Arthur Harris Bomber brought this up, while my experience against the move is limited (my opponents have either not realized its potential or not preferred it).
Therefore my question, when and how do you do the the Ethiopian openers as the UK, which what other moves do you combine it, and do you also keep this in mind when making your first build?
Is there something the Axis can do to prevent the UK from destroying the forces in Ethiopia?
Axis can’t do anything about it. I suppose Germany might be able to land their 2 bombers there, but nothing else can make it.
UK can bring a transport from India to assist. Useful depending on what else is going on already.
Correct. Due to the strange turn order, in order to save those colonies for Italy, UK would have to not commit to attacking them which would be foolish for UK to do. I have only won that battle once as Italy and UK can always seal the deal by sending the Indians over there.
Do you not take Iran or the Money Islands as UK? Do you usually combine it with Tobruk, or is Ethiopia the main attack? Is the rest of the fleet used for Taranto?
I do it, along with Taranto. No Tobruk. I usually try to bid an artillery in Sudan so I can take Persia with the Indian transport. I use the cruiser for bombard in Ethiopia as well.
@Elsass-Lorraine:
I do it, along with Taranto. No Tobruk. I usually try to bid an artillery in Sudan so I can take Persia with the Indian transport. I use the cruiser for bombard in Ethiopia as well.
At what point as UK, do you not do Taranto anymore?
Aside from throwing Germany’s strat bombers into Ethiopia, there is nothing that can be done to stop the UK from annihilating the forces in Ethiopia. I pretty much always borrow from India to make it happen, because it’s that important. It turns Italy into a two-dimensional threat (basically reducing Italy to influencing the Med and can opening for Germany only) with good UK play.
Marsh
@Elsass-Lorraine:
I do it, along with Taranto. No Tobruk. I usually try to bid an artillery in Sudan so I can take Persia with the Indian transport. I use the cruiser for bombard in Ethiopia as well.
At what point as UK, do you not do Taranto anymore?
Always Taranto. Those Italian boats are unparalleled assets in the Med that need to be destroyed in my opinion. Ethiopia is also very important, it takes priority over Persia turn 1. I hope that answered your question, I was a little confused at what you meant.
@Elsass-Lorraine:
Always Taranto. Those Italian boats are unparalleled assets in the Med that need to be destroyed in my opinion. Ethiopia is also very important, it takes priority over Persia turn 1. I hope that answered your question, I was a little confused at what you meant.
Agreed, without doing this you most likely retreat through the Suez Channel making it easy for Italy to close it by taking Trans Jordan, so you just gave them one NO for hardly any price.
Do you not take Iran or the Money Islands as UK?
If you go for Ethiopia you need the Indian transport so no Money Islands or Iraq (I assume you mean Iraq)
Do you usually combine it with Tobruk, or is Ethiopia the main attack?
I never combine it with Tobruk as you cannot muster enough forces to attack both at sufficient odds. Never go for to many 50/50 battles but focus on what’s really important and make sure it works out.
Is the rest of the fleet used for Taranto?
We use everything from SZ98 for Taranto.
Yes perfect. Really interesting as Ethiopia is definately not such an important goal for UK in our games. I agree on Taranto, however do you never scramble against G1 attacks? If there are 3 fighters scrambling, battleship + cruiser, is it not a risky battle without full commitment.
Do you never scramble against G1 attacks? If there are 3 fighters scrambling, battleship + cruiser, is it not a risky battle without full commitment.
Generally speaking: no. That’s exactly why Germany needs to allocate enough forces to make it unattractive as well, unless you want them to, but that means Germany will lose valuable planes as well.
No 50/50 battles :-D
Do you never scramble against G1 attacks? If there are 3 fighters scrambling, battleship + cruiser, is it not a risky battle without full commitment.
Generally speaking: no. That’s exactly why Germany needs to allocate enough forces to make it unattractive as well, unless you want them to, but that means Germany will lose valuable planes as well.
No 50/50 battles :-D
However, when you manage to lure UK to scramble in G1 (losing some planes yourself but also killing UK fighters), did you not prevent a Taranto attack? Especially when you managed to kill the Gibraltar cruiser with two subs.
Do you not take Iran or the Money Islands as UK? Do you usually combine it with Tobruk, or is Ethiopia the main attack? Is the rest of the fleet used for Taranto?
