Major IC in Romania

The dynamic of the true neutrals is interesting and it centers around Spain and Turkey.

Allies do not want to enter Spain to early, launching pad for the USA onto the continent because it opens up Turkey and the back door for Germany into the middle east.

The opposite is in effect also. Germany does not want to DOW on Turkey because that just leaves Spain wide open for a USA landing and free troops.

Also Axis suffer more from a DOW on turkey because it does open up the entire board and free IPC to the USA mainly. Granted they have to divert some TRS to the edges of the map but they do not have to fight for those IPC either.

UK also gets put in a bind with Turkey also if the Allies go into Spain. It opens up one more “path” of attack they need to worry about now. Regardless if they plan for the Spain violation and attack Turkey at the same time. UK will get a violent German response to push the turkey front. Especially if there is major IC in Romania. Germany can start flooding Turkey with Mech and ARM with in 2 turns from that factory.

My group is starting up a new 1940 game tonight and Iam playing Germany/Italy. Iam going to go with this major IC plan in Romania and see what comes of it. I will let you guys know and offer a battle report so to speak.

Heck, if I get “froggy” I might video recap the game and have my son post it on You Tube.

@Caesar:

I would always equip any surface fleet with destroyers just in case of submarine attacks.

What?

So you build a fleet in the Black Sea, a land locked sea zone and you are afraid that Russia will build a Sub in the Black Sea? The only concern of a fleet in the Black Sea is from air power, mainly UK/USA air power.

Ok we finally finished our game, took 4 game sessions and the axis go down in flames at the end of J11 and “we” storm away cursing and cussing about bad luck and so forth.

Now to the discussion at hand of major IC in Romania.

** Warning, this is just one game which forms the basis of my post action report **

G1 went all in and bought the Major IC in Romania

G2 bought 10 mech in Romania

G3 bought 6 mech and 4 ARM in Romania

G4 bought 6 mech and 4ARM In romania

So, those where the first three purchases in Romania.

Germany goes in on a G2 attack on Russia.

The majority of the forces dedicated to France go the Northern Route and the Romania builds go south.

Time warp to G4. Germany has Leningrad but it is not a sold hold as the Russians are stacking in Belarus and do one counter attack into the Baltic states.

The southern path is opening up. Germany has pushed up to the gates of Moscow and threatening blitz’s into the oil fields and opening up the middle east which has a IC in persia.

Italy is going bonkers in the MED and has a huge fleet. This was mistake #1, instead of building mass Italian land units, mech/arm I elected to go heavy on fleet and it totally discombobulated the UK and that is a story in its self.

Mistake #2 was Germany stacked all its planes on G3 in Eastern Ukraine, with only 2 mech with them. Russia took advantage of that mistake and sent in a suicide squad of  4 mech and 2 ARM and all their air power. Dice came up cold for Germany and we eliminated each other to a man BUT Germany had 0 air power left on the Russian front and only 2 FTR and 2 STR left in West/Med.

Mistake #3 was that Japan lost its mind, got mired down in China, blew it on the money island rush, waited to long to threaten India, which turned into Moscow East and then the USA fleet started decimating the Japan fleet, taking 1/1 losses and laughing as Japan could not replace its fleet.

My partner and I re organized our forces and fended off the Allies for multiple turns and then on G9 went all In on the final stand of the Axis. Germany goes into Moscow on a 15% attack, loses, Send in a force of TRS into London, which was lightly defended at this point on a 25% attack and lost and went all in on Egypt on a 45% attack and lost. Germany just threw every thing into attacks and they all failed. Japan did the same in India and failed.

Now, back to the major IC in Romania. Here is what I found.

#1 Getting 10 MECH/ARM 1 turn closer to the south of Russia is very nice.
#2 it creates a lot of pressure on Russia to defend the south heavier than they normally would in the opening turns of the war since the Northern Route is easier for Germany.
#3 in the late game it was nice because it put Russian units advancing into Poland in a two stack attack. One from Germany and the other from Romania. That alone bought Germany about 2 turns as Russia was very leery of advancing into Poland.

#4 the downside is you spend your entire first turn build on a factory and lose X number of troops.
#5 the Black Sea gambit sounds fun to talk about but in reality there was no way Germany could spend IPC on making said fleet and defending it from allied air power.

SO, next time Iam going to try the Yugoslavia minor with Germany. Opens up the Med for ships in a protected sea Zone and gives the advantage of putting mech/arm on the southern front of Russia to push east.

** Foot Note**
The other downside was that since I committed to the MIC in Romania I decided to go all in on it also. Thus I was building 0 Navy and 0 Air Power. Not building air power crippled me in the mid game.

@wittmann:

Thanks for the game review. I have bought a late game Polish IC, but cannnot justify the Major in Romania . Would a G2 10 Art build have been a better idea ?

I dont think so and here is why.

the main idea of the Romania MIC was being able to throw MECH/ARM into southern Russia at a faster rate. They can blow through Bessarbia and into E. Ukraine or the southern factory of Russia on one move.

10ART on G2 purchase in Romania would not arrive at the front until G4 or maybe even G5 depending on how far you could advance in the south.  10 ART is a fine build in Germany or W. Germany if you have some TRS because they can get to the Northern Front one turn faster and threaten Belarus/Lenningrad or maybe New York.

Now another thought I had was just to stack Eastern Poland, build the MIC in Romania and divert ALL German attacking units on a Southern Attack en mass instead. Hold off/stall the Russians in the North and see what they do.  Go for Stalingrad/Moscow/Oil as the primary opening attack moves from Germany. Next game I will play the Allies so we will have to wait and see if I try that next time I play Germany.