So I’ve playtested this strategy that I have dubbed the Egyptian lockdown twice thus far on the alpha 2+ setup. Once, Egypt lasted something like 6 turns, the other it didn’t fall in a 10+ turn game. I’d like some feedback on it if there are any ways I can improve upon it though.
Turn 1, UK buys a transport for South Africa and an airbase for Egypt. The fighters from Malta and Gibraltar fly to Egypt and the Tac bomber from the carrier lands there as well. This way they can defend Egypt and still scramble in defense of the fleet if necessary. The 2 inf in South Africa stay there. The transport with the Mediterranean fleet picks up one inf from Egypt and gets him to pro-allied Persia. The French infantry in Syria moves to Trans-Jordan. If you want to hold Alexandria to keep an additional space between Egypt and the Italians, move the ANZAC units up to Alexandria and it should be able to hold against an Italian attack easily. I prefer to do this, as it prevents Italy from using the Ethiopia garrison in conjunction with their main force early. Move the South African destroyer up as well as the French Madagascar destroyer.
Turn 2, UK buys 1 Tank, 1 Mech Inf, 1 Inf. Move the destroyers to merge with the Mediterranean fleet. The South Africa transport ships the 2 inf up to Egypt and the one that put a man in Persia brings 2 back to Egypt. The French Trans-Jordan infantry moves to Egypt. This should have your total number of units in Alexandria/Egypt at 9 infantry (6 UK 2 ANZAC 1 French), 2 Artillery, 1 Armor, 2 Fighters, 1 Tactical bomber. A sizeable force by any means.
From this point, you continue the South African Express going, and alternate purchases of 1 Infantry 1 Mech Inf 1 Tank, with a purchase of 3 Infantry. The Mechs and Tanks can reach Egypt within 2 turns and the extra infantry sits around waiting for the next group of 3 to bring 4 up to Egypt.
In my experience this holds Egypt long enough for the US to take significant pressure off of Egypt with Morocco/Gibraltar landings.
So, opinions? How can I make this better? My main issue is that this is either 13 or 9 IPC every turn off of the London income, and that makes it more difficult to make a landing in France, especially if the British fleet is wiped out G1. Is it worth it to shut down Italy like this or would I be better off going back to primarily spending on France landings?