Yeah, I don’t think I’d go so sub-crazy now, knowing that my blockade idea is illegitimate. In our next game, I played Germany again, and allowed the Atlantic to fall to the Allies pretty early. I spent the rest of the game attempting to rebuild my fleet, and at one point I even had a couple of aircraft carriers. I actually took Moscow pretty early on, but it was quickly reclaimed (by one stinking British tank, would you believe), and I never got it back. From there, it became a huge naval arms race that turned out to be Germany’s downfall. After about 8 turns, Germany was still very much alive, but spread thin and poorly positioned; the British and U.S. fleets killed most of my navy, Russia was growing stronger and Moscow was totally out of the question. Aside from an occasional skirmish into Leningrad, it was pretty hopeless. I resigned, saying that this was the point where Hitler locked himself in a bunker and ate a bullet.
I’d have to agree that Germany needs to focus on the USSR in order to be really effective. I’ve read a lot of stuff on this forum since then about the tank-stacking strategy that supposedly really does make Germany nigh-unbeatable, but that doesn’t interest me. Guaranteed-to-win strategies are no fun at all. I like to try something new in every A&A game I play; one of my favorite things about the series is that no two games are ever the same. Win or lose, I am in it to see something I’ve never seen before.
We’ve done a few games of Guadalcanal and Battle of the Bulge since then, but my wife and I agree that Europe is our favorite so far. Can’t wait to try it again, and I think I want to be the Allies next time. I’d like to see if it’s possible for the U.S. to build a permanent outpost in France… Or maybe Russia could build a navy…
