The Instanbul offensive (Or the Devil's Tongue Strategy)

[Gargantua]

As soon as you capture Yugoslavia, and go to war with Russia, use the Bulgarian Army - with support to capture istanbul.

Italian Transports from Italy can land at the gates (Adjacent territory!) of Moscow AND Stalingrad in the same move.  Germany can even build a NB in the black sea on the following turn to allow italy to dump it’s entire income on the Russian front line, turn after turn, after turn.

With an Italian income of only 30-40, and the Axis Minors - Russia will get stomped in the south.  Couple this with a Baltic fleet landing at Leningrad for the capture, and a supply of Germans from Finland and the North.  By turn 3/4/5 you should be dumping 70 IPC’s or more at Russia with Ease… whilst still holding off england.

If you’re really lucky, you’ll capture some turkish ships to boot.

[koba]

I like this plan and am going to try it tonight. I’ve thought about complimenting this with a minor IC in Bulgaria or Romania and a transport or two to support the Italians with Germans. This could also lead to a follow up FEC crush.

Only hitch I see is the USSR generally goes after Finland right away in all the games I’ve played as the Axis.

[Gargantua]

That’s why you need to support finland with German units right from turn 1.

And add what you can into your navy.  You want atleast 4 transports by G3/G4.  And the ability to dump units into Leningrad.

You want to use your “Eastern Front” special attack on leningrad to negate the fortress there.  Any troops you’ve stockpiled up in Finland in the meantime will support you.

The best thing is… I doubt they’ll see this coming.  And once it starts… oh boy.

[koba]

It’s turn five and we’ve shut 'er down for the night.

Believe it or not, Germany and the USSR are not at war yet (but will definitely be on turn 6). Finland was held by aggressive German re-inforcements (yep Gargantua, that’s the ticket). The Russians beat themselves up trying to take and hold Vipurii to no avail leaving them weak in the north and un-prepared for a good slappin’– Leningrad is wide open–very juicy. The German navy in the Baltic consists of 1BB, 1CC, 1 CVE w/fghtr., 4 DD 2 trans and 2 SS.

Wild Bill’s G1 “sinka’ da UK navy” strat was used to perfection. To compound things, the UK player has attempted three times to strat bomb the W. German IC losing 48 IPC worth of bmbrs. for only 7 IPC worth of damage! (the AA has been knockin’ 'em out of the sky like duck season in Manitoba!).

Turkey has fallen. Germany got the Turkish fleet. There is an IC in Bulgaria and a naval base. The Axis Minors are stacked with inf.+art. So you know what that means.

There are 7 Uboats off the coast of Normandy and no UK navy north of Morocco or in the Med.

The only set-back has been Italy. The Italian player has booged :cry: on virtually every land battle roll and the Germans will have to bail them out as they are only (barely) hanging on to Trans-Jorda–Tobruk fell to the French Foreign Legion, but we got somethin’ for 'em.

Japan is set to crush FEC. China (both of them) is no more.

The U.S. is at 54 IPC. USSR 36.

Out of four players, no one has managed to get anything yet except the U.S. (imp. factories–scary when they get in the game). I’m not a huge fan of tech but when the gang decides to use it I go for it hard. Good tech can redress some of the anti-Axis balance issues.

Germany is 2 IPC from imp. fact., 11 from heavy tank guns, 3 from radar. Japan is going for imp. fact. and adv. inf. tactics. Italy is trying for imp. fact. and adv. inf. tactics.–they need to do something to improve their odds!

My thanks to Wild Bill and Gargantua for the input.

[Tigerman77]

I love reading the different strategies used in every game. I hope you guys have a great time playing!

[WILD BILL]

Sounds like a great game (for the axis LOL). The Royal Navy takes awhile to recover from G1. Our UK buys a lot of bmrs early, but they are generally using them to shuttle inf to Africa, or buying Commandos to go with them to keep the axis on there toes. Losing them to AA guns in SBR ooooouuuccchhh

Our game is still stalled in the early rounds, hope to pick it back up this week.

[Gargantua]

Once the royal navy recovers, germany faces ALOT of problems.

All those ships sitting in the english channel dumping 10 to 20 units a turn right into france - supported by yankees, is brutal.

