Another strategy many Allied players of fond of using is the more recent strategy known as the Floating Bridge done and performed by the United States player in a game of Global 40’.
To summarize this strategy, the American player uses the concept of making the game long and drawn out to their advantage to which they eventually build a link of transports together to cross the Atlantic Ocean preferably into North Africa and then into Southern France/Italy with a built up navy over the course of 5-7 rounds.
The Floating Bridge technique is often the go-to for the United States frankly because there really isn’t much else they can be doing other than sending men to die in Europe, which makes for a problem to the German player and the Axis as a whole, since Germany should be the ones to hold the team on their shoulders, being the leader of the Axis.
There isn’t much the Germans can do to stop the Americans from building their floating bridge initially, but there are methods of delaying it.
One thing that should be prioritized is keeping the Americans out of the war.
To put simply, Japan should NOT do a J1 attack, being as it is quite the unstoppable opening for the Japanese player, it’s not often seen as beneficial to the Germans for having brought the Americans into the war on the first turn, allowing them to gain more income, and most importantly a free window to move into Africa at any point, with Germany only being capable of sending a couple U-Boats to fight a 2 boats which doesn’t seem very cost effective to me since every German U-Boat should be fighting the British Navy in some sort of fashion.
Not doing a J1 attack will already set the Americans back and limiting them to their only 2 Sea zones that border their Eastern US territories, as well as delay them into building up their navy sufficiently without the bonus 20 IPC’s.
Though this will delay the Americans, it won’t stop the sleeping giant completely. Which is why it’s imperative to do one of two things as the German player. 1) Build a formidably sized Luftwaffe to fight off the American landing or 2) Building a formidably sized Kriegsmarine to size up the American navy.
In this scenario, the latter works better, though how would you do that with such little time to build up until Barbarossa is implemented?
With a simple strategy called Afrika Korps that General Hand Grenade had previously made.
Granted having tried this strategy myself, building a mobilizing a German Navy and sending it to the Med Sea is without a doubt the best way to go, seeing as you’ll have the 3 turns of not being at war to make it into the Mediterranean and to help the Italians grow their navy to a size at which it can and should protect itself.
There is no telling how big the Americans will want to make their navy in the Atlantic, and it isn’t cost effective for the German player to continually size up the American Navy by building more ships than them, but rather build the occasional ship here and there, and compensate with the assistance of the Luftwaffe. (With that, bringing down the 3 transports with 6 guys to make landings in Gibraltar and Morocco, as well as 6 more guys from Southern France).
Having done this and helped the Italians build up their navy, the Americans have 2 options.
Risk everything they have to go in to try to sink your navy or 2) Not move in to attack the German fleet, to which as I stated, the American player should not be of someone to take risks.For the American Fleet and amphibious assault of operation flashlight to be beaten back by the Germans and Italians has a lot more significance and sway in the war effort than others might think, because it’s not as simple as just ‘rebuilding and trying again’.
The Americans can’t afford to try again if they do not succeed, they have one shot, one opportunity to make it into Africa and then Europe, and if that opportunity even has the slightest chance of being withered away, then a proper American player shouldn’t even take the slightest risk in attempting a landing and take over of the Med sea, which is exactly what the axis should be looking to have happen.
To summarize, the longer the Axis can stall the Americans from landing in Europe, the more the war effort sways in their favor, since the German War Machine will be grinding against the Soviet Meat in the Eastern Front. And all said is done, it doesn’t end there.
I feel that the statement of ‘not letting Japan take Honolulu or Sydney’ is an incredibly significant overstatement due to the fact that once Japan cleans up in the Pacific, YES they will take Sydney, YES they will take Honolulu, because unlike in the other games such as 1942 second edition, 1941, and Anniversary edition, Japan as the complete capability to win the war completely for the Axis powers by controlling 6 victory cities. Being that the Americans and British cannot ignore the Japanese any longer. Which is the exact role that Japan plays in all of this, playing a big enough threat to the Americans and British to the point at which they MUST act upon stopping them at all costs.
Having done this, follow it by the letter, and you will have a swift victory as the Axis powers, unfortunately there is no real magic bullet or secret method to completely defeating the Americans, but with stalling and waiting them out, will you find success in your efforts to winning World War 2.
