Sea Lion: Scotland trading?

@Funcioneta:

It’s known Great Britain will be divided in two. Assuming England IC and Scotland without IC (or minor as much), it gives chances for a trading of Scotland, at least early stages, if germans make a naval buildup

What do you think?

Give it a try.

Meh, might as well go for the whole schmear for the capital.  If the British player lets you…  Sealion’s just not going to work, I think; the Germans will have less IPCs at the game start than Britain does, and the Jerries need a transport for every two land units they want to shuck over to England, vs. England just needing to plop down 8 inf a turn.  The transports themselves will require protection in the Baltic, and the land forces will require a heavy air force presence to join them at the end, too.  Plus, even if all this does pan out, the USA is always right around the corner from declaring war and killing what few land units that survive the invasion the next turn.  Trying to make British sausage with this weak German meat grinder isn’t going to lead to a happy conclusion for the axis, ever.  Doesn’t seem that Sealion will ever be possible, except for end-game.

The more I talk about Sealion on the boards, the more I realize its going to be impossible to simulate it with the Axis and Allies ruleset.  The money you get every round can be spent on any unit type without regard to actual logistics in real life… planes don’t have to worry about fuel and repairs, infantry can be infinitely made without constraints on an actual population (let’s conscript the 12-year olds this round!), and so on and so on.  The only way I can see Larry trying to accurately depict the Dunkirk scenario (making Sealion possible) would be having Britain start the game without any IPCs, to represent the debacle at Dunkirk where most of the army’s heavy equipment was lost on the beach.  Or by placing constraints on what can actually be “built” each round, like limiting the UK’s ability to build infantry to 2-3 for the first 2 rounds or something.

Also, the Baltic fleet is rather limited in its usefulness, with the current game.  If you spend your IPCs building naval units off Germany, what can you really do with them?  Invading Russia at Karelia is pretty much the only alternative, and the fleet is still bottled up for Britain with its larger IPC pool to destroy at leisure.  Norway and Finland are like 5-6 IPCs and not worth near as much as Africa and India.  Unless there’s some rule introduced blocking Britain from its IPCs at game start, Sealion is a farce and the starting navy units should be sacrificed for time.  Attacking Britain’s colonies seems to be the only working strategy, so Med fleet is still best alternative.

Having a fleet, planes and a few trannies in the Baltic lets you threaten Britain and Russia, while defending your Scandinavian holdings. Brits will have to be wary of an attack and waste precious resources in anticipation. And if he does, simply use the fleet, airforce and trannies on other things.

@xzorn:

Having a fleet, planes and a few trannies in the Baltic lets you threaten Britain and Russia, while defending your Scandinavian holdings. Brits will have to be wary of an attack and waste precious resources in anticipation. And if he does, simply use the fleet, airforce and trannies on other things.

So just the threat of Sea Lion is good enough.