German buys turn one

With U-Boat interdiction for Germany (National Advantage LHTR) I have found 3 Submarines, 1 Aircraft Carrier save 2 to be a very good first round build.

Saw someone once do 4 Infantry, 3 Fighters.  That was pretty mean too.  9 fighters and a bomber for Germany on Round 2, ICK!  No thanks!

I stopped buying the carrier after I was beaten by people who didn’t buy it so I am for 10 Inf and 2 Arm. However I haven’t played that many games this way but I like it better because the planes are definently better utilized in other areas.

Without a carrier, I’d say 10 Infantry, 1 Fighter.

Armor has a tendancy to get left behind the front for the safety of the armor in most games.

Anyone every try 8 tanks or 4 fighters. l ike the battle ship option or 2 trans if you are going to build navy.

I prefer option three if forced to choose.

I generally believe that German Navy is a waste of IPCs. But some Baltic buy seems needed to keep the Allies honest. UK has to buy ships and US has to reinforce UK.

While your FTRs are better off somewhere else the BB is just too pricey for 1 unit. While it will keep the UK BOM and FTRs from coming after the TRN, DD and subs it is still just one unit. It is still a long shot against a UK attack of 2 FTR, 1 BOM, 1 TRN, 1 DES, 1 AC. FTRs in the SZ will still be able to be kept for last as they will have a landing spot in Germany.

Destroyers are two units but no other benefits like the shore bombard threat or taking two hits meaning that you have to be attacked with something substantial to sink anything.

Channel dash is hoping for the best. Also could put you in range of a turn 1 US AC in SZ10.

What about AC, FTR? Taking only 1 FTR from the land. 2 more than the BB I know but it still gives you two fours and a three defending. The FTRs will still be able to land on Germany if you lose the AC. 1 AC, 1 FTR, 4 INF save 2 or 2 INF, 2 RTL, assuming no cash from a bid.

I switch it up, sometimes I go with the carrier to protect the baltic (and from landing my fighters in weu ive had some nice opportunities to steal the UK from right under their noses) with 4 INF 3 RTL, then sometimes I go 5 INF 5 RTL 1 ARM and try the channel dash, which rarely works since the american player can be an a****** and send a transport to algeria to block the unification.  Like frimmel said, its hoping for the best.

I once bought 1 DES 1 TRN 5 INF 1 ARM and went heavy into africa.  it was a wierd game, Germany went heavy africa and moved into india and Russia had trouble breaking germanys massive walls of infantry moving east.  Eventually the allies reinforced russia and beat germany back though.

Actually, dear, I was assuming a bid of 0.

Oh most assuredly.  Why spend 40 IPC on navy if you get no return?

I’d go, with bid 0, no NA, no tech, 40 IPC:

6 Infantry (18)
3 Artillery (12)
1 Fighter (10)

@Cobert:

try the channel dash, which rarely works since the american player can be an a****** and send a transport to algeria to block the unification.  Like frimmel said, its hoping for the best.

If US uses a transport blocker to algeria, can’t Germany just take it out in combat with your fighters and still get your med fleet to SZ7 in non-combat?

@rjclayton:

@Cobert:

try the channel dash, which rarely works since the american player can be an a****** and send a transport to algeria to block the unification.  Like frimmel said, its hoping for the best.

If US uses a transport blocker to algeria, can’t Germany just take it out in combat with your fighters and still get your med fleet to SZ7 in non-combat?

You cannot realistically block the Germans from joining in sea zone 7. We had this argument a few months ago.

As for IL, I dont think you should try this “paper”.

Dont fall into this trap of one “optimal” strategy. There isn’t one.

There are several that will work depending upon your strengths and weaknesses, your opponents, your strategy, your risk nature, the type of game, the amount of the bid, and the opponents first turn moves.

For example, a partial list:

There are so many potential openings…

1. 13 Inf (39)
2. 12 Inf + art (40)
3. 10 Inf 2 Tanks (40)
4. 5 Inf 5 tanks (40)
5. AC + 8 Inf or

• trans or
• subs or
• BB (not a fan of this one)
  6. “C-sub” 2 or 3 trans buy
  7. Med AC
  8. Med transports
  9. 10 Inf + fighter
  10. 8 Tanks (dont like this one personally)

Frankly, I could make most of these work. So could other people. And that’s not even a full list.

