How to do a succesful Barbarossa?

You may see equal success with either plan, such is the weakness of Russia against Germany.   However, since you can smash them early or later, you should do it early before they have any chance to consolidate and grow–you have no way to reach threshold income (60+) without Russian territory, and if you take it, you take it away from them and for yourself, a double whammy.    Once you have control of 2 of his factories you are flooding tanks into this front, that moment should be as early as possible rather than building your own fleets or factories in order to do it later.

@Caesar:

@KGrimB:

I know its probably not optimal, but I pretty much always build 6 inf and 1 fighter on London UK1. I always send some aircraft to the Mediterranean and with 60-70 ipcs on G2, Germany can attempt Sea Lion even if they may not have been originally considering it unless you have the defenses.

I would also agree against the factory in Egypt. It can be a little precarious early with nearby German air and I think that normally games where you have an option to build a factory in Egypt are games where the Mediterranean is already in the Allies’s favor. It doesn’t exactly create opportunities the same way a factory in Persia does. Just use transports with South Africa.

Sea Lion on G2 is foolish because ideally, Germany would need to buff its navy, build infantry, and transports so that shouldn’t be done until at least G3.

You misunderstand me. Sea Lion G3 is the most realistic because it is after you buy transports on G2, after SBR, and after T1 convoys. Germany evaluates early sea lion based on what London does turn 1.

With respect to the original question, I think a g1 Dow on Russia to bait UK into not defending for sea lion could work. However, you’re probably short 1-2 transports from strafing Yugoslavia, not hitting other parts of France, missing Russian wheat NO, and committing German aircraft to the eastern front or other riskier battles. Thus you exaggerate your existing problems because you give up all of the pros of G1 and take away units from that front just to get them stuck on an island with 1 VC instead of attacking a country with 3 VC.

It’s too much for one country. You would need to make sacrifices with Italy’s dreams in the Med. You can’t give them the help they need and they would have to spend on forces to delay Russia. They could attack London with their Bomber.

I think what would sell this plan and give Germany a better chance of baiting the UK would be a Japanese attack on Russia. If you bring America into the war you probably have no chance of winning in Europe. If you keep them out you get a better chance at London and Japan can draw some attention from Russia. Otherwise the Siberian infantry are probably garunteed arriving in Moscow and probably other Russian forces would occupy Iraq.

If you can’t find anyone to play with, then go to triplea and start playing online with other folks. Some of the commenters here are on there, but others are only playing triplea through the forum (not live). Not live triplea is more of analysis type play where they have the time to really study their purchase and moves.

Regardless, (not disparaging you), but I think that you’ll find that the purchase order you suggest in your thread won’t get you Moscow. Really, the only to get better is to just play the game. It’s fun for me to play completely new players too as they actually do come up with different ideas that add to my “kit bag.”

Buy mech/armor at a 1-1 ratio, simple as that from g2 onward. You pretty much should get russia G5 6 or 7

I was just scrolling through some archives - I know this thread is 2 years old, but BluGerman maybe you’ll get a notice and it might help in case you feel like reliving an old dream.

This is the best plan for a G2 Novgorod crush I can think of, but it works only if the opportunity exists:
G1
  Buy a carrier and 2 transports.

Kill all the Royal Navy with subs and planes
      I like to strafe 111 with 1 sub, 1 bat, 1 sbom, 1 pair tbom + fig.  The bat automatically repairs next round.
      Be sure to use 2 subs to kill his des/trans in 106 to keep a sea lion pressure up.
  Take Normandy with 1 inf, 1 art, 1 arm
  Take France with all remaining available land units
  Strafe Yugo with 1 pair of planes, 0 arm, retreating to Romania.

Activate Bulgaria with 1 arm
  Activate Finland with 1 inf
  1 pair of planes on your carrier, 1 on Norway, 1 on Poland, and the rest on West Germany.
  Move your arm from Hungary to West Germany.
  Leave your arm in Poland there.
  Move 1 art from Germany to West Germany.
  Move the rest of Germany’s land troops to Poland and Hungary.

