What if a Victory City were added to South Africa? Then Germany could try to just push Russia into Moscow and contain them, meanwhile helping Italy to cross the Med and conquer Africa to win that way. Could be interesting too with a Halifaxian Canzac trying to defend South Africa to prevent it.

Apocalypse: The Second World War, is a great series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY-jS37cBtM Six one hour parts with a lot of footage I had never seen before.

Then there is The Last Secrets of The Axis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv-1i7Sx8L8 My favorite one shot documentary, deals a lot with german and Japanese cooperation.

Finally here is the trailer for fury  :-)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OGvZoIrXpg I’ll be going to see it.

Black Elk I really like those Russian NOs. While they seem like something I would like to use in every Global game I play from here on out, I could definitely see using them, with perhaps  an airbase in Egypt or some such thing, to help the allies offset a turn 1 neutral Italy, as an experimental game just for fun. I know for sure I have a friend – whos Italian navy I sank on UKs first move, with the Taranto maneuver which I learned from this site – who would certainly agree to it. Every time we get together to do another turn he complains at some point about how Italy is useless now and how Africa is his favorite front but now it is unimportant and Italy never got a chance to fight for it etc.

It would definitely give a big boost to the axis, who don’t really need one. But I thought of it as just an intersting experiment to mess around with, giving the Italian player more fun instead of having his fleet get squashed before his first move evey game.

The option could be used to as a help to a less experienced axis player, or the allies could be given something to offset it somehow. Like maybe an airbase in egypt, then the UK med fleet could consolidate there under their own air cover, which would probably create an interesting stand off until one side or the other invested enough resources to break it.

Since Italy didn’t declare war on France and Uk untill the last moments of the german conquest, I wonder how an optional rule would work out where Italy is neutral until their 1st turn, when they would immediately have to declare war. The alies were trying to keep Italy neutral, so Uk won’t be allowed to declare on them. That way they would be safe from the british attacks, and actually get to make the first assaults on turn 1. Might be intersting to try.

Looked at the map and it seems that if Germany goes through Turkey then it can be attacking Calcutta at like turn 8.
So what should Japan do? Direct it’s efforts against the Usa for Hawaii, or against Anzac to try and get Sydney? Which is more likely to succeed.

That sounds like a good plan too :-D

Actually Veers that is what I was thinking of doing :-)  Hit spain, sweden and turkey on round 3, maybe have Italy hit spain on turn 2 so germany can blitz through to gibralter. Go through Turkey to Calcutta and get some middle eastern oil at the same time. Keep Russia and Usa out of the war as long as possible.

I figure Germany can reach its objective while (perhaps barely) surviving in europe. It is mostly Japan I am wondering about. Can they be depended upon to take Hawaii or Sydney at the same time, or hold one long enough, especially if the allies see it coming?

Judging by LeClercs experience, I guess probably not :(

Japan would at least have to hold the line in asia, to keep the VC. But I guess it would take Germany 9 or 10 turns to take Calcutta right? So that gives Japan some time to gather up Manilla and the money islands, maybe put a little pressure on India or China. So if they were to concentrate most to all on the ocean war each turn will they have a good chance of taking Hawaii or Sydney around the same time? Or maybe striking earlier and then hold it long enough? Waiting too long could be dangerous, eventually the allies will realize the plan and try to block it.

So here is what I am wondering: Say Germany were to just try to survive in Europe while its main army went straight for Calcutta. The question is if Japan were to ignore the mainland and go all navy, can they capture Hawaii or Sydney around the same time, or hold one long enough to seal the deal? Would it be an uphill battle for Japan? Can the allies stop this sinister plot for an axis pacific win?

Well my friend and I met up to play for a few more hours yesterday and I got to try out the taranto raid. Here is how the Uk turn went if anyone is curious.

I bought 2 fighters in london, repaired one point on the factory and just enough on the AB to bring it back online, put one inf in south africa.

For the big attacks on italy I sent the cruiser near egypt and the fighter from gibralter to kill the transport off tobruk, won that without loss. In zone 97 I sent 2 fighters and the strat from england, the fighter from malta along with the destroyer tac and carrier (to absorb some hits like you said wittmann) from egypt.

The italians chose not to scramble their 2 fighters, so things were looking good…. untill I missed almost all my shots. By the time I killed the transport I had lost 3 fighters and the carrier :-(

For my final moves I landed the surviving aircraft in malta, retreated all the brits to egypt, transported one egyptian to persia, moved all the indian ocean boats toward the suez canal except for the trans there which dropped 2 guys on one of those 4 dollar islands, the south africans advanced north.

By the homelands I massed my happy to be alive fleet off the west coast of london with my two newly bought fighters and the french fighter for scramble cover. Oh and i had sent 1 destroyer to deal with a german sub off canda… and the germans rolled a 1 before I got a 2 sinking my boat. oh well.

But to end on a really happy note: the german second turn they bought all land forces and massed a swarm on the russian boarder for a turn 3 barbarossa, then did another air raid over england. 1 strat hit my unguarded scotland AB for 6 damage, but over london it was a better result. It started bad when he sent 4 bombers and a fighter to hit the facilities, so I scrambled. Getting no hits but losing the french fighter, things seemed grim, untill the AA phase :evil: He sent one tac at my AB and one at my NB, I rolled two 1s and killed them both. Follow this up with his two strats attacking my factory, and again I get two more 1s!

It was criminal and I almost felt bad  :wink: needless to say the battle of britain is over and all remaining german planes headed eastward except the ones guarding his cowardly fleet hiding in the baltic lol.

This game is so much fun  :-D