United Kingdom Strategy (Video)

@Young:

One sigularity point allowing the game to go in one direction or the other can be linked to wether or not Italy has their battleship I1.

That is true… the same happens if england loses it’s fleet it is hard to replace that fleet, if germany goes after a sealion. I know Italy grow very fast in the begining. But haft of the Italian economy are placed in 3 spots. If the british hold egypt and the middeleast, Gibraltar (3 out of 4) Morroco (north african coast) and seazone 92 (no allied ships in the med) This strategy is to starve them out… those american ship placed in seazone 92 are still able to hit Normandy… Retreating the british fleet to the red sea is also a threat to the italians, because they have to fight for keeping suez closed, and they have to fight on two fronts…  it is all about force the enmy to split up their armies, because they can’t protect everything…

@ShadowHAwk:

Well round 1 what is Italy going to do with the battleship?
If you move the india air to afrika then well they can stay in port or sink the next turn to the RAF and you will still have your boats.

The med fleet is a nice protection if you intend to chuck stuff from SA to Egypt.

I think The Italian battleship is going used to fight the france fleet, or as a shore bombardment in Greece… in my opinion you have to kill your enemies expensive units but only remove your cheap onces… But as long as you protect protect Egypt and the middeleast the americans can do the rest :) try it out

This video was more of a UK101 (for beginners), so I think it was ok to run with Taranto as the main focus, and let the players sort out what works best for them as they gain experience. I will say that both strats are viable, but most people would agree that Taranto is widely used.

Smashing the Italian battleship works most of the time, but because this is a dice game it comes with risks. We have all seen it go horribly wrong for the UK as well (many times for me). It probably happened to coolrunner a couple times, and that’s why he came up with this alternative (more advanced) strat to keep the Med fleet safe. It will also keep the RAF in London, which again is a more conservative, but effective deterrent for Sea Lion (as long as your UK1 builds support London).

I think it is worth mentioning a more conservative approach in the Med though. As the UK once your turn rolls around much of the Royal Navy has been sunk. Pulling back the Med fleet to save what you have left (possibly merging it w/Indian fleet) is definitely an option. As the UK you may be alone depending on the Japanese. I think it would be much harder for a beginner to wrestle the Med away from the Italians however if this approach is taken. It is likely that Italy will get 10-15 IPCs in No’s for the first couple turns (which is also very distressing to UK). It also should be noted that if you give Italy enough rope, it will most likely hang itself (meaning that when the Italian ships pull away from port they won’t have the scramble ability to defend them). So if this is the case make sure that as the UK (or later w/US) you are ready with an air strike (maybe even a weak Anz can opener attempt to get your ships back in the Med for an assault LOL).

Good talk, but I think for simplicity YG went the right way.

I think its pretty cool that YG is taking the time to put this series together. I too see some things that I might do different. For one I like to purchase mobile units for India while I have some income (sometimes 1 inf, 2 mech and a tank UK1). If the Japanese are a bit distracted I might be able to run them up through Burma into China to cause some trouble (or maybe to Russia). You know that if you move your stack of inf to Burma, you could get hit (on the coast), but mobile units might be able to move through Burma into China with air power to make a difference (even if its just taking out a couple key Japanese inf). I know that it weakens the def of India, but if they want it……

Edit:
It is also note worthy to include more info about the UK political situation on the Pac side (didn’t really touch on that). I only mention this because if it is more of a beginner game in the right circumstances declaring war on Japan on say UK2 could be worth while. Say the Japanese are dragging their feet on an attack, but maybe have some valuable inf with-in striking range at the front. UK2 DOW could be an advantage for the allies, killing off part of the Japanese inf force creating a quagmire in China. It keeps the US out for a bit, but the Japanese will be starved for units in China and could be the start of a kill Japan first strat.

I love to declare war on Japan UK2 to help China. If Japan did not build at least one IC on the mainland and Usa goes KJF, Japan is doomed! Russia and Australia must join the party too in order to make this works best.

@ShadowHAwk:

I like the vids they give new insights and ideas to try.

But there is also the risk of pushing the majority of the players into the same style of playing, actualy making it look they are good at strategy while they can only actualy copy actions from others.
For you next vids it would be nice to show alternative moves and their Pro-Cons. For instance having the med fleet sneak off into the red sea has the advantage of protecting transports shuttleing stuf from SA but it also gives italy a battleship and a transport. Both moves are equaly vallid and actualy fit in a overal gameplay ( just different gameplays ).

And really what is italy going to do with its fleet? Move out where? if they leave the airbase you can plaster them anyway :)

And maby focus more on long term planning, you did this verry well with the Japanese vids.

I think these are some really valid points. These days everyone is doing Taranto and everyone scrambles a combination of the four; 2 italien fighters and a german figther + tac. In the unlikely event of UK not doing Taranto or the Taranto fails (which by the way suck big fat one), then what is Italy going to do with their battleship (+1 -2 cruisers)? Plenty of options!

If you’re in the youtube comments helping them, I should go average out the quality to what’s normal on Youtube, and start suggesting they build a Russian battleships every turn to defend sea zone 125.

