I’m a big fan of doing damage to Italy early on and basicly keeping them from accomplishing anything meaningful. In Alpha 3 this is accomplished namely by trading navy’s in the med. I brought the cruiser and transport from India to Africa to facilitate amphibious assults on Italian territores on the eastern coast.
My buys for turn 1 Europe almost always include a transport (placed in South Africa to bring my Infantry up the coast), 1 in New Brunswick (shift material from Canada to the UK, but this will depend on U-Boat positions) and a Minor IC for Egypt (implications of this should be obvious). I’ve never lost Egypt to Italy so I don’t think this is a huge risk.
The only real danger to this strategy of focusing on the Med is if Germany takes Southern France, with that Minor IC they can do what I’ve done and place ships directly in the med. Because Germany is such a power house they can (and likely will) obliterate the RN there. You’ll certainly lose Gibratler and likely Malta as well.
For England I generally end up trading navy’s with Germany as well, after Germany has gone and you’ve taken the usual losses to shipping it’s simply too dangerous to leave the German Battleship and Crusier (can’t recall if it’s a cruiser or not offhand) laying around and they must be attacked. I haven’t found a way around doing this yet. With the destruction of Germany’s surface fleet you arn’t under serious threat from Sea Lion until Germany’s 3rd turn.
In the Pacfic I keep the ANZAC island hopping and use them to harass the islands Japan leaves lightly defended. I generally also use them to take Brazil. I never thought of using ANZAC fighters to land on US Carriers (can’t happen until the US enters the war) but I think it deserves some thought. Generally they end up used in an attempt to contain the Imperial Navy.
Hope this was helpful and offered some ideas. I’m open to any critiisms/thoughts on this strategy, always looking to build on my game.
C
