Russian troops in the middle east/africa

Thank you stormchaser and welcome to the forums (officially).

@Argothair

This is just straight OOB, but this game I added tech rolls. You had to pay for the rolls so only 4 countries got tech.

Russia went Red Skies and bought 3 SB’s turn one. Counterattacks are blowouts when the 3 SB’s are in on it.

Germany has been scatter brained (Japan too). On Russia’s first turn at war they sent a SB to each of the two new German factories and the third SB to one of the counterattacks. Germany didn’t bother repairing the damage next turn and instead dropped inf all over western Europe because every single inf died on G1.

Germany and Russia keep trading the same 3 territories back and forth. I’m just starting R6 and they will only be able to take two of the 3 back this turn.

On I5/G6, they gave up on trying to take Persia and burst into the Caucasus. The shucks from South Africa just made Persia too large to take even with a can opener, follow up. Stalingrad going down next turn as Japan has six tanks and 5 planes ready to hit it, and one space away is 5 tanks, 2 ftr, 2 tac, 1 sb.

Russia has been slugging it out with Germany and holding its own. Now Axis is about to hit them from the south and the east so they need to turn their attention away from the west.

Germany has rockets. I think next turn I will drop two AB’s in Romania and Slovakia to get extra damage on Moscow IC.

Japan is in Australia and needs to figure out what to do. US has large fleet and 5 fully loaded trns in Iwo Jima. US has blocker to stop Japan from taking Hawaii in one move. IF US was going next, they will be taking Tokyo. Japan goes next, so I think they will drop an AB in Korea and create six ftr scramble with whatever boats I add. It will be too much for US to risk… US could plop into Asia but large Japan fleet in Australia can cause real pain if US gets that far out of position. US was initially trying to take back Phillipines but Japan played dosey do to keep them away and they hit Iwo instead.

I want to be super aggressive with US, but I know that will end up costing them the game so I think they will return to Caroline Islands next turn to protect Hawaii… but then the two fleets in Japan and Australia can converge into one massive fleet to wipe out US. Gotta figure out what to do with them.

So far UK has spent every dime on Persia and South Africa. Now that Axis has peeled away from Persia they can focus on Europe.

US just landed decent sized fleet and 3 fully loaded trns in Morrocco with the intent to hit other side of Med to help save Persia. Now they are going to hit either Holland or Normandy and let UK set up bridges. Germany has been dropping inf all over west Europe (normally it’s pretty bare) so it won’t be easy for the Allies.

UK pac/Persia has a lot of ftrs and they will be going to Moscow soon - if Japan goes north instead of west. UK pac has Bay of Bengal and Persia area fully stacked, and a six ftr scramble for Calcutta so Japan is going to bleed . UK has radar and India has 6 AAA. Basically, Japan is going to howl when they try to get to India. As such, Japan decided to go after Russia instead to help Germany.

@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.

Yeah, I have to admit that I have done that in the case of existing carriers. I say I will move the carrier to a certain spot so planes involved in a battle close by can land. Then the planes get killed (which I figured they would) so I leave my carrier where it is or move it to a “better” place.

@General:

Right, the UK should take full advantage of the Commonwealth and have Ottawa operate as the backup European capital. At that point the UK player could help the US mount a liberation campaign from Canada or put all its resources in South Africa to help out Egypt.

I like the general idea, but it could upset the balance of the game. Sea Lion would become less of a threat and may not be good option at all because it requires a substantial investment on the part of Germany. And with Sea Lion out of the way, the UK may not need to focus on home defense so much, and may be able to send more planes south towards the Mediterranean.

On a side note, I prefer to give Persia to Russia. The 2 inf are very convenient for taking Iraq next.

Go back to SCHOOL Degrasse, nobody wants to hear what you have to say.

Oh wait… I guess I was the one who asked… :P

looks around

I bet it’s in the pacific manual too, or the original pacific Alpha.

@TheDefinitiveS:

Note West India is part of the Pacific and the Canadian Territories are part of the Europe side.

This is true in the Alpha rules only.

Well, right now it seems like London isn’t hard to take.