USA Crush Spain Strategy

[Guest]

One strategy I’m thinking of using during my next game is an attack on neutral spain with the USA as early as possible. Here are some thoughts on how it would go.

Rnd 1: Purchase 1 Naval Base + transports and men.
Position all of the American navy from both boards off panama to strike Spain rnd 2 should the Japanese DOW. Japan will most likely take advantage of the US absence in the pacific with a rnd 2 DOW which means the USA will be free to hit Spain with up to 7 transports and immediately have a foothold in Europe.

Rnd 2: Purchase more transports and men for east coast.
Invade Spain and keep an eye on developments in the pacific.

Rnd 3: Follow up with the men and transports bought rnd 2 to reinforce Spain and purchase a Minor Factory for Spain to allow for 3 tanks produced every turn after.

I think the overwhelming amounts of men that can be pumped into Spain can be a game winner. It will also force the Germans to spend its stretched money on paris defense. While it sucks the Swedes joining the Axis isn’t really helpful against the USA Spain stack and the Turks won’t matter much long term. The panama naval base was built so that the Hawaii transport can hit Spain rnd2 and so the USA flet could flee back to Hawaii if need be.

[ChocolatePancake]

If I saw the US fleet leave the Pacific on round 1, I would absolutely declare with Japan J2. If the USA then follows through with their attack on Spain, this gives Japan an easy route to an early Pacific victory. Your round two purchase of all men and transports on the east coast leaves Hawaii ripe for the taking.
With Japan I would simply grab Hawaii round two, then if San Francisco is still undefended on J3, take that, or just rush on down to Sydney.

[Jeff28]

Turkey matters as Axis should quickly own the middle east and Southern Russian money territories

[Guest]

Only senario allies should attack true neutrals is if germany/italy is almost defeated and cant activate turkey,sweden or spain but japan has grown huge and allies needs to get as much income as possible.

There isnt any neutrals for Japan to activate on the pacific side as mongolia never goes pro axis unless russia attacks them.

[Spendo02]

Note the Axis can blitz into Spain from S.France, Normandy, Paris, N.Italy.

It can make landings in Spain from WGr, S.Italy and Germany depending if the English Channel is blocked or not.

I wouldn’t expect you to hold Spain long even if you effectively took it on US2 or US3.  Besides, the Axis could easily afford that blitzing investment with free units in Sweden and Turkey putting 42 free IPC worth of units on the board for them to address Russia.

All the while Japan is going apeshiznit in the Pacific with only token presence of the US there to deter them.

I’d expect Japan to be making 70+ IPC in no time and potentially forcing the US to abandon reinforcing Spain because Japan only needs the Aussies or Hawaii to win the game in the Pacific.

Always, always (in my opinion) stifle Japan’s growth at a minimum before you invest heavily in Europe.

[Eqqman]

I like keeping all my options on the table at all times, but I have to agree that this is probably ill-advised if you haven’t planned on Turkey at a minimum.  On Round 2 it is almost a certainty that Italian or German units will be in Greece allowing for Turkey to be activated on Round 3.  This is going to be crippling for Russia as their defense is immediately flanked and the Axis get earlier access to all their Middle East NOs.

[knp7765]

@ErwinRommel:

Only senario allies should attack true neutrals is if germany/italy is almost defeated and cant activate turkey,sweden or spain but japan has grown huge and allies needs to get as much income as possible.

There isnt any neutrals for Japan to activate on the pacific side as mongolia never goes pro axis unless russia attacks them.

I tend to agree. In our games, the strict neutrals are left alone by both sides. Back when Global 40 was fairly new, we tried 3 games with Germany doing a “Neutral Crush” by taking Turkey, Sweeden and Spain all in the same round. One game it worked out pretty good for Germany by giving them more IPCs and better access to strategic Allied areas in the case of Spain and Turkey.
In another game it turned out bad for the Axis. The resources needed to conquer the 3 Neutrals was too much and allowed the Allies to overwhelm them in certain areas. Russia ended up having a field day.
In the third game, they kind of broke even. In fact, I do remember that Italy attacked Turkey and was supposed to just soften them up for an easy German conquest. Then the battle went much better than planned and Italy ended up taking Turkey, which sort of messed up German plans.
Since then, we pretty much leave the strict neutrals alone and just go around them. We have never had the Allies attack strict neutrals, although some of the strategies I have seen here look interesting, particularly involving US taking Spain or Russia taking Turkey.

[Omega1759]

The economics of the move are poor early in the game (especially if Axis can still spill in Africa / Middle east)…

1. Expect to lose a couple infantry by taking spain (6 IPC deficit, takes 3 turns to recoup if you can hold spain)

2. Building a minor and pumping 3 tanks per turn sounds great (I do it when taking Norway say), but there is an opportunity cost for that (transports, more men). It’s better if you can hold Normandy or Southern France (more likely to hold Normandy).

3. You give 16 infantry + 5 IPC to the axis (Turkey, Swedes, Swiss).

The advantages are:

The allies can consolidate their land forces 1 turn away from US /  Canada / England and defend a single location (less transports needed, less fleet needed)

The axis may be forced to defend 2 locations (Southern France / Normandy) or just stay back, enabling you to trade these territories with them.

In brief, the move has merit once the Axis are already contained (or deep and focused in Russia), but it is likely to backfire if you do it too early in the game.

[WILD BILL]

I would think a neutral crush would be more of a mid game allied strat. I would make sure you take out 2/3 of the big three in the same round (maybe even weaken the 3rd).

If the allies get Norway/Finland and the German navy is gone (no, or very little counter attack) then hitting Sweden makes sense to allow the US another IC. You can probably manage to at least kill off the Spanish units at the same time, or even make a dent in the Turks w/UK or Russia’s help. I wouldn’t hit one of them, and allow the axis to gain the units from the other two early in the game.

