Germany invading Britain strategies?

[PrisonerOfWar]

Does anybody have strategies for invading Britain, because I’m pretty convinced that 90% of people here as Germany attack and conquer Moscow. And I mean realistic strategies, that means building up a Britain invasion force while still holding your own on the eastern front. Hmmm I might just have to play A&AE next time and try something out, make up my own strategy. So… anybody? :wink:

[Lt. Rico]

Tell you what. On your first turn, spend only seven of the 12 dollars that you get for a person and an artillary peice, and place them wherever you feel is necissary. Then, with your left over 45 dollars, build 3 bombers. Use them to strat-bomb Russia, along with your starting bomber, to make a total of a 4 bomber squadron. If they get through, that is a minumum of 4 dollars lost, or a maximum of 24 dollars lost. Send fighters for air support, and you can hold against Russia.

Now as for the british issue. Build a battle cruiser, and 2 subs, this will save you two dollars (assuming you took the two purple contries worth money). Now on you next turn, build one more battle cruiser, and two transports. you should have a total of four spare dollars. Next build 3 trans, and 5 artillery. You should now have a fleet of two battle cruisers, two subs, and 6 trans (all this should be placed in the baltic sea, sorry).

Now it’s go-time. with what navy you have, send in both subs, and a battle cruiser (leave the other to defend the trans). Now attack anything in the waters. leave an open door way to britain, and attack into lenningrad with a small force from you trans, and use the other battle cruiser to help. Assuming you have been bombing well, then there shouldn’t be much of a threat. Now refill the trans with whatever units you used, and attack the Uk. Even if the british attack into you flet on the turn before, you will still hold. Now, attack British with the two supporting shots you should have, all of your left over bombers, all of you fighters, and all of your units in your transports. This should overwhelm your british opponent, and win you the game. However, this strat is highly unpredictable, and long term. Use at your own risk. I have never tried it.

[Hanso_the_foxxo]

i dont think there is much room in Germany’s IPC income to attack and overcome Britain and Russia at the same time.

If you dont decicively strick the Russians, the will get too strong too quickly and then also use their reserves to assist Britain. As Russia is the biggest immediate threat it should be dealt with first in my opinion.

With Russia more or less out of the game, you can then focus your attention on further draining Britain’s resources by continuous SBR. If you also can deny convoys, the British should be pretty weak, as the Americans will focus on building a large naval force to try to keep the convoys open.

If you take Russia out in ideally 3 goes, Britain should really be ripe by go 5. Hopefully…

Laters,

Hans

[sherman28]

I’m going tp try this!

[Guest]

The basic/traditional AAE Sea Lion (from what I understand) was based on saving your 12 discretionary IPCs, your first turn 40 and then on 2nd turn building a huge fleet with 92 IPCs. I’ve never used the traditional Sea Lion strat which as far as I know used the 92 IPCs to build a lot of transports and give some cover in the form of a few destroyers.

I’ve been toying around with an alternative Sea Lion for quite some time and finally decided to put it to the test. It really isn’t a solid strategy yet, but loosely hinges on the following Allied weaknesses:

1)The Allies are 3 in number. Each of them gets a bomber and 1 or 2 fighters. This number might be different if they use their discretionary IPCs to build a fighter, but for the most part, the largest air attack you might see is from the UK 1 bomber and 2 fighters.

2)The UK can be economically ruined by controlling the convoys.

3)A transport force in the Atlantic can threaten Canada, the US, and the UK all at once. If Canada is taken by Germany and not quickly retaken it can be a serious geographic and economic blow to the Allies. If the US or UK are taken then the game is more or less over. The Allies might have another transport fleet that can retake whatever Germany takes but you will have a fleet of your own and other things you can do to make sure that the waters are vacant of Allied transports.

4)The best thing for the Allies is for Russia (with it’s 30+ infantry–and about 8 more each turn if need be) to go on the defense and for the US/UK to use their wealth to cross the uncontested Atlantic and land in Germany. And so to make Russia take the defensive and the US/UK the offensive is unpredictable, advantageous, and FUN.

5)Battleships can be used to survive minor attacks and take free hits. Aircraft carriers can turn fighters (of which you have 6) into naval units.

