Hope after Africa or How I survived being kicked out the Dark Continent

Until Germany owns Caucasus, I think.

Assuming the standard KGF technique of America going through Africa and hitting Germany’s underbelly and England going north to work with the Russians along Germany’s northern and eastern flanks.

Yes it is.

If uk can counter egypt round 1 and us is doing the med strat, it dosent make sense to contest afrika as germany. Just hold on to egypt so u can get the japs into the med. that will protect SEU for some time. The only hope for germany to get some real icp out of afrika is to put 2 units of the bid in afrika and hope that uk cant counter. 5 units left in egypt round 1 and the uk cant counter, but 4 units it is still posible.

If the US go north ore are going after japan the case is another and afrika may be posible to take for germany. But rember that moskva isent in afrika.

30 icp isent much, u shout have like 38 to 45 the first 5 ore 6 rounds. u need to pressuer russia and stack either in ukraine ore kareila round 1 ore 2. Then u can trade one step closer to moskva.

on a side note west russia is a much better place to stack than caucasus. U then have control over arc and kar.

:roll:
The secret for Germanys survival is two-fold.
First; what you build, (including the bid buy).
second; the amount of pressure that can be brought to bear on the Russians.
  I typically buy only cheap ground units for the first couple of turns. Mostly Inf, but a few artillery and a tank or two, for couter attacks is essential.
Egypt on G1 is critical. I’ve tried just about everything you can think of, but none are as important as taking Egypt with as much as you can get in there, so all my bid goes against it. I try to have at least 3 armor and 3 inf survive the assault. I leave my atlantic sub where it is and put my 3 or 4 fighters with my inf and art in Tunisia to delay the Britts from going into Africa on UK1. The sub also prevents an invasion of western Europe on UK1, so I can grab the inf in W.E. with the baltic transport to Karilia, and run the armor there over to Eastern Europe for G2 counter-attacks against Russian aggression on R2.
The delaying tactics with subs are sound moves, and should be considered in the mid to late game as well. I have played several games where I build an IC in western Europe on G2. From there I can launch subs to prevent the UK from loading troops in either the baltic, English channel, western Med. or the sea zone west of Western Europe! This has greatly frustrated several very good players to no end, causing them to make mistakes that I capitalized on! So that even when I was pushed back into Europe, I was able to hold onto the big income territories while I waited for Japan to smash into Russia.
Of course, a lot of what you can do will depend on the die results, but if Germany can be patient, and build up strong defenses, (large inf stacks) early, then it just might hold on long enough to see Russia fall. I also think that Germany should be on the look out for any opportunity to strike a serious blow to any allied units that get to far without support, but never leave yourself open to a risky allied attack on Berlin.
Well, that is enough for now, Good luck, and Happy gaming.  :-D

I’m going to give a half-serious response : up the bid. If you can’t manage to survive as Germany, you just need to keep upping the bid so that

1. You kick Germany’s butt with the Allies and rack up wins, until
2. You meet someone with a good strategy then copy his so you can win with Germany

A more serious response is that you can’t expect to hold Africa with Germany if the Allies do not wish it.

@General_D.Fox:

So Bean, you’re saying start playing as the Allies until I come across someone who is a master with the Germans in Africa? Interesting. That’ll test me for sure.

It’s a good way to learn… watch others do it well and see how they stop your moves.

It works in a lot of competition.  I’ll use AMreican football as an example.  If someone is able to defend your offensive running game, then you can learn how you can implement their defense with your own defense to improve your defense.

In Revised, Germany is the most difficult country to play.  They usually get triple teamed and get little or no help from their partner.  Tough duty.

Africa is key.  Period.

If you lose Africa as the allies, you’ll probably lose the game.  If you lose Africa as the Axis, you’ll probably lose the game.

I say probably because I have won with Germany after losing Africa before.  Of course, I went almost 100% tanks and beat the Russian’s into submission before the Allies could get reinforcements going.  It took about 5 rounds and it was 100% tanks with Germany and 100% with Japan.  Very expensive and it relied on a lot of luck.

I like conquer the Suez Channel for Axis and send the italian BB and tra to the Indian ocean when the things get ugly. You can conquer Mad and South Africa, keeping in the 40 ipcs some turns. A time I even conquer NZel with the italian navy  :-o

Save that, you cannot do nothing against obsessive american landings at Algeria save stacking japaneses at Persia

Always fun to have the Germans get out of the med with two transports and a battleship, get them India so Japan can hold it for them and then take Australia, New Zealand and Brazil with Germany. =)

@General_D.Fox:

I’m wondering, is it possible to survive as Germany if you get knocked out of Africa early?

Of course.

It doesn’t seem like things get any better for the Germans once you get kicked.

