The Afrika Korps

All good points Wild Bill, therefore I came to some new insights and changes.

You want to achieve: rich Germany and Italy while Japan sacrifices potential income to let them do it. Going through Turkey with Afrika Korps provides this, however you now need to do full neutral crush. Sweden is no brainer, but do you really need Spain in G3? No, this can also be done G4. Also, it is the taking away of German infantry of the Russian front for neutral crushing combined with Baltic fleet to med and Afrika Korps to Middle East that give the Russia so many options.

In total its 12 Infantry south and 7 Infantry being slower at Russian frontlines because of Sweden while 9 Tanks and 4 Mech attack Egypt instead of Leningrad.

All I need to do with my first Germany builds is replace these troops as normally Leningrad and Ukraine are possible to take with just starting Germans. Therefore 9 Tanks in G2 to replace Afrika Korps. The 6 Infantry from GSE are difficult to replace on time, so I don’t send them to France anymore. Instead I build 3 Infantry + 3 Mech. Infantry in G3 to take Spain in G4 combined with some more Tanks for the Eastern front.

Also leaving the Baltic is not smart because of reasons mentioned before but also because Sweden leaves your Scandinavian Infantry out of position. The Aircarrier and Transports is still a good buy to fix this and maintain your control of that area. However with Italy going for Turkey you will not get Gibraltar NO anytime soon. Therefore I sacrifice 1Transport to take Gibraltar G2 with 1 Infantry and 1 Artillery that can later be used against Spain. This costs Germany 7 but gives Italy +5, a nice trade. Also Italy taking Southern France in I2 gives them +3. I will also send 1 Tank, 1 Mech. and 1 Infantry to take Northern Africa as Germany is coming to get Egypt anyway.

This let me come to the idea that the goal of the Afrika Korps in specific is to help Italy out in Africa and the Middle East. Yes the Russian oil is something I also really like but Germany can get there eventually. However by kicking the UK out of Egypt you break the chains of Italy. Also Middle East is secondary. The goal should be to take Egypt as soon possible (G4) without building a med fleet. From that point you can expand quickly with both Italy and Germany. Ofcourse this also depends of the Allied defence: where are the weak spots and attack there.

You can reach Egypt in G4 with 3 Tanks, 4 Mech. Infantry, 2 Bombers, 3 Tactical and 1 Fighter in case the Italians could open Trans-Jordan, Turkey worked and Greece worked. I also think its really possible, especially after Taranto so let Italy have 40+ IPC after its Turn 4 in this way.

So to conclusion the most important of this strategy is that you help Italy to expand as Germany. With some Aircraft, with some Fleet, but mostly German Tanks on the ground in Africa.

With Italy also made a major Axis you are now ready to take on USA as Axis while finishing the other Allies from Turn 4.

Thank you Kreuzfeld for the general critique! It has been really helpful to come to some new ideas. This is a strategy in development and through feedback I can fix loopholes or improve the plan.

1. I know my priority, that is to win the battle of the Middle East and Africa as soon as possible. To define this into a VC that allows an eventual Axis win: Egypt. There is only 1 Allied player that can and will confront me: the United Kingdom.

2. I assume Taranto will takes place as this is a natural action of the UK. The same accounts for taking Iran, Ethiopia and Tobruk. I also know how the UK will react on specific German builds or intentions. Most importantly is doing Sea Lion as this forces the UK to turtle London. I already threaten a Sea Lion with my G1 build however the UK player sends over his RAF as soon this seems to be a feign based on my G2 build.

Going through Turkey offers the Axis a great advantage allowing its initial armour to get into the Middle East fast, against the huge cost of making all other strict neutral pro-allies therefore creating a lot more extra battlefield and infantry reinforcements for the Allies. Only in the Middle East and Africa that are 18 extra Infantry to fight. However, Infantry is good on the defense it is terrible on the offense.

Sweden costs me 8 Infantry and 1 Artillery that are out of position instead of threatening Leningrad with forces from the Baltic States and actually by attacking it in G2 and later the heavy deployment in Greece without reason signals my battle plan towards my allies. I also go into Russia very weak and might just be repelled in a single turn.