If Japan attacked all out J1, not much reason going for the money islands, so that’s out.
My usual opponents always do Ethiopia as part of their effort for the UK NO and keeping all original territories.
If they also do Taranto raid, then I can consider doing Sea Lion first, instead of Russia, but I suppose it depends how well things went through all of round 1.
I actually often ignore the Italians in Ethiopia I’m favor of taking Persia and Iraq. They cannot join up in Sudan until I2 and normally they can be “herded” by the 2 infantry in South Africa and the French Infantry in the west until I have units that can address them without jeopardizing the Egypt stack.
If Axis allows Bid, and you can spare $7, put down a TR in Douth African waters… on UK1, mobilize the 2 Inf there to kill the Italians in Ethiopia (need Egypt TR to bring down Tank+ Inf from Alexandria) …OR the Lone Inf in Somaliland… with a CRU shot from Indian CRU…
You still can do baby-Taranto… (single UK FTR)
and take Sumatra etc…
The Ethiopia attack goes bad about 30% iirc. Without a bid, I don’t reckon it is worth it.tutor most powerful unit, the artillery, can’t retreat because it had come in amphibiously.
It may be worth it if the axis j1 Dow and you build an ic in Egypt. That way you keep the Indian tt alive and also you don’t need to build one in Persia uk2. You need the j1 dow to make sea lion that much more difficult.
The Ethiopia attack goes bad about 30% iirc. Without a bid, I don’t reckon it is worth it.tutor most powerful unit, the artillery, can’t retreat because it had come in amphibiously.
It may be worth it if the axis j1 Dow and you build an ic in Egypt. That way you keep the Indian tt alive and also you don’t need to build one in Persia uk2. You need the j1 dow to make sea lion that much more difficult.
But if you don’t attack it then the Italians can scatter and threaten the loss of the UK objective for turn 2. I say it’s better to kill them when they’re all in one spot rather than doing three/four smaller battles where things can go bad quickly with bad dice.
You’re definitely right about the bid though, I am in favor of using it on an artillery that can attack Ethiopia to make the battle more in the Brits’ favor.
I think people worry too much about activating the “UK original territories” NO. In the vast majority of games, you’ll collect the NO on your first turn, because Italy hasn’t gone yet. Likewise, in the vast majority of games, you’ll collect the NO on your fourth turn no matter what you do, because by then your South African troops can walk up to Kenya / Somaliland and knock out whatever Italians remain. So we’re really only talking about two turns’ worth of the NO, i.e., 10 IPCs.
How much do you want to pay to guarantee those 10 IPCs? Do you really want to use both transports on UK1 in east Africa, neglecting Persia and Iraq and Sumatra and Tobruk? Do you want to send one transport to east Africa on both UK1 and UK2, which means you’re short on troops for Egypt in your north African campaign? It just seems short-sighted to me. If you skip Sumatra, that could be the margin of victory for holding India. If you skip Persia, that could be the margin of victory for holding the Middle East. Meanwhile, what are you going to do with 10 extra IPCs in the Atlantic on turns 2, 3, or 4? Buy 1 extra fighter or 1 extra transport? Will that really help you break into Norway or France ahead of schedule? Typically, the Germans have enough airpower in Western Germany all through the opening to lock you out of key territories even if you spend 100% of UK income on an Atlantic fleet.
I often build a South African transport on UK1, and I don’t mind using that transport on UK2 to ferry South African troops up to East Africa to kill Italians there, because it’s sort of “on their way.” They’re headed north anyway, and if I build the extra transport, then I’m not hurting as badly for naval logistics, so it’s easier to spare the transport for a turn. Using two out of two transports on turn 1 in East Africa just seems like overkill to me.
Ditto using a bid for an early South African transport just to strengthen the attack on Ethiopia – it’s overkill. If you’ve got $7 to spare in your bid and want to spend it on the UK, then I’d much rather have an extra sub for Taranto, an extra transport for India (to claim Java), two infantry for London to help protect against Sea Lion and allow a UK1 purchase of an Egyptian factory, an extra tank in Egypt to add punch to an attack in Tobruk or Iraq, or even an extra destroyer for the British Home Fleet in the hopes of bringing down some Luftwaffe.