Of course things are not going to get “better” when the Allies are ganging up on Germany.  However, if you can attain parity of position or at least minimize your losses while Japan increases its holdings, you’re in good shape.  You may bow to my wisdom now.

Once your income starts falling and you’re only putting out 10 inf a round and not able to keep the pressure on the Russians, then the other Allies start a’knocking. And then those damn raids on SEU begin…grumblegrumblegrumble  :oops: :|

Not a problem.  SEU requires two transport loads from either UK or US, and anything entering there is vulnerable to attack from both the Med navy and the German air force.  The Allies should pay for SEu with LOTS of Allied blood.

So, how long does Germany need to stay in Africa in order to get enough troops on the ground to overwhelm the east? And it is possible to survive after getting sent on the slow boat to Germany? Got any tips on how to survive?

(slap) It isn’t about Germany in Africa, it’s about the overall position.  Keep that in mind.  If your car is not working, you don’t look at your fuel indicator if your car is on fire.  Same thing; don’t think about specific indicators, think about the overall position.

Mmkay, I don’t have a lot of time.

G1 and J1 should make no commitments to attack plan.  That generally means two things.

1.  Use your bid well.

Africa:  You do this because you want Anglo-Egypt for sure with Germany early, and you want two tanks to survive past the UK1 turn, so you can blitz through Africa on G2.  If you do NOT put more units in Africa / buy a Med transport, UK will probably take back Anglo-Egypt.

Southeast Asia:  You do this so you can try to whack out India on J1 or J2 and build an early industrial complex there that will let you pressure Caucasus, and later, move newly produced units to Africa with one transport.  Indian IC rocks hardcore.

Baltic transport:  This is for non-delayed tech games.  Roll for some long range aircraft, and whack London.

–

Make non-committal moves G1 and J1.  That is, if the Russian player did something like buying 8 infantry, do not go ahead and buy 8 tanks on G1.  That commits Germany to a tank dash strategy, which can easily fail if the Allies set up defensively.  Similarly, don’t buy things like two industrial complexes with Japan on J1 or any such thing (maybe one max industrial complex if Japan started with an extra IPC).  Use your G1 purchases for infantry and tanks, and possibly a carrier or a transport depending on your strategy; use your J1 purchases for transports and a tank (or maybe an IC).  After the US1, you can tell which way the Allies are going to go.

If they start hitting the Atlantic, start buying infantry with Germany and pick up a fighter or two a turn so you can set up the W. Europe / E. Europe territory fighter routes, while you build more transports in Asia and start ramming Japanese infantry down every underdefended territory.  Japan should go wild while Germany gradually gets contained; all the German fighters delay Allied shipping, and the blocks of German infantry make it take a long while for the Allies to break in.  Conserve your German tanks, do not let them die.  Japan should grab control of Novosibirsk and points east, and threaten Russia big-time.

If they start hitting the Pacific, buy fighters with Japan and pull back west to Asia early, planning to pull your Jap air back east for when the US fleet gets big.  Concentrate on maintaining control of Africa with Germany early while producing infantry for the big push on Russia.  The Allies will make early progress in the Pacific where it doesn’t matter, and at some point, they’ll start getting to range of the 4 IPC islands, so you switch to subs, use your existing forces in Asia to maintain your territory, and use your massive fleet and air to whack out the US navy.  Meanwhile, Germany should be taking control of Caucasus with its big IPC budget from control of Africa (or if the Allies used UK to attack Africa, the Japs shouldn’t be in trouble for a while, because it takes a while for US to build sufficient fleet and more time to move deep into Jap waters).

That’s in general, of course.  In some games, your opponent will do dumb stuff like attacking lots of territories on R1 and buying 2 fighters.  When that happens, buy 8 tanks with Germany and more tanks with Japan and cram them right down Russia’s throat.  If you rush hard and fast, you don’t need Africa at all; you just beat up Russia, and that’s pretty much game.

Love how you just glaze over what to do if the allies do a Pacific plan.

“Eventually they will get in range of your 4 IPC islands.”

Yea, Eventually is Round 3.  Be ready for it.  If you are not ready, you WILL lose those islands and lose them fast.  Remember, all it takes is one ship to stop your might Japanese fleet from crushing the American fleet and England has a lot of sacrificial ships around to do the job.

You can quickly find yourself in a bad position with America putting up a factory in E. Indies and pummeling SE Asia and you not being able to stop them because they are A) on the defensive and B) building ships right in SZ 37. (Same for Borneo, but at least then you can build ships in SZ 60.)

how is afrika the key.? there are no V areas it is worth 12 icp, U can get them else were.
In most of my games as axis the higeste icp i get from afrika is 4. And i win most of my games. If i can get afrika easy il take it but else i just prety much ignore it. i hold egypt as long as i can, turn 3 ore 4 is most commen.

