@Romulus:
I have read of the “Lurch” move from Classic. I do not know what it is. Rigth now I think it is abandoning WE and massing in Ger and EE in order to increase the power of those two army for trading, WE, eventually SE and the eastern territories. I do not know if this is correct.
Yeah, you are on the right track.
IMO, against good Allied play it just isn’t possible for Germany to defend WE, EE, SE, and Ger. Eventually the UK and US get there trns going and you start to have to worry about too many landing points and the potential for 1-2 attacks, all while trying to maintain a threat on Russia. This just becomes too overwhelming and could lead Germany into a stacking game which generally isn’t good for the Axis.
The Lurch is a move that is designed to have you shift (or lurch) your armies east and maintaining the threat on Russia while sacrificing WE.
In Classic the big sticking point for Germany is taking Kar and the Lurch would be used by Germany to shift everything East one territory and staking both EE and Ukr while vacating WE. This presents a dilemma for Russia, while they may be able to attack either army in EE or Ukr it mostly will weaken them so much that Germany will be able to take Kar with the other army. If Russia doesn’t attack either army Germany can then lurch to Cauc. Now Russia must defend Moscow and the German armies in EE, Ukr, and Cauc can then attack Kar.
Now, it isn’t quite the same in Revised but it is close enough. Say you have the following set up for Ger:
WE: 10 inf, 5 ftrs, aa
Ger: 12 inf, 1 bom, aa
SE: 4 inf, aa
EE: 20 inf, 4 rt, 10 arm
You can continue to stack the 4 core territories, but what does this gain you?
If you’ve lost your Baltic and Med fleets it becomes extremely problematic since all the UK and US have to do is box you in and shuttle troops from Kar to Wrus and reinforce Moscow. Eventually the Allies can pick their spot and either finish off Germany or just push Japan back in Asia, making it clear that Moscow will never fall.
So,
by lurching in this case your next German turn could look like this:
Ukr: 20 inf, 4 rt (Japan will land 3-5 ftrs there on their turn)
EE: 12 inf, 10 arm, 5 ftrs, aa
Ger: 20 inf (10 from WE, 10 from purchase), 1 bom, aa
WE: empty
SE: 6 inf (4 from previous turn, 2 from purchase), aa
– the SE inf can also go to Ger or Balk depending on how the Allies are set up–
Now, you should only move to Ukr if you know you can land Japan’s ftrs there and that Russia won’t be able to kill your stack.
At this point the Allies could be in some trouble, they can land in WE but have to worry about a massive counter strike or strafe, or they can land lightly which divides some of their forces, weakens what they can get to Moscow, and allows Germany to then trade with 2-3 inf, 5 ftrs, 1 bom.
Then next move would then be to lurch to Wrus or Cauc (possibly Belo) depending on the Allied moves.
The ultimate strength of this move is in the timing and progress of Japan. You want to Lurch with Germany as Japan approaches Novo or Kaz with its army. Ideally when Germany moves to Ukr, you’d want Japan to go to Kaz. Russia should not be able to attack either army without allowing the other one to wipe out the leftovers in Cauc, or in Japan’s case maybe even a strike on Moscow.