@Young:

Nice post Wild Bill, and yes… these videos are to help new players move up the strategy ladder a tad faster. My next UK strategy video will have more options, as there are some good ones emerging that challenge the Taranto raid for sure.

YG… I really like your videos… Very nice job. even that i consider myself as an experience player I learn some new stuff for those videos…

but i have some questions for you. And that is how long time (number of rounds) are you guys normally playing, and another thing is that, and long game with many round most of the time benefits the allies… what do you say about that…

During the first couple of rounds you are able to get a good position for a long term game, and that means resuce your expensive units. Had you try out this strategy…

I am looking forward to your hopefully upcoming video :)

YG, I know this maybe off topic but have you consider doing 1st edition strategies? I know it’s a bit old now with people going liking 2nd edition better, but my friends have 1st edition and I don’t think they want to just change to 2nd edition rules and setup. I’m maybe going to play a game with them soon. I already have made great axis strategies making me really want to be them, but the allies are a bit hard(mostly UK since they start really weak).

@Young:

@Frederick:

YG, I know this maybe off topic but have you consider doing 1st edition strategies? I know it’s a bit old now with people going liking 2nd edition better, but my friends have 1st edition and I don’t think they want to just change to 2nd edition rules and setup. I’m maybe going to play a game with them soon. I already have made great axis strategies making me really want to be them, but the allies are a bit hard(mostly UK since they start really weak).

Hey Frederick II, Larry and his team slowly whined me off 1st edition during the Alpha project and I have never looked back. I might do a setup comparison video in the future, but 2nd edition is much better IMO, and I always recommend upgrading.

Well when I get Global I’m getting 2nd edition when I can, but I think my friends are sticking to 1st. I think a setup comparison will be great especially with the crazy amount of aircraft that both Japan and USA start out with. Like US has 4 bombers! Japan has 24 tacs./fighters.

Japan went from 28 planes to 21…

@calvinhobbesliker:

Japan went from 28 planes to 21…

Is that from Alpha 2 to 2nd edition

@coolrunner:

@calvinhobbesliker:

Japan went from 28 planes to 21…

Is that from Alpha 2 to 2nd edition

Uh, from 1st edition definitely. I don’t remember what the Alpha setups were, but I hope they tried removing planes…

@Young:

@Frederick:

@Young:

@Frederick:

YG, I know this maybe off topic but have you consider doing 1st edition strategies? I know it’s a bit old now with people going liking 2nd edition better, but my friends have 1st edition and I don’t think they want to just change to 2nd edition rules and setup. I’m maybe going to play a game with them soon. I already have made great axis strategies making me really want to be them, but the allies are a bit hard(mostly UK since they start really weak).

Hey Frederick II, Larry and his team slowly whined me off 1st edition during the Alpha project and I have never looked back. I might do a setup comparison video in the future, but 2nd edition is much better IMO, and I always recommend upgrading.

Well when I get Global I’m getting 2nd edition when I can, but I think my friends are sticking to 1st. I think a setup comparison will be great especially with the crazy amount of aircraft that both Japan and USA start out with. Like US has 4 bombers! Japan has 24 tacs./fighters.

The biggest setup change between 1st edition and 2nd edition IMO is the lack of air bases on Gibraltar and Malta.

This was the 1st thing I noticed as well. I use the UK predominantly so it really was an eye sore.

I’m sorry but I just don’t get this Taranto Strategy.  Please excuse me (as I am a newbie to G40, but played A&A for 30 years) but why, why send the entire British Fleet to Davy Jones locker if it isn’t even necessary?

Just bring the cruiser over from the Atlantic, smack the ships north of Libya with the two fighter planes, lose the cruiser, do Tobrok UK1 (with the strat bomber from London, Tac Bomber from the carrier, and all the land units in North Africa that can hit it), land the strat bomber in the territory next to Tobrok, land the Tac bomber in Cairo for scramble, land both the fighters on the carrier, move the two Int from Egypt to Transjordan to support the French just North, and DON’T MOVE the ships from north of Cairo.  I don’t think the Italian fighters can reach the British fleet and the Italian fleet, all seven ships, they can’t seriously challenge the loaded Aircraft carrier and Tach Bomber scramble.  They are defensive ships not offensive.  And besides, turn one, they are focused on sinking French ships.

Never leave the Med.  Never let the Italians control it, cut off ALL their money.  And never move the Med fleet in range of the German Luffawaffe. If you want, you can move the ships in India over to Africa and hit the Italians to really put them completely out of the game (turn 1) and totally crank the Brit money.  Then on Turn 2, that India transport is now reinforced the Brit carrier in Cairo.  The Italians can NEVER overpower it.  They don’t make enough money to add to their fleet or airforce.

What does Taranto gain the Brits?  I don’t want to “grow a pair” because the Italians are always going to scramble (why wouldn’t they) UK can’t hit the Battleship with just overwhelming numbers.  If both only roll par, okay, you sink the battleship but you’ve lost, everything.  I mean everything.  By turn 3, Italy probably has Cairo and by turn 4, a serious challenge to the middle east.  Forget it.  I’ll keep my purely defensive fleet, choke off the Suez Canal and deny Italy the med money.