I’m a big fan of patience, provided you have a positional goal.
As I said above mine generally revolves around Cauc (or Wrus) as Germany and Kaz (or Novo) as Jap since they are right next to Mos.
It simply isn’t possible to take Moscow in a short amount of time against a competent opponent. So you don’t have to throw all your eggs in one basket early on for a strike on Moscow that is never going to happen. Russia is going to be earning in the High 20’s for the first 4-5 rds easy, even earning 40 as Germany it will still take you a while to be able to crack his stack.
I like to wait until Japan gets going, which really isn’t until rd 3 or 4, and then set up the double whammy. My attacks on J1 are Pearl and Chi. J2 pick up Bury and Sfe, J3 move to Sin and Yak, J4 reinforce, J5 look at Novo (or Kaz).
That means the first 4 rds of Germany I’m looking to build mostly inf and fortify borders with an arm or rt (or 2), while gaining what I can in Afr.
Then you spring the Vacate WE, move everything east and your German Afr army to Per.
Done right you leave WE open but have large Stacks in Ger, EE, Ukr, with a mini-army in Per, while Japan has mini-armies in Sin and Yak ready to be comnbined in Novo (or just a Sin to Kaz move).
The key to the vacating WE part is too make sure you gain something in the East b/c of it, and toomake sure you can hold Germany from a possible direct assualt just in case you deem it too costly to attack/strafe/or retake WE.
You can always bring over Japan ftrs to help defend meaning you can have easily up to 8-10 ftrs there and then you can even threaten the Allied ships with a 1-2 Jap-Ger punch with planes if they split their fleet or get careless with trans.
Also, assuming you got to Cauc at the cost of WE, it is much easier to then go back and try to reclaim WE later directly from Germany then it is to constantly defending WE from the Allied 1-2 without ever getting to Cauc.
Abandoning W. Eur. is that realy smart because then you have to defend southern and Germany how do you manage that … build max in germany nd move everything from W Eur into southern? and what would you do if the allies built an IC in western
It is the “For Rent” sign strat…
You let the Allies land, then DECIMATE them with a counter-attack. You make WE so inviting that they do not land in Karelia or Eastern, where it would draw troops off the Moscow push, or potentialy result in forces getting to Moscow to reinforce it.
UK/US on the same front as Russia is a serious problem for the German advance. And Allied land forces in Moscow make it one SERISOULY toguh nut to crack, even with a 1-2-3 punch.
@ncscswitch:
It is the “For Rent” sign strat…
You let the Allies land, then DECIMATE them with a counter-attack. You make WE so inviting that they do not land in Karelia or Eastern, where it would draw troops off the Moscow push, or potentialy result in forces getting to Moscow to reinforce it.
UK/US on the same front as Russia is a serious problem for the German advance. And Allied land forces in Moscow make it one SERISOULY toguh nut to crack, even with a 1-2-3 punch.
I guess that would work but if you are playing even a moderate player they aren’t going to fall for it nd i would just send in like 1 infantry so i get the 6 ipc for a turn.
That works… I still got to use 10+ divisions on attacks elesewhere, re-take it with a couple of INF so I still get paid, and the Allies have made no more progress, and I ahve 10 divisions closer to Moscow.
Even landing 1 infantry ties up 1 transport.
And yea, the trick is to sucker the allies into landing in force then kill them, or at worst, keep them landing there against a German build up, afriad to move into Southern and split their forces (gotta defend moderately to make this work) while you and Japan squeeze Russia to death.
I am surprised that no one even asked under what circumstnaces a Western Europe IC would be a viable option for Germany on G1…
under what circumstances would a Western Europe IC be a viable option for Germany on G1?
LOL!
Fleet link in SZ7 on G2. Full scale interdiction of Allied shipping.
You drop the IC in Western on G1 and stage your fleets to link. G2 you link the fleets, and reinforce with new naval units placed at the Western IC.
Germany plays the same game as Japan in a KJF, only off France instead of off Japan. And they rely on bulk INF and existing ARM to keep the Soviets in check.
@ncscswitch:
LOL!
Fleet link in SZ7 on G2. Full scale interdiction of Allied shipping.
You drop the IC in Western on G1 and stage your fleets to link. G2 you link the fleets, and reinforce with new naval units placed at the Western IC.
Germany plays the same game as Japan in a KJF, only off France instead of off Japan. And they rely on bulk INF and existing ARM to keep the Soviets in check.
Do you buy the Baltic carrier too?
You have to, or you ahve no Baltic Fleet to unify.
That’s great. My friends and I always like to try new things but I never considered Germany building an IC. I always considered a German IC as a waste of money and a purchase that kept much needed defensive troops from being on the board. The western IC idea has some promise I think. I may just give it a go.
I still don’t think a Germany IC is worth it in W. Europe
You’d be better off building in S. Europe and driving there. As long as you hold Gibraltar and Algeria you’re almost 100% safe from attack.
The thing with a Western IC, fleet link and fleet build as G1 and G2 is that it REALLY turns up the heat on UK and USA. They have to spend a ton on Capital Ships in order to start sending land units to Europe, and it will take them quite a number of turns to build up enough ships for it.
And from SZ7, the Brits have no where to hide their fleet while they build. They are in range of everything in SZ7, as well as Western based FIGs thanks to teh AC’s.
Early landings in Africa are now also a serious issue for the US sinc ehte Germans can interdict en masse at will. Germany can flot a couple of TRNs to the Med and shuttle into Africa to secure it for many turns.
