Germany playbook: overall strategy guide

[simon33]

I don’t get the advantage of taking the Panama Canal?

UK has 5 planes in SZ92 with an airbase. Normally 2 cruisers and at least 1DD. Now if Germany successfully attacks the SZ91 Cruiser then they will have at least one, maybe 2 less ships to sink but probably will have lost planes in SZ110. In fact, in this scenario it may be better to scramble SZ110 and not do the gibbastion strat, especially if they are also attacking SZ111.

[trulpen]

@dermmanninderhochburg said in Germany playbook: overall strategy guide:

We play the game with out of the box rules, no extra funds or set up provisos.

That’s more or less an autowin for Axis. In the league there’s typically a bid for Allies of 30-60 IPC (OOB).

[taamvan]

@trulpen @simon33

Ryan Vornick took 2022 Invitational AAA 9-0 as axis, 25 avg bid, bidding anything for axis to win, and COW J1JDOW every game. Sound familiar?

its been a long long road (almost 10 years now) for people to understand the META and address what is wrong with the OOB build. You continue to encounter people who were not part of our earlier discussions that insist that the axis are wildly overpowered and the only answer is, yes–that was conclusive in 2015.

It is always better to win a game during team selection than on the dice.

[Cornwallis]

@taamvan the META is Ger is unstoppable if they push all in to Moscow.
You can hold Moscow but then you lose the Pacific or Med. We find US always coming too late.

[Cornwallis]

@taamvan what is the correct allied response to J1, go for Germany?

[simon33]

@cornwallis said in Germany playbook: overall strategy guide:

@taamvan what is the correct allied response to J1, go for Germany?

Yes. It is also the correct allied response to not J1.

[farmboy]

@dermmanninderhochburg On G1 its pretty standard to attack 110. Probably 111 and 106 are hit too. That doesn’t impact on the Gibraltar move. The navy that goes to Gibraltar is from the med and the cruiser in 91 and the destroyer in 109. The bid effects this too as it may mean there are more British ships that can join. An airbase is built at Gibraltar and UK air is landed there as well.

The advantage of this is 3 fold. 1 you contain/threaten Italy (without sacrificing ships) and discourage an early attack on Egypt. 2 you discourage a G3 sealion and threaten a landing in Normandy, etc. 3) you have a waypoint that allows you to shuttle air quickly from the Atlantic towards the mid east and then Moscow. And you have 5 air that can make the move there on the next turn.

The strategy that you describe works sometimes but will probably run into trouble when you play people with more experience that can anticipate it. If you don’t win the game by G/J5 you have probably lost it. And the US can afford to lose WUS for a turn and if Japan forgoes the money islands it will soon find itself being dramatically overspent and pressured on all sides. So I think this can sometimes be a fun strategy to try on an unsuspecting player, but not one I would rely on.

[Colonel Mustard]

trulpen’s G2 DOW heading for Moscow
New player here - hope you are still active on this board - under this scenario, where Italy resources are needed for I3 can-opener, what is Italy’s recommended course of action in the Med and Africa assuming a successful Taranto raid on UK1?

[Stucifer]

@Colonel-Mustard You might want to @ a player to get their attention.

Trulpen and COW aren’t active on the boards anymore.

Personally if UK gets a successful Toranto and you are planning on a G2 or and I2/G3 attack on USSR, I would buy two mech and save 2 IPCs round one, and then buy more mechs round 2 - depending on how badly your income gets convoyed - maybe an armour as well if you can afford it. Can opening lets Italy grab most of the 1-IPC territories in USSR, which is important since they are usually losing most of their home IPCs to convoy by round 4/5 depending on Allied strategy. Usually I’m just building an infantry stack to hold Rome after the first couple rounds

[Colonel Mustard]

@Stucifer @trulpen Thanks for your ideas. It does seem inevitable that post-successful-Taranto, Italy is going to be in a defensive crouch.

