Strong Germany Opening in Africa

IMO the German Med fleet is one of the most overrated pieces on the board b/c in reality Germany cannot afford to send any troops from Europe anyway.  The game is won or lost in Europe and Africa is merely a sidebar so to that end no great lengths should be taken to protect the German BB.  A few exceptions are to send it to the WMed to threaten the Uk1 naval build so as to make them not build or waste a ftr to destroy a bb.  However this assumes you have enough air to be able to attack all other units of the Royal Navy which is iffy at best.  Another reason to spare the bb is by going to Syria on G1 along with a take of AES f/Libya this helps protect Africa and gives Germany a huge ipc boom going on into the game.  However, its very difficult to say if Germany will be able to afford this in Europe without risking EEuro so in general I’d say that the best move is to simply kack the bb against the Med bb and concentrate air in the UkSz while using the transport to landgrab Cauc or whatever.

I have always had great success with a “standard” opening move for Russia.  Buy 8 infantry.  Take all land forces that can reach, plus the Russia fighter and take Manchuria.  Unless you are totally blasted on dice, you will take this territory with 1 or 2 land pieces remaining, and the fighter to retreat to Yakut (which is protected by 2 infantry moving up from Evenk in non-combat phase).  The Eastern Europe attack also serves to really screw up the Germans, forcing them to re-take territory in Europe rather than expanding.  Hit Eastern with the fighter, all Karelia infantry, and all available tanks.  You will succeed in this battle, though all of your tanks get blown away on Germany’s next move.  Retreat your fighter back to Karelia.  Use your fleet to attack the sub and transport.  I have tried variants of naval usage, including a lot of attempts at using Russia’s navy to help protect the initial British fleet.  It never works (the German attack is mostly air power, so you only add a little cannon fodder and a 1 defense).  So instead go on the attack and remove the transport threat from Karelia, as well as sinking a pesky sub to free up your UK air force for other purposes.  Remaining non-comabt moves, shift 3 infantry from Caucuses to Karelia, shift 2 infantry from Russia to Karelia and the other 2 Russian infantry to Novosibirsk (to be moved forward to Yakut to replace the Evenk infantry now there that will be used next round on a second Manchuria assault, or to move into Sinkiang if Japan focuses on southeast Asia.  Finish off placing 6 infatry in Karelia and 2 in Russia.  If you are well supported by the UK building up offensive forces and attacking Norway then other targets of opportunity as they arise, Russia can continue to “mixed build” sending 2 infantry East each turn with the balance facing Germany.  Using this strategy, if Russia can alway remain at 24 IPC or higher (they will have 30 at the end of turn 1), the Axis can’t win (unless USA and UK are simply totally inept).

@Cecrowca:

A fleet of transports ready to cross from South Africa to India, threatening an expanding Japan’s flank could be interesting.  On the flip side, Africa becomes fairly well protected against an aggressive Japan.  Tanks via the Suez canal can also hinder Japanese expansion.

S. Africa only has an IPC of 2.  It would take a LONG time for UK to build up enough naval and transportable forces at 2 a round to create any real threat to Japan; and then they would still have 2 moves to reach any original Japan territory.

And all the time UK is building navy and “transportables” in South Africa, Germany is running rough-shod over Russia.

The simple fact is that the cost to build the IC, and then the cost and time to develope it simply DO NOT EXIST if the Axis is being played by even a slightly competant gamer.

UK has ONE job, and ONLY one job:  Batter the heck out of Germany, no matter what.  Anything less, and Russia falls, and then it is just a matter of time for US and UK.

Southern Europe, Italy Far East, and Libya```

This is good but the territory you list wont work because Italy didnt own any territory in Afrika except Lybia.

Italian Territories that could be made to have value: In any case the values of aggregate Italian owned land should not exceed 15-22 points

Italy north and south–north=5 south=5-7 IPC

Sicily–2

Albania–1

Sardinia–1

Lybia–3

thats the extent of Italian land interests in 1942, unless you allow German aid to italy (say up to 5-6 points per turn).

