SBR = strategic bombing raid
Strafing is the art of attacking a territory without the intention of actually taking it. This can be done for many reasons. Maybe you want to weaken it so an ally can take it, taking it might expose your units(especially expensive armor) to a solid counter, fast movement to the other side, an air only attack to clear for an allied blitz, or you need to keep your units in a certain key territory but want/need to kill some units.
A common strafe that you might see is the Germans hitting Yugoslavia strong enough to kill 2-3 units first round and then retreating after one round so Italy can walk into it without losing too much.
If you’re feeling very bold, you can try a G1 Barbarossa. This is can be used in conjunction with a J1 DOW if you want, but it could stand on it’s own as well. The earliest goal would be a G5 Moscow take, but you might have to for aim for a G6-7 take depending on what’s going on. A G5 is possible if Russia makes a mistake, you get good dice, or you can bomb him down.
G1 Purchase 4mech, arm, dd or 3mech, arm, bmb or 6mech, arm
Attacks
Send all ground units in Holland, W. Germany, and an armor from S. Germany to France. Lose arty over mech, unless you get really diced. You should have enough firepower that you won’t need the arty and you’ll need the mobility later.
ss, bb, 2ftr, tac, 2bmb vs sz110
2ss, 2ftr, 2tac vs sz111
ss vs sz91 with the goal of helping Italy out on UK attacks
ss vs sz106
2inf, arm from poland + tac from Ger against Baltic
inf poland, 2inf hungary, all 4 tanks in range against E. poland
2inf romania + tac pol against bessarabia
DON’T hit yugo on G1 or I1, save it for G2.
On noncom, fly the ftr in hungary to S. Italy to help dissuade a UK hit on sz97. It can still hit bess or ukraine next turn. All in Ger to Poland and all in S. Ger to Hungary. You could send the tac in Ger against sz110 and the ftr to bess and polish tac vs baltic instead. Even if UK scrambles in either though, you’ll have good odds and should kill all the RAF in exchange for some air. USSR might counter Baltic, so maybe change the arm there to an inf and send the armor against E. Poland instead. All Nwy to finland and activate. Move the danish inf over to norway. Place the dd in sz113 with your cruiser/trn and then place all ground in germany. You could add 2 more mech instead of the dd, but then you risk losing the ca/trn to the soviet sub. Leave Bulgaria for Italy since they’ll likely have issues in Africa with no Sea Lion threat. Don’t strafe/hit yugo with Italy either.
G2 buy depends on if UK scrambled. You might need to replace a ftr or two, but only do so if you really really need their D/scramble. For 60ipc, a bmb + 10 mech/arm is a good buy as well. Maybe get the dd if you didn’t last turn and your trn is still threatened. AA guns + your air should be enough to dissuade UK from attacking wgr, but you might feel the need to get a couple inf. So long as you buy at least 10 mech/arm in germany!
Trade terr against ussr were you can. Advance your inf/art/aa in Pol/Hun to E. Poland or split the Ger stack to Baltic as needed. Hit Yugo with 2inf from Hun, an arm from E. Poland going through romania, and your 4mech, 4arm from paris. Don’t send any air! You want to retreat to romania after one rd so that your paris mech/arm have now advanced 3 spaces in one turn. You likely won’t take it and shouldn’t take any hits to your mech either.
If you have non mech/arm leftover in france, you can hit W. France. But I usually leave W. France, S. France, Yugo, Greece, and Bulgaria for Italy since they’ll need the IPC to make up for not having a strong position. Advance your finnish troops to karelia/vyborg with the bulk going to vyborg so you have the option of countering any russian attacks with your tran plus 2inf that moved from nwy to finland. Kill the russian cruiser.
Depending on your first turn buy, you should have somewhere between 7-10 mech, 9-10 armor, 18ish inf, & 5art on E. Poland by the end of your turn. With another 10 mech/arm being built each turn to add to your numbers. Land the 2-3 bombers you have in east poland so you can strat bomb moscow next turn. Try to get your bomber numbers up to 3-4 and replace your losses. 3-4 bombers hitting moscow every turn will quickly crumble ussr just as your mech army is charging at them.
Advance your troops one space each turn. Usually I go the northern route with this strat to pull the russian main army north. E. Poland -> Belarus -> Bryansk -> Moscow. If you can take it on G5, then stage all your air in range the turn prior. Always try to judge when you’ll make the move and stage your air in range a turn sooner. If your bombing campaign has hit a bump or you get some bad dice, you might have to hold off for a turn or two. Just swing some mech/arm down to caucasus/volgo for some extra $$$ and they can quickly turn back and get in striking distance within a turn.
Don’t stray too far into the middle east though. Your #1 priority with this strat is taking Moscow. The longer you hold off taking Moscow, the better chance the allies have. UK and US will soon start landing on your coast and you don’t want to fight a 2 front war. Any troops you divert away from Moscow and into the middle east will mean that many fewer troops against Moscow and that much longer you have to wait on taking the russians out of the game.
As you take factories, start building more troops there so you can cut down on travel time to the front. You have 2 Italian armor, use them to threaten a 1-2 punch to open up the rear or hit moscow when ussr isn’t expecting it. As long as you have enough air threatening a Brit fleet, it’ll take some time before they can effectively land on Europe. Slowly build up some inf in w. germany/france to counter so long as you build at least your 10 fast movers in germany each turn. Italy can help defend the coast. That and the can opener threat will be Italy’s biggest contribution to the Europe win. If they get lucky or UK doesn’t hit sz97, maybe you might be able to grab Egypt with Italy. But you’ll likely have to revert to using the land route through the middle east once Moscow falls.