You should now have 4 inf, 1 art, 1 arm in West Germany ready to transport to either Novgorod (via 127), Scotland, Gibraltar/Morocco, or even Nenetsia if you’re feeling saucy, depending on the situation.  The rest depends on Russia’s moves.  An attack on Novgorod only works if he moves all of his land troops, including his AAguns, down to Baltic or Belarus in order to make a stand at East Poland, which he probably won’t do after you’ve strafed Yugo.  G2 Novgorod is only feasible if he has no more than 8 inf/art, 2 fig, 1 tbomb there.  You could probably still do it with 9 inf/art, but the odds start declining drastically.  If, however, he’s left Baltic States wide open, then you get to throw another tank in the mix.  Move your whole fleet up so you can bombard with your bat and cru.  Attack with 2 sbombers and 2 pairs of fig/tbomb (from Poland and Norway).  Your planes already on your carrier should move into 127 to prevent him from scrambling, and then land in Finland making room on your carrier for your planes from Norway.  Press into Eastern Poland/Baltic States.  Italy btw should have been building/moving inf and AAguns over to Romania to protect your southern flank.

It’s a devastating move because every inf counts for Russia on a G2, and you’ve just killed 8/9 plus all his planes.  (If he didn’t put his planes up there, then you haven’t lost any planes in the attack either, and you might even have an extra ground unit.)  Plus he’ll need to use at least 2 probably 3 more troops to retake it in order to prevent you from building 3 more tanks.  In which case your 5 inf from Karelia plus planes can retake it in time to build 3 tbombers.  You’d almost certainly take Moscow turn 5.

However, this move is easily preventable by leaving your AAguns there on the first round.  It also prevents you from leaving a fig on Rome, exposing you to a more crippling Taranto.  (You might be able to pull a fig from 110, but if you did that, as England I would find it worthwhile to scramble.)  Also, assuming Russia takes Novgorod back, or if you fail to take it, your fleet will be stranded there for at least 1 turn, lest it expose itself to the RAF without the shelter of West Germany’s aircover.  A successful G2 Novgorod is well worth these costs, but unfortunately you have to take the risk first without any assurance there’ll be a payoff - and there’ll probably won’t be against a seasoned player.  It’s more of a gimmick move - very fun if you can pull it off.

P.S.  I mentioned earlier you should take Normandy.  Usually I’m all for throwing everything into France.  But if G2 Novgorod doesn’t pan out, you’re going to want to use your planes to attack the rest of the British fleet, which might be amassed in 109 under cover of up to 6 scrambling fighters and might be as large as 1 des/2 cru/1 damaged bat, which you don’t want repaired.  Normally, you’d be able to land everything in Brussels, but if you’ve got aircraft in Poland and Norway, you won’t have enough to protect Brussels from a UK1 attack, not even with 3AA guns.  Which is why taking Normandy is crucial.

north or northwest persia

What did india/anzac do against that J1?  The 2 minor buy does slow you down at taking the islands and rushing india fast.    When did Calcutta fall?

@Jeremus:

In my case UK liberating egypt would be a blessing from the gods because there is no way japan cant retake it afterward on turn 8. Japan will land 10 units on turn 8 anywhere on the east coast of africa. If egypt is in uk’s hands, both south africa and egypt will be japanese.

I acknowledge the threat of america landing anywhere is big, but to achieve that they will need to build a fleet in the baltic sea strong enough to repell both the luftwaffe and the 6 japanese planes wich will be in europe on turn 7. This will take time and money. They can’t enter their already built fleet since they can’t hold denmark.

By the sound of it, Axis have indeed won the game to an extent that a Norway IC won’t change much anymore (Russia and India fallen and not much US presence in the Pacific?)

The only thing that scares me is if they decide to go in ussr with a lot of tank/mech. This will force me to put a lot of forces in leningrad, but then again the japanese planes can be used for the purpose of keeping leningrad.

Sending land units from Norway is what i would do as well (long term thinking), while moving the Atlantic fleet South to the Med to help out the UK and keep Italy small (if UK can grab Denmark the US fleet could enter the Baltic Sea, but… that might become their grave as well.
Also keep in mind that the USA fleet might follow the Nordic sea route and land somewhere from SZ127