German strategies

@arthur-bomber-harris said in A Nameless but Effective China Strategy:

Round 2: Japan captures 3 out of the 4 of the following territories: Malaya, Java, Sumatra, and Celebes. In your game you only captured Malaya.

Everything goes down the drain if you don’t have a strong J2 turn.

I’m not a fan playing against myself - it can make you go blind and miss obvious moves. The J1 was Cow, and J2 - 3 were Andrew’s moves from our mini-test.

The real problem is turn 3. The Allies have mid-sized fleets off both India and Queensland. As for as I can tell, Japan has 3 options for J3:
*Option #1 - Put the IJN in between the Allied fleets. This is what Andrew did, and is probably the least bad option. Most likely outcome is you trade the IJN for both Allied navies.
*Option #2 - Attack one of the fleets. Face the multi wave counter attacks ready on either side. Most likely outcome is you trade the IJN for only 1 of the Allied navies.
*Option #3 - Retreat north. Allow the Allied fleets to merge into a fleet bigger than the IJN. I haven’t played against this yet, but it feels like Japan is turtling.

Note - the absolute best realistic outcome Japan can hope for in the first 2 options is wounded capital ships limping back to a NB while facing another turn of Allied attacks.

I really hope I’m missing something and there is a 4th option.

I will try it next game I play, probably use it for Italy, since they need the Navy the most.

True, threatening Sealion is strong German play, but as Young Grasshopper himself has said, many British players do not fear it much these days, so you might as well hit Russia hard, right from the start, and get the killing blow(in my strategic opinion).
Thanks and God Bless You All from AxisandAlliesGeneral

Im glad we agree on some problems, I just want to find a way to take out Japan without either completly abandon Europe or commit to Europe.

A 60 - 40 economy split should work for the US at the bare minimum

70 - 30 might be better depending on the threat level

UK middle east factory is always a great idea for support
A Norway factory is good for the Allied Power who controls it(Unless it is Russia, because Leningrad Factory)

For the Spanish Beach head what if the UK hit Sweden and/or Norway to contain it , just like we do with Turkey

I personally like at least 3 subs for G round 1 so that I can strafe 111 and keep my bb while taking out UK’s turn 2.

Thank you for analyzing that statement for me. Odds favor a scramble, but my experience with it is okay. My decision depends on my mood and what I feel like doing. :)

When I am germany I throw that battleship. I don’t want to lose fighters, I will lose a battleship.  In which case the uk scramble odds are on average less than 1 fighter for 1 fighter… the battleship UK gets to kill anyway. So yeah I like that better.

@otahere34 said in Thoughts on a Japanese strategy?:

I have a house rule that aircraft on carriers can launch after the carrier makes its movement, cause in real life, if there were carriers in Japan with planes, the planes didn’t take off and attack midway from there, they took off once the carriers got to midway.

@JayDavis said in Thoughts on a Japanese strategy?:

I have a house rule, when I play the US, I get the Nimitz in 1941.

@Peck said in Thoughts on a Japanese strategy?:

I have a house rule too. German infantry can cross the English channel without a transport because in real life people can swim across too.

This house ruling is fun!

I have a house rule too.

Obviously it’s only the French, aka Frogs, who can swim over the English Channel. It’s called frog suit. Obviously.

But that is not my house rule.

My house rule partly reflects the installment of the Vichy government, partly builds on French swimming technology being adapted by the Germans, partly includes primitive rocket science and partly simply because Germans are sauerkraut.

With my house rule the Germans can bounce over the English Channel. In fact, they can bounce over most of the annoying obstacles, like Gibraltar, Sahara, Himalayas and the Atlantic. They can even bounce behind enemy lines, if need be.

More or less becoming similar to flying Tribbles.

That is my house rule.

I think the game would be more balanced that way and more fun.

It seems with 6 subs on the board, you could keep 2 off Canada and 4 off London. That means you would subtract 11 IPCs from the UK until the US entered the war, if UK does not build a DD in Canada.

You could keep London at around 18 IPCs until the US enters the war. However, I don’t think Germany can spare the money on sea units, since I believe they need to help Japan gather victory cities or face a long term loss of game. I also suspect that the US will have 2-3 DDs in their war fleet able to clear two of the convoy zones for UK.

Personally I would make air units over sea units, as you can then threaten fleets and land units especially if you need a quick extra “push” against Moscow early on.

You would discourage a navy build by UK until the US could arrive on scene.

In some Europe games, I did produce a couple of subs early on, but not in any global games. I found their life span to be brief unless they hid behind Denmark.