Another flaw is SZ96 which is likely still held by an UK cruiser, same for SZ97 by enemy Aircraft Carrier, so the last Italian transport is not even able to reach Greece in I1.

Also the Italian in the Med really need some help as it is swarmed with the RAF and already crumbled in the first place with only 10 IPC to work with. Sending the German Baltic fleet would be ideal, but this leaves Germany without logistical control over the Baltic, allowing the Russian to take over Scandinavia and therefore crippling Germany and becoming a monster itself.

A lot of loopholes and plans that could easily backfire!

However,

In my G2 I could fix all of this. By doing Sea Lion. Buying 3 Transports, 1 Aircraft Carrier, 1 Destroyer, 3 Submarine, 1 Tank

Although that is what it might seem. I send the initial Baltic fleet to take Gibraltar and Morocco (to provide Italy NO) but still able to conquer London. The Africa Korps takes Greece (still a bit strange formed group but logical move for Germany) and I take Normandy. I destroy all UK med fleet leftovers. Non-combat I move all Scandinavian forces to Finland, all German forces to Poland and GSE forces to Western Germany.

I have 1 Battleship, maybe Cruiser, two full Aircraft Carriers, Destroyer and 6 full transports in range of a Sea Lion. Some aircraft is in position and some is not. Not enough to do a successful Sea Lion but what would you do as the UK? Think oh well its not enough I send my RAF to the med? No, you start doubting. Maybe he made a mistake? Does he really think he can take London with so few? What if? There are no clear other reasons yet why you would buy a second transport/fleet buy other than Sea Lion. I guess most would at least invest 50% or maybe 100% in more defense and keep the Fighters at home to wait and see. Remember as Allies it is your task to not loose.

What you did in reality was solving a lot of problems. You waited with the Neutral Crush, therefore leaving the Allies without a clue what you are about to do. You ensured 15+ income for Italy by collecting his National Objectives (Italy will take Algeria this turn itself). You send 8 Infantry and 1 Artillery to the Russian front that would be otherwise useless in Sweden. Because you waited with the Neutral the UK will likely not be in time anymore to take Saudi Arabia or the African neutrals. You created a new Baltic Fleet able to take Sweden in G3 and Leningrad in G4 instead. The creation of this Baltic Fleet lets you send the Bismarck and initial fleet to the Med to help take Egypt or even South Africa G4 while multiplying Italy’s income X3 in its second turn. By killing Greece as Germany you give the Italians some breathing space and they don’t have to sacrifice their transport yet or show the Axis intentions preparing the UK. By making the Sea Lion feign a whole lot more serious than your first buy you force the UK to remain defensive for another crucial turn!

Ofcourse then in Italy Turn 2 you still attack Turkey (1 Bomber, 2 Fighters, 2 Tanks, 2 Artillery, 2 Infantry) and show your intentions but nobody would have time to react anymore as Germany does all the action and is now only 1 turn away from either Egypt, Leningrad and/or South Africa. Also the RAF will have not enough time anymore to re-position to the Med before Egypt or Iraq/Iran is taken.

Yes you have 7-8 Tanks less in the battle of Leningrad, you have 8 Infantry, 1 Artillery (scandinavia) + 4 Infantry, 2 Artillery (transports) in total 12 Infantry and 3 Artillery able to attack Leningrad instead while forcing the UK to play defensive and hiding your intentions until the last moment. All warfare is based on deception in this G2 buy might just provide that.

As you will take Southern France and Tunisia with Italy in its first turn, and Algeria and Turkey in its second turn, Italy collects 32 IPC in its second turn, mission already accomplished! Because of Germany in G2 now it collects all it National Objectives besides the oil that will succeed hopefully next turn. But 30+ IPC is already enough for Italy to become a Major Axis to tip the balance.

3. Good point, I will just focus on getting Leningrad in Russia then for now.

4. Also good point. I am indeed planning going Bomber heavy after G3 so will buy Mech. Infantry instead of Tanks.

Also I do not see the South African transport in my or 2nd edition set up, or am I mistaken?