Tagging trulpen in case he receives the alert wants to add any thoughts.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

Assuming there isn’t an awful dice roll during UK1, Italy will be primarily defensive for the rest of the game. Egypt should not fall regardless of the main Allied openers. Gibraltar might be briefly captured but will be reclaimed when America enters the game. Africa will eventually be dominated by the Allies. The Med cannot be kept free of British ships.

Nevertheless, Italy has crucial roles:

• Canopening for the Germans

• Protect the coastline from Allied invasion

• Make it difficult for Russia to claim Axis territories in Africa.

• delay convoy raids in the Med

• Make sure Rome and Berlin don’t get captured.

I build a mech and a tank on I1, and then mostly infantry after that. Perhaps a fighter on I1 if there are opportunities to use it in a limited action on I2.

[Colonel Mustard]

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris Thank you ABH! Current game just started - Italy survived Taranto (on dice) and captured Egypt, Trans-Jordan, into Iraq and Syria. This is a global game so Allies sent planes in from Calcutta to support a firewall at Persia; add tanks churning out of S. Africa and the writing’s on the wall for Italy’s Mid-East/Africa force going into turn 4 but they’ve tied up UK Europe pretty well (every 3 tanks is a couple of planes not built) and will hold Mare Nostra through turn 4.

It’s reassuring to hear from such an experienced player that no matter what I were to do Italy is generally destined to shrink into a defensive posture - I can see that my current 28 IPCs will be the high point for Itay.

At this point rather than reinforce the doomed expeditionary force I think I’ll commit all to defense of the mediterranean coast.

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

If you captured Egypt and held it for a few turns, the game has shifted so much in the Axis favor that it is impossible for the Allies to compete again assuming good game play. But it sounds like inexperienced Allied and Axis players if the Italians survived Taranto.

[Colonel Mustard]

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris Inexperienced for sure, and big error in Pacific as I held Japan back from DOW until turn 3, with the idea of keeping the Americans out of the European war while Germany wins it for the Axis.

Japan’s delay meant they were on their back foot the entire game, never approached 50 IPCs and by the end (round 10) Anzac was almost producing as much as Japan and the Chinese and PacUK were out of control.

Reinforcement air from UK (both theaters) into Moscow stalled its capture until G9, and heavy American reinforcements in Egypt coming through sub-sahara would have made it impossible to take.

Axis was saved only by my opponent taking his eye off the ball in UK. I added dd’s and subs here and there in the mid rounds to the German fleet holding the channel. A quick transport/troop build G9 left him unable to respond to G10 Sea Lion, which held and ended the game.

At the end of the day, you were right, Italy’s success after the failed Toranto led to Axis victory.

[barnee]

@Colonel-Mustard

Awesome ! Sounds as if you guys had a lot of Fun ! :)

[Cornwallis]

@Colonel-Mustard how did it turn out for the US sending troops via subsahara?

[Colonel Mustard]

@Cornwallis They sent a couple waves of fighters first, it’s just 2 stops to Egypt through French West Africa. They landed a large land force there turn 8, it would have been too much to overcome in Egypt, especially as bad dice in Moscow left me with a lone occupying tank (and some bombers, see below). He should have taken Gibraltar which I held with only a couple Italian inf., but I think he didn’t want to lose any transports to S. Italy bombers.

G9 was the battle of Moscow, and also my Sea Lion build. I think his miscalculation was missing the 6 Bombers from Bryansk, who landed back in Germany after Moscow. They made the difference in London. He’d left his London factory damaged, focused on building Egypt forces. So in UK9 he could only add 6 inf and a Tank with his 41 IPCs. That gave him a total of about 17 land units in London which my 11 landing units plus air power wiped out. G9 and G10 blockers kept his massive relief force from being able to reach London from West Africa.

The pace of the game, basically sitting down to do one turn each week, may have helped take his eye off the ball. The Axis never out-produced the Allies in IPCs the entire game.