Who do you go for as Germany?

Thanks so much for the input everyone.

Not only that, but 10 inf + planes is normally nowhere near enough to defend Moscow from Germany’s mobile force.

Dido what everyone else said.

You should have the Russian minor in Leningrad and prob Ukraine as well a couple turns after you invade Russia, so there really is no need to spend the IPCs up there for redundancy.

You can buy a second German transport for 7 IPCs (cheaper) and move 2 more units (4 tot) through the Baltic and threaten all Russian territories that boarders the Baltic Sea (or even the White Sea sz 127 if you venture out). Besides threatening multiple territories, transports can be used to reinforce or counter attack as well. A 3rd German transport in the water (with some added fleet) will keep the London in a defensive position in the early/mid game too.

Finally as others pointed out a German IC in Scandinavia will quickly draw the attention of the USA. Norway/Finland is already a target, you really don’t want to magnify it IMO.

Buy mech/armor at a 1-1 ratio, simple as that from g2 onward. You pretty much should get russia G5 6 or 7

What I was talking about is that Russia has more muscle in this set-up then in G40. They can be more aggressive and can help defend the Chinese wall and/or the Middle east against the Japanese once India falls (things they don’t get to do much in G40).

@Dark_Destroyer:

I thought you couldn’t blitz through neutrals?

I assume he meant after turkey was claimed.

If you try it out, you’ll see that the U.K. can’t sufficiently reinforce France, even with the additional 6 French troops, from having Germany crush it on round 2.  Even if every available plane is landed there, and the strafe leaves 2 tanks plus the fighter, it’s impossible to hold.  So all that landing planes accomplishes is wiping out the British airforce (and keeping France from falling to Italy).  The payoff isn’t worth it.

The biggest downsides I can imagine are that (1) it is much more difficult to hold off serious landings at Normandy by the US and/or UK.  Italy then has to protect Western Europe and the Med–although with Germany taking S France, they can dump ships in the Med as well if it comes to that (subs backed up by planes would be cheap).  And (2) delaying the war on the Pacific side until round 3 (which would make this work much better at times, depending on the US builds) means that UK Pacific can shuttle some troops over.

The really nice thing about this strategy is that it’s more efficient to have Italy be the 1 force in the Med, and not have to worry about building enough ships off the S France factory right away to protect them from UK planes.

I think it’s going to be the standard opening in our play group for the foreseeable future.

The counter someone mentioned above about making sure to buy troops in S Africa–either mechs, or infantry/artillery to go with transports, in combination with some shuttling from India, is probably the safe response.

Grover and I just started another game, with me being the Axis, and I’ve got to say I’m enjoying the big Italian boost.

@Imperious:

If UK falls on G2 they get that build before USA, which if they also and planes, the game is hard to come back from.

G2 Sealion is unlikely. G3 is more  likely