The key area is West russia for in my strat. If axis get west russia it is realy hard for the allies to get some help to russia. The first couple of rounds i try to put as much pressuar on west russia as i can. If russia leaves it the germans have and easy way to defent against UK and US, If russia stack it japan will have less trouble in there push for moskva. If germany goes after afrika it take pressuer of russia, when u take the german pressuer of russia, japan will have a harder time and will get less icp.

This is how i play the axis, and the trade of in this strat is that i probely wont get much icp from afrika. But going after afrika is just 1 axis strat. There are alot others that can work. I dont get it why all is so hang up about 12 icp.

Crazy ivan have some good points of how u get a good german start in afrika, but it will cost on some other fronts. Maybe the IC in WE is over the top. But il like to now how u get 6 units egypt round 1. I assume u have 2 bid units and 4 from the starting units, so if Uk dosent get a hit ore if u take airplanes as casuiltes?. also using the sub to block the uk from landing will likly cost u a fighter.

Africa is the key because it’s England’s paycheck and if Germany can get it, then they can build +4 infantry a round, making trading a lot easier financially.

That just means you’re playing someone who knows how to play Russia.  Russia should stack Novosibirsk because it stops Japan from getting the high paying Russian lands for long.

Honestly, I prefer to send England to Novosibirsk and leave Russia going after Europe.

Having played two games now as Allies vs your Axis, I would offer this advice:

The British and Americans have a generally fixed income they can come at you with. Every dollar they spend in Africa is a dollar they did not spend in Europe. You do not need to take over all of Africa to do well, but you should try your best to force the allies to spend money there. Germany can counterattack Libya and Egypt quite well so long as the Med fleet is alive, with a Bombard and air support. This means you can defend said territories with the mere threat of retaliation. At the very least you can pick up 3 dollars a turn there while spending 6, yet forcing the allies to spend more and using their transports when they don’t yet have enough.

Next, Norway. If you aren’t going to go heavy with Africa, you might as well try to keep Norway. The +3 to Germans and -3 to whoever gets Norway (typically the British) will mostly offset the money you couldn’t get from Africa. The Germans do not need to twiddle their thumbs next to Russia yet, as the Japanese won’t even be in range of Moscow for a few turns.

Finally, Russians. If you are only playing light in Africa, you will only need a plane or two every once in a while to make an opportunistic attack. If you’ve dealt with Norway by making your counterattack so strong Britian is only trading with you and too weak to land a full load, then you have a lot of planes that need work. Unless you are dead serious about using your planes to attack allied ships, then don’t leave them posturing near the shores: Put them to work killing Russians! Every spare man that isn’t needed to hold the fort is a man that should be used to bleed the Russian stacks trading territory. The Germans pulling Norway and a couple bucks from Africa can pull a solid 40IPC+ income, and can afford to trade 4-5 Inf for 5 Russians. This leaves far fewer men in the way of the Japanese.

Last, Japan. There are 3 routes to Russia, and while you want to control them all, you must not try to use all 3 as transport routes! If you do, all 3 are vulnerable to being stalled in a Russian armor stack that can go in any direction. Use enough men along two routes to be sure you are getting their income, but choose one route to go heavy so that you are strong enough to stave off a Russian counter. Again, you have air support, trade your men for Russians at every opportunity. 1 Inf 1 Fig vs 1 Inf or 2 Inf 1 Fig vs 2 Inf should be done every time. You aren’t always caring about taking the territory, a 1 IPC land isn’t worth losing 2 Inf for. Trading Inf equal with Russians however is to your advantage, you plan to be attacking with Inf at 1, and they want to Defend with them at 2. The more you trade, the easier your job will get. Even if the Inf isn’t a Russian, so long as a Russian will be needed to take that territory back, then it’s still good.

Gaining a larger income is a more difficult way to win for the Axis: The easier way is to kill Russians!

So, how long does Germany need to stay in Africa in order to get enough troops on the ground to overwhelm the east? And it is possible to survive after getting sent on the slow boat to Germany? Got any tips on how to survive?

When germany get´s “kicked” out, you replace the german troops with Japanese, = Problem solved.

Japan will then by J5-6 have 60+ ipc.

For some reference check my old games as axis (preferably where i win) or my game in tournament vs Dragoon blade.  (allthought there germany do hold africa…)

BTW, I have found, through experience, that the axis will win if they can get and maintain about 90 IPC a round income.  That’s cash they are getting, not territories they own after Russia’s turn, btw.

I have also found that the allies will win if they can get and maintain about 110 IPC a round income.  That’s cash they are getting, not territories they own after Japan’s turn, btw.

It’s not a hard and fast rule, just a guideline.  But it shows how 12 IPC in Africa can make a real difference, I think.