@Concealer:
@The:
One tough sacrifice of this strategy is that you have to abandon India. I find this acceptable because, against a half-decent opponent, India is bound to fall by the 3rd turn at the latest anyhow.
I think abandoning India is more of a sacrifice than you think even though, as quoted above, you call it tough. If you put a IC in there on UK1 you have the ability to hold out for a lot longer than turn 3, or so has been the cases in the games I have played. But allowing Japan to run through largely unchallenged doesn’t sit well with me.
Having said that, I think there is some serious value in taking the Med away from Germany so quickly. While amassing troops and naval units up in Africa I could see a thinly spread German defence making them much less effective. I would imagine they would become mostly defensive minded and play more like Russia does in most games.
I think the counter here for the axis would be a beastly Japan. They may need to put their own IC in India and build up a pipeline of reinforcements to harass the navy you place in the Med. Germany may also choose to invest in some bombers and subs to keep the invasion at bay, using the subs as fodder- though being spread so thin Russia could beat them on the eastern front of the UK might build up a sizable offensive. I’ll have to try it out and see what happens.
Interesting idea for sure.
It’s true that Japan’s strength becomes a bit unnerving with this strategy. However, I was able to move my American and British forces through the Middle East and stall the Japanese advancement long enough to allow the bulk of my allied forces conquer Germany.
I am happy with this strategy for now, as it propelled me to my first allied victory after 3 defeats, but I know my opponent will devise a better counter-strategy the next time we play. He did have a strong air force, but he committed them to the eastern front and didn’t harass my US convoys at all. This will likely change next time, and, as you suggested, he will probably buy a few more subs as well.
A more risky German counter-strategy would be to go ahead with an amphibious invasion of Egypt on G1, even though it would likely mean losing his battleship and transport. He would then have to build a transport and probably two destroyers on his first turn, so that he could reinforce his African troops at least one more round. This would likely delay the American invasion until round 3, or even longer.
With the Japanese, my opponent built an IC on India, but no more. I think it would have been best to buy an a second IC for mainland Asia, so he could have placed 6 tanks on the mainland every turn.
Any other ideas for axis counter-strategies?
