Egyptian Lockdown

[kdfsjljklgjfg]

So I’ve playtested this strategy that I have dubbed the Egyptian lockdown twice thus far on the alpha 2+ setup. Once, Egypt lasted something like 6 turns, the other it didn’t fall in a 10+ turn game. I’d like some feedback on it if there are any ways I can improve upon it though.

Turn 1, UK buys a transport for South Africa and an airbase for Egypt. The fighters from Malta and Gibraltar fly to Egypt and the Tac bomber from the carrier lands there as well. This way they can defend Egypt and still scramble in defense of the fleet if necessary. The 2 inf in South Africa stay there. The transport with the Mediterranean fleet picks up one inf from Egypt and gets him to pro-allied Persia. The French infantry in Syria moves to Trans-Jordan. If you want to hold Alexandria to keep an additional space between Egypt and the Italians, move the ANZAC units up to Alexandria and it should be able to hold against an Italian attack easily. I prefer to do this, as it prevents Italy from using the Ethiopia garrison in conjunction with their main force early. Move the South African destroyer up as well as the French Madagascar destroyer.

Turn 2, UK buys 1 Tank, 1 Mech Inf, 1 Inf. Move the destroyers to merge with the Mediterranean fleet. The South Africa transport ships the 2 inf up to Egypt and the one that put a man in Persia brings 2 back to Egypt. The French Trans-Jordan infantry moves to Egypt. This should have your total number of units in Alexandria/Egypt at 9 infantry (6 UK 2 ANZAC 1 French), 2 Artillery, 1 Armor, 2 Fighters, 1 Tactical bomber. A sizeable force by any means.

From this point, you continue the South African Express going, and alternate purchases of 1 Infantry 1 Mech Inf  1 Tank, with a purchase of 3 Infantry. The Mechs and Tanks can reach Egypt within 2 turns and the extra infantry sits around waiting for the next group of 3 to bring 4 up to Egypt.

In my experience this holds Egypt long enough for the US to take significant pressure off of Egypt with Morocco/Gibraltar landings.

So, opinions? How can I make this better? My main issue is that this is either 13 or 9 IPC every turn off of the London income, and that makes it more difficult to make a landing in France, especially if the British fleet is wiped out G1. Is it worth it to shut down Italy like this or would I be better off going back to primarily spending on France landings?

[Sloan]

If I were germany and you were doing such moves I would build some transports and land at London… other than that its a pretty good strategy. You could however just buy a minor there and get units there without the use of transports

[kdfsjljklgjfg]

The thing is, while it’s expensive, it doesn’t burn your whole income, so there would still be units going onto England. It’s not like it would be empty as a result of this.

[special forces]

i think an IC in EGypt would just be a magnet (and after some turns a present) for the Axis.

@kdfsjljklgjfg:

From this point, you continue the South African Express going, and alternate purchases of 1 Infantry 1 Mech Inf  1 Tank, with a purchase of 3 Infantry. The Mechs and Tanks can reach Egypt within 2 turns and the extra infantry sits around waiting for the next group of 3 to bring 4 up to Egypt.

Throw in an Art now and then.

@kdfsjljklgjfg:

So, opinions? How can I make this better? My main issue is that this is either 13 or 9 IPC every turn off of the London income, and that makes it more difficult to make a landing in France, especially if the British fleet is wiped out G1. Is it worth it to shut down Italy like this or would I be better off going back to primarily spending on France landings?

I wouldn’t be so concerned about attacking France, the Americans can take care of that too, if necessary. Keeping Italy small is better. But you must always make sure London is strong enough.

[Maddog77]

@mantlefan:

@kdfsjljklgjfg:

The thing is, while it’s expensive, it doesn’t burn your whole income, so there would still be units going onto England. It’s not like it would be empty as a result of this.

But that’s the thing; if  Germany is threatening sealion you need everyhting you can to defend London. Blowing 22 IPCs on things that won’t help London 1st turn is a death wish once Germany sees it. UK1 buys need to be more cautious.

I would have to agree w/ you Mantlefan. Repulsing Sealion would be my 1st concern, as in this game, Sealion seems to be very doable if the Allies let their guard down.

[Piet Hein]

I think this is a really strong move in case Germany opts for Barbarossa instead of Sealion (which I think is the better move in the long run for Germany). Since UKs turn is after Germany’s, this is easy enough to spot. And even if an IPC on Egypt would work as a magnet (decoy?) for the Axis, its only 12 IPCs and keeps them busy for a few turns, enabling UK to retain its Med fleet and hold Africa and Gibraltar until the US arrives.

[Piet Hein]

No need to buy the airbase on UK1 - with only 12 ipc spent on Egypt G1 you can still build some defending units in the UK and sit out Germany’s reaction before you buy the airbase Uk2. If Germany decides to change strategy as you say, it still has to buy the carrier so thats already 2+ transports less. Plus it would have moved all land units towards Russia on G1 so it will have to move everything back spending 2 moves on useless NCMs. Those are exactly the kind of delays that will lose the game for the Axis.

[ghr2]

but thats assuming that germ has 70 ipcs to spend G2

[kdfsjljklgjfg]

If I may interject, I never said a minor IC on Egypt, just an airbase to allow for the planes to defend it and still be able to scramble in defense of the fleet if the need arises. The IC utilized is the South Africa one by way of transport.

