An Easy Italian Fix

@tamer-of-beasts Often when that happened 2 things would go down:

British navy pulls back and I can immediately crush France and Britain’s navy atleast by round 2

French-North Africa is secured easily

Then there is the British stack in Egypt, usually they pile up there and leave 1 infantry in Alexandria. I often sacrifice my 3 units in Ethiopia to take Sudan and Kenya, letting UK bottle me up through there (which I am fine with)

If I have the transports and the US hasn’t secured Gibraltar yet, most of the times Egypt falls I dont know maybe round 3-4 and then the Middle East (unless they built a factory in Persia, my chances of winning Egypt are hindered)

But it just depends on the Allies if they are good or not :slightly_smiling_face: Italy often doesnt win Taranto but it has happened once or twice before.

Then the US comes in and it is either I have enough income to sustain a fleet capable of securing the Med and subsequently not having North Africa liberated – or I loose like 2 of my transports and cant reinforce Africa any longer so there is lots of choices there.

Usually round 1 I take Yugoslavia and South France, I haven’t done a “Mainland France Kill G1” before but I might next time I play as Germany. Greece goes next maybe round 2 (there is an inside-joke that Yugoslavia and Greece are warriors because they always roll at 2’s or lower. Usually it takes much more than needed to take out Yugo and Greece so who knows the outcome)

Sometimes UK takes Greece (idk why most players dont do this but I guess they dont want to sacrifice their Egypt dudes and a transport) but it is a sting in the butt for Germany and Italy.

Hmmmm what else IDK

Italian canopening is even more effective when combined with the Germany “Dark Skies” option with lots of bombers.  The tanks+mechs+bomber attack options means that the Allies cannot place moderate-sized stacks within two spaces of the German/Italian main stack.  Russia ends up cowering in Moscow with a few minor exchanges each round.  UK ends up with a strong stack near Iraq, never daring to move it too close to the Germans.

Meanwhile the huge range of the German bombers give that power flexibility to find opportunistic attacks:
*Allied ground forces in W. Europe
*Allied ships in the Atlantic
*Allied ships in the Med
*Push into Siberia
*Mid-game Sealion or Egypt attack

I am not saying that this plan guarantees victory, but it allows League players to aim towards eventual victory in G13-17.  Most face-to-face games end up with a Moscow attack on G5-8 when the Axis players just decide that the numbers look close enough.  With the battlecaculator and more time on PBEM/PBF games, Germany can comb through the options every turn and patiently wait for the right opening with a big TUV swing.

Indeed exactly my point!

This seems to be the axis paradigm.
Axis must choose a theatre where they want to win: Russia, London/Atlantic or the Mediterranean/Africa. I guess attacking the neutrals falls in all 3 theatres at the same time, so if the axis want to go for the neutrals they still must decide which 1 of the three above theatres they want to be winning in.

Axis should realize that against good allied opposition they can win in 1 area but expect to loose in the 2 other areas. Perhaps not immediately, but still inevitable.
For example: after a ‘successfull’ Sea Lion, Russia might not be able to immediately take Berlin, but Germany taking Moscow should be out of the question as well. Which is an allied win already if the USA can either liberate London or neutralise  Japan (isolate a must, no need to conquer Tokyo).

Same story in the Pacific.
In short: The axis can win anywhere, but not everywhere (at the same time)!

@Eggman:

@rmcbride:

When you say “If Germany drops a Naval base into the territory, it can contribute ships”  Doesn’t Germany also have to have an IC there before it can place ships in the SZ during ‘Mobilize units’ phase?

Yes, that is a misstatement.  I should have written drops an IC into the territory.  You don’t need a Naval Base in Yugoslavia since you can make use of the ones in Italy proper from the same SZ.

Ok thanx, that clarifies & now makes sense.

I always liked the Bulgarian addition to Italy.  Those 4 Inf are useful, but it sort of commits Italy to covering Romania for German advances in the North which generally means a stream of Mech coming from N.Italy to Romania.

Interesting idea and I have seen the Italians land in Syria and make a very big nuisance of themselves in the region. I am just wondering what turn you plan on dropping off your expeditionary force? It seems like you intend for a turn 3 (best case scenario) sneak into Syria an moving from there. If so then I woulnt worry too much about the South African IC as a German sealion would make it useless. While the Med. is war zone unto itself never lose sight of the greater Axis victory plan. Whatever Italy does it should be a facet of the over all Axis strategic aim.

Good idea, but i think if you use long strips of paper and alot of folding, you can do with less stapling and get soemthing like this:

agreed. Red should be the soviet color. But it not a big deal. I can tell the difference. And since turkey is now completely impassable w/o making a stupid attack, the italians and russians will probably not see action against each other.