You don’t want to have to liberate London; if you can you may revive a losing game but losing London by itself is a huge downturn in your chances and if the Germans didn’t lose 50%+ of their air during the battle, the rest of the game will be a slog.
This is why an early Japan declaration is well-combined with a Sea-Lion threat; the USA has to begin his commit to one coast or the other, and depending on which way they go, Germany can respond. Once the USA has begun the KJF build, there is probably no viable rescue force that can be brought together ad-hoc, but that’s the point; as the allies you have to see what they are about to try, and focus on making it extremely costly to follow through with their commit.
If UK responds with 100% defense, a proper build, the invasion won’t be easy or cheap without amazing luck. If UK goofs around, taking them over becomes so easy with the x2 x3 waves (+1 Italy sacrificial attack) that no USA intervention or rescue plan will succeed anyways. However, this works both ways; once Germany has gone down this road he has to escalate his commitment (or fold and attack Russia) turn after turn which means no pressure on Russia since its all on UK….
On the other hand, if Germany is putting all his eggs in this basket, USA can too.
- Bombers built in WUS can still fly direct to London, they just can’t bomb the channel on the way past.
- “KJF” forces on the West Coast can transition direct to SZ 89 and with a naval base, are in the same position -1 turn as if they had been built “for KGF”
- as USA/UK you don’t even need a place to land or carriers, you have the GIUK and British Carriers as unsinkable bases if you need them (Greenland, Iceland, UK).
- once Russia has transformed and consolidated, it fights Germany on a 1:1 basis after turn 4. If it avoids the attrition of the early game and gets all its income for 2-3 turns, it is neither easy nor quick to defeat.
