I always love coming up with new strategies that, if nothing else, completely surprise/confuse my opponents and actually make them think. Sometimes they work, other times they fail miserably. From my experience so far, the latest one I’ve come up with might actually have some merit.
In addition to any usual R1 moves you have (moving sub to SZ2, supporting Sinkiang, stacking the northeastern Russian territories however you like, etc), I do the following:
- Take West Russia with with 8 inf (2 from Karelia, 3 from Archangel, 3 from Russia), 1 tank (Archangel), 1 artillery (Russia).
- Take Ukraine with 3 inf, 1 art (Caucasus), and 3 tanks (2 from Russia, 1 from Caucasus).
- Leave the Moscow fighter where it’s at. On your non-combat move you’ll land it in Egypt.
The Karelia fighter is the wildcard. Depending on how risky you’re feeling, you can use it in the Ukraine attack (probably the best choice), or take the high risk/high reward route and attack the DD/AK in SZ5.
Unless you get absolutely shafted by the dice in West Russia and Ukraine, this R1 strategy puts instant pressure on Germany to choose between attacking Egpyt or attacking the SZ2 fleet on G1, as it’s impossible to take both. Every time I’ve tried this, the German player has opted for the safer SZ2 attack.
Saving Egpyt means the UK can have an instant impact on the game. Not only can they retreat the Indian fleet into the Med, and reinforce Egypt with the infantry from India, but they could also opt to pull the tank and fighter off of Egypt, the fighter from the carrier, and the 2 inf from T-J/Persia into India and place an IC there on UK1. The latter is probably my personal favorite UK1 move given the opportunity.
There’s no possibility that Japan could take India on J1 if the UK chose to do this (India would have 5 inf, 1 tank, 2 fighters, and 1 AA gun defending it), and 3 new British tanks in Asia every UK turn (which could be used to aid Caucasus quite a bit, or to threaten Japan’s Asian territories), could pose a serious threat to the Axis.
In the event that the Germans to choose to leave your SZ2 fleet alone and instead attack Africa, you have the opportunity for an UK1 Norway invasion and, if you so choose, an eventual British Norway IC, and allow you to pump 3 tanks straight into Europe every turn. Or alternatively, you could have a joining of the American/UK Atlantic fleets in SZ8 at the end of USA1.
I dunno. Just figured I’d share.
Your thoughts?