How often, while playing Germany, do you take over Africa. All of the games that I have played, I couldn’t waste a tank blitzing through Africa, how about you?
Egypt is the key to africa. If you have tanks there on germany’s second turn then definitely blitz through africa. 1/3 of the UK’s starting IPC’s are in africa, taking those away will seriously hurt the UK, plus give germany much needed IPC’s to fend off russia.
But don;t get suckered in too deep. When the US comes knocking, you WILL lose Africa.
What is being “suckered in”?
When you are thinking of more TRNs to ship units to Africa is probably the #1 clue :-)
Africa money is good but don’t forget that Africa isn’t where the war will be won. I do like the middle east route to the Caucuses though as much as the Africa cash.
Africa is inviting, and certainly pays off if the Allies do nothing about you going in, but it’s a mousetrap. You spend a lot there to get little in return if the US/UK make a big drop in Algeria, because they will overpower you. It’s certainly worth it to break into Egypt on the first turn, but past that be wary of any troops you send. Don’t try to match the Allies if they really want Africa, because you’ll be short troops in Europe and scurrying to catch up to the payloads they set down in Algeria. You can use that battleship/transport to shuffle troops from Southern Europe to Ukraine to help trading against the Russians once it looks like Africa is swinging to the Allies.
Just be careful. Suckered in is not just buying more transports, it’s also sending any units into there if the Allies can counter it easily.
This may answer your question better;
Taking over Africa with Germany is not nearly as important as taking Africa over with Japan. It is ok to not be successful with Germany, but to not succeed taking over Africa with Japan will make things most difficult for you.
ok i was never sure about this … is japan supposed to take africa
How in the world do you take over Africa with Japan. Â Do you go through the UK on land, or use your navy to destroy the naval units by India and then move over. Â How is it possible that you don’t need all your naval units for the US to strike quick
Well I find it really difficult to take over Africa with Japan, but things that work sometimes:
You can shuck from French Indochina directly into Egypt. Since you are shucking units to French Indochina from mainland Japan sometimes you can surprise the UK by floating into Egypt instead of going back to Japan to reload.
You can also sail around the world after taking Australia/New Zealand. Go right and you can nab Brazil and South Africa.
Experimentally, you can use the Japanese airforce to reinforce Egypt. This really depends on how much resistance the Allies are showing in the East, but when you get it to work it’s a monkey wrench in the Allies logistics. 6 fighters in Egypt with some German inf to shield them makes a chokepoint while the rest of Africa falls.
I believe Africa to be a mousetrap for Japan as well. To get there means going out of your shucking pattern, and usually there’s remnants of the US and UK troops who have cleaned Germany out, ready to parry with the little troops you’re tossing into Africa. If you spend a lot of effort you can get Africa as Japan, but doing so before Moscow falls is probably suicide.
Welcome Back Tri!
If you have a good navy and lots of air power in the mediteranean area, you CAN hold on to Africa longer or even better……keep it for sure. However this diverts much needed units and IPCs to the eastern front, so if you do intend to take Africa, make sure you are ready to start a defensive war against the Soviet Union.
I believe Africa can become much more profitable for Germany if the UK fails to re-take Egypt in UK1.
This happened the last game I played. In G2 I took transjordan, and then in J2 I was able to sneak a japanese AC through the suez to link up with the German BB and transport. I then landed some German fighters on it, and this little fleet survived for a long time.
If the UK or USA want to waste their airforce on it all the better.
If they try to send ships through the med to come get you, smash them with your BB, trans and AF. Following that, move your jap AC to southern europe and then buy another transport on your next German turn.
To me, the key to making Africa profitable for the axis is to not engage the allied reinforcements marching along North Africa. Resist the urge to fight them and preserve your forces. After taking or re-taking Egypt, fan out and grab as much territory as you can. However, try to keep most of your forces, and certainly your lone tank, outside striking distance of allied transports floating off Algeria (ie stay mostly in Italian East Africa, Rhodesia, or South Africa - do not even bother with french west africa).
The best African outcome for Germany is to own parts of sub-Saharan Africa with Japan focussing on trading Egypt. If Germany’s fleet is still alive, provide support by landing token forces in either Egypt or Transjordan, whichever is safer.
If you do decide to make a stand in around G3 or G4, turn Egypt into a deadzone. This can be hard to do as you will need to make sure most of your Airforce is in either Southern Europe or the Balkans the round before as well as having most of your land forces in italian east africa. I would only suggest doing this however if there is a gap in the allied reinforcement chain marching along north africa.
I believe Africa can become much more profitable for Germany if the UK fails to re-take Egypt in UK1.
This happened the last game I played. In G2 I took transjordan, and then in J2 I was able to sneak a japanese AC through the suez to link up with the German BB and transport. I then landed some German fighters on it, and this little fleet survived for a long time.
If the UK or USA want to waste their airforce on it all the better.
If they try to send ships through the med to come get you, smash them with your BB, trans and AF. Following that, move your jap AC to southern europe and then buy another transport on your next German turn.
To me, the key to making Africa profitable for the axis is to not engage the allied reinforcements marching along North Africa. Resist the urge to fight them and preserve your forces. After taking or re-taking Egypt, fan out and grab as much territory as you can. However, try to keep most of your forces, and certainly your lone tank, outside striking distance of allied transports floating off Algeria (ie stay mostly in Italian East Africa, Rhodesia, or South Africa - do not even bother with french west africa).
