Neccesary Axis strategy

[Weezer 410]

I have been a long time player of the oob setup in 1940, which is alright except for that when two equal players are pitted against each other the axis will lose 90% of the time. So I began to play with the alpha +.2 setup and here are some things that I believe must be done as the axis to ensure victory.

Germany-
As germany you need to grab the balkans (bulgaria, yugo) along with Southern France and Paris the first turn. Most importantly though, you MUST completely annihalate the British Isles Fleet (also the gibraltar cruiser). If the British fleet is allowed to survive, even a small portion of it, then the british player has some breathing room and can rebuild. Use all available aircraft and ships to destroy them no matter what the cost, perhaps send a couple of aircraft to Paris but I dont think this is neccesary if you ignore Normandy (which I highly suggest), you may even be able to spare a few planes to knock out the french ships in the med. But above all else germany needs to destroy Britain’s ability to wage war starting with its navy. Turn 1 and 2 builds should be mainly transports and ships to defend your invasion fleet. If nothing else this keeps the British from building a fleet or building in Africa, which is extremely important. Put alot of your tanks and infantry on the russian front but DO NOT attack until the fourth or fifth turn, Russia can be dealt with once Britain is hopelessly crippled.

Japan-
As Japan you want to do 4 things
1. Kill India
2. keep America/Anzac at bay
3. Harass Russia
4. Move fast
To do these things you must send a sizable fleet to india and either take it directly or seize so much of its islands and land that India is useless. Then convoy whats left. To keep America at bay you need to keep a sizable fleet back at Japan/Caroline islands probably half your fleet at India Half in Japan. Also you should be building ships ever turn adn do not attack Uk/Anzac/america until the 3rd or 4th turn. Japan should leave the far east Russian Posessions alone, in fact leave very minimal forces in Korea/Manchuria to try and bait him into attacking you first. If Russia does not do this, you must race through Northern China as fast as you can and  hit russia with as much as you can while also keeping pressure on INdia with ground forces. Probably build at least one minor complex in china to help speed up the process.

Italy-
Little Italy…So much to do…Italy’s prime objectives should be to
1. Seize Egypt
2. Harass Southern Russia via Caucases/Persia
3. Keep allied ships out of the Med.
To do this Italy must be constanly bulding ships and Germany has to fulfill its obligations, otherwise the brits will drop a complex in Egypt and when this happens Egypt it VERY tough to kill. Usually the Italian fleet is battered pretty bad the first turn. So it will be tricky to predict what the buys should be so play it by ear. Gibraltar is nice to have but egypt first, and try to take Greece as fast as possible. Italy needs national objectives to get any amount of income to start rebuilding her fleet. Mare Nostrum!

[JimmyHat]

This is a good post, you outline your objectives and then explain why they are important.  What you’re missing is the ‘how’.  Kill the entire UK fleet plus the CA off Gibraltar?  WOW!  Please explain how you do this, are you baiting the UK player into scrambling his planes in 1 battle so you can win the other 2?

I would add the ‘how’ to each of the three nations and you’ve got a solid post.

[Gargantua]

I Also agree with alot of your sentiments,

But I see no provision to PROTECT the italian fleet against a UK1 attack with G1 planes.  I think this is a MUST.  I don’t think many will disagree either…

Why do you need to grab Southern France?

[Weezer 410]

I generally do not like telling people how I think certain things should be destroyed because the allies could do a number of different things. As for the how to kill the british fleet. You need to commit all available subs, ships and airplanes into the fight, ans send 1 sub to attack the Gib. cruiser. I cannot remember how many planes the German start with that can attack the british fleet but I am going to assume it is around 7. send 2 subs to attack the SZ 109 fleet, 1 sub to attack the sz 111 fleet and 1 sub to attack the sz 110 fleet. Send BB and CC to sz 112. Then send 5 planes to the sz 110 battle and 2 planes to the sz 111 battle. Under normal rolling circumstances you should be able to win all of these battles. You want to knock out Britain’s air and naval supremacy in one swift blow.

I think it is important to take Southern France because it gives Germany some options in the med. Especially since the Italian fleet will probably be pretty battered at this point.

[ghr2]

well, u would be crippled aswell if he decides to scramble

[Axisplaya]

@Weezer:

I cannot remember how many planes the German start with that can attack the british fleet but I am going to assume it is around 7

Actually, all 11 german planes can hit the british fleet (2 of them are limited to SZ112 though).

[JimmyHat]

I find sz 109 to be the hardest because 4 allied ftrs can scramble to defend.  Your opponent needs to be considering which of these engagements he can win and scramble there.

Because of this I have been forced to consolidate my attacks as Germany.  Hitting the English channel bb and hit the subs off Canada.  Perhaps I need to be going after that ca off Gibraltar though instead.  It can operate in the Med immediately.

Also, considering you are sending 4 Mech 1 arm(or 2) to SFrance, that leaves you with 6 inf, 3 art, 4 tanks against 7 inf 2 art 2 arm 1 ftr in Paris.

Thats 13 attacking units vs 12 def, and you only win that battle 59%…a battle for FRANCE!  Now, you could add another inf(I saved one to block the UK blitz on Belgium, if we add him it bumps the attacker up to 73%.  That means 1 out of 4 games you lose on G1.