Secondly I intent to do India crush in J4, but if Australia is barely defended I might take that one and make India the winning Pacific VC city. I am still unsure about what JDOW would be best for this strategy, I think JDOW4 but other might show me otherwise.

What do you think?

@taamvan:

Good discussion all,

Looks like the takeaways are

1. getting into the middle east via turkey with a blitz into Syria/Iraq/NWP/Caucausus is a cool idea

2. but you’ll have to spend your 4 turns of peace knocking out minor objectives like neutrals and Egypt while the Allies get big

3. once the afrika korps forms up, its main mission (kill all allied stuff in Africa) has already been accomplished and it would be a mop-up squad to take the rest of the IPCs and maybe India/S. Russia

4)  and while that is cool, it doesn’t move you directly towards killing an Allied capital/team, which is regressive

5*) therefore, Africa is a juicy but time consuming distraction as ever (IMO)

Getting to South Russia is in my eye progress towards killing Russia while making a lot of $$

Also by reading through the forums I observe that a lot of Axis stalemates on the European map are the result of an heavily defended Egypt unable to be taken after the capture of Moscow. Egypt is a lot easier reinforced by the USA/UK than Moscow is.

I would also not agree with your statement about the Allies growing big. China is destroyed, UK lost a lot of income, USSR lost income, USA lost income, UK pacific is captured in J4, only ANZAC has grown while France is still KO. Yes Japan is smaller than normal but Germany and Italy are earning some serious $

@Arthur:

I am trying out the Afrika Korp in a Balanced Mod game.  UK opted for an unprovoked DOW on Japan on UK1.  They are now earning huge amounts of income; capturing India via amphibious landing on J4 will be impossible.  I will give some lessons learned once this League match is complete.

Nice! Looking forward to how that game went!

@Arthur:

Well the game is over on J4 and the Axis have suffered a humiliating defeat.  Neither side of the board was doing well.

**Europe:  **UK moved fleet next to Gibraltar on UK1 and fortified that territory.  There was no way for Germany to capture it on G2.  I switched to Sea Lion but with slightly bad dice rolling during the game the chance of success was almost zero.  Italy captured Egypt on I3 and was making 42 PUs.  Unfortunately Germany was going to get slaughtered by Russia.

Asia:  The attack on Russia on J1 is not a good plan.  UK simply declared war on UK1 and their income was too massive.  With help from ANZAC + China + India, Yunnan became an impenetrable fortress.  Key ship blocks prevented Japan from capturing islands on J3.  Perhaps better ship placement would help.  Still, I am not a fan of attacking Russia unless they put 4+ troops in Amur.  I don’t see any way for India to fall on J4 with the attack on J1 heading towards Russia, allowing the unprovoked DOW.

I won’t be trying this strategy again any time soon.

Thanks for trying! I get the feeling a standard JDOW1 will ne nescessery to put pressure on the UK pacific and the Russia attack leaves you too much out of position to threat anything. Did you felt the same?

How was the UK in Africa and Middle East?  Why was Italy able to become big enough on its own? These situations might be a signal for Germany in G2: plan B, go for Russia, Italy does not need help. Did you felt there was any way for the Axis to gain advantage going through turkey so early?

This will to get insight in different sort of scenarios.

@simon33:

Haven’t read the whole thread but:
Won’t the UK take a transport from SZ109 to send a troop to South America, which will activate all of the armies in no time. Doesn’t matter that USA are out of the war.

no one said this in the first page and a half.

Good point, we missed it indeed so far!  Then shuttling 11 Infantry to Africa. Hmm.

It did make it clear that attacking Amur even when not defended is a wrong move. Normally UK1 declaring war on Japan is a godsend as you can take their islands without any USA interference in Europe. There is no situation the fleet is really neede (fully) in SZ6.

What about sending two full transports with carrier, battleship etc to reinforce Kwangsi. Losing Yunnan is indeed terrible for Japan. This provides enough threat for the UK to remain silent, provides force to take over islands or can simply fight against the Chinese in Yunnan.