I’m not a big fan of the German Navy buys but they can work.

I think if you go Baltic Navy with the intent on going after UK or unifying the Fleet then okay, but I think it is a bad idea to buy ships simply as a delaying tactic and having them sit there.

For land buys, I’ve been very successful with both the 10 inf, 2 arm and 10 inf, 1 ftr (also buy ftr in rd 2).

With the Wrus, Belo opening, I think I like the 10 inf, 1 ftr path b/c you quickly have 8 planes, then 9 after rd 2 and 10 if you continue in rd 3.  This can protect a vast area and forces the Allies to be very careful with their ships.

If I went navy for whatever reason, I’d probably lean towards adding to the Med fleet instead of the Baltic.  I think the potential is there to get much more out of it and even unifying with part of Japan’s fleet.

@Imperious:

then how does the german player counter the hole in the baltic?

Land troops > Navy 
Capitals can’t be taken with ships.  :-)

Most likely UK (with a UK 1 attack) lost 2 ftrs.  I’ll trade my Baltic fleet for that, and if I pick off their bomber as well, woo hoo!

German Air power can still keep the Brits out of the Baltic for several turns, plus they still have to go to Afr.

With no naval purchases for Germany, UK still can’t crack WE, GER, EE until rd 5 or so, buy that time you’ve had 5 rds of land buys and can deadzone WE (and EE if need be) as you move to Ukr, then Cauc or Wrus.  In the meantime rd 5-6 should be just about the time Japan is fully rolling and preparing to seriously assualt Moscow.  It is all about timing.
Called the “lurch” in Classic, it still works in Revised.  Leverage your rd 1-4 gains in Afr for a rd 5-8 assualt on the Russian East and Wester boarders.

Control the center of the board, once you do that, then go back and deal with loose ends, if you don’t quite have enough to end the game.

I’m getting attracted to the idea of building an AC on G1 (and landing AF in WE) in order to support fleet unification in G2. Then you can choose to go into the Med or the Baltic with a decent sized fleet that’s capable of more than being a speedbump.

I like being in the Med because having TRNs there a) gives you rapid movement of Inf to Caucasus / Africa b) enables you to control the Suez for Japanese naval reinforcements and c) keeps the allies away from Algeria / Spain seazone.

I don’t mind leaving the Baltic open because if the Allies move in there, they can’t land in Archangel which is the fastest way to reinforce Russia. With the Med fleet securing some decent African Income, Germany can keep the Allies at bay until they give up facing a stack of 52 Inf (what happened in my Tournament game) at which point Germany can get to Russia before too many Allied units do. So personally I love it when UK spends 2 Ftrs just to lead their fleet into the baltic hole.

Also with a huge force in Germany (and maybe EE) EE/Karelia become nice little dead zones.

I think I’ll try the AC, together with a bid placement in Lib. But other than that, I would say you can’t go wrong with 10 Inf 2 Arm, but the Ftr has its attractions too.

I like to sometimes put a nice fat Industrial Complex down in Western Europe on G1, plus an Aircraft Carrier in the Baltic and a few ground units back home.

Gotta stock WEU with troops to defend the IC, but you should be doing that anyway.  Now you’ve got a way to pop up 6 defensive units there in no time, plus that single factory gives you naval placement options (4 seazones, including one in the Med) exceeded only by the UK (5 SZs) and matched only by Australia.  All of a sudden you can throw down all sorts of blockade ships to hamper Allied sea movement.  Or coordinate more-surprising naval expeditions that your opponent won’t see two coming from two rounds away.

Give 'er a try sometime, it really opens up the Atlantic for Germany.

~Josh

As I understand it, the point of the Carrier on G1 is not for fleet unification, it’s to make the Baltic fleet hard to sink and force England and America to hold off landings until Germany 4 or 5.