G1 (from which 1 inf attacks as well to provide the retreat route) which are needed for an effective G2 DOW and march to Moscow.

However in my current game all defenders were wiped out in the first round and Germany claimed the territory, with the attacking forces settling there. Now they can’t make a G5 Moscow assault which is devastating to that effort.

Question: Can you take out all defenders but still retreat without claiming the territory, leaving it empty and still controlled by the defender?

New player here. This board generally says Sea Lion is a losing strategy because German resources are diverted from the Eastern Front, which is critical, and that the USA will easily liberate London within a couple turns.

It’s that second part about which I’m eager to hear insights. Germans have lots of air available to sink transports unless heavily escorted - and those escorts cost lots of IPCs which reduces funds for the transports - which need 2 turns to get to London stopping in North Africa.

How have you retaken London? What do you recommend?

trulpen’s G2 DOW heading for Moscow
New player here - hope you are still active on this board - under this scenario, where Italy resources are needed for I3 can-opener, what is Italy’s recommended course of action in the Med and Africa assuming a successful Taranto raid on UK1?