France's role in Global 1940 SE

[Cornwallis]

@FranceNeedsMorePower italy will kill them.
If not you have 4 and could gather them in bordeaux. Or attack belgium with Support of the French fighter.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@FranceNeedsMorePower

There’s a very clear answer to this, unfortunately: no.

Using this game as an example:

2025-7-16-World-War-II-Europe-1940-2nd-Edition.tsvg

Where the Allies went full scramble and the Luftwaffe took quite a few losses sinking the 110 and 111 fleets, here’s the best the British can put together in sea zone 110 (spending all of their IPCs on turn 1 on naval and air units), assuming no units die killing the damaged German battleship:

1 cruiser
2 destroyers
3 fighters

In this scenario, the Germans can still put together (remember, Southern Italy aircraft can attack sea zone 110 and land in Holland Belgium):

3 fighters
2 tactical bombers
2 strategic bombers

Germany will have an 80+% chance to win. It could be even higher if the 2 submarines that hit sea zone 106 instead attacked the cruiser in sea zone 91.

[FranceNeedsMorePower]

@barnee Bummer, that’s pretty funny though what your wrote. Lol.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@Cornwallis

Well without the cruiser and including the Gibraltar fighter, with a 3 fighter scramble by the Axis, there’s a 12% chance of victory.

[FranceNeedsMorePower]

@SuperbattleshipYamato So basically their death is inevitable.

[FranceNeedsMorePower]

@SuperbattleshipYamato I tried it any the fleet survived! It seems Italy has to pick and choose between thinning out the fleet, taking Greece, or attacking southern France. They can’t do all.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@FranceNeedsMorePower

Italy shouldn’t need to grab Greece on the first turn. Unless they’re lucky enough to also grab Gibraltar or Egypt that same turn to get the national objective, it would be more efficient to have either Germany or Italy mobilize Bulgaria and then attack.

[FranceNeedsMorePower]

@SuperbattleshipYamato I keep trying to attack the British-French fleet but I keep failing.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@FranceNeedsMorePower

I think you should take Cornwallis’ comment more seriously.

Even if Germany loses their air force sinking that fleet (which usually is only possible if they already took heavy losses destroying the fleets in sea zone 110 and 111 with a scramble), Italy now has a free hand in the Mediterrean.

Trust me, there’s not much more dangerous in a Global 1940 game than an Italy that isn’t contained and goes wild in Africa and the Middle East. Unless the Eastern Front and/or the Pacific War are going really well for the Allies, the Allies have basically lost in that scenario.

You made a good point about taking British hits first though.

@Cornwallis

You’re right. I do think it is the least worst British turn 1 Mediterrean move.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@FranceNeedsMorePower

Really? In both scenarios I succeeded:

2025-7-16-World-War-II-Europe-1940-2nd-Edition 2.tsvg

2025-7-16-World-War-II-Europe-1940-2nd-Edition 3.tsvg

And I think this actually highlights the brittleness of the British-French defense:

If the Allies try to preserve the carrier by killing destroyers and cruisers first, their overall defense capability will be greatly weakened (since the battle calculator odds assume that the carrier is killed first) and Italy can easily sink all the ships.

But if the Allies take out the carrier early on, as long as Italy takes Southern France (which they can easily do), all Italy has to do is destroy the carrier and retreat. The British planes will have nowhere to land, the French ships will have to retreat since the Luftwaffe is too powerful, and Germany can make short work of the remaining British ships

Oh, and in both games the Axis were able to take Greece and Southern France on the first turn and sink sea zone 93.

[Cornwallis]

@SuperbattleshipYamato were you talking about my video on UK1?
What is your UK1 plan? Any input is welcomed off course.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@Cornwallis

I was referring to your critique of the viability of moving the British Mediterrean fleet to sea zone 93.

Given that I don’t have much experience with bids and the fact that almost any Allied strategy will still result in an Axis victory, I don’t have a set UK turn 1 strategy.

Some moves (not all at once, obviously) I think are viable are Taranto, probably Gibastion, in Global hitting Iraq or Ethiopia using the Indian transport if the Soviets aren’t going south, or landing some troops from Canada or the UK in Morroco if possible (otherwise, try to activate Brazil).

I like putting industrial complexes in the Middle East and Africa. Probably one in Egypt on the first turn and one in Persia to fly fighters to Moscow later on. I like to produce fast movers in South Africa’s complex.

[FranceNeedsMorePower]

@Cornwallis Your video’s out? Where is the link I can’t find it?

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@FranceNeedsMorePower

I don’t think this is the UK video he was specifically talking about, but Cornwallis did make a UK video some time ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lscPRKF9VEE

[FranceNeedsMorePower]

@Cornwallis Have you ever seen my France strategy video?

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@FranceNeedsMorePower

Yes. I believe I commented on it on the forum.

[Cornwallis]

@FranceNeedsMorePower no no only home by next Saturday.

[Cornwallis]

@FranceNeedsMorePower yes i agree with your ideas.

[Cornwallis]

@SuperbattleshipYamato
It´s a video over a UK opening but not the opening i use nowadays

https://youtu.be/htJEztSxmo8?feature=shared

[Cornwallis]

@FranceNeedsMorePower what you could do to save the french fleet:

If Germany doesn´t attack the UK cruiser at gibraltar you can scramble in 110 en next to scotland trying to kill as much fighters as you can. Depending on where Germany uses his BB you should be able to kill at least 2. A german player normally also sends one fighter to tobruk. So there are 9 air units left that can reach the french navy. 7 if he builts a carrier.

On UK1 kill the italian destroyer and tpt next to malta with fighter from malta and tac bomb from egypt.
Then in NCM pull all UK ships to South France and add the fighter from gibraltar and malta.
You could take the tpt from egypt with 2 inf with you and land them in S France. Boosting it to 4 ground units might deter italy from attacking it. If he doesn´t you can add the two french from normandy. Or ship in the french and canon for fun sakes. I think italy will use air to attack south france and ignore your fleet. If not and he attacks only the fleet you can tip or even lose your carrier and land fighters in S France.

This move is when you really want to hunt the luftwaffe. So UK1 should be a full built on london.
Egypt can´t attack ethiopia but should fortify in order to reppel a Italian landing on italy1.

Haven´t tried it and it will probably fail but it will be a very dynamic game.