@surfer
Update:
The thing is, several of the games listed up there (not the first two), used some of the openers Cow mentioned.
Anyhow, I just did his G1 (already tried Young Grasshopper’s that’s the 8-28 file), and while Britain was able to form Gibastion and smash the Italian navy on turn 2(!) thanks to the well timed activation of Greece, Germany was able to move with enough force and speed (massively helped by Italian can openers) to destroy many Soviet forces on the frontier and reach Bryansk by turn 4. By then Soviet forces were so weakened that Germany was able to dispatch large mechanized forces to push southwards through Rostov, Volgograd, and the Caucasus into the Middle East while still being able to threaten Moscow.
In the other games, the British would’ve normally destroyed the few tanks and mechanized infantry in these southern regions using their large numbers of fighters built in Persia and land units arriving from North Africa. However, the speed of the German advance alongside an early Italian capture of Egypt held up the British Army long enough for the Germans to sweep through into Persia and Iraq before British fighter forces grew too large (while in most games there would be 15-20 fighters in Moscow, by the time the game got to this situation, due to how early all the dynamics kicked in, there just wasn’t enough time for that many fighters to be built).
1 tank obviously went to Novosibrisk and cut off the last major souce of income to the Soviets. Similarly, British fast movers backed up by large numbers of aircraft usually made short work of them, but as mentioned above, these units weren’t available to provide the critical margin.
By the time the Americans landed in force, Germany and Italy (convoyed in sea zone 97 for most of the game, but managed to still make 10+ IPCs a turn) were making enough income to fend off American attacks and still conduct offensive operations in the east.
By turn 5, Germany collected 70+ IPCs. By turn 7, 80+ IPCs. By turn 8, 90+ IPCs, and they were collecting 100+ IPCs by turn 13, when Moscow was captured and they won the game.
Italy managed to hold their own despite the challenges and managed to defend Rome, Northern Italy, and some French territories for most of the game without needing German help.
I’ll admit the Axis got some really lucky dice (2 submarines held up 10 American units landing in Europe by a turn at a crucial point in the game) and the Allies made some mistakes (the Soviets left too few units as blockers, allowing an Italian can opening and the destruction of many Soviet units in Ukraine before they could join the large stack in Moscow), but I think Germany’s ability to bring the bulk of their forces before the Soviets could build much, threaten both Leningrad and Ukraine by positioning mechanized forces in Eastern Poland (Italian can opening provided, of course), forcing the Soviets out of those territories by turn 3 (and if lucky, being able to send mechanized forces to catch the slow moving Soviet armies and break them before the Soviets consolidated their forces), and amassing enough income to wage a war on two fronts by the time the Americans began landing in turns 4 or 5 were all key factors that helped Germany come out on top. While I certainly tried to do all these things in the previous games, I was able to manage them particularly well here, and I think going to war on G1 did help with that (I still think G2 is optimal, though).
Sorry for the long game report, it wasn’t only directed at you, but for anyone looking through this thread.
Here’s the file:
2024-8-29-World-War-II-Europe-1940-2nd-Edition.tsvg