@Lan:

RUSSIA T1:

They usually destroy both baltic ships with fighters, leave 3 or so inf in the caucasus, and stack all available inf in karelia (placing the 8 they buy also). Consolidate their force in asia either in yakut or mongolia for some reason…occasionally will try to reinforce sinkiang in hopes of building an IC as the americans. Leaves transport with UK battleship, attacks west europe sub with sub.
Russia makes 24

Big mistake not to attack ukraine. Also try manchuria (uk get’s kwang). People will argue against it, but top players do it. Otherwise, that’s about right.
@Lan:

GERMANY T1:

I buy 10 inf

attack british sub with battleship and transport, loaded with 2 guys from italy. These 2 inf and the tank and inf in libya attack egypt. Sub attacks US transport. Fighter in western europe attacks british transport in labrador sea. 3 fighters and bomber in europe attack UK fleet. Consolidate my inf and armor in eastern europe.
Germany makes 35

I consider this move decent actually, i reject attacking the us transport, i’d rather see it go as fodder in the north sea but this depends. Also with 10 infantry build, you will lose your med fleet, and without a bid in africa, you will lose it. Have you considered 1 sub 8 infantry?
@Lan:

UK T1:

usually sends fighters to aid karelia, sends bomber against one of my factories. Buys fighters and maybe some infantry
UK makes 27

WHAT!!! here is the big mistake, don’t bomb the factory, attack german med fleet with bomber, fighter battleship sub if it’s alive, and/or attack egypt transporting men off of india. If germany has 2 units on egypt you should certainly do both. Otherwise you can save the battleship, and only hit egypt allowing for 3 transports 2 men build. If russia did manch, then just kill the fleet, and hit kwang. Don’t build fighters until you have established a minimum of 3 transports, I have only recently heard of building fighters as uk this way, I recommend building 4 and moving in 8 infantry a turn to karelia/africa…
if you don’t save the bb, build carrier transport man.
@Lan:

JAPAN T1:
buy an IC and 2 tanks
attack china with inf in kwangtung and manchuria, attack india with inf from phillipines and burma. use fighters and bombers from wherever necessary to reinforce these fights this part of the game usually changes a lot, the basic idea is to take a strategic area like india, china, sinkiang or even mongolia, while having at least one territory worth 3 well out of reach of the enemy Use carrier fighter and 2 battleships to attack americans at pearl harbor II. Place IC in kwantung usually, provided nobody can get at it…. Japan ends this turn making 30 usually

I don’t like this strategy much. First of all I love it when the phil trn goes to india. The uk bombers is in kenya (or italian east africa!) So the transport is wasted. Also industry first turn i don’t agree with. and why 2 tanks. You only have 2 transports, and you are throwing one away? build 2 transports 3 men.
@Lan:

US T1:
Buy ships to replace its sunken fleet… attack japanese fleet with fighters, bomber, battleship, send transport to alaska to be used with future sneakiness. Place most ships in pacific (for some reason…he alternates between working on japan and germany it seems).

replace sunken fleet. try not attacking japan with the usa. Try 3 transports 4 men the first turn, placed in e us sz, if the german bomber is in western europe, you could try 4 transports. Don’t send battleship to alaska send it to panama, block with transport.

The most important thing, play the allies more!! If you do this they can use your strategies against you I guess… Also a tip for usa: build men in eusa, and move them to ecanada, then each turn you can move there, load them and drop them in finland. It’s good to have about 5 us transports doing this, thus +10 infantry in russia each turn from usa, and +8 from uk.

Sorry if i sound harsh, just trying to help!

@El:

@cystic:

2 of the 4 Hollywood women to capture my heart (Salma Hayak and Cameron Diaz being the other two) . . . .

:o What the?!?!…
Was reading Xi’s post and Cameron Diaz came to my mind for you cc as “it takes two” to give the award.

Don’t see enough modern flicks to know Salma Hayak from Uma Thermon(sp?). Would you recommend one of her films, please?

Maybe Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen as the other “one” for dzfish? Oh, wait! I’m not sure they’re legal yet :-? !? Hey, they have their own empire. Anybody wanna picture dzfish as a boy-toy? :o :lol: :wink:

she is NOT a good actress, just a sexy one.
So i couldn’t recommend a movie to portray her acting but Desparado comes to mind (the much bigger budgetted sequal to “El Mariachi”), as does “Dusk to Dawn” (bit part - awful movie tho’), Fools Rush in, etc.

Remember, when finding the Japanese in Asia, use an orderly, sustained retreat. It’ll hopefully delay them, while keeping their IPC count in check. No running with your pants on fire back to Moscow right away!
:wink:

Ahhhhh….
Thanx