Sealion is coming - now what

Buy infantry with UK T1

Hey Big_Bend,

I think you’re exaggerating the size of the problem. If Germany builds 7 transports on G2, fills them and sends them to Scotland on G3, and fills them again to send them to England on G4, that’s roughly 40 land units that Germany isn’t sending against Russia. Germany is extremely unlikely to ever take Leningrad or Kiev, and so even if Germany drops 20 units in Europe on G5, that means Russia has 4 turns to build up a massive army on the eastern front and then successfully invade Finland, Poland, and Rumania on R4 and R5. The income swing for Russia on the eastern front is almost as big as the income lost by Britain.

When Germany takes London, the factory degrades down to a minor factory, and there is no factory at all in Scotland, so Germany can only recruit 3 units per turn in the UK. That means that if you start building an Atlantic fleet on US2 when you see the 7 transport build, then you can be in position to wipe out the German navy on US4, and retake London with American troops by US6 or so. You’ll need to build enough American boats in the Pacific to stop Japan from winning there, but if Japan isn’t declaring war until J3 or J4, that’s not so hard.

In short, do some damage control. Bring the Canadian infantry over to London to reinforce, if you have a boat that can reach. Build 10 infantry in London on UK2. Fly your fighters back toward London if you still own Gibraltar or Morocco – if your fighters go south on UK1, they should be able to reach Gibraltar/Morocco on UK2 and London on UK3, in time to defend against Germany’s G4 attack on London. Above all, don’t panic. Stop automatically surrendering on turn 4. It’s OK to lose London if you make Germany pay a reasonably high price for it.

If you do something truly reckless like build a minor factory in Egypt and two boats off South Africa on UK1, and then also send your fighters south for Taranto, and you get unlucky in your naval battles on G1, then, I suppose, you could wind up in a place where Germany can conquer London on the cheap and there’s nothing you can do about it.

So, stop using reckless builds on UK1. Build at least 2 inf, 1 ftr in London on UK1 every game – that leaves you enough for a factory or a transport or a couple of subs elsewhere on the board, and it gives you some cushion if you need to switch gears and defend against Sea Lion.

Agree. Germany can either hold London or it can battle Russia, but it can’t do both.

I understand why you’re frustrated; Germany does start off very powerful in Global 1940, and that’s why the Allies usually need a bid of some kind, especially in beginner-to-intermediate levels of play.

If you’re doing Taranto properly, you should also be picking off the lightly defended Italian transport near Malta on UK1, which means that the Italians start the game with only one transport. They can’t attack both Morocco and Gibraltar with the same transport, so your fighters should have a guaranteed return route to London after a successful Taranto raid.

Also, if German is attacking both your Canadian transport and your Welsh transport, then they should not have enough subs left to knock out both of the main British Atlantic fleets (Channel and North Sea) without major casualties in the air. Depending on what Germany built on G1, you may be able to consolidate what’s left of the British warships, build a carrier and a pair of destroyers in the North Sea on UK2, land the French fighter on the new carrier, and then flat-out block the G3 attack on Scotland by denying Germany control of the sea zone.

Part of the trick in defending against a Sea Lion is to wear out the German Air Force one step at a time. Like, the Luftwaffe will take casualties sinking the original British Navy. Great. Then make them take even more casualties sinking the new British Navy that you rebuild. Then make them take casualties occupying London. At that point they should be down to one or two planes, tops, which makes it much easier for the USA to build up forces near London and for the Russians to trade at an advantage on the eastern front.

Finally, a G4 take of London does not lead to the Germans “pushing back” against the Russians on G6. They put units in Berlin and Hanover on G5, and then those units could theoretically reach Poland on G6, but that’s still only 20 German units, and the Russians have had time to build about 12 * 3 = 36 Russian units on R1, R2, and R3 that have already reached the front lines, plus Russian starting forces outnumber German starting forces once Germany moves 14 transport loads from mainland Europe to the UK. Germany doesn’t have the strength to attack the Russian stack in Poland on G6.

A competent Russia will just straight up steam roll Germany. Case closed.

Your points:

G1 the Germans kill all the English transports, the Canadians are not coming to the rescue.

• Doubtful they will kill the SZ109 TT.

I1 the Italians take Gibralter and Moroco, the English planes cannot get back to England after Taranto.

• As Argothair points out, you should be attacking SZ96 with at least 2 units to sink the TT there. Gamerman01 reckons 3, or at least a ftr/tac pair.

It seems the ONLY option for E1 is to build 9 infantry in London, never do Taranto, and hope the Germans feel like going East.  Even then, London is probably going to fall on turn 4 if the Axis make it their #1 goal.

• 6inf 1ftr are fine and more flexible.

