The Allied Struggle

I can’t read that.

A Russian squeeze almost always works, halfway descent axis play should see Moscow fall on turn 6 or 7. And I havent see anyone come up with a counter for it excpet to hope the axis make lost of mistakes. If Germany has been building navy (as you said he has a decent navy) then you may be able to turtle as russia to buy time, but it seems like Moscow will fall.

Focus on getting a landing flotilla in SZ91 with units on Gib/Morocco.  You can threaten Rome at this point which makes Italy react in funny ways.  Remember that Germany can blitz units from Wgr through N.Italy, so if you can take both N.Italy and Rome on the same turn you give yourself an opportunity to purchase some reinforcements and possibly land a second flotilla of reinforcements in Rome before Germany’s garrison can reach you (if they even have Arm there).

Alternatively, you can ignore Rome and just go after Egypt which is way outside of German influence if they are bogged down attacking Moscow.  Once Egypt is permanently out of Italy’s hands you can consider France and Rome.  One thing to note, it is also worth the loss if you can suicide a landing onto Wgr to demote the Major IC there down to a Minor.

Realize its also possible to have the UK spend 14 IPC / turn getting 1 Inf, 1 Art, 1 TT in S.Africa that is a single move from Egypt to assist/reinforce an allied landing there.  Those TT are generally way outside the influence of Axis aircraft and can join up landings on either side of Africa.  Canada’s Minor can also get you that same unit setup into SZ91 if you can’t afford to protect ships placed in the UK (just put aircraft there that can then fly down to Gib).

All is not lost if Moscow falls, things just become much more interesting and micro as it comes down to denying the Axis Egypt until you swing the momentum back to the Allies.

I think you guys are too afraid of sea lion.

uk should always sink 97 and the dd /transport off malta.

buy all inf to defend against sea lion, but all your air should roll out. so what if uk gets taken? it is hard for germany to keep it. If germany buys naval russia buys artillery off minors and mech for russia. ALWAYS. so you roll up to romania when london goes. get +9 in bonuses plus the german value of the territories. makes up for uk being dead big time.

plus usa can buy bombers off east usa, which means japan can’t go to war round 2 or 4-5 bombers land on UK (this cannon fodder delays the sea lion or makes the odds really bad for taking uk like somewhere under 50% range… and usually if he wins he has a tank and a couple air units left only… this makes things so much easier for usa to liberate uk and russia to push the aggression). If Japan delays war, you don’t have to do anything in the pacific for another 3 rounds because india and anzac will have enough bankroll to take care of themselves.

say he does sea lion and take uk over and has a tank and bomber left despite your bomber reinforcement. you split income between pac and atlantic just fine and you have a clear and easy objective being liberating uk. Russians can also make a push for rome.

enough air survives off 97 and you can hold egypt for awhile. it is awesome.
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as far as what usa does when uk survives and germany goes barb like in most games (since it is the most optimal strategy for axis). sz 97 and africa is your first priority. if you can defend egypt, drop a minor and italy can never dream of taking it.

provide uk with fleet. medit sea fleet first. merge with uk if you have to, but in the end it gets parked in sz 97.  the second fleet is so uk can drop normandy / holland.

fly air into russia if you can. use bombers to bomb airbase off rome if needed or clear stragglers in africa so the russian mech or tank and just roll over original italy territories in africa (+3 national objective for russia for each one).

Then you think about transports and dropping guys. Usually it is a kamehameha wave instead of a shuffle on giant blast that threatens rome and if germany moves into defend it you can possibly hit west germany and hold that instead.

if your german players are attacking uk, buy all bombers with usa on the first round. This will make japan postpone his declaration of war (or 5 bombers fly into the united kingdom to defend it).

Trust me the 5 bombers make a huge difference in the battle for UK, because it is cannon fodder and sometimes you can get a hit with it (say germany gets 10 hits only and you lose AA guns and bombers, you still have all your other units rolling)

IF japan does not go to war on round 2, uk pacific and anzac will have all the dutch islands and make serious money to defend themselves with, so you won’t have to buy anything for pacific for awhile.

you may think the bombers to be somewhat useless in this scenario, but it bought you a round before japan blow up so think of it as free units, they can attack italians in africa, sometimes if you are feeling gutsy with russia fly in to defend russia when they are holding yugoslavia. you can fly fighters in off of carriers when russia then pushes to northern italy… after that you can take rome over with russia… (this is super funny and super GG for axis when it happens).
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If your german players are always doing sea lion and united kingdom play, I highly recommend 6 artillery rest mechanized infantry for russia round 1, follow that with all mech round 2 with russia (+1 tank because you saved 1 ipc round 1 so you have 38 so all mech and a tank). You can make the push for rome, it is fun.

Round 2 with usa I suggest pulling a bunch of air from pacific to atlantic. drop 3 carriers and a destroyer. Blam you got an instant atlantic fleet. push that out and who cares if germany attacks it, you can afford to lose a bunch of naval and you can counter with bombers and your last round’s buy, you can fly that into italy with the russian push.

germany can’t defend northern italy and berlin. his option is to attack if he wants to save rome, usually usa / uk air with all that russian mech… makes a very bad day for germany if he attacks (depending on his casualties in taking london).

Be aggressive as allies. It is more fun.

There is a reason why people don’t actually follow through with sea lion now, especially when allies are crazy.

I think your german player is amazing and you have no hope of victory  8-)

@Gargantua:

I can’t read that.

You should have gone to specsavers