UK Entering the War

@jyardley https://discord.gg/t4JkFdNwpR

@meyott Hey there! I haven’t been able to bust the game out in a while, so I’m maybe a bit rusty here, but I believe these should answer your questions.

When Greek Alignment happens would depend on at what point in the game Turkey is Aligned too. If the Axis win Influence over Greece before they’re at war with anyone, then Turkey would not be Aligned with the Axis just yet, and so Greece would not be able to become Aligned with the Allies right away. If the Axis was at war with the Allies, then Greece would become Allied Aligned immediately.

There’s seemingly a bit of contradiction between the Turkey At War Expansion rules, and the Turkey Reference sheet though.

The Reference Sheet states that “If Turkey becomes Axis Aligned (i.e. its at war with the Same Major Power as Germany Japan or Italy), Greece will immediately become Allied Aligned”.

The Expansion rules at 1.5© and 1.6 state:

“1.5© Declaration of War: Even if Turkey becomes Aligned to a Major Power an independent run Turkey is not forced to declare war and can remain neutral until it wishes to. Other nations can declare war on Turkey as per Global War Rules”;

“1.6 Greece: If Turkey becomes Axis Aligned, Greece will immediately become Allied Aligned”.

So to me, the Reference sheet is saying that Greece becomes Aligned with the Allies when Turkey is at war with the same Major power as the Axis, but the Expansion rules at 1.6 just say Greece becomes Allied Aligned the moment Turkey becomes Axis Aligned, seemingly regardless of Turkey’s belligerent status.

I know that’s not me really answering the question, haha. We’ve played based on what the Expansion Rules say though and not the Reference sheet, meaning that once Turkey becomes Axis Aligned, Greece will become Allied Aligned, regardless of Turkish war status.

Good point on Home Country here. I guess I’d refer to the rulebook for “Home Country”:

“Each nation has a group of land zones that comprise their Home Country as defined on the National Reference Sheet. For a Minor Power the Home Country includes the primary nation but not its colonies, islands or conquered land zones”.

Turkey when active in this expansion is a player nation into itself and thus only surrenders if it’s capital is conquered and Turkey can’t liberate it on their turn.

Vichy units are not in Paris, so nothing happens to them when Paris is liberated.

Only taking Southern France makes them surrender, pending clarification on if an when the are to be replaced by German units.

“The Polar Express”
A complementary strategy from the USA.

Many of those who see the above strategy may well wonder what it does against the famous atalinc wall in northern Europe. the Med is great for attacking Italy, but there is few ways to hurt Germany is the south. This strategy is an American solution to that problem.
Disclaimer: This is a later game plan, so I don’t know what your game will be like, so I can only give some guidelines. This assumes a Germany who has not gone heavy on Navy, and has mostly focus on the continent and the USSR.

The common US plan, from what I have seen, is a relic of GHGs “famous” Middle Earth strategy for G40. The Americans look south, heading to Spain or Portugal, then move on to the Med to punish Italy. Some have remarked that the Atlantic is longer in GW36 than G40, and thus you can no longer reach Gibraltar in one turn. This has completely invalidated the strategy on the Med. The prime goal of any American strategy is to spend the least money on Transports, and to maximise your drop potential. This usually means the shorter your route the better, as there as less empty transports laying about. The best route is the 2 part out and back, but this is impractical in most games as Germany will just allow you to just pound you way slowly through the mountains of Spain and stop you far short of anything important. The next best route is what is used in Middle Earth, the 3 transport shuck. In this, 2 sets of transports take units to a staging point, (Gibraltar) and then a 3rd set goes back and forth form the landing zone to the other side of the staging ground and back to the landing zone (it was southern France) This is the system we will apply.