General comments:
I’ve never had any success with a 2 step Sea Lion! Japan will be very weakened if they can’t DOW until turn 4.
USA should be building Atlantic fleet. GeneralHandGrenade made a video about this recently. If Germany can do a Sea Lion and keep its fleet alive, USA won’t be able to easily retake London or if it does, Germany will be able to take it back quite easily. Therefore, the real need is to sink the German fleet. If you indeed see this bizarre 7TT move, USA should be able to build 3CVs and move planes towards them. Also move a DD from SZ10 or SZ26. Next turn, you position in SZ102. Also, if you activated Ireland UK1, that provides a landing site for bombers from E USA to attack SZ110 and then land.

Dropping 9-10 TTs G2 for a single turn take of London is much more difficult to counter. However, the points above at least require Germany to spend money on fleet which it doesn’t want to do, and then USSR can push hard.

Germany can of course build 3CVs in Normandy on the same turn it takes London and defend SZ110 that way but it really doesn’t want to.

Don’t worry so much about Pacific victory if Japan is limited to a J3 DOW or later. It isn’t likely to happen.

@NotEvenJail:

A competent Russia will just straight up steam roll Germany. Case closed.

RUS would be expected to have much of its army in East Poland by turn 2/3 ready to strike for lightly defended Romania/Hungary and having sent a strikeforce towards Finland.

@ShadowHAwk:

@8thGuards:

@NotEvenJail:

A competent Russia will just straight up steam roll Germany. Case closed.

RUS would be expected to have much of its army in East Poland by turn 2/3 ready to strike for lightly defended Romania/Hungary and having sent a strikeforce towards Finland.

What prevents germany from blasting those troops with its airforce and some of the eastern forces while doing sea-lion?
Afterwards the border is closer to germany then to russian factories so you will be pushed back.

The entire Luftwaffe is needed for the invasion of London, so won’t be available to hit the Reds at the same time on G4 (unless the UK really didn’t build anything to def London). If Germany is doing Scotland G3, and London G4 that means the Russians can attack Poland R4. So you could hit the Reds at Poland G5, but even then some of your ftrs may be tied up defending sz110 and/or London from a US strike.

I’ve seen a few Sea Lions lately on triplea live. One of the guys Sea Lioned against happened 2x and in both situations he tried to get cute by not defending London. He lost both games…seriously, Sea Lion is an opportunity event.

There is a simple solution to this…defend London with 6 infantry / 1 fighter. If playing standard G40, you’re mostly like going to get a minimum bid for 1 sub and 1 fighter in the med. Now you don’t even have to take a fighter off London for the Taranto raid.

Germany can ramp to Sea Lion at any juncture in the game.  There are clear signs when he is about to do it;  saves or just got tons of money, stages mass armor and air onto West Germany.

UK doesn’t have a lot of money in this version.  It also doesn’t have a proper defensive force.  Taranto pulls a lot of your airpower away so it is very vulnerable.

That’s why buying some bulk early is good.  Fighters are especially useful because they can threaten ships, land on US carriers to help and extend range, and help with subhunts.

The key here is thinking from the Germany players PoV.  If he sees you have 12+ units and 2-3 fighters, he could still potentially build on you and SBR you, but its going to be hard.  If you have more, and some ships, he will probably just say forget about trying because Russia is an easier target and even if he could still overwhelm UK, USA will rescue it, and it wont be worth the cost.

On the other hand, if you make it easy for him, remember, hes bringing like 10 ground units + 12 air PER WAVE, so no matter whether we are talking about stuff he has at start or stuff he buys, Germany can ramp up at any moment and its attacks, though costly, are fairly likely to succeed if he goes in 100% and UK didn’t turtle with every dollar UK1-3

Build infantry. Reinforce London with US Bombers if necessary.

The US needs to forget Japan and hurry over to London with a large force. The US player, if he suspects that a Sea Lion is imminent, should move the bomber to Greenland and buy 6 transports (or as many as the US can afford) in sz101. From there, just buy amphibious assault units.

What did you buy on UK1?

If you didn’t buy anything for london, then i would just say GG. You should buy at least 6 units for london, no matter what your plan is.

Buy 6 inf/1 ftr on UK1, and the same on UK2. Bring your Canadian inf/tank to Scotland on UK1, and on UK2 move everything to London. This gives you: 16 inf, 4 ftr, 5 AAA, 1 mech.inf, 1 tank.

I have a different opinion……You can not prevent Sea Lion from an experienced German player…I have tried to prevent Sea Lion in every imaginable way…it can’t be done

If I am playing the British…I prefer using that money to give units to the UK Pacific and units lurking around the Med amphibiously

Obviously I am paying close attention to the German buys and course correct if need be