Edited.
Okay, one more revision:
Turn one
Germany buys one aircraft carrier and two transports
Attack sz109 w 1bmb & 1sub
Attack sz 110 w 1ftr 1tac & 2sub
Attack sz 111 w 1ftr 1tac & 2sub
Attack sz 112 w 1sub 1crs 1tac & 1ftr
Attack Normandy w 1inf & 1tnk
Attack Yugoslavia w 1tnk & 7inf
Attack France w everything else.
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Build your fleet in sz 112 with your existing navy (this battle is overkilled because you can’t afford any loss of navy - not even a wounded BB - you need the fleet intact to protect your builds).
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build your fleet in sz 114 if combat is is disastrous. To Russia with love! Other wise build in sz112
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Non combat into Finland and into Bulgaria and pull two tanks back from the eastern front
Turn two
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Move your bonus infantry from Finland back to Norway and move all available continental infantry, armour, and artillery into West Germany
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Build up to ten transports as needed
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Attack Scotland w 3inf & 3tnk
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Destroy any UK boats in range of sz111
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Move your battleship to sz111 and the rest of your navy to sz113.
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Build in sz113
Turn three
Germans land in England!
UK’s defense
UK can build nine units round one. This leaves:
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10inf
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2rtl
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1tnk
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3ftr
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1tac
This is if there are no German subs and UK brings reinforcement from Africa as in reply #4 bellow. Otherwise UK’s pips will be lower.
UK can counterattack Scotland and/or attack sz111. If they did neither, maximum round two homeland defense would be:
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11inf
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2rtl
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5tnk
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4ftr
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1tac
This gives a defense strength of 60 pips for UK. against Germany’s 81 plus plus offshore bombardment. This (for the sake of argument) is based on six planes surviving till G3, and five of those should survive the flac, accounting for 17 of the 81 pips. This number is conservative, but leaves much extra strength should fewer p[lanes survive.
If UK attacks Scotland, they will need three or four ground units. If they attack with four planes and two infantry/artillery pairs, they’ll lose about 3.5 units, so they don’t want to skip much more than that. So maybe they’ll take away 12 pips from Germany’s offense, but at a cost of 8 points of they’re own defense. This makes Germany roughly 69 vs 52.
If UK attacks sz111 they will need three planes. One fighter and one Tactical bomber are a 3:2 dog to kill a battleship and survive to sink the transports. If they send three fighters, they’ll reduce Germany from 81 to 69 (and remove a bombardment shot) for the cost of about on fighter plane. This is on it’s own not enough, but it also makes it harder for UK to deal with Scotland efficiently.
Sea lion indeed can be forced baring any real bad luck G1. But is it worth it?
[center]The problems
Germany sits proudly in London with an extra 30 or so pounds in hand. But between two navy builds, anti aircraft fire and evacuating over 100 IPCs worth of ground units from Europe, Germany looks pretty frail. Russia is Huge, America has massed a fleet in the Atlantic, and Japan has done nothing in order to keep USA away from the British Isles. No pressure on India means a weak Italy. America can soon liberate UK, and Germany can’t afford to fight for it - even without the Russians on their doorstep.
Overall, I’m convinced Germany can capture England, but not convinced that it is (or isn’t) their best option (who’d have thought). I do think axis post sea lion is worth refining. Can Germany hold out long enough and can Japan explode quickly enough?
Either way, I stand by the turn one build of Carrier and two transports (for now). Even if you don’t attack England:
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You force UK to buy infantry round one
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Your Baltic fleet will help you against Russia
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Your Baltic fleet will help against allied invasion
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You force America to build Atlantic (though maybe this is what they should do anyway)
If the Allies don’t put up a decent defense, sea lion is too easy and most likely is a winning move.
Thoughts?