The best African outcome for Germany is to own parts of sub-Saharan Africa with Japan focussing on trading Egypt. If Germany’s fleet is still alive, provide support by landing token forces in either Egypt or Transjordan, whichever is safer.
If you do decide to make a stand in around G3 or G4, turn Egypt into a deadzone. This can be hard to do as you will need to make sure most of your Airforce is in either Southern Europe or the Balkans the round before as well as having most of your land forces in italian east africa. I would only suggest doing this however if there is a gap in the allied reinforcement chain marching along north africa.
That sounds like a damn good strategy……im going to have to try this next time I play. :wink:
It also ignores a strategy that has been used twice against me to VERY good effect… once in my current game with Bebo, and previously used against me by Aajax at DAAK.
The US does NOT land in Europe. They stage for out-and-back in one move offloading from WCan to Algeria, using a smaller number of TRNs than is required for European landings and still getting the same number of troops against Germany. This decimates any chance Germany has in Africa since the US is sending 8-12 divisions per turn into Africa. And with having to buy fewer TRNs, the US builds up ground forces in north Africa MUCH faster…
It also extends Germany’s “front” to now include Southern and Balkans, since the US fleet (2 DSTs, the BB from Western, and perhaps 1 or 2 additional capital ships like an AC along with the massed TRNs in SZ12) can reach SZ14 and land in Southern (as well as Western). That is too much territory for Germany to “secure”, even in “turtle mode”… somewhere Germany will be weak. And the Allies can then exploit that weakness.
Lastly it also forces Japan to be conscious of an American counter-strike against Japan’s holdings via the Middle East. It takes a while to walk all that infantry across Africa and the Middle East, but it is STILL a faster way for the US to attack Japan (and help Russia) than trying to out-build Japan in the Pacific. Also, once those waves of 10 divisions reach Trans-Jordan and Persia… 10 divisions per turn… it is nearly impossible for Japan to stop it, and certainly not while trying to finish off Russia…
But if you go with an Airforce strat with Germany, US and UK will have a hard time building ships at all…
They will be forced to build “defensive” in the first 2-3 turns.
10 Figs and 3 Bmb´s tend to make the allies nervous.
But Nix… you are the ONLY player who can pull that particular move off :-)
Correction: Im the only player who have tried it…
And i have yet to win a game here…
let me say this, the 10 figs nix had stationed in w europe gave me fits until he split the air force and left a slim opening in w europe in our game, im gonna try the fig strat one day…… as a matter of fact in my game vs oct my g 3 purchase after plundering uk was going to be 13 inf and 3 fig, with 10 ipc left over for a fig the next round
The US does NOT land in Europe. They stage for out-and-back in one move offloading from WCan to Algeria, using a smaller number of TRNs than is required for European landings and still getting the same number of troops against Germany. This decimates any chance Germany has in Africa since the US is sending 8-12 divisions per turn into Africa. And with having to buy fewer TRNs, the US builds up ground forces in north Africa MUCH faster…
That’s interesting…how does it work precisely? I can see how you would need less tran, you could build just 4 and have them shuck every turn from E. Canada to Algeria, but how does this gets the same number of troops against Germany? If you use those tran to do anything but shuck to Algeria, such as land in Southern/Western/Balkans, then your transport system is broken for a couple turns getting back into place. It seems like to me you’d end up needing additional tran anyways to shuck across the underbelly of Germany if you wanted to be able to do it consistently.
I believe Africa can become much more profitable for Germany if the UK fails to re-take Egypt in UK1.
I would say it with more certainty, but you’re right - Africa is profitable if the UK fails to retake Egypt in UK1. I think the key is just to grab whatever IPCs you can in Africa without spending any more troops into it except the bid and what you start with and maybe an inf/tank from Southern Europe. I’m going to go out on a limb here and just say that it’s not worth sending any units from Europe on G2+ into Africa if the UK successfully retakes Egypt. The gains you get are very temporary if the Allies come knocking, and as a result doesn’t end up paying for itself.
For an African input to be successful, it would not only have to pay for itself just in terms of IPCs per units, but also in opportunities that you lost with those troops when they could have been in Europe, which is hard to calculate.
Doing Egypt on G1 is pretty clear to me for a few reasons:
1. You do not want the Indian fleet going into the Med. You expose your underbelly to an annoying little transport.
2. You get rid of a number of units conclusively that would otherwise be put to use against you (inf/fighter/tank)
3. You open a small chance to gain more IPCs in Africa. Against newer players you will for certain nail Africa since just about none of them realize that they can counter from India, but even against experienced players sometimes your dice will fly and you can seal up a few more IPCs.
Tri,
The way it works is that, once you send troops to Algeria for a few rounds, and they fan out across north Africa (and a few ARM have cleared any remaining German forces), the existing TRN fleet from SZ10 moves into the Med and moves the North Africa forces to Europe. Meanwhile, the US build new loaded TRNs to reinforce, or AF to fly in, or ships in the Pacific to scare the crap out of Japan after he has pulled his fleet into the Indian Ocean to prevent possible Suez passage of the US fleet from the Med.
:-D