Only Russia is a serious player against Germany in the early going, and if Japan makes a massive initial push to force Russia to play honest, then Germany can hold out into G3 once they start getting major land unit production (they will still ahve some land units in G1, and a pretty fair number in G2) and start the inexorable push back toward Moscow.
I have never tried this. But it sounds like a “fun” game, with the Kreigsmarine totally dominating the Atlantic for quite a while :-)
Yea, it sounds fun, but I worry about loosing 16 IPCs for a Carrier on R1 and 15 more for an IC on R2 to pull this off.
Not to mention, you have to forgo bringing any land units to Egypt with your transport now because you have to take Gibraltar to ensure you arn’t sunk by the RAF. Means you’ll attack weaker, possibly loose it.
Leave the TRN behind when you mearge the fleet and transfer from Western to Algeria, out of range of Russian and UK FIGs. You still get the forces in, with added defense against a US landing, and in a solid mass that completly covers Africa by the time you are done.
Ncscswitch, your strategy proposal is very innovative. I gave it some thought and discussed about possible Allied counters with a friend. We did not have a board to try anything out, so we kept it theoretical.
We both thought KJF, instinctively.
We also thought SA complex to secure African $ if you decide not to challenge the German fleet with UK.
The KGF path is very interesting, too. We will get to it ASAP.
I suggest that you start a topic about the WEur factory.
Ncscswitch, your strategy proposal is very innovative. I gave it some thought and discussed about possible Allied counters with a friend. We did not have a board to try anything out, so we kept it theoretical.
We both thought KJF, instinctively.
We also thought SA complex to secure African $ if you decide not to challenge the German fleet with UK.
The KGF path is very interesting, too. We will get to it ASAP.
I suggest that you start a topic about the WEur factory.
With a carrier AND complex on G1, I’m thinking KGF.
The German fleet can’t just stay at Western Europe. As soon as the Allies have any kind of fleet, the German fleet must go to the Baltic to stop the UK containing Germany with Norway/Karelia/E.Europe units, or reinforcing Archangel. Or the German fleet must go to the Baltic to stop the Allies from taking W. and/or S. Europe. The easiest part to figure on is a SUPER strong USSR. It’s almost like when Germany spends 30 IPC on tech dice on G1; the USSR just doesn’t have anything to worry about.
The Allies will pull a different game, and force the Germans either to attack a budding navy and leave their navy vulnerable to a secondary Allied fleet with massed Allied air (UK and US), or force the Germans to split up (so it plays like Germany had never unified the fleets), or force the Germans to commit their fleet to north or south. If the German fleet stays south, it’s containment in Europe while the Allies build up air strength that can take on the mighty German Med fleet. If the German fleet stays north, Germany does not hold Africa.
Basically, UK and US can race Germany for navy and air while USSR races Germany for territory. It’s just very messy. The big Allied threat in Western Europe is when the Allies get an IC built; I feel that Germany’s just building one for them.
@ncscswitch:
Leave the TRN behind when you mearge the fleet and transfer from Western to Algeria, out of range of Russian and UK FIGs. You still get the forces in, with added defense against a US landing, and in a solid mass that completly covers Africa by the time you are done.
Okay, so you have the following fleet layout on UK1:
1 Aircraft Carrier, 2 Fighters, 2 Submarines, 1 Destroyer, 1 Transport in Sea Zone 5
1 Battleship in Sea Zone 13 with possession of Algeria
1 Transport in Sea Zone 15.
UK 1: 2 Fighters, 1 Bomber to Sea Zone 13. Dead Battleship. Land in Gibraltar.
USSR 2: 2 Fighters to Sea Zone 15, dead Transport.
Fleet Linkup? None.
And, for the record: UK buys 3 fighters to use in conjunction with the Battleship and 2 Transports should Germany be audacious enough to attempt to get out of SZ 5. Meanwhile, W. Europe is a juicey target for both Britian and America as they can now build there. That means, Germany actually has to protect it instead of bouncing back and forth allowing landings then slaughtering them.
No, you have GOT to take Gibraltar with your transport to protect your Med fleet from attack. Otherwise, a linkup on G2 is 100% impossible.
A couple of thoughts on this.
First, this is where I am coming from:
Can Germany afford to be a naval power?
Assume the worst case for Germany, and that is when the Allies are all concentrating on Berlin. That is called KGF, or Kill Germany First. Russia has about 5 rounds before they need to spend a nickel on Japan because it takes that long for Japan to threaten Moscow. So assume that between 24 and 32 Russian IPCs are heading west every round. If Germany is down money to Russia but up money in Africa, they could maintain a paycheck between 30 and 42. On average, Germany will be ahead of Russia by somewhere between 6 and 10 IPCs. That has a few implications:
If the Allies are really going KGF, then the UK has nothing better to do than to put boats in the water until the German boats are dead. That means the UK will buy 30 IPCs of boats and planes every round. Compare that with the 6-10 IPCs Germany can spare from Russia, and it is clear that the Germans can’t be naval builders for long even if the US does nothing.
That’s from Caspian Sub Policy Paper #11.
So in that context, building 1car in the Baltic and 1IC in WEU and you’ve spent 31 IPCs. The implication of building the IC is that you will build MORE navy, or you wouldn’t bother building the IC. So figure a minimum of 2 more units for 16 IPCs. **That is 47 IPCs in the water.** Based on the differential between the Russian and the German paycheck, Russia should be all over Germany with explosive growth.
R1 Russia builds something like 4inf 3art.  R2 if they see 1car 1IC they should build all tanks and go down Germany’s throat.
The Allies should be over-joyed to see those builds. Who needs to land UK and US units in Europe if Germany has no ground troops and Russia has a lot of Germany’s money?