So instead of buying a bunch of transports and a few destroyers with my $92, I bought 2 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, and 3 transports. Luckily my opponent let my northern transport survive and so it met up with my fleet in the Danish Sea for a grand total of 2BB, 1AC, 4 Trn.

On UK’s 2 turn it wisely bought 11 infantry. Right now it is my third turn as Germany. My Italian fleet is on the verge of taking the Middle East, Russia is stacking mostly infanty for an attack into Poland, and I have a large force poised to strike through the Ukraine and break into the Russian flank. And while the US does have 4 destroyers, a sub, and a transport in the water, I can eliminate about half of that force this turn if I really want to. It would probably cost me my two subs in the counterattack but would cripple the US’s naval power for a third turn in a row.

I believe that my success so far has been (to an extent) due to my opponent’s bad play. It will probably take me a few games against various opponents before I can really know to any degree.
However, I think that the ‘strat’ does capitalize on some weakness that will always be there (loosely outlined above).

Another trick I have lightly considered and was reminded of in some posts I just read was to use bombers to cripple UK/USSR. The UK can be reduced the 9 IPCs for at least one turn and numbers close to that for 2 or 3 subsequent turns. The USSR can be kept at 20 relatively easy by taking it’s convoy (which, in my current game, has been taken by the Barents Sea sub but is going to be retaken by me and will not be regained for a long time) and by punching through or simply taking it’s territories. So I think bombers might be useful (especially with fighter cover) to either cut the defensive power of the UK or the ‘offensive’ power of the USSR.

The only problem I see with this is actually the major problem with the ‘strategy’: resources. If I’m using fighters in the Atlantic, I can’t necessarily use them for strategic bombing raids. Actually, it might not be that difficult to use them against the UK. And my ‘strat’ seems to generate some downtime anyway. On turns where I don’t need all of my fighters to attack, I can use some of them to escort bombers to the UK.

Anyway, this is an alternative to the boring old Stack (which although I’ve never really succeeded at it–only tried it once–I get bored just thinking about it) And so I hope this strategy becomes I viable one.

[Grigoriy Ivanovitch]

I did some calculating once, and I think it’s actually possible to hit Britain first turn-I think if you use your 12 for an artillery and transport, you can stage an invasion right away-use subs for the sea and inf and art with air support for the invasion. It’s kind of a dangerous strategy, but if it works, you should still be able to hold off Russia.

[Hanso_the_foxxo]

that sounds pretty bold, but also very interesting. ill look into that one. Germany invading uk… cool

[Grigoriy Ivanovitch]

It’s not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. :D

[sherman28]

Question: Is it possible for you as the German player, to use your air power to “take hits” while your artillery units and infantry take the UK?
The rule book prohibits “suicide” attacks by aircraft. But what if on an SBR, I take a fighter along and the enemy’s AA gun rolls 2 dice and gets a single 1 or if defending fighters score a hit isn’t that a suicide attack?
questions comments…

[Grigoriy Ivanovitch]

Question: Is it possible for you as the German player, to use your air power to “take hits” while your artillery units and infantry take the UK?
The rule book prohibits “suicide” attacks by aircraft. But what if on an SBR, I take a fighter along and the enemy’s AA gun rolls 2 dice and gets a single 1 or if defending fighters score a hit isn’t that a suicide attack?
questions comments…

Yes, it is possible to choose for fighters to take hits, it’s just generally not accepted as good strategy. However, in this case, it would be most likely be necessary for taking Britain. Also, I believe “suicide attack” only means a kamikaze attack where you know the fighters will have no place to land. If the aircraft can land, then you’re just taking chances with AA guns/enemy fighters.

[sherman28]

Thanks Ivanovitch for your reply, what I was thinking of was “risky” airmissions where the attacking fighter would need to land on an AC at the end of combat- Sorry for the confusion. It occurs to me that if i buld a fleet with transports etc, the British player will see that a mile off -build it in the MED? Anyway, taking the air units as casualties would be expensive
But as you said probably vital in conquering UK! thanks again

[Snowman]

Why are you guys talking of taking Russia and Britain? If you have Britain, you don’t need to worry about the Russkies. Unless they got transports poised for an invasion of the UK, or tanks on Germany’s front door.

[madscientist]

Here’s a way you could take Britain on G2:

G0: Use initial 12 IPC’s to put another sub in the Denmark Sea and an artillery in Poland
G1: Build a battleship and two transports.

