With all the new incentives for Germany to not attempt Sea Lion (the AA guns, the possible lost planes in France, and Russia being able to jump in in the aftermath), it seems like Germany should go after Russia once again. So are there benefits to doing it early (G1 or G2 mainly)? There’s no longer as much of a need for Germany to go the naval rout G1, so it can either get a head start building units for Russia or it can get a few subs to do some convoy raiding, or maybe a bit of both. Either way it’s far less commitment to a navy, meaning Germany can commit more to Russia.
Successful naval campaign against England is still needed… Without hitting them hard at the beginning, you’ll be harassed constantly and with force.
Well, all you can hit with a naval campaign is their ships, and you can take out most of that G1 with the Luftwaffe. And a strong air force is better at reacting to whatever the Allies do than a strong navy, which could be destroyed by a concentrated American attack anyway.
Subs are almost always cost effective and they work well at weakening the UK without having to invest in a navy of larger, costlier ships.
Question is whether you’ll be able to maintain the interdiction and weaken the UK enough while attacking on G2 (I assume G1 is out of question if you wish to attack the UK fleet)
I see your point. I just don’t think there’s a reason to spend a large amount of IPCs on a German fleet (excluding subs for interdiction) unless Germany’s planning a major amphibious attack (Sea Lion, attacking America or Canada, etc.). There just isn’t anything to do with it.