Yes, aaFiendish is right, I ment it is not optimal play for US to go to Afr on rd 1. So it is no real threat if they do, and can even be encouraged by the Germans.
Some reasons are, that US tran is now a dead duck on G2, now the UK fleet may be hittable by G2 as well, also it is an easy counter for Ger esp if they have planes in WE after G1. Remember this was RR scenerio, so Germany will have all its ships, 5 ftrs, and 1 bom to play with on G1.
Example (RR with bid of 12 - place 4 inf on Lib)
Attack Egy with everything, now non-com 2 inf from SE to Lib (or 2 inf to Egy)
So what is the US going to do? Land 2 inf in Alg? G can counter with up to 5 inf (if they non-com to Lib) and a few planes. Easy counter for G and the US is out 1 tran and 2 inf for no real gain.
Germany still has enough to take Ken, can still blitz IEA and take that other ter to the left of Ken. Ger still has all of Afr (except Uosa) by G2.
And US ended up wasting a tran and 2 inf.
Relocating the Norway tank to Africa has never been a move I had much reason to consider. Whenever I play Germany, my opponent ALWAYS takes out that fleet using Russia sub and aircraft or sub and tranny cannon fodder.
Yes, you can only do this in an RR game. Otherwise the Baltic tran gets killed on R1.
Do you really go to syria with your battleship and transport? I’ve always liked the move, but never had the balls to actually do it. Your chances of winning (and I mean winning with the transport being alive) hover somewhere around 55%. You are giving the axis a 45% chance of trading a piece that is guaranteed to die for little cost for not only the transport, which may be damaged anyhow, but the two inf on board. You would effectively be bidding 6 IPCs less 45% of the time. Not very good odds to me.
Actually, I don’t do that alot. But I do consider it. I’m more likely to do it in LL and RR though. If I go to Syr, I’ll bring in a ftr with the bb because in LL that is a guarentee hit, so you are safe. But again you are out a plane for use elsewhere, which is why you need RR, so you have use of 2 subs and a tran (baltic).
My more typical RR small bid (12) G1 turn would look like this:
(assume Russia fleet to UK sz)
UK sz - 1 sub, 1 tran, 2 ftrs, 1 bom vs. allies (or use 3 ftrs instead on bom)
E Can - ftr vs. tran
W Med - 1 sub, 1 ftr vs. BB (or 1 sub, 1 bom vs. bb)
E med - 1 ftr vs. sub
I’ll attack Egy with 5 inf, 1 arm, pull back in Europe to defend EE, and take the empty ter in Afr.
Now, I’ll non-com 2 inf (or 1 arm) to either lib or Egy from SE with BB for defense.
If my sub hits in the W Med, I’ll go there and try to keep my entire Med fleet alive. UK can still hit it but now they are looking at 2 ftrs, 1 bom vs. 1 tran, 1 sub, 1 bb.
Usually I’ll lose 1 ftr on G1, but still you come out pretty good, and if you get a Sub hit in either battle you can come out great. Occasionally I may leave the E can tran, if I really want to try and have all 6 planes survive G1.
Other options:
1 - Go BB vs. BB in the W Med and send extra ftr/sub to UK sz
2 - Go BB vs. BB, send sub to US sz (this kills the US shot at Afr), ftr to UK sz
3 - Leave the UK bb in the Med alive, kill everything else (possible Syria move here)
4 - Send 2 subs to UK sz, this is where you can non-com the tran to Alg