I agree with Jen, the dilemma for the US is where to concentrate on the first 3 turns.  Having experimented with a J2 or J3 attack on the US fleet in the pacific, I am now reluctant to leave my US fleet anywhere near the possibility of attack on J2 or J3.  I move it to SZ64 (Panama) asap now and defend the west coast with ground/air units.  That way I save the pacific fleet and can build a reasonable task force in the atlantic to cause some havoc against the Germans/Italians.  Also if the jap fleet has gone hunting the US fleet, then I declare war on the japs with the UK/Anzacs and use my transports to take as many islands as possible which is great nuisance value (as well as generating more income for the allies) and turns the attention of the japs back to the DEI/Australia etc. I use the two turns it takes the jap fleet to get back into action (against the UK and Anzacs) to build some nice BB’s and CV’s for the yanks, join up with the intact pacific fleet and then off I go hunting.

Its about buying time as the allies…do as much as you can to avoid engaging the japanese fleet too early, it is too strong.

So to summarise, retreat the pacific fleet to safety, build in the atlantic the first 2 turns (2CV’s, a BB, 4 destroyers and 3 or 4 transports will do the job) and then concentrate on building up the pacific fleet thereafter.

I target Norway (vide Gibraltar) as the yanks when possible in order to build a US factory on Germanys doorstep.  The atlantic build also gives the German player something to think about when considering sealion.

Just my experiences.

Let him come to you, build infantry and one fighter each turn, retreat everything into moscow leaving one infantry in each territory to block his advance to one territory (i.e. one step closer to moscow) a turn.  You have 3 builds before you are attacked, then another 3 turns before he is next to moscow.  So you should have over 50 infantry in moscow with some artillery, a few tanks and around 6 or 7 fighters by the time he gets to your doorstep.  See how enthusiastic he is when facing 10 red chips of infantry and a heap of fighter “4’s”, even if he succeeds it will be a Pyrrhic victory, he will be decimated, leaving  him very short of ground forces.  This Turtle strategy works almost every time when playing Russia who only needs to hold out for the UK to do its job and open up a second front.  The key to taking out russia for the Germans is to attack it on G1 or G2 at the latest, with 37 IPCs a turn for the first three turns, russia can build 27 infantry and 3 fighters…a lovely start to a defense of Moscow.

@Butcher:

If you’re going to conduct Sealion, just have Japan invade the turn before Germany invades the United Kingdom.  Problem solved.

What do you mean here by having Japan invade first?  Invade who? US? where?  and do you mean on J2 before a G3 Sealion?    A step by step explanation please…because I cant see how that can be achieved (a US mainland attack) by Japan until J3 at the earliest and then with little chance of success.

You don’t need a naval base to build a fleet, simply a factory.

Leaving German transports unprotected 3 zones away from the UK does not guarantee their safety.  As UK I took out seven unprotected transports in SZ113 on UK2 simply by building a carrier in SZ110, then launching 1 fighter from england (range 5) to hit the transports and then land on the newly built carrier.  49 German build points lost without a dice being thrown.  The carrier was later attacked and lost (though I did take out another 2 subs) as was the fighter but at 26 points total it was a good trade off and prevented sea-lion from occurring on G3.  Tough lesson learned by the German player.

As the German player I never leave my transports unprotected, in fact I go to great lengths to look after them until their real job is done.  i.e. getting as much ground troops across the channel and into UK asap.  Sea Lion should always be the germans first priority and the G3 attack on UK should be co-ordinated with a japanese thrust towards the west coast of the US and towards the US fleet.  This should make the US build in the pacific rather than the Atlantic and give Germany time to consolidate in the UK and reduce the UK’s chance of liberation by the US until much later in the game.

Once the UK is secure you can concentrate all of your resources against russia and you will eventually prevail.  Without London the UK is out of the war and cant replace its losses.  Africa also becomes a one sided affair since the allies cant replace lost units.  Thats the key to winning this game as the axis…taking out your enemies capacity to build units to replace losses.

As the Germans the british fleet and france should be the priority (even if that means leaving Normandy for a turn, though you can generally pull that off as well) your G1 build should be one CV and 2 subs to join your BB and CA off Denmark.  Turn 2 buy is 9 transports and move everything you can to west germany for a G3 sea lion.  Forget Russia…buy infantry on G3 and tanks on G4 to simply block the russians.  The key is to take out the UK and with 10 tanks and 10 infantry, supported by as many aircraft as you can muster you should crack it.  Now you have an additional 26 ipcs, UK is out of the war and if the japs have done their job, then the yanks should be more concerned about their west coast than saving their british allies…so with the western front sewn up you can then focus your full attention on Russia.

Meanwhile in the pacific the Japanese move everything to sz6 and build another carrier and a transport.  If the US entire fleet is in Hawaii on turn 2, attack it.  If its on the west coast, move your fleet to Hawaii (along with the transports) for a J3 attack on the US fleet.   With an invasion threat on the west coast of the US, the US player is less likely to build/commit forces in the atlantic to retake the UK.  In any case on J3 you attack and kill the US fleet (you may not have enough troops to invade the west coast but that doesn’t matter, the transports can be used to take hawaii and other islands that will affect its income bonuses).  You then have at least two to three more turns before the US can assemble enough ships to make their presence felt in the pacific and again if he’s building in the pacific he is giving you a free hand in europe.  Build troops and transports in Japan and move as much south as you can towards india…You should have enough time to press through china towards India which should be the major target and your overall priority.

Remember the priority should be to take out the enemies capacity to wage war, it they cant build troops then you must eventually win.  Easiest targets for the axis are in this order…Paris, Sydney, London, India.

VOLUNTARY DESTRUCTION OF ASSETS…SCORCHED EARTH POLICY.

I would like a ruling on whether a player may opt to voluntarily destroy friendly airbases/ports/factories rather than allow them to fall into enemy hands. Seems perfectly legitimate to me if done in the owing players turn.  Retreating forces in WW2 rarely left anything intact for enemy to use and this is especially true of ports and airfields (which generally had to be rebuilt by the advancing forces) and in regard to factories, those that couldn’t be moved (underground by the Germans) or by the Russians were destroyed by friendly forces.  Official ruling please and thanks in advance.

Not yet…real life has caught up with me recently and I’ve had less time on my hands than I expected.  I’ll post here when I get it underway.

@Cow:

if japan sets up to sink me in hawaii… I pull back to west usa. that’s not hard to do.

That wont help you if Japan decides to attack the US fleet before turn 4.  J1 everything to sz 6 Buy CV and destroyer. J2 Buy transports and another CV and move everything to Hawaii.  J3 Buy 2 bombers and some subs. J3 attack philipines (cv and transports purchased on J2), attack hawaii and/or attack the us fleet (if it was silly enough to stay on the west coast). J4 Move bombers and subs to hawaii (to smash any subsequent us navy builds on the west coast).  This should free up the jap fleet to wreak havoc at will in the pacific.

So what exactly are the German moves/builds(and where) for Germany to secure the UK on turn 3?  Im thinking AC + transports turn 1 in 112, then transports again in turn 2 in same sea zone? Yes?  Could an effective counter for UK be not to build at all on turn 1, save the ipcs and build 2 BB’s on turn 2 in sz80.  With the 3 scrambled fighters they might get lucky defending against the german fleet on 5 fours.