Paratroopers used to reinforce Africa for Germany

Yes, Karelia is adjacent to the Baltic Sea.

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.

@aaFiendish:

Do you really go to syria with your battleship and transport? I’ve always liked the move, but never had the balls to actually do it.

I don;t play with bids (lacking the RAM on my PC to handle the Java based version of AA available online).  So I normally do the initial landing in Egypt.

However, on those occasions when I “change up” my strategy and send air support to Egypt instead, I will indeed attack Syria on G1 with tranny, using the BB to plow through the sub.  The odds are highly probable that the sub is going to go “glub”.  And if it happens to hit on the counter, I’ll lose the tranny, and the INF.  I will ONLY attack Syria in a no-bid game when I have bought a tranny for the med as part of G1’s buy; so I have a replacement just in case.  Obviously my version does not work against the mega-stacked Karelia strategy (since it pulls too many INF’s from Europe due to tranny buy and multiple troops to Africa).  But against anything less than the mega stack, it makes for an interesting game that is a bit off the “normal” game flow.

As far as losing some troops in the exchange… that is kind of part of the game, especially for the Axis… roll the dice and go for it.

Using the bid-strategy outlined in the preceeding posts, and likely counters, by the end of G2, Germany is going to have all of Africa (perhaps less SA, assuming UK moves that INF to Rhodesia to cut off the tank blitz) plus Syria.

And if you only single INF the West Africa territories (putting 3 INF of the 4 from the bid in Libya) you could also land in Madagascar in G2 (in addition to grabbing Congo, Italian East and Rhodesia) leaving yourself staged for Persia OR India in G3 AND getting your navy out of reach of those pesky UK fighters that are somewhere in Russian territory…

Unless of course those UK figs stage to Persia… then you don;t blitz Africa in G2, you send the tank from Egypt through Syria to hit Persia, combined with your INF that survived the Syria landing and 2 transported units, and your BB, and add any fighters from Ukraine or Eastern, and your bomber.  Say goodbye to the UK Airforce :-D  And if they pulled forces from India to Persia in UK 2, so much the better.  Now Japan has India free in addition to being able to follow-up in Persia in J2.

All in all, risking that sub to get your med fleet into the Indian Ocean in G2 is a damn fine idea; bid or no bid.

Well, here is one strategy I’ve used in the past that may help with Africa (RR, no bid). You won’t be able to keep Africa with this, but you might have a chance to at least take it for a turn or two.

On G1, sink the UK Navy in the North Sea as usual, but do not use the Baltic sea transport as fodder. Once all Allied ships there are sunk, take the Baltic sea transport and move either the Norway tank (my preference)or two Norway infantry to Morocco. Also land at least one of your fighters there as well. Instead of taking Egypt, simply move two infantry into Libya.

This sets you up fairly well for G2 in the following ways

The transport blocks the UK/US from an easy run through this area. The UK will sink this, but this will divert forces from other uses (i.e. if they use fighters, they will not be able to land in Karelia on UK1 - possibly making a G2 assualt there feasable). Probably the UK will also sink the German Med fleet (its really inevitable).

The extra forces in Morocco will delay UK/US forces from landing in Africa on round 1.

On G2, use all available forces to take Egypt. The extra tank and fighter(s) will help defeat any forces that may have been moved to Egypt on UK1 . You should also consider using the bomber as well if they have done so. Now the Allies either won’t have sufficient forces to effectively counter-attack, or you will have sufficient forces in Egypt to make a counter difficult at best.

On G3 and onward, you then use these forces to fight north-south. You should be able to reach S. Africa then retreat back to Egpyt to defend that against the Allies. Here you are just scrambling to keep as much as Africa in German hands as long as you can. The Allies are able to take it all back, but now they must devote more resources to do so. Also, it is possible for Japan to bring in reinforcements to help Germany, but I never do so since the Allies are closer to Africa than Japan and the Japanese forces are better used elsewhere, IMO. At some point you should probably conceed Africa and move the fighter back to the relative safety of Europe.

There are problems for the Germans with this (loss of a defensive fighter in Europe for a few turns, Norway is weakened, and the odds for this working as stated are not exactly a slam dunk) but you should try it to see how it works for you.

Bad luck on your opponent’s part?

I think Brazil is a location suited only to the Japanese trying for an economic victory, and at that it is something that can sort of be smelled out in advance by the Americans.

I am on the side of those who argue that the EUsa can and should be the embarkation point for those forces going to work in Africa. Brazil is something of a secondary point; it’s real value is realized when the Axis take it, but this can easily be countered by the US sending a few INF down there.

Rather than mess around with Brazil, I would advise the US player to simply get transports and then once enough of them are built get a few escort vessels to forestall any air attacks on your convoys and hit Africa from East USA.

I just want to point out, that this even aplies if the transport doesn’t have to move. If the British want to use the Russian transport to ship toops to Norway, they have to wait on the boat for one round.

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: