Alternative opening strategies

@fenderbender4 Hi there. I certainly do not mean don’t attack anywhere. Where there are easy victories make the most of them. But don’t place a significant G force at the mercy of a superior R one.

Hi Argothair,

I like to have more tanks so they can work as a group and help defending India, China and Key Russia territories at the same time when needed.  4 is a bit too little to me and 6-8 makes a decent number to strike back.  I like the mobility of tanks as well as its better attack/defense power.  Also, in round 2, Germany has less chance to stack the Karelia if I have 6 tanks available compared to 4 tanks.

Ps. Couple thoughts on the Polar Express concept as an endgame play rather than an opener…

A version of this strat can be made to work in the final rounds, provided that Japan is no longer needed at the center, and has sufficiently outpaced the Americans on income. It’s also helpful if the Allied player is a good sport, or just wants to play out a few more rounds before calling it a night.  :-D

An example might be, if Germany is poised to take Moscow alone, such that Japan has a free hand to redirect early against North America, instead of Africa. Or if it seems like the Allies might be able to trade Moscow for Berlin in the same round, and Japan wants to keep going.

It requires that you have a large number ground units at the ready preferably in Yakut and Munchuria. The basic idea is to spam transports at the last minute before the planned invasion. So say you have 5 or 6 transports with 12 or more units ready to transport out of sz 60 to Alaska, and several more ground units in Yakut or Manchuria, that can move to Bury at the same time so that they can be shucked the following round. Then you spam 5 more transports to set up the double shuck, from Japan and Manchuria to Buryatia with one transport group, and from Buryatia  to Alaska with the other transport group.

To pull this off, you have to be able to match US production a full round ahead of their ability to equal your forces from their production centers, and this with already existing Japanese units, which is why you need the Yakut stack at the ready. If you can rapidly amass a large stack of ground in Alaska by using existing Japanese units, it may be possible to walk them to Western Canada without fear of a crushing counter attack from the US, and then you can use your transports to threaten W. US on amphibious, while you attempt to can open Central or Eastern Canada with German bombers for a blitz on DC. Although not a particularly likely deep endgame, it can sometimes be a more direct route to the ultimate Axis smackdown, than taking London.

Again, I don’t think its something that you can really plan for from the outset, but more of a redirect at the last possible second, where you make as if to threaten Moscow from Yakut, but then rapidly double back for the Alaskan crossing. It’s also pretty simple for the US to cover against this play, if they see it coming, so you really have to catch them with their guard down.

I think there are only two times I’ve seen it work. Once was in a KGF game, where the Russian player made a strategic withdrawal from Moscow in an attempt to triple team G. And another game where Germany got lucky on their tank drive and smoked Moscow earlier than anyone expected. In both instances the Allies were playing a masochist’s game, fighting on rather than conceding haha

One thing you might have fun with ICinBrazil is just leaving 2-6 infantry in Caucasus. This can put Germany in a bind, since they have to commit more units to the fight and risk losing them on counter. This can often deter an attack on Caucasus altogether so you don’t have to trade it light or give the income to G in the first round.

I will put one out in a month.  I have lots of work to attend to. I am going to put more pictures.

Does anyone know why boldfresh whines so much?

sadly the game we were playing was a KGF game. Germany is just too strong, but I do like the first round take buy to keep Germany from stacking in Karelia R1.

@WILD:

Ok then 2 subs in 1942SE going after the Americans is lame then. So spiting the subs (keeping one in sz9, and the other goes to sz8), and removing one US tpt would be one solution.

What was lame was the way the USA let Germany trash our shipping right after we entered the war. I think letting 2 German subs come over and sink 1 US DD and 2 US APs for 0-1 sub is historically about right on.

Reference: www . uboat . net / ops / drumbeat . htm
Sorry, I’m not allowed to post links.

@Cromwell_Dude:

@Hobbes:

So why would anyone want to attack Finland with Germany Russia on G1?

;)