Thanks for the clarification Falk. We had originaly played w/o middle east money going to allies and found germany nearly unstopable. However giving the money to the allies makes russia nearly invincible as well. The great thing is that it actually insures a historical outcome to the game.

I can tell you that transports definately cannot move after dropping troops off.

I have always been under the impression that the middle east money could be given to any of the allied players. However I find that the rule in the book is very vague and the money makes russia unbeatable.

Quote from page 19 of the rule book states that: “The Middle East consists of independent contries that provide oil and other resources to the Allied forces. During the game, Germany has a chance to control this oil (and the IPCs) by taking over these territories.” This is the only hint in the rule book that says that the allies get anything from the Middle East. On the question of IPC collection the book states that “Whenever Germany captures a Middle East country with an IPC value, the marker on the seperate Middle East column is adjusted.” No where in the rule book does it indicate that the Allies collect any money from the Middle East. My question is do they or do they not? At the moment my friends and I play as if the Allies do recieve the money.

The thing you have to remember is that if you spread out too much the german armor that is massed in Poland can attack and kill stacks of infantry very easily. I have found that a German attack as the one you are describing ends in the loss of most of its fodder by turn 2 and now in a race to build up infantry the russians are going to win. Always give them the middeast money because it makes up for the economic damage that germany deals them.

Firstly if you see the German build 3 artillery in Rumania, then I would place 4 infantry in Ukraine. Now if this German attack succeeds…
1. Move all of your tanks into Turkestan, move inf from caucasus into ukraine inf from stalingrad into ukraine, artillery from stalingrad and belorussia into ukraine.

2. Move infantry from Leningrad into Baltic states, 2 inf from belorussia into baltic states and use your fighter and bomber in baltic states.

3. Move infantry from moscow, turkestan, and russia into belorussia.

4. Move artillery from moscow into russia, leave russian artillery there.

5. Move infantry from vyborg into karelia.

6. Move infantry/artillery from siberia and archangel into russia.

7. Place 8 infantry into Moscow.

8. Use British bomber to kill german transport in baltic sea.

Germany starts out with more than enough infantry and arty, I know people on this board say don’t just build tanks with Germany but hey a stack of 30 tanks with 45 inf and 10 artillery will always win. By turn 4 Germany can get all of its european inf into east poland. You dont need to garrison any thing just send your airforce out to kill any transports near england and build the occasional sub to aid in stopping allied landings.

I thought of a great strat. for germany. Save the 12 ipcs. then build 4 transports and 1 aircraft carior. Move danish trans to baltic sea, place built units here as well. On second turn Germany can transport 10 inf into Leningrad or onto england. plus a carior with 2 fighters on it is a great asset for flying missions in finland/northern russia. The best thing is the brits are forced to build defenders on first turn or else you can conquer them.

The most effective way I have found to defeat Germany is to build only bombers every turn with the USA and bomb them arround the clock. Also land US infantry in morocco on turn 1. Make artillery with Russia instead of infantry because you already have plenty of those and having massive numbers of 2’s is better than 1’s in a counter attack.

I would like to add another idea for germany. I usually have Russia beaten on turn 4/5. 12ipcs=4 inf in Poland or extra U-Boot and an artillery.
1st Turn Build Phase: Build 5 tanks and 5 inf.
1st Turn Movement:
Land:
Move all, except one, from Norway into Finland. Move all infantry out of eastern france and neth/belguim into Germany. All inf in Ger to poland. Move all tanks that are in range into poland, all others to ger. Move hungarian and czech inf into poland, move rumanian inf into bessarabia. move yugo inf into hungary. one Italian inf to yugo the other with art and air attack malta. Bulgarian inf to rumania.
Naval/Air:
Use own disgression; the object is to wipe out entire Brit navy. This usually requires all of your airforce(but it leaves england with no way to threaten you for several turns).

General Strategy versus Russians:

Never commit tanks unless they are needed. On turn 2 you should be able to attack east poland w/20-25 inf, 6 artillery, and your air force that is in range(usually 3 fighters and the bomber). If the russians retreated into leningrad/belorussia/ukraine you only will need the inf, arty, and air. Move your new tanks and inf into poland. You should have about 21 tanks in poland on second turn. Turn three attack belorussia with all inf, arty from east poland, entire airforce, and all tanks in poland. This is game over it is impossible for russians to stop this attack. If the russians kept countering forces in reseve they will bleed to death on your inf/art/tanks, thats at most 52 defenders but most likley 42 will surve first attack. Turn four is simply take moscow and put the game away.

25inf + 6arty + 5fighters + 21tanks + 1bomber can defeat anything the russians put into belorussia.

In my most recent game as Germany the Russians held me off for a very long time; I did win eventually. The strategy, which I had come up with, that my opponent used was to defend Belo/Len/Ukr and build tanks first 2 turns. Also he gave all 12ipcs to Russians–for more tanks. At the end of turn 2 russia had 17 tanks and some allied planes.