Neutrals…

I can think of three situations where I would contemplate it.

1. In a Sea Lion game, it could be useful to march through Turkey to secure Cairo (bypassing Soviet forces).

2. If the Middle East was very lightly defended and Japan had 5/6 needed Pacific VCs, but was struggling to take Calcutta. A mobile German force could race to help (again, through Turkey to bypass the Soviets).

3. If you’re already winning, it could make the game more fun.

You’d probably already need to be winning for it be a good idea as Allies, even though most neutral forces are harder for the Axis to activate (South America, Mozambique/Angola, Afghanistan) plus Mongolia doesn’t become pro-Axis now.

If you’re doing so well in the Atlantic that you have men to spare to attack both Spain and Turkey, you wouldn’t actually need to attack them in order to win.  So I’d still put that in the for-the-sake-of-fun category.

In response to wheatbeer’s point #3 - I’d add also if you’re losing pretty bad, just for fun…

I’ve used it with success as the Axis a couple times. If you have a German stack in Normandy in a later game situation, and the Allies have a strong force in Gibraltar (a good late game bet), taking Spain opens up Gibraltar without having to get there via sea. Sweden can wait, but you should be prepared to hit Turkey at the same time.

France is stacked, Allies might land in Spain a la Classic.

Uhm…British forces to Russia through Afghanistan? Or to China?

Take Sweeden so Germany loses NO - kinda the HARD way, but possible…

From an Axis point of view, I generally see them do it if they have naval superiority in the Atlantic.  Then they go for quick IPC gains in Turkey, Spain and Sweeden in the same round.  Russia’s not going to be in position to take advantage, or they wouldn’t do it then, and without navy, England/America cannot either.  (Not a lot of neutrals in the Pacific.)

what about from an allied POV though?

Allied POV might work if Germany is on the defencive (not very common), but Japan has outgrown US economy but not taken India. (happends alot, especialy with kgf or balance)

Allies need to keep Germany from activating Sweden (might be the easiest to isolate), Spain (easiest to attack) and Turkey (big UK army from 2IC in Egypt and Persia?). Goes without saying that allies attack land in africa and south america to boost their economy.

Im not saying its usualy a good idea, but it might be a plausible strategy to get that little extra IPC that stops Japan from winning pacific side. (Japan gains nothing if allied DOW neutrals, unless they pick up Afgahnistan.)

Now Cow sure is comming to trollpost me, no dubt :P
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