[Pherman1215]

Very sound strategy.  But, if Germany is pressing your convoy’s hard with submarines you will likely not have the income to get away with this.  And do you not destroy the Italian fleet on UK1?  It seems like italy having 3 bombards every turn against Egypt could become a major problem.  Other then the German subs choking out England and survival of the Italian fleet, i think your strategy is good.

[dadler12]

Since UK goes after Germany, I think this is a great strategy if Germany does not do the standard sea lion buy.  I’m going to try it out myself.  Good idea crazy name guy

[Idi Amin]

All in all a very good strategy if you wany to lose London

[Pvt.Ryan]

I like it I gotta try this on my friends. They have never played AAA. Also did you do this (jkljikljljiljil) with your name j? Lol because I love it.

[Idi Amin]

@Pvt.Ryan:

I like it I gotta try this on my friends. They have never played AAA. Also did you do this (jkljikljljiljil) with your name j? Lol because I love it.

What kinda fun is squashing is rooks? Does it make you feel superior?

[HMS_Artemis]

I like this strategy, I used a various form of it in my current game.  it’s our first game of global and I’m the allies.  after Germany failed on taking London G3, I’ve been trying to secure Africa.  I had attacked on UK1(it was a mistake, I won the battle but my Cruiser and Transport were destroyed in I1).  I had a combined ANZAC/UK/FR force, with an American fighter in Egypt (or Alexandria, I don’t remember), Italy still had their navy (which I foolishly left to prosper until it has become a real problem in the Med).  I was building the tank/mech inf in South Africa that were on their way to Egypt but Italy still had 2 infantry trying to capture as much of Southern Africa before they got destroyed. I had 2 separate battles of tank/mech on one infantry and lost all 4 of my units while all of his survived.

What’d you do to deal with the Italian infantry and Artillery in Somalia?

[Sire Fred]

@HMS_Artemis:

What’d you do to deal with the Italian infantry and Artillery in Somalia?

Personnaly, i bring an inf and art from India with the cruiser to bombard, inf from Sudan and mech from Egypt. It’s my standard move and I never lost that battle every game I played as the Allies.

[Pvt.Ryan]

@HMS_Artemis:

What’d you do to deal with the Italian infantry and Artillery in Somalia?

Once in a forum game I saw a joint strike with the Med Tac and Transport loading troops from italy to take them out. It was interesting. @Idi:

@Pvt.Ryan:

I like it I gotta try this on my friends. They have never played AAA. Also did you do this (jkljikljljiljil) with your name j? Lol because I love it.

What kinda fun is squashing is noobs? Does it make you feel superior?

Yeah. yeah it does make me feel superior. And please don’t use the term “noobs” here this isn’t Call of Duty.

[Young Grasshopper]

I played Germany for the first time last weekend and I did what I think was a standard German strategy. I took out France, Normandy and all the UK ships in the channel. My first purchase was a carrier, a destroyer and a sub. My second purchase was a ton of transports and filled them with infantry and tanks so that my tac bombers could roll 4s. By the end of German T3 I had 1 tank remaining in London and Sea Lion was a success. That said, if I were the UK and this was happening to me, I would find it very difficult to pull off Egyptian Lockdown and defend London. I really like your strategy however, without your capital, you can’t make an income and therefore would be unable to support an African Campaign. I only have a few games under my belt but any strategy that dosn’t include Sea Lion is a two front war for the Germans and we all know how that turned out. I would like to see a balance in this strategy where the UK can fight for London and Egypt. I haven’t played the UK yet, but when I do you can bet that I won’t be pulling my fleet back through the Suez the way I’ve seen all my other friends do. That’s for dam sure.

[Sire Fred]

@Sire:

@HMS_Artemis:

What’d you do to deal with the Italian infantry and Artillery in Somalia?

Personnaly, i bring an inf and art from India with the cruiser to bombard, inf from Sudan and mech from Egypt. It’s my standard move and I never lost that battle every game I played as the Allies.

I do this attack against Ethiopia, not Somalia, sorry. It allow me to kill the two italian inf and the art there without weakening the Med front.

[JimmyHat]

ugh, I can’t seem to get any traction with Italy.  The brits have been hitting me hard of the first turn and never stopping.  My opponent moves his CA/bb from english channel to sz92, moves the carrier to sz94 with 2 ftrs and screens sz 96 and 98 so I cannot hit Egypt.  Along with this he pops Tobruk and lands 2 inf from England in Algeria.  This leaves Italy with more targets than they can deal with and twice now I’ve ended up losing the Italian fleet.

I am thinking of changing my Italian buy from 2 inf 1 art to 1 sub I1.  Also moving 2 Germ ftrs from the Paris battle to Tobruk in noncom to save that army.  If i combine these moves with a G1 capture of SFrance then on I1 I can take Malta heavy and then stage these Germ aircraft there to protect the Italian fleet.  My opponent has been concentrating on taking out Italy as soon as possible, anyone else had this problem?

I also have been building 1 cv 1 dd 1 sub on G1, and experimented with other sub builds.  Getting an early sub advantage while England is pinned could be crucial in the long game.