Now you see why I asked for the ‘how’ on your strategy, you’re trying to do everything, creating a lot of low odds battles.  Every low odds battle you add to the mix increases your risk that the turn goes bad.

[Weezer 410]

I would send 2 tanks and 1 mech to S. France, two 3’s and a 1 should be sufficient to take out two 2’s. The rest go to France. You have to take some risks as the axis to win this game. Also I believe that the british/french can only scramble 3 fighters for the battle in sz 110, still giving me an advantage.

[JimmyHat]

The fourth plane comes from Scotland, so thats 2 ftrs in London, 1 french ftr in london, and 1 ftr in scotland coming from 2 airbases.

The problem I have with taking SFrance so light is that you then allow the UK player to recapture or at least kill German tanks with the units from Normandy.  I am going to assume you take SFrance with 2 tanks, you’ll most likely take France with 1 mech/art 3 tanks.  As UK or france I would try and counter you from Normandy.

Still, the interesting notion of this strategy is to use all aircraft against the UK fleet.  I think I would still pull 1 ftr 1 tac to paris in order to land them in Sitaly, letting me take SFrance a bit stronger.  I will have to take a closer look at this when my board is setup for G1 again.

Now if we could just get you to flesh out your Japan and Italian strats too…:)

[Weezer 410]

You need to go balls out to kill the british fleet, and the scotland fighter cannot scramble to sz 110. You might be able to spare the eastern europe planes to attack paris but I would prefer to send those to S. Italy to protect the italian fleet.

As for Japan and Italy, I like to leave the strategy specifics to the player because a lot can change with regards to what the allied players do for the first few turns and where they will be spending their money. This is especially true of Italy due to their 8th position in the turn order. The main thing Italy needs to do the first turn is keep their fleet alive, which is difficult against an experienced British player.

As for southern France. It is not a big deal of Britain/France retake it, the germans could easily take it back on their turn, and by then Normandy should be a cake walk. Also the British will probably want their fighter in Normandy back in england after the beating the RAF and RN will have taken by the germans.

[JimmyHat]

we’re talking about sz109, the one that is furthest from Germany and can get 4 ftrs scrambled.  It is defended by 1 dd 1 trn.

Well, with no specifics then it is hard to critique your strategy…i guess you got the objectives right:S

[Admiral Darlan]

For Germany, I agree crushing the British fleet is an important element of the opening move. I would not try to kill all units, as this will lead to a large number of plane casualties which you will need further on. Attack so that you are certain that you will win (and that the opponent has only one chance to return fire if possible). First off, destroy the UK transport at Canada, the cruisers at Denmark, at least one of the battleships near the UK and the cruiser at Gibraltar (subs have sneak attack if no destroyer is present right?) (Gibraltar cruiser helps fleet Italy against possible attack UK fleet), take Paris, Normandy and Yugoslavia. Liberate Bulgaria and Finland. Buy major IC for Romania. Focus on southern route Russia (go for Ukraine IC). Scandinavia is eventually impossible to keep.???For Italy, I think Gibraltar is just as important as Egypt. If the UK fleet moves away, you can take Greece, Southern France and Gibraltar. Your income after turn 2 would already be 25. Fortify Gibraltar is Italy’s best defense as the US needs the naval base there to move trannies back and forth. However, if the UK fleet crushes the Italian fleet first (often this strategy goes hand in hand with buying an IC in Egypt), you are less wealthy and should concentrate on clearing the Med and fighting Egypt.??For Japan, killing India is most important, try to fend off Anzac and the US. Yunnan is key area, this should be yours always. Buy 1 or 2 minor ICs to keep support coming from land. Ignore Russia, go south instead. As soon as India is fallen, the allies will not be able to retake it easily. You are much stronger now to take China and move towards Moscow. On the sea, take money islands where you can, overall be defensive until you have India. Then, chose between fleet (US) or Moscow.?

[Peck]

As Germany I don’t mind taking 2 turns to kill the uk navy, scrambles can be nasty.

[Commando Brado]

JimmyHat, per the Alphat +2 rules and the fact that the FTR in Scotland can’t reach SZ109, you can only scramble 3 FTR’s to the defense of SZ109

[ghr2]

@Commando:

JimmyHat, per the Alphat +2 rules and the fact that the FTR in Scotland can’t reach SZ109, you can only scramble 3 FTR’s to the defense of SZ109

Can you link the rules?

[JimmyHat]

Here’s a link to the map, does sz 109 touch scotland?   We agree that scotland has a ftr and an air base, if it also touches sz 109, why can it then not scramble?

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=19489.0

***Edit: yes airbase, thank you ghr2.  Its not what I say its what I mean!  :lol:

[ghr2]

airbase u mean

[suprise attack]

EXCELLENT!!! I like your thinking Weezer410, your talking my language.

[Commando Brado]

Sorry JimmyHat. My apologies. You can scramble the 4 FTR’s to SZ109 in Round 1 if you wanted to…

[clintbeastwood]

I have to disagree with attacking the entire British navy at any cost.  As the Axis your advantage is in material ready to fight.  Attacks must be made to overwhelm the defenders, thus keeping your units alive.  The allies WANT to trade with the Axis, they have the money to trade units one for one all day.  Hitting a reset button just seems like playing into Allied hands to me.