Combat: Use the sub in the Halifax Sea and the sub in the Denmark Strait to attack the trn and des off Canada (this will be a risky battle, but the main point is to take out the trn). Use the subs in the South Atlantic, Azores Sea and Mid-Atlantic to attack the US ships. Note that if you have 1 sub left from the US battle, the US will not be able to build any ships because they would need a destroyer (or UK ships) to take out the sub. Use 1 sub from the Danish Sea and the fighter from Northern Italy to take out the destroyer in the English Channel. Use 1 sub from the Barents Sea and 1 sub from the Danish Sea and your 2 fighters from Germany and 1 fighter from Poland and 1 fighter from Norway to attack the British fleet in the North Sea. Use the 2 subs in the Bay of Biscay and 1 fighter from France and the bomber from Germany to attack the British fleet in the Celtic Sea. Attack the UK destroyer in the Strait of Gibralter with your battleship and destroyer from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Attack the Russians in the Baltics, East Poland and Bessarabia with everything that’s left on that front (inf, art, tanks) to hold them off for a round. Note that you have 1 sub left in the Danish Sea.

Noncombat: Land 2 fighters in Norway, 2 in Germany, and the rest of your planes in France. Move 4 inf from Germany to Poland, move 7 inf from Netherlands and Eastern France to Germany, move all tanks in France, the Netherlands and Northern Italy to Germany. Use the transport in the Tyrrhenian Sea to move 1 inf, 1 art to Morocco. Move all available units in Eastern Europe towards Russia.

Placing: 1 battleship and 2 trn on the Danish Sea.

Now you are set up to take Britain on G2 with 4 trn (1 in Gibralter Strait) filled with units, 2 Battleship and 1 destroyer support shots, and all your Luftwaffe. The ships you placed in the Danish Sea are out of range of all Russian planes except the bomber (and you can absorb a hit with your battleship) and the UK can take out maybe the leftover sub and 1 trn with their aircraft. If the UK does attack your ships with their aircraft, they will have less to defend their capital with.

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[madscientist]

Even better, for the initial 12 IPC purchase put a destroyer off the coast of Denmark instead of a sub. That way you will have more defence against an air attack and possibly also have another bombardment against Britain.

[geckosenator]

if you start building fleet early on with germany it will “telegraph” your move to the allies, if they realize what you are trying to pull, they can easily hold uk long enough for russia to take you out (5-6 turns)

The best bet I think is save the initial 12, or maybe save 8 and build an artillary (As you will need one more for optimal odds on uk)

Now, depending on what the allies bid, you can attempt to save all 40 on ger1.  Take all uk convoys and destroy all uk fleets, not the med one.  Make it not possible for uk to retake any convoys the next turn.  Battleship to gibraltar.  Turn 2, try to get as many subs with your battleship and destroyer in bay of biscay, two moves from denmark straight.  Still depending on what allies buy and what they are doing, you might be able to save again.

All the while get your artillary moving toward germany, so when you build 11 (or 12) transports on germany turn 3, you will have all your artillary in germany.  This includes the artillary from africa.

Now, with fighters in range, and ready to load 22 (infantry and artillary) units 5-6 fighters and bomber and bombard, you should have odds on taking uk, and if not, don’t forget wave two the next turn (you can use a few tanks here since you will be low on artillary)  This is also for retaking uk to finally hold it if the usa retakes from the first attack.

If wave2 (on turn 5) fails, you will most likely lose.  If the allies build significant defensive forces before you build your fleet, build an army instead and invade russia.

[alaskansoviet]

Invading Britain doesn’t seem like a very challenging concept at all. If one can quickly eliminate the British navy, you should be able to load and unload even just your starting troops until Britain is overwhelmed. Ocean control is the only thing that stands in the way of a Nazi Britain, or even a Nazi America. (Shivers)

[Rommel21]

Focus on Russia. They’re your main problem. Tip with that- get Russia to not see you as a threat and see Japan as a major enemy. Get them to move some troops to fight Japan. that will give you a better chance of quickly taking Russia. (Send everything to Leningrad, then smash through to Moskva)
Use your fighters and fleet to keep the Channel clear for a later invasion of Britain. Once you have Moskva, it shouldn’t be too hard to take Britain.