Africa style

@seancb we also use a giant piece of plywood because any oval table we could find won’t fit the whole board. Its much better to have something under the board (or vinyl) because prevents the board from getting knocked or moved and has at least some sideboard area for piles of chips and drinks and extras. Still, we need dice pits and another area to put most of our stuff because the game is simply that yuge.

@Bravehart:

So….

If the ukP land units claim the pro allies territory like Persia, the 2 ipc value goes towards… UK E cos its on the European side? The standing army would go towards UK P?

BH

There’s no such thing as a UKP unit; there are only UK units. The acquired pro-Allies units would become UK units.

The Persia income would go to UKE because it’s on the European side.

@SubmersedElk:

There’s simply no way the Axis make any headway into Africa unless the Allies screw up bigtime. It’s the easiest place on the whole map for Allies to dominate. If you’re finding you can make successful invasions of Africa as Italy, you need to find better opponents if you want a challenging game.

I very well might be doing something wrong, so forgive me, but I don’t quite see it as you’ve described it, elk.

UK has two choices on UK1. Go super strong defense on London, or not. That, for me, always determines how the Mediterranean is going to end up. To be clear, the Axis never decides how Sea Lion or how fights in the med are going to go, the Allies do. The Axis’s job on the first two rounds of the game is simple: pick the weak point(s). The Allies are the ones to decide what those points are. The fickle b����-goddess of dice takes it from there.

There are a whole god damn slew of if/else if/else etc situations that follow, but I’ll try to simplify, leaving out entirely (non-standard) weird things Russia/US can do to make this wonky:

G1: “Standard”: smash against UK navy, take france, yugo gets strafed or whatever, + some kind of buy that can legitimately threaten sea lion,

UK1a: inf + fighter, or something similarly all-defensive.

UK1b: factory on Egypt
UK1c: taking Iraq (with help of UK Pac) (with the intention of a mIC on UK2 being placed there)
UK1d: something else heavy med, such as 2+ planes form London headed to the Med.

note: b, c, and d are not mutually exclusive

I1: Okay, then it comes around to Italy. If I see UK1a, which is “safe”, then I prep for an I2 hit on Cairo, usually, but not always.

G2: if UK1a: you could (and I often do) put lots of planes into Alexandria, prep for a Cairo hit, while usually sinking whatever allied boats are still around in the med.
G2: if UK1!a: sea lion is a very real option

UK2a: Oh ����, Egypt looks bad, do we try to save it or not? (UK’s option c resolves much of this)
UK2!a: Oh ����, London looks kinda bad, how do we fix this. (UK’s option c resolves much of this)

UK2?: Do we retreat from Cairo into trans jordan (perhaps toward our Iraq mIC) or to sundan (toward our south african mIC)? Or do we try to hold it?

I2a: potentially slam into Cairo with your 1x transport, planes, and your Alexandria/sub-saharan africa forces

G3a/I3a: Finish off what’s left of the UK in Egypt.
G3!a/I3!a: Sea lion? Abandon Africa as you might normally? Just crush Russia like a “normal” game?

edit-
The user Cow popularized this strategy. A slight bit more can be found at: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=30167.0

Okay, with the above in mind, and I hope it’s at least somewhat clear, what are you left with? Italy is now sometimes in the fight in the Med, totally, even if it’s with remnant forces. They start the game with enough units to do this even if they are dumping their first two turns of income into mechs/tanks against Russia, mind you.

Italy’s taking of Egypt might demand a bit of attention from America (yay for Japan!) to put some pressure on the med, and at the very least, entirely flubs up UK Atlantic. With only very modest luck, there’re less UK fighters in Moscow, or less mechanized infantry coming up through the Caucasus, or less whatever UK involvement there might otherwise be. There’s also a bit of a speed bump, however large or small, when it comes for UK/US threatening a kill-italy-first (KIF). Much of this depends on 1: execution, 2: sacrifices the Allies choose make from other options, and 3: a bit (but not a lot) of luck of course.

So, elk, what I’m trying to posit here is that the Axis can still make useful headway into Africa, if not only just the very north tip of it (which is the most pivotal point), even if the Allies don’t “screw up”, depending on some conditions and playstyles.

This game suffers from some lack of viable options at times, but the African/Med theater is not absolutely one of them.

Final note: I never play with bids (I prefer a static per-turn bonus to the US). With bids, and where they almost always (arguably very rightfully) usually go, Africa is basically always a statistical dead end for the Axis.

After my own experiences with the different (surprise) sea lion options GE can conjure out of its hat, I usually do 1 of the following with the UK:

In case of a planned Sea Lion (GE1 you will know). Kill the malta ‘fleet’ with 1ftr+1tac, leave a dd in SZ94 and move the CV(2ftr)+CA to SZ93. Land the tac in Gibraltar if it survives. The TRS can pick up the AAA and INF from Malta and transport them to Gibraltar as well. Together with the UK1 + UK2 buys this will save the allies from a disastrous fall of London. If GE chickens out, all Gibraltar and SZ93 stuff stays/returns into the med to give Italy hell. Saving London may cost you Egypt for a few turns, but as long as you can keep your army alive and reinforce it from India (RAF) and fast units from SA (you can even buy RAF units there), you will take it back. If GE does NOT chicken out you will have a much harder time in Africa but after a long game you should be able to drive the Italians out (again, Indian reinforcements!) and the axis are much more likely to loose the game due to a very strong Russia and (if Japan allows it) USA liberating London

In case of a surprise Sea Lion (GE1 all barbarossa buys and movements). Personally I still play cautious with the UK, in fear of a nasty German surprise. As a result, I keep the STR in London (and buy 2more to destroy any surprise TRS builds), don’t scramble and don’t move a single spitfire out of Britain (with UK2 buying 1 or 2 CVs in the channel, all 4 spitfires can reach any surprise built German fleet). Therefore I cannot do ‘Taranto’ if GE also has scramblers there. Instead, I attack SZ 96 and strafe Tobruk, killing as many Italians without using the TRS. SZ96+99 will be blocked off to protect Egypt while I stack Alexandria to the max. The CV will go into SZ81 to receive an Indian tac+ftr. Persia will be aligned (use the TRS). IF Italy brings more troops into Africa, they are insignificant to what UK has left and their TRS will all be dead (and their protectors, if any). Alternatively, you can just stack Alexandria with the blockers in place. Really, Italy can never win in Africa unless GE is stubborn in executing Sea Lion, which should cost the axis the game in the long run anyway (given LowLuck results, that is).

@Spendo02:

Explain how the Allies stop a G6 attack on Moscow.

Threatening a counterattack (ie artillery in Bryansk) makes them stop for a turn to bring up reinforcements.

@Jeff28:

Is there any way to save the french ships in sz 93?

No.  Italy goes before France, therefore, unless Italy decides to ignore the ships, they are dead.

Very good cmdr Jen.

No.  The dice may be paid for by either or both economies, but only one roll is made.  For example, the UK player may decide to roll two research dice.  He/she may pay the 10 IPCs from either London or Calcutta, or 7 from London and 3 from Calcutta, or 5 from London and 5 from Calcutta, etc.