Jennifer’s Basic German Strategy Guide for 1941:
Germany:
You need to do maximum impact on Russia as fast as possible with Germany, only diverting enough equipment as needed to protect Italy’s fleet that first round.
For this, a 4 prong offensive might be best.
1) Amphibiously assault Karelia. You should get it every time with various losses, once I even got it without loss, which was a fun game!
Cost analysis:
-3 Infantry, -1 Fighter: Cost 19 IPC
Destroy 5 Infantry, 1 Artillery: Benefit: 19 IPC
Capture AA Gun: +6 IPC
Collect for Land: +2 IPC
Collect for National Objective: +5 IPC
Net: +13 IPC (+7 if you don’t consider taking the AA Gun into account.)
- Hit Baltic States, East Poland and Ukraine.
Cost: 1 or 2 Infantry >> -6 IPC
Destroy 7 Infantry >> +21 IPC
Collect for Land >> 4 IPC
Collect for NO >> 5 IPC
Net: +24 IPC
3) Attack Egypt. This isn’t meant to TAKE Egypt, but to weaken the British severely. I’ve found that if you do not even attack Egypt with Germany, Italy can be wiped out in short order and has NO CHANCE at getting the second National Objective ever. Not to mention, Egypt is a great place for a British Industrial complex later in the game.
Cost: 2 Infantry, Artillery, 2 Armor >> -20 IPC
Destroy: 3 Infantry, Artillery, Armor >> +18 IPC
Net: -2 IPC
4) Naval assaults on England. Primarily you have to clear the Cruiser/Destroyer from SZ 12 to protect the Italian fleet. I usually attack the destroyer in SZ 6 too since it’s the only thing your submarine can do anyway and it’s a 50/50 shot at sinking another British ship.
Cost: 1 or 2 submarines >> -6-12 IPC (none of which you need)
Destroy: Cruiser and 1 or 2 Destroyers >> +20-28 IPC
Net: +8-22 IPC
As far as builds go, I’m thinking that in 1941 we need more and more armor than we did in Revised. We cannot neglect infantry, but we can bring that Armor/Infantry ratio up closer to 50/50. Remember, Russia starts with no fighters, so they’re trading tanks just about every round, so Germany can also afford to trade tanks.
If you find your builds getting maxed out you can build a complex in Poland. This is a 3 IPC territory, so you’ll be producing 3-5 units there easily (with Improved Factories) and it’s limited in damage it can take from allied bombing runs! (6 IPC max.) This by itself would make it a more valuable building location than France, but wait, Jim, there’s more! Poland is two zones CLOSER to Russia than France is! That means you can put Infantry into Poland and have the Armor in Germany catch up with them the next round in East Poland.
Technology: Tech is the backbone of this game. I have not seen a single game played where one side had technology and the other side did not and still won.
Okay, tech is a bit random, so what? You have a choice on what chart you roll on, so that’ll help a lot, and really, outside of Super Submarines, I don’t see a “bad” technology on the charts. (Thinking about it, if we fixed Super Submarines to negate Battleship 2 hit abilities, then they would be good!)
I like chart 1 for Germany. Improved Factories are great (especially for a poland complex or even Karelia.) War bonds are okay, at least they can offset SBR damage. Mechanized infantry and paratroopers are wicked. (Paratroopers are great for getting Italian National Objectives and liberating things like Finland and Norway. I’ve even toyed with a Sea Lion attempt from the air once or twice.)
Should Germany SBR?
I guess that sort of depends. Definitely not on round 1! But later, it can be helpful if England’s being a nuissance or if you think Russia got lucky and you need to knock their income back down. But generally speaking, those German bombers are really nice for hitting the enemy ground units and not so much the complexes.
Caveat: England has no Industrial Complexes outside of England itself, Japan and Italy have taken away all of England’s National Objectives, should you SBR? In this case, I would hit England with 3 or 4 bombers and the reason being that England’s only earning in the low 30s, upper 20s. if you can do 10-16 IPC damage (which 3 or 4 bombers should easily do) then you’ve eliminated them as a serious threat to France. Note, in most games, America is hardly a threat to the woman hood of France let alone the German army there. This would mean you could pull most, if not all, of those troops out and send them towards Russia.
Key Territories:
1) East Poland is a HUGE territory for you! From here you can hit Baltic States, Belarus, East Ukraine and Ukraine. As long as you have a stack here, your National Objective in this region should be secured each round.
2) Karelia: As Russia’s weakest link, you may as well go for this one first. It’s worth +7 IPC a round (5 for the National Objective and 2 for the territory.) It also allows you to trade Arkhangelsk (threatening his NO) and to threaten Scandinavia (Finland/Norway.) The miracle happens if you get Improved Factories and Karelia, now you’re dumping +4 Infantry a round up there!
3) France: You need to defend France from British incursions as soon as possible. Normally this is Italy’s job, but Italy can find itself hard pressed if things go poorly. For England, France is worth 11 IPC. For Germany France is also worth 11 IPC.
Most useful units: Infantry, Armor, Bombers (Artillery if you have Advanced Artillery)
Very similar to what I do, however, it is very hard to win all of these, it thins you out too much. I usually don’t do all of these. I don’t play with Tech though (fun sometimes, but it makes the game too dicey). Can you do this w/o tech???
