German Turtle

[yamamato456]

What exactly is the German “turtle strategy”.  I know it has to do with putting most of you forces by Germany and Western Europe.  But how exactly is this done.  Which territory do you keep most land units?  Should you keep a buffer from USSR?  Where would you put you air force?  Would you only buy infantry?  Would you defend Southern Europe heavy too?  What should you look for to figure out if you supposed to go “turtle”?  When is the best round to start turtling up?  Please elaborate on this "turle strategy.

[Guest]

OK, the Turtle has variants, but here is an example…

Main territories are Germany and Eastern.  Secondary are Southern and Western.

You stack Eastern to be a can;t lose block of forces against Russia.  You use small numbers of INF and you AF to trade Karelia, Bel, Ukraine.  You keep Southern secure by preventing access to it, and you secure Western with enough forces, and perhaps basing AF there, to prevent a direct Allied landing.  You also preserve your Baltic fleet (where possible) as a shield against the Allied fleets.

You let Russia make some early gains… trading hard, but never exposing high value units like ART and ARM.  You keep building land forces to float to Eastern (and Western as needed).  Once Russia makes a STRONG move into Karelia, Bel, Ukraine… you counter with the entire mass from Eastern, ideally destroying most of Russia’s offensive forces leaving them with only INF (and perhaps a few FIGs), then you start a spearhead drive for Moscow… going via Caucuses if Japan is strong on the southern prong to lend support.

To prevent loss of income, you insure adequate AF for trading as noted above (so you are only ever down Norway and West Russia) and you keep Africa supplied as long as possible to get as much UK income from there as you can.

Basically, you keep Germany building and secure while Japan makes its gains in Asia, then you pounce on any openning Russia gives you and engage in a two-direction smash on Russia… waiting for Japan to be in range before Germany starts going offensive instead of driving on Russia right away.

The main advantage of the Turtle is that Germany is building massive INF almost exclusively, preserving their initial 8 or so ARM and their AF to use to provide offensive punch when the time comes, and huge numbers of INF to eat up defender hits and provide holding power when you do move, to serve as sacrifices for trading, and to prevent UK and US from attempting amphibs.  So Germany can build on the cheap… not having to replace lost ARM or AF because it basically is never risked on the offensive…until the scales are so much in their favor that their main drive cannot be stopped.

[Octopus]

I call it ‘ebb and flow’ but when Switch called it the ‘turtle’ I knew what he meant.

A warning should be given when using this strategy for you should have a firm grasp of probability.  Too much force and you end up occupying a territory that you would rather not be in.  Too little force and you end up losing more units than you kill. Find the sweet spot and hope you don’t run into aberrations of the dice.

Well executed attacks will preserve Germany beyond it’s normal life span.

[Perry]

OK, so say that Germany faces a KGF, and decides to go turtle.

What are the build strategy?

Like, infs for round 1-3, then only arm.

And the trading attacks - are those ONLY composed by inf & AF, or are RTLs ever involved?

What about fleet? Any IPCs directed toward an G1 AC?

I’ve got lots of other Q:s on this as well  :-)

[Octopus]

Now you are asking questions of religion and faith.

You will find that people have many different beliefs of how this is done and what is the barometer for success.  My explanation would be lengthy so I will spare the audience my verbose nature.

I recommend you examine strategies already played out then figure out what you like and are most comfortable with.

To me, the correct strategy is the one that wins you the game.  It doesn’t have to be pretty, just successful.

[General_D.Fox]

Octo, don’t suppose you could give the abridged Coles Notes version of your explanation?  I don’t play much, but I’m always interested in what others have to say so that next time, i can possibly employ a strat or two that has worked for someone else.

[Octopus]

This may seem a bit tedious, but this is how I do business.  Set up yourself a game of Revised, and follow the moves for the game between “NCSCSwitch vs Octo (take 2)” for an example of how the turtle worked well.  You can examine the first game, but it is more representative in take 2.

Then examine my current game of “Octopus vs. Trihero” for how the turtle can go wrong.  Both games start off similar but there are a few differences.

Go from there, but I won’t be handing out any freebies.

Something given freely has no value……

[Guest]

You can also see a weird Turtle variant in my current game with Guy Sager… I sacrificed my entire ARM column in order to wipe out Russia’s offesnive forces.  The trade off is that I have 7 airborn “tanks” and 1 airborn “super-tank” to use with the INF I have to provide offensive punch even with the loss of my ARM.

Not sure if it will work or not… but removing most of Russia’s offesnive strike power seemed well worth it… with the German AF still massed, and with Japan pushing nicely along 2 prongs…

[Nix]

i have done the same in my game vs Mojo. (ie wiped out all russias offense, including Figs…) But im down on takns, and now concentrate oon holding the key german areas with Inf, Art and Figs.