Live and let live: Could it be? A British Anti-Sealion Strategy!

[SSPanther]

*those aircraft

[tycoonbelle]

I was thinking the infantry from Malta, rather than from Africa, makes himself useful.

[tycoonbelle]

Oh, and the title “live and let live” kind of has a double meaning. Let the Italians do what they want so that you may live, and an option for the Germans, destroy their own fleet and the British one as well, or just go their separate ways.

[SSPanther]

Yes good point. So infantry from Malta and possibly tank from Alexandria. I was thinking, even if your fleet is sunk by German subs, it definitely worth getting up 3 extra aircraft to London, as usually I only flew up the one from Gibraltar. British airpower based out of London always comes in handy later in the game! I typically buy infantry in London b/c I am expecting Sea-Lion. However once I see the threat is gone I save for a couple turns, then BAM drop a big fleet in the Atlantic, which immediately demand his attention in the west, giving Russia breathing room. With all of those aircraft your in a similar situation as Japan in that all you have to do is drop the carriers. I like the carriers b/c then you can threaten Norway, West Germany, etc. I think you may have just secured Allied victory even more lol. The Axis already had an uphill battle but now I see it as even harder to take London.

[tycoonbelle]

I love getting on these forums, because the group I play with uses mainly psychological strategies, and it is kind of nice to see some pure strategy, game-theory-like strategies. I know my Japanese strategy “The Australian Pump-Fake”, would be really effective, but requires psych-outs and the whole sort, and it would just get torn apart in these forums.
Which brings me to the fact that I wrote this because Cmdr Jennifer (perhaps one of the most proud people on these forums) said that Sea-lion was inevitable, and I took it as a challenge, and I’m glad that someone took a liking to it, even if it ends up being fatally flawed in some other aspect.

[tycoonbelle]

Back to the subject at hand, a way to counter this is to follow the British fleet with the Italian one, but come on, really?

[SSPanther]

One, the Italians would have to control Gibraltar at the beginning of their turn. I also think the UK could possibly roadblock the Italians in SZ 104, though theoretically German aircraft could take care of a lone destroyer. If Italy comes out I feel like they are kind of taking their eye off the ball in Africa, which as the UK I would welcome. It is only worth it to me if it helps guarantee a successful Sea-Lion.

Using your strategy, I am actually considering next game turn 1 buy for the UK: 1 carrier, 1 destroyer, and an infantry. (It kind of depends on what Germany buys)

This will give London the following units to defend for possible turn 2 Sea Lion: 6 infantry, 1 tank, 1 tac bomber (french) plus possibly 1 infantry and 1 tank from Quebec.

To assault London turn 2 Germany will have to go through the following: 2 carriers, 6 fighters, 1 destroyer, 1 cruiser (possibly a second depending on battle in SZ 91). On top of that, depending on the dice roll, I oftentimes have a battleship or cruiser or destroyer that survives his assault in the Atlantic.

This strategy depends largely on the following:
1. What Germany builds turn 1
2. Where Germany positions their aircraft at the end of turn 1
3. How much of my fleet, if any, survives the German turn 1 assault

[tycoonbelle]

I completely forgot about my own strategy and that rule, damn.

[gsh34]

Not to poke holes in this, but don’t forget that Germany has a naval base in W. Germany.  They can sail from sz 112 to sz 109 to land in the UK.  The UK would have to block in sz 111 or 119 to stop this route.

[tycoonbelle]

DAMN!

[tycoonbelle]

Wait, that’s an easy fix, just move the destroyer to SZ111…

[thatonekid]

well, the way i do sealions is to SBR the shit out of the english factories. you also attack the fleets around england so the english players like s*** what should i do? scramble or intercept?!?!?!? you also should buy SB G1 + acouple trannies. then G2 you can land six units on scotland. and use those same transports again to land six more units on england the following turn. this is all assuming the UK player doesnt see landing in scotland as an option, and doesnt attack your fleet in the north sea.

[SSPanther]

I guess it depends on where the German transports are. In our games they are usually in 113, so they would have to go through 110 to land that turn. If they are in 112 then yes you have to roadblock. If your destroyer from 106 is not attacked turn one, then you could use it.

[tycoonbelle]

I’m talking about the one from Quebec.

[tycoonbelle]

Don’t scramble, your fleet is going to die anyway.

[SSPanther]

Perhaps you should just get the carrier and cruiser over to SZ 91, then move all aircraft to London, then move the carrier and cruiser to a safer place, possibly towards South Africa.

[SSPanther]

Then you could buy all your infantry at least the first round to be safe, and now you have the following for defense of London.

6 fighters
1 tac bomber (unless you want to keep this in the African/Middle East theatre for a little punch.)
4 infantry + Malta infantry & tank from Alexandria, unless once again you want these in Africa
Possibly 1 infantry and 1 tank from Quebec
9 infantry turn 1 buy

Thats going to make London really hard to take!

Another option is send carrier and cruiser up to SZ 106 as a consolidation point. If your transport and destroyer survived, you already have a little fleet in the Atlantic!

[Jay]

The only problem I see is that in all my games the german player sends 1-3 subs after the Quebec destroyer, it never lives. As canada is easy to convoy.

[tycoonbelle]

The more subs not used against the main fleet outside of Britain, the better.

[JimmyHat]

One thing I try to do as Germany is to attack that trn off Canada, I leave sz 109 alone. (it can be covered by 4 scrambling aircraft)

This does two things, it prevents the canadian armor from coming to UK, if UK wants to counter these subs they have to go way out to canada and any aircraft will not be able to return in time.  Also as Germany I would rather leave the trn alive off England than Canada.  Best case scenario UK weakens their london defense by pulling 2 units off!  I also hit the BB/DD so that UK is left with only 1 dd alive UK1.

I think the best way to counter sealion with UK is to purchase 2 CV’s UK2.  32 ipcs, which should be possible with UK’s income, combined with the Med fleet means that Germ cannot invade London, provided you can block off Scotland.