If one looks at the GW36 board, it is quick apparent there is few good spots for this. In the Med, Gibraltar is too far away. In the center, there is no convenient staging ground. But the north, an oft forgotten route is there. In G40, the map was bably inaccurate in its sea distances. It was faster in go south then north, as the northern sea zones were “smaller” than the ones in the south, due to the projection of the map. This mean an route north took 2 times a long. In GW36, we have an accurate map. (at least as far a sea zones in the Atlantic) Thus the shortest route along the great circle is also the shortest route to Europe. Starting in NYC, one can move your fleet to Halifax, then the Labrador coast, then to Scotland in the magnificent large sea zone of the GIUK gap. Scotland then is our staging ground. While 2 sets of transports go back and forth taking units to Scotland, out last set will be in the North sea. Form there, they will move for any adjacent sea zones to SZ 11, pick up the next load, and drop it off on Europe. They can hit anywhere from Normandy to Narvik in this way, a total of 9 territories. (That does not include the UK) In those territories is Western Germany, the gateway to Berlin. If you can take and hold this land, the Germany must worry about a factory on Berlin’s doorstep, and a shipyard as well. This forces Germany to put large forces to hold this. Another possibility is that of a final decapitation strike into the Baltic after a UK assault on Denmark of W Germany. This can hit anywhere from Archangel to Spain, or even East Prussia, so is a good option at the end of the game. However, it ruins the shuck, so make sure is works and Berlin will fall quickly.

Another huge bonus in this is easy air cover. From London, Fighters can hit anywhere on the channel, and even run a carrier swap to hit farther afield in places like Germany or Norway. Add in Long Range Aircraft and that instantly extend you range farther. Bombers can also help out, as well as pound Germany to a pulp in SBRs. Also, this is only one turn away from NY, either to the Midlands or Scotland.
you can also bring in Airbones to drop from strategic bombers or Air transports, giving more striking ability.

A very important thing in this is to guard your transports. This is best done by destroying any German planes on the coast, but can also be done by a large fleet. And guess what the US has? Another large fleet with plenty of things that bombard! If parked of the German coastline, the Germans will be hard pressed to take out your transports, having to fight a large fleet as well as any scramble depending on the location.

Overall, The Polar express is a powerful strategy to hit where the UK hasn’t - Western Europe. If combined with a lockdown of Italy, then the European axis might be in big trouble. Even alone, it gives the fastest route to Europe, as well as nearby support from your Allies .

Again, feel free to critique anything you see here, as I have actually not tested this.
-Trig

Edit: Here is a map displaying the main moves of the Polar Express- https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1LAQrgB0GLbBh-bW-8QqAa948RKHqQGUE&usp=sharing

I think “Nome” is a type and they meant “Location Name” (probably a note from the draft of the rules that got missed in final editing).

So, that might have been a misprint from the V2 game. In V2, Finland had Elite Infantry that were 3/5 infantry in the standard game. In looking at the V3 standard game setup now, it only lists regular Infantry for Finland in the start. So in short, I can’t say for sure what should happen. I think if you go by the Neutral set up charts for V3, you need to assume that the “Elite Infantry” mentioned here are really just regular infantry.

So standard game has: 4 INF in Karjala; 1 INF and 1 Militia in Southern Finland; 1 Coastal Defense Ship in SZ 16.

I think for the expansion you change this to: 5 Utti Jaeger, 1 INF in Karjala (converting 3 INF to Utti Jaeger, and adding 2 Utti Jaeger); 1 Utter Jaeger, 1 Militia in Southern Finland (converting 1 INF to Utti Jaeger); 1 Utti Jaeger in Lapland; 1 Coastal Defense Ship in SZ 16 (I don’t think the expansion means to deny Finland it’s naval ship when it says “replace all Finnish forces”. I think that meant land forces.).

But maybe will come along and correct me!

@Noneshallpass Yeah, it says that, but I don’t think that description has ever been updated haha. Kind of what I was saying above, I think what you’re seeing there was the initial hoped for gaming experience, but I think as development as gone on, it’s not going to be quite as intertwined as implied. I think more what GHG said is probably accurate (plus I know he talks with Doug at HBG quite a bit). But I don’t think you’re going to see sweeping changes for each game based on the one you just completed before it!

@GeneralHandGrenade that’s what I thought before I started looking. Thanks for the clarification