Does not need JDOW1 to help Europe while also not weakening Russian border that much. Might be better for Japan to wait a couple of turns with Russia if Amur is not stacked and just focus China then while prepares for India/Sydney Crush.

Yes they do not gain much IPC but with China defeated in 3 Turns but you actually save a lot of IPC that needs to be spend on ground forces fighting Chinese otherwise

I come to think that a actually the United Kingdom are the game makers for the Allies if given the chance, the ones who delay delay and will take every opportunity given to this from the first turn. Especially for Italy in all games but as shown also possible for Japan or Germany. So they need to be threatened, contained or quickly decimated. Germany going Sea Lion is sub-optimal, Japan going India is optimal. I have been through a lot of battles in the League section and the UK making 35-40 early on dis not seem an exception.

Therefore I think the best Axis early investments are in threatening the UK (transports) and placing them able to force UK into defense instead of offense. This gives the Axis the power do the offense in the first few turns while all Allies are forced into defense.

Better still, because of these early UK investments you can focus 100% on Russia or the USA later on, instead of reacting to the UK.

This theory of UK first goes will with the Afrika Korps strategy, as Africa and Middle East are the UK stronghold and money maker. Without it they are a minor Ally, with it a major Ally. When Italy is making 40+ IPC (possible when Axis go UK first) it is able to defend its own + Europe against the USA. Making it possible to fully focus on Russia and win the game.

I adjusted the strategy based on lessons learned and strategic talk so far! Also did some changes already to the Battle Plan but will have to update and improve it some more later on. Thanks for all the discussion and even try out of the strategy.

@GermanEmpire:

I decided to try out this strategy the other day and it hasn’t failed quite yet, but it seems I am at a bit of a disadvantage right now. Currently its round 7 and the Germans have made some headway into Africa as they are only 2 spots away from South Africa. They own most of the middle east but just last turn the Russians were able to capture Turkey and have about 10 land units on it. The Germans also own no Russian territories because to make any progress in the middle east and Africa Germany had too send enough units to do it and didn’t have enough to fight Russia. At one point Russia had full control of Slovakia. Also Germany has lost control of Norway to the U.S and they have built a minor there. Western Europe is heavily defended by Italy as they are making 30+ IPC’s a turn, but Spain looks like it is about to fall to yet another invasion attempt by the Americans and British combined.

Japan declared war on turn 1 and avoided attacking the Russians. The Japs looked like they were doing great because they had all of China by turn 5 and were threatening India, plus they owned all the money islands, but than the Russians sent over a pile of men and tanks because Germany wasn’t able to do much to Russia so Russia had units to spare. So now they are losing Chinese spots fast to the Russians. The Japs also currently have next to nothing of their navy left because they attacked the American fleet and succeeded but than got brutal rolls against a British fleet that came over from the Pacific.

I think Italy will be able to defend Europe for a bit longer w\out support from the Germans but the Germans will have to help defend Spain. The Germans if they get to spend all their money on Russian could make some progress but some of their money is going into Africa cause the Allies bought a complex on Egypt and British is now spending 15 IPC’s a turn on the South Africa complex so taking Africa is becoming a struggle. The Japs if they spend almost all their money on the mainland buying land units will be able to retake what they’ve lost to the Russians in China but with barely any fleet left the combined forces of whats left of the British fleet, the transports and subs of Anzac and the newly built American fleet, soon all the money island will be in Allied hands and Japan’s economy will suffer because of that. On the other hand if Japan responds to the fleet build up and spends most of their money on ships, they will either be overrun on the mainland or if they are lucky just hold their original Chinese spots. Either way Japan’s economy is going to suffer in the coming turns.

Looks like a very interesting game! What were your first German builds? How did the UK react?

Also what did the USA when you crushed the Neutrals and JDOW1? I imagine first four turns spending on the Pacific and then full Europe?

Would it have made a difference when you send Afrika Korps mainly towards Southern Russia? What were the initial Russian forces in Caucasus and Stalingrad when you captured Turkey with Italy (or did you do Germany?).