My Sea Lion Proposal

[captain tim]

So I have thought about this for a long time and came up with what I believe to be an interesting German first strike.

This move is sea lion and a weaker version of barbarossa at the same time.  I know most don’t think that’s a good idea.  But I disagree.

T1.  Buy 2 strategic bombers and a sub. 
-use your subs, navy, and the entire air force (not your strategic bomber though) to destroy the entire English Navy around the UK.  This typically works and can be done even with average rolling.  It would take some very bad rolls to lose.  It happens, but them are the dice.
-use every conceivable ground unit to attack france.  It is something like 5 tanks, 1 or 2 artilery, 4 mech inf. and 5 inf.  (something like that).  As for this, i have never seen France hold on.  But it’s closer than that result would indicate.  Still…  you’re probably going to win.
-Attack every Russian front zone other than Bellarussia (or whichever is the one with no IPC value).  You will be able to match their infantry with one zone getting 2 tanks and the other getting 1 tank and your bomber on top of an infantry match.  These forces are sacrificial, but chances are the Russian player doesn’t realize what you’re doing yet.  They are unlikely to buy planes or tanks.  THey probably think you’re crazy at this point which is the point.  They will likely respond by pulling back and buying infantry, either way who cares what they do…  It won’t matter.  As a russian player on the other end of this assault it is very hard not to be paranoid.
-as per normal, take the friendly neutrals near finland and in greece.  Taking Greece and its free infantry will thwart any Russian plans to get silly near Belarus whose infantry you left unharmed.

T2.  Buy 3 (or 4) transports and then whatever else you want.  Some combination of destroyer and cruiser if you fear the RAF retaliation, land units if your land unit to transport ratio is not great. 
-Use the remnants of france to take the remains of Western Europe.  But make sure your tanks can be picked up for the battle of the UK.  (don’t send any tanks to S. France in other words). 
-Send your three Strategic bombers and sufficient escorts to England to bomb their factory.  This will be your one and only strategic raid so prepare to deal with some losses to the luftwaffe.  Chances are they will kill a few fighters/tacs.  They may kill one of your strat bombers.  But either way, you’re going to get enough points of damage on that factory to really hurt their ability to fortify England.  Hopefully your attack on Russia T1 has convinced everyone that you’re going for Barbarossa.  How wrong they were…
-On the russian front you are now going to have to consolidate.  There can be no T2 second wave for Germany at this point.  But you did your job.  You killed six russian men on the front T1 and you scared the crap out of them.  They are on the retreat to consolidate their forces.  Do the same to the extent that you can (retreat).  If they did attack you back (likely the force you sent with 2 tanks) then retaliate with men and planes to the extent that they left enough infantry behind to warrant such an attack.  It’s all about killing Russians, but it’s ok not to attack them here. 
-ensure that you have sufficient units to fill every transport you own on a coastal zone ready to hit England.

T3.  Purchase a factory for one of the Eastern zones (your choice), replentish your airforce (obtain an equal number of tacs and fighters) and then the rest goes to ground forces (infantry and mechs at this point IMO). 
-Invade England.  You will have three bombers and whatever else of your airforce remains (losses should not be too significant at this point).  You should have at least 8 land units to land and if your tactical bombers did the job you’re going to have a comparable land force to what England is representing.  Possily much more than that. 
-Continue to consolidate your forces in the East.  Russia is next!

So at this point England should have fallen.  Not every time mind you, but they likely will die.  If they didn’t build infantry turn one (due to a false sense of security resulting from your attack on Russia T1) then your victory is nearly assured.  But even if they did anticipate sea lion, your bombers destroyed their capacity to build units (most likely).

Now with England secure, you can use the spoils of war to build infantry and replentish the luftwaffe.  Buy at least one sub every turn.  Maybe more.  Remember those transports can now be used to deploy land forces directly into a Russian capital.  DO SO!

The Crux of my argument here is that I feel that attacking EVERYONE on T1 is the way to go.  The Russian player will be paranoid.  The English player will view this as business as usual.  Perhaps the 2 strat bomber purchase will make them wonder.  Perhaps not.  Either way, you are entering this thing knowing that you’re going to lose fighters on your one and only strat bombing raid.  The key though is that you damage that factory in London on T2.  Doing that will ensure your victory.

At this point, focus on Russia.  Build more men and mechs.  Upgrade the factory you made in the East and drop a 10 tank purchase in that major IC.  Game over!

[ste]

Interesting thoughts, but in my opinion the psychological effects are overestimated. Due to the fact that strategic games are lost maybe about 90% of the games due to tactical mistakes good players of strategic games meet the tactical threats on the board first and then maybe think about the strategy of the opponent (in most games strategy will only be a side note). As in my forum-thread can be seen it is not at all easy to conduct a successfull Sea lion by using all strength from Germany (and maybe Italy). In the case of a Sea lion light UK can (and hopefully will) answer to the threats on the board easily.

However I agree with your thoughts taken as a whole that a threatend Sea lion is not required to be conducted. But then shift full force into Barbarossa (or whatever else opportunities you have).

KR S

[techroll42]

No offense, but horrible idea.

I’m assuming this is OOB because hitting the RN all G1 is risky in Alpha+3.

Russia gets into the war, and while they may build inf. R1, by R2 they’ll be countering in force. If UK is smart, they’ll see what’s coming with a non-land G1 build and will build at least some defenses. Then they’ll build all inf. UK2, meaning they’ll have about 18 inf. on UK. You’re attacking with 4 or 5 trn. How the heck will that work? Answer: it won’t. And Russia will take the eastern waste of money…er…factory and run through the Balkans and Germany and the game will be over by G5.

It’s like throwing yourself at everyone in the hope they forfeit, knowing that if they don’t you’ll lose.