What a great game last night - quality play. I stand by my initial comment regarding the Dutch though. Last nights team picked itself because of injuries; once those players return they’ll be squabbling over who’s best and should get to play.

The Italian defence……where do I start? My thoughts were confirmed - Barzagli just doesn’t have the necessary quality and, although he gave his all, Materazzi has never recovered his form since last years injury. Donadoni is rightly under pressure - with such a static midfield as he played, you’re going to need creativity and spontaniety up front to complement Toni, a quality but one dimensional forward. Di Natale should be firmly on the bench, waiting his turn to make his mark should he be called on because of injuries. And Camoronesi - tremendous energy, absolutely zero contribution. Why do coaches persist with him?!?

Interestingly UEFA and the head of the Italian referees association are legitimising Hollands first goal?!? Bewildering. According to them, ‘the letter of the law’ states that players off the pitch can still play people onside i.e. Panucci lying injured. However, there are more letters to that law which they have omitted to share with us - that it differentiates between players off the pitch injured and one who has deliberately left the pitch to make an opponent offside.

Anyway, although I think the score flattered the Dutch, they played well and were great to watch, as always; really refreshing football.

The only question regarding Holland is, when are they going to implode?? As always, it’s just a matter of time as to when the battle of egos will happen. A shame, because they play attractive football.

Italy are the strongest, to my mind. In squad terms, they are stronger in midfield and attack than when they won the world cup; defensively however, is the worry - how will they re-act to Cannavaro being out? Barzagli is probably the obvious replacement; however he has had an average season in an average team. And you never know which Materazzi is going to show up - the focused and determined one, or the lunatic.

My only hope is that France are on an early plane home. Again, such a shame, because they play good football. But Domenech really lets his nation down with his poisoned comments.

So, Italy for me. But I’m afraid I have to say, France are contenders too.

@The:

However, it needs to be pointed out -if it hasn’t already- that the Lend-Lease by the UK/US did help the Reds quite substantially. I know this is getting off topic, but for the first little while during 41-42 and probably a bit afterward, the Russians didn’t have a lot of transports and similar vehicles to help them get around. I can’t remember the numbers, but the Lend-Lease program gave the Russians quite a lot of vehicles to help them with their battles.

Aircraft 14,795
Tanks 7,056
Jeeps 51,503
Trucks 375,883
Motorcycles 35,170
Tractors 8,071
Guns 8,218
Machine guns 131,633
Explosives 345,735 tons
Building equipment valued $10,910,000
Railroad freight cars 11,155
Locomotives 1,981
Cargo ships 90
Submarine hunters 105
Torpedo boats 197
Ship engines 7,784
Food supplies 4,478,000 tons
Machines and equipment $1,078,965,000
Non-ferrous metals 802,000 tons
Petroleum products 2,670,000 tons
Chemicals 842,000 tons
Cotton 106,893,000 tons
Leather 49,860 tons
Tires 3,786,000
Army boots 15,417,001 pairs

courtesy of Wiki

This is from the U.S. alone, and does not include U.K. numbers.

@captainjack:

What are OOB rules?  And what is a “sealion” attack?  Thanks!

‘Out of the box’ ie. as manufactured

Sealion is an invasion of the U.K.

@ncscswitch:

Forget Japan.

Set up the Europe/Africa shuck starting from WUS to prevent Japan incursions into North America.

Sounds like appealing advice for my fledgling A & A career LOL with maybe a token raiding party in the Pacific to annoy Japan, AFTER the main convoy is operational.

@ Darth

I think not being prepared for Jap interferance is where I’m falling down - buying too many transports on US1 and not enough infantry to get them progressing from WUS through Canada.

And as you say, better a small delay at the start than when you’re convoys are running smoothly to and from the LZ.

@ncscswitch:

For the US to go after Southern using a NAD strat, the US needs to purchase exactly ONE non-transport naval unit… a Carrier.

With the remaining PACFLT and the initial Atlantic Fleet, USA can set up to do a shuck into Algeria fron ECan, and then from Algeria into Southern.

5 Transport, 1 Carrier are all the naval units that are required bey those normally alive after J1.

If Germany wants to sacrifice the Luftwaffe to kill either of those fleets…  I am doing a Happy Dance as the Allies.

I’m just guessing Switch, but if the German Med ships are still there you’ll need another transport or two as fodder to clear them out? Then the 5 transports, carrier and existing US ships you mention will be adequate to defend themselves?

p.s. I was very disappointed to read of the spam assault on your email. Some people :-(

@Bunnies:

If you try to SEAL the Germans in with a block of US and UK infantry at E. Europe, then that’s a lot of force that isn’t at Russia.  If the Axis player is decent, you’ll probably find that Russia falls before Germany does, in which case you’ll have a problem.  The solution is to NOT block Germany at E. Europe, and to keep dumping infantry into Russia through Archangel.  After you have a nice fat block of infantry at Russia, then you press UK/US against Germany and Russia against Japan, or you press US/Russia against Japan with UK running interference in Europe.

I’ve been re-inforcing with the UK and/or USA through KAR to EEU and not getting very far - so ARC to RUS is the way to go, and develop from there?

Thanks Darth. A couple of points on your thoughts :-

I understand what you say regarding switching from AFR to SEU once the German med ships are sunk; however, CaspSub p.20 says that you should ‘rejoice’ if the Allies attack SEU - should I take that with a pinch of salt?

and….

As you say, it can take a few turns to get the US logistics set-up, but I find a reasonably good Japan player can play havoc during that time by landing or threatening a landing during that period which requires a reaction, thus hampering the US by another couple of turns. By the time my US is ready to kick-off the Japs are breakfasting in Moscow.

I always seem to end up with the UK helping out Russia nicely, via Karelia, but I can never seem to get the USA into the game.

What’s your preferred strategy with the USA? A north European juggernaut with the UK? Through north Africa? Island hopping in the Pacific? Or something else?

Really need input on this one  :?