I’ve seen a game a while back where the Germans got Moscow, but the Russians still had a small force floating around (not large enough to recapture Moscow though). In kind of a desperate move the Russians attacked Turkey thinking they would just soften them up for the Western allies (now in the Med). To the Russian’s surprise Turkey fell like a rock in two rounds, and Russia was able to capture it (with 3-4 units left?). This allowed the western allies combined Med fleet (which had about 20 ground units that was looking at an invasion of Italy) to enter the Black Sea and capture both Greece (future IC) and a weakly defended Romania which had a major IC on it (ouch), and the allies were able to use the demoted minor IC. The Italian fleet was wiped out just before, and they were being convoyed to nothing w/subs so they were of little help (old convoy rules back then). The Germans didn’t have much in the area either because they were building to protect the French coast (and bail out Italy), plus they shot the wad to capture Moscow, so the allies got a foot hold, and there was quite a battle in Eastern Europe. The US also attacked Spain at the same time just to kill off the units and force the axis to fight for it. I don’t remember if Sweden was also targeted. I do remember that it threw the axis into a panic and I think it ended in an allied victory (very strange game).

[Guest]

Very creative idea, but the biggest issue I see with this idea is that if US hits spain early it leaves Turkey wide open for Italy or Germany. The unit boost is great but more importantly it gives a Italy a clear path to shuttle troops deep into Russian territory via the Black sea.

[Whackamatt]

I like working out all of the strategic options, so let’s take a serious look at this strategy.  Thank you for putting forth your idea.

Rnd 1:

DISADVANTAGES:

1. You’ll be pushed right back off the coast Rd 2.  The minor factory by Rd3 will NOT happen.  Germany starts with 12 planes, and there will already be a lot of units in France.  Tanks & Mechs from there, backed by Holland/Western Germany landed planes will annihilate whatever you put there.
2. You gave Germany 6 Inf in Sweden Rd 3.  While it is extra men, however those extra guys can’t reach Novogorod until Round 6.  Still a disadvantage, but not too bad.
3. As you yourself stated, Japan will go crazy with no US presence.  Do you really think you’ll knock out Germany in time to double back against Japan?  By Rd3 they could have all the DEI, the Philippines, and most of China, collecting 60+.  Possibly even Hawaii if you move everything away from Japan.  Then they’ve opened up a second front against you by threatening Western USA.
4. What do you do if Japan DOESN’T attack Rd 2.  Say they’re waiting till J3 or just don’t attack the US?

ADVANTAGES:

1. A second front has been opened up for Germany.  This means Germany is moving all of it’s planes West, and even more land units are moving away from Russia.  It may even make the Germans deploy more to the West, as the US has created the second front extra early.
2. You will have a follow-on assault every Rd of 52 initially, then 72ish after that.
3. Your TTs will survive because of the size of your starting combined fleet plus what you buy.  Using the Gibraltar NB, your TTs will make it back to the coast Rd3, negating the need to buy TTs beyond a few rounds.  This translates into extra protection, possibly more planes for carriers that go on to Eypt, more offshore shots, or more money spent in the Pacific.  It becomes VERY flexible.
4. What happens if Japan doesn’t attack Rd 2?  The US would build up even more forces and take Spain for certain.  By Rd 3 there would be little threat of a counter-assault, as there won’t be too many units left in France.

OVERALL:  I like the strategy.  It’s sound.  It provides some flexibility in what the USA can do.  I don’t think it will work quite in the way you think it would, and I don’t think the factory really gains you much as it’s just one round from the US anyway, and planes can land there as well in a turn.  Most of the negatives it induces can be planned for and countered, except maybe the Swedish infantry.  I’ll have to do some simulations in Triple A to see what the Axis could do about it and how bad it would really be.  I think it to be better than most believe.

Giving your opponent 8 inf isn’t enough to dissuade me from using it.  The best part is, it’s new.  If they don’t even consider it a possibility, they can be caught by surprise.

WHAT I’D CHANGE:  Forget the NB Rd 1 buy and minor factory Rd 3 buy.  The NB is only used to get the Hawaiian fleet there, yes?  Buy 2 TTs, 1 Carrier, 1 CC for the Atlantic.  It’s not about taking Spain to place that critical factory there, it’s about transporting as much from the USA as you can each turn.  Once you have the right amount of TT protection (to fend off a worst case Germany lost no planes Rd 1 of 5 Ftr 5 Tac 2 Strat).  THEN worry about filling all of those transports in successive turns.

If you buy a NB and all TTs, there’s a huge risk that Germany has enough planes to sink EVERYTHING that got there Rd 2.

The NB (assuming you’ve done Spain before, or you’re playing against a savy player), would give away your hand.  “Say, what would that get you?  Oh!  That Pacific fleet you moved in (signaling you’re going all-in on Germany early on) could then hit Spain or land in Gibraltar!”  Surprise them buy not buying it.  Plus it leaves a few more naval units already around Hawaii.  Also, if Japan does NOT attack Rd 2, it’s a wasted buy that will do nothing for the rest of the game.

[Whackamatt]

Actually, I don’t know that you would be pushed off for certain.  In Rd2, Germany may move units east, or huddle them in France.  Italy usually gets Southern France.  I don’t know that Germany would be in much of a position to push you back with too much beyond planes.

[Eqqman]

@Whackamatt:

I don’t know that Germany would be in much of a position to push you back with too much beyond planes.

As an Allied player, I would be happy to get pushed off again in the first or second attempt if it meant the German air force was being reduced.

The Mexican Naval Base still has some value no matter what Japan does.  Because if they see it and decide not to attack in order to screw your plan, this only helps India and ANZAC prepare.