G1 Barbarossa

@dazedwit my point is that if you can’t win 110, you can’t win sea lion. If Britain wants to stop sea lion they are much better off scrambling in G1 rather than conserving air for the land invasion. Typically in the game german air are more valuable than UK air. I would always scramble in that situation because its very likely that I am trading 1-2 planes against 6.

If Germany uses 9 transports and loses those 6 planes and the British lose 2, the UK doesn’t need to build more than 6 inf before G3 to have a better than 50% chance of denying sea lion. I’m assuming here no J1 or J2 which would make stopping sea lion easier. And I’m calculating with British going with a 92 stack (which would add 2 figs, a tac, an inf and a AA) although I’m sure that won’t strictly be necessary. Obviously even with the bombing and convoying, they should manage more than 6 inf. And they may not need land units at all since they might be able to stop it at sea.

Axis have a significant advantage in the OOB game (absent a bid) and it looks to me that in taking risky combats that you will likely lose, you are trading that away. Of course, the dice can help you out here, but usually they won’t.

But the best way to test strategies will always be against actual competition. At some point I’m sure you will get a chance to test this against other opponents.

I think, that I would have scrambled with 3 fighters to SZ110 because of the lack of sub fodder and 1 fighter to SZ109.
In my turn I would have attacked the remaining sub(s) in SZ109 with SZ106 destroyer and air to prevent convoying.

Still, I love the idea of doing something slightly useful rather than escorting with a fighter which goes home once the air battle is over.

Attacking Russia as Japan always seemed to me as an operation that looked sweeter then it tasted.  I struggled for a long time to find a useful application of the Japan attacking Russia operation but in most cases I couldn’t see a possibility where the resources dedicated to it was the best possible outcome for the situation.

I certainly think there are options I didn’t think of, but if Germany needs the assistance from Japan to pressure Russia into submission I think there is a good sign that Japan could be dominating in the Pacific.  This is a discussion thread all on it’s own so I won’t continue…

@soulfein:

-middle east fac(s)
-convoy raiding sz97 till ita turns into china in 41 v3
-trying to hold india to fly air to moscow and/or helping egy after moscow s fallen
-looking to normandy drops only after japs caged n usa can stack some transports in sz91

Bam…that’s it.  Most games are going that direction.  Rome and Cairo are the kickbacks before Moscow goes down.  From there it gets even- very long slow grind.

The battle is won in the Med/Africa/MidEast region period.  It gets very tactical and dicey here, which is why I think the game is even, Allied advantaged as the game gets longer, past 10 rounds.

@variance:

UK fighters intercept SBR

That assumes the UK doesn’t badly need them for other schemes, and if they are present and intercept, who is to say that Germany won’t provide escorts?  It’s a good way to potentially whittle away the Fighter defense of Moscow before the last battle.  I also don’t know if the 70+ units for Russia is accounting for the output of every single Russian factory, if it is, then the UK can’t possibly guard all of these places.

@Robson:

Hello after a few looks on the new setup i thought this could be a good move.
G1:
Buys 1ac, 1dd, 1sub
Combat moves:
Sz111 with 3tacs,3figs and 1sub
Sz 106 with 2subs
Sz 91 with 2subs
France with 7inf, 3art, 2figs, 2tacs and 2strats
Take fin and bul and shot one round at yug and retreat to rom
Move all tanks and mechs and the rest to the border. The 3 tanks from bel can only get to berlin but they are in range for the T2 attack.
The Italians could strat bomb ukr in T1 to support the action.
Any oppinions on that?
I know its risky but 9 tanks and many inf and art are a strong argument for me.

Your purchases are good, but only if you want a large war of attrition in the Atlantic (because you are leaving 110 and 109 alone). I like your sea battle options, but I would also add taking out the french ships in the Med with 1 tac and 2 fighters from west Germany (landing in southern Italy).

the thing is, not everyone has their sea lion strategy down yet as some people still defend UK/try to maintain a naval instead of taking UK then abandoning it to race Moscow, before UK is liberated and USA becomes a threat to europe.

When I play it is easy to crush UK then turn around drive the russians out of the balkans back to moscow before france/italy/germany is seriously threatened. Once Russia is done, the game is super over.

There are two problems about sea lion.

I don’t mind UK getting conquered. Just if UK gets liberated… it should recover faster. The complex being nerfed to 3 combined with the crappy income generated… is really rough. I find that you can pack UK men on USA boats and drop them off the next turn is better than UK buying their own naval… you actually get more boots on the ground per turn much quicker. Or you can use UK’s 3 production a turn to buy naval pieces for USA or if germany is buying lots of air perhaps UK will buy naval pieces to protect USA naval (so usa can focus on dropping big payloads instead of carriers) and place a few men in africa to ship around (assuming you still have the transport down there).

So with both allied and axis strategies not being fully developed by a majority of the community… the game balance itself is skewed.

Allies have always been harder to play as they require more planning in order to maximize the amount of men you drop per turn into europe or plan ahead and move pieces to wise places in the pacific.
~
Also countering barborossa has a few school of thoughts. 1) archangel shuffle defense 2) france first 3) shutting down italy.

I do feel that cutting the germans out of Norway/Sweden/Finland is good start for UK. no point trading men with germany before taking that out that production.