[WILD BILL]

Edit to my post below, I just realized that Bulgaria is a 2 IPC territory, so couldn’t support a major, only Romania & Hungary could (my bad). FYI from a later post by Tigerman it sounds like this is under review and the territories of the axis minor powers will be restricted to only minor IC builds by Germany

Kobu, just out of curiosity, is the IC built in Bulgaria a major  (sending units through Turkey)? We were thinking that because the axis minor powers also get to build units in their territories (capitals) that maybe the Germans should only be able to minor ICs in the minor axis powers territories. It is only 3 spaces to Moscow from Romania, and with this Turkish push in might be a bit over the top adding majors at the front. Plus w/mech being able to drag art in this game (which is awesome BTW) you can move units pretty fast.

They did nerf it so that Japan can’t build a major on their minor axis power (Siam), because it was too powerful of a move to over throw India. The same principle could be in place for Europe.

We haven’t used tech, and I really haven’t looked at the tech rules. Are you allowed to research before your are at war, like the US or Russia? I will look when I get home, but it would seem there should be something in place saying you must be at war. Obviously Russia could DOW Japan to side step it, but the US would have to wait.

[Tigerman77]

@WILD:

Kobu, just out of curiosity, is the IC built in Bulgaria a major (sending units through Turkey)? We were thinking that because the axis minor powers also get to build units in their territories (capitals) that maybe the Germans should only be able to minor ICs in the minor axis powers territories. It is only 3 spaces to Moscow from Romania, and with this Turkish push in might be a bit over the top adding majors at the front. Plus w/mech being able to drag art in this game (which is awesome BTW) you can move units pretty fast.

They did nerf it so that Japan can’t build a major on their minor axis power (Siam), because it was too powerful of a move to over throw India. The same principle could be in place for Europe.

We haven’t used tech, and I really haven’t looked at the tech rules. Are you allowed to research before your are at war, like the US or Russia? I will look when I get home, but it would seem there should be something in place saying you must be at war. Obviously Russia could DOW Japan to side step it, but the US would have to wait.
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Only minor IC’s should be bult in any zone not originally controlled by that power. This includes the minors….Now I haven’t looked at the rules in a while so this is off the top of my head.

[Tigerman77]

belay my last… Rules V5.12 says Germany can build an IC.  I think the last time we played we made it whee Germany could only build minor IC’s in the axis minor zones. Just to test it out.!

[WILD BILL]

@Tigerman77:

belay my last… Rules V5.12 says Germany can build an IC.  I think the last time we played we made it whee Germany could only build minor IC’s in the axis minor zones. Just to test it out.!

Good to know, sounds like you guys had similar reservations.

[koba]

Wild Bill,

Yep, IC in Bulgaria was a minor. All ICs built in Axis Minors are minors :-P. The naval base worked out great too. Germany was able to support the Italians and sort out the African situation. Gibraltar was taken and in the process of being fortified along with Spain and the rest of Western Europe. The Westwall did not get a chance to get completed though due an Allied turn eight surrender (too bad, both of us as the Axis were looking forward to the “liberation” attempts). The SS were being set up as a fire brigade to handle the landings.

Regardless,

Garg’s Istanbul Offensive is a viable strategy (even if the Italians can’t get it together). Perhaps the Axis Minor/German variant could be called “Operation Constantine”?

I can’t wait to see the counter.

[WILD BILL]

@koba:

Wild Bill,

All ICs built in Axis Minors are minors :-P.

Assuming that you’re joking (nice pun), or there has been an amendment to the rules that I haven’t seen the Germans are allowed to build a major IC on Axis Minor powers territories that meet the 3 IPC production requirement (Romania, and Hungary). From what Tigerman posted they are looking at making a change here to allow only minor ICs to be built on the Minor Axis territories. We have already adopted that in our games finding that a major IC built on Romania allows to many units to be pumped out at the front w/Moscow only 3 spaces away (similar to Siam being 3 spaces to Calcutta).

Rule pg25
Germany is allowed to build a minor, or major IC on any Minor Axis territory that meats the requirements (2 production value for a minor IC, 3 production value for a major IC)

Rules on pg31 (A. Industrial Complex) in the bullets say that Japan can only build a minor on Siam, but Germany doesn’t have that restriction. It just says
“Germany can build an IC in any of the applicable Minor Axis territories”

[koba]

Yep Wild Bill,

Our group doesn’t allow major ICs in Axis Minors either. With Minor ICs and the inherent build capacity of the AMs, there is enough to roll over the Southern USSR anyway.

If the Minor IC in Stalingrad comes in into effect, it might make things a little more interesting.

[WILD BILL]

Yep, I wound like Russia to start with fewer majors, and a couple more minor ICs (not like they will build 10 units in Novo), or have the option to move some of their production capability.