This article is written for the casual Axis and Allies Revised player that either uses or is considering using a carrier buy in the Baltic for Germany’s first turn.
Germany starts with two subs, a transport, and a destroyer in the Baltic sea zone. If Germany does not purchase any naval units on its first turn for the Baltic, the United Kingdom player can attack the German navy with two fighters and a bomber, and have a good chance of destroying 36 IPC of German navy at the cost of 20-35 IPC of United Kingdom air units.
Once the Baltic fleet is destroyed, unless Germany spends a considerable deal of IPCs on German navy during a single turn, the only units that Germany can use to repel an Allied fleet in the north Atlantic will be air units, as newly produced German naval units are vulnerable to air attack from London. The Allies can very quickly produce a navy that can easily repulse any German solely air attack at very little cost.
For this reason, some players choose to attempt to preserve the German Baltic navy by building a Baltic carrier. With a Baltic fleet, the German air force can take care of any small Allied transport fleet, while the German Baltic navy can be used in conjunction with the German air force to destroy even a considerably sized Allied fleet.
There are other approaches to playing Germany; building nothing but ground units, building air and ground units, building transports instead of a carrier at Baltic, building transports and a carrier, researching various weapons development advances – but those fall outside the scope of this article.
Plan A: Threaten London: 1 carrier, 3 transports.
At the end of the first German turn, some German fighters will land in territories or sea zones that are too far for the fighters to attack London on the second turn and also land. However, the Baltic carrier can give some of those fighters the extra effective range they need to hit London on G2.
Building a carrier and three transports on the first German turn means no German ground units produced that turn, which means that Russia will be able to press in on Germany quite early, as Germany will not have the units to respond. In turn, this means that Russia will have an increased income for some turns, and will therefore be able to produce more infantry, making Russia far more difficult to attack. The German transports can be used to transport infantry from Germany or Western Europe to Karelia to pressure the Russians by Germany’s third turn, but as that will tie up the expensive German fleet, Germany cannot count on being able to use its transports to move units to the Russian front.
However, the carrier and transports allow Germany to pose a significant invasion threat to London that the Allies must respond to. This is of limited benefit, as unless Germany builds even more transports, the Allies can quickly make London’s defenses tremendously strong with transported ground units and fighters from Eastern US, and ground units produced at London.
Although Russia is stronger early and London can be defended against any German attack, to do so, the Allies cannot secure Africa early (as Allied resources are tied up at London, so Germany can use its Southern Europe transport to help claim Africa on the second and third Germany turns). Additionally, the size of the Baltic fleet means that the Germans can move the Baltic fleet around early without having to constantly worry about reinforcing the Baltic fleet, which in turn means that the Germans can hold the Atlantic for far longer, which in turn means that the Allies will have to take longer to set up any transport chains to London.
(By transport chains, I refer to the Allied Kill Germany First strategy of producing 4-5 UK transports that offload 8+ units in Europe or Africa a turn, and 6 US transports, with 6 US ground units produced at Eastern US marching to Eastern Canada, then being transported from Eastern Canada to London on 3 of the 6 US transports, and then being transported to Europe or Africa on the other 3 of the 6 US transports).
Plan B: Fend off Allies: 1 carrier, 8 infantry, or 1 carrier, 4 infantry, 3 artillery
Although this plan still has a carrier, it plays out much differently from Plan A. Now, London is not threatened, so the Allies can immediately begin producing transports and other units to start invasion of Europe, or air units to attack the Baltic fleet. Furthermore, the Baltic fleet is now not nearly as strong, having far less fodder. If the Baltic fleet leaves the Baltic now, the Allies can very likely destroy it immediately with Allied air from London and Allied naval units used as fodder. (The Allies will both in greater or lesser quantity if they are carrying out a Kill Germany First plan)
Russia remains strong in this scenario, as German infantry and artillery are slow to reach the front. However, since eight German infantry have been produced, Germany can reliably start pressing into Russian territory around the fourth turn. German infantry produced in Germany on the first German turn can move to Eastern Europe or Balkans on the second turn, Karelia or Belorussia or Ukraine on the third turn, and Archangel, West Russia, or Caucasus on the fourth turn. However, the bulk of the infantry should almost always go to E. Europe on the next turn instead of Balkans; E. Europe has a better location.
It is likely that Russia will have stacked a lot of units on West Russia at the end of the first Russian turn, and taken either Belorussia or Ukraine. On Russia’s second turn, Russia will probably try to take Karelia, Belorussia, and/or Ukraine with units from West Russia, and Russia will probably try to continue trading territory with Germany for as long as possible, both to destroy Germany’s infantry at the Russian front, and to gain territories for IPC income.
Both Plan A and Plan B allow Russia to make early claims on territory that Germany cannot really respond to. If Germany attempts to place a lot of units at Karelia, Belorussia, or Ukraine, Germany risks a hit and run attack from West Russia.
(A hit and run attack is one in which units in one territory attack another units in another territory. The attacking forces attempt to destroy a great deal of defending units while losing relatively little. The attacking forces retreat before completely destroying the defending units, as if the attacking forces destroyed the defending units and captured the territory, the defender would be able to counterattack the attacking forces next turn, inflicting expensive casualties. After the attacker retreats, the attacker moves up reinforcing infantry, making the attacker’s position very difficult to counterattack.)
Therefore, Germany should probably only use Plan A or Plan B if Russia moved some of its attacking units (tanks) east. If Russia is not in position to exploit a German weakness, the German “weakness” will not really be all that weak.
If Russia moved units east, Germany can try the more aggressive
Plan C: Fend off Allies: 1 carrier, 3 infantry, 3 tanks. Here, Germany produces tanks at Germany that can move to Karelia, Belorussia, or Ukraine on Germany’s second turn. Germany really needs to move infantry to the Russian front, so there an additional Southern Europe transport or two to move units to Ukraine and/or Caucasus may be useful.
