Moving (wrapping) by sea from one side of the board to the other.

That is a lot of resource being diverted from ground troops. The war with Russia is won on land.

By the time you have bought a major IC, an AB, a bunch of destroyers and some TTs, you have spent 80-90 ipcs? That is a lot of ground units lost.

Plus those TTs and destroyers are stuck in the Black Sea and redundant in a few turns time - unless you attack the strict neutrals.

@fatal_papercut:

I just realized that I cant invade through turkey unless I declare war on all strict neutrals.  is there a big downside to that??Â

The downside is that, when you invade a strict neutral, every other strict neutral starts to lean in the direction of your opponents: if you’re an Axis power, all the strict neutrals become pro-Alllied; if you’re an Allied power, all the strict neutrals become pro-Axis.  This means that your opponents can walk into those countries and take control of their income (if applicable) and their standing armies (if applicable), without meeting any opposition, whereas you can’t do the same: if you enter a “pro-the-other-side” country, it behaves like an enemy and you’ll have to fight its standing army, if it has one (check for the silhouette of an infantryman on the map, with a number next to it indicating how many infantry units are present).  In essence, invading a strict neutral gives your opponents the chance to pick up lots of free infantry units.  (Incidentally, invading a strict neutral doesn’t exactly involve “declaring war” on the strict neutrals in the same sense as declaring war on a player power; it simply changes the political status of the strict neutrals.)

@wwestpro:

@Zhukov44:

I’m unclear whether a successful Sea Lion (G1-G3) changes the political situation.

Does the fall of London bring USA and/or USSR into the war or do they still have to wait till USA3/R4?

pretty sure OOB rules are No, they wait like normal in the instance of an attack.�  But Alpha 3 states this:

“If the United States has war declared on it by an Axis power, an Axis power captures London or any territory in North America, or Japan makes an unprovoked declaration of war on the UK or ANZAC, the United States may declare war on any or all Axis powers.”

Um….you’re quoting Global rules. (1st hint tipping you off should have been the mention of Japan & ANZAC…no Japan or ANZAC in Europe 1940)

So to answer the OP question. No, it does not bring USA into the war when London falls. OOB rules are pretty clear on that one (See page 19 -21)

Each power starts the game with a number of IPCs equal to its starting income level.  No IPCs are received for any National Objectives that may be satisfied at the start of the game.

@MarkVIIIMarc:

Interesting about the American landings.  Do you think the Italy first strategy would have gotten better results?

That would have worked better than the landings on France. Italy was earning some 30 IPCs and was preparing to defend S. Italy from the US (it was sending a DD to block the US fleet from moving into the Med) but the US could have gained access easy. Another thing that he should have done would be to force passage through the Danish Straits by taking Denmark with the UK then sending an US fleet through it. Then Norway would be impossible to take back (bye bye Sweden NO).

It’s the French connection 8-)