build infantry. say prayers.
UK Strategy -"Middle Earth"
-
Its like I was trying to say that for a couple days now somewhere else on the forums… -_-
-
I’m playing a solo game where UK is using Middle Earth to turn India into a fortress. Japan did kill Anzac first. After UK took Persia turn one, Italy took Syria turn one, and Germany plopped $30 in Southern France to help Italy take Persia.
It’s now an arms race. Germany has factory in Egypt, Italy has factory in Iraq, and UK has factory in Persia with transport shucks of troops from South Africa.
US started out all Pacific, but on turn four realized Persia might fall so built a nice fleet with 3 trns in DC to go help UK.
All the builds in Persia meant for India are now forced to sit in Persia. It’s UK5 now and there are two ftr in Persia that I want to send to India but feel they have to stay to defend Persia as most likely I5, G6 one two punch might take out Persia. India is a rock but spread out too thin -now and landings can be made between India and Persia with little resistance - these two territories were supposed to be stacked with troops from Persia build.
Japan took all of Australia and NZ on turn 5, US took Iwo Jima. Japan wiped out the final China territory and has six tanks there 2 spaces from Stalingrad.
I have no idea where solo games will end up as I’m playing each country with their own strats. When UK started Middle Earth I expected a wall of fodder from Persia to Malaya to hamper Japan. Game turned into a global war over Persia.
Japan is the quickest to take out Persia if that’s your game as it’s possible they could do that J3.
Axis may take Persia next turn. If they don’t there will be another 6 tanks coming following turn (and planes). Even if Axis ends up not being able to take Persia, they have effectively ended its support of India by turn 3-4.
Germany taking its time getting to Moscow and Japan prob going to help them hitting from the east. If Persia falls Moscow will be hit from 3 sides, and then Calcutta from two sides.
Italy and Germany focused on Persia, Japan may get there in a few turns if they want.
If the Axis focuses hard on Persia, it cripples Middle Earth.
edit: UK Pac dropped an AB in Ceylon with 3 anzac ftrs, and 3 UK ftrs in India along with UK, Anzac, French ships so no amphib landings for Japan on Calcutta. I mean, they could try but will lose a large chunk of their fleet doing so.
UK also has radar and has been purchasing one AAA per turn, including one for Persia turn 3. Hitting at 2 turns the AAA into a game changer.
-
@dazedwit Thanks for sharing the write-up. What’s missing from this story, from my point of view, is a discussion of what the Russians were doing with the extra breathing room they got from Germany spending $30 on the Mediterranean.
If this was a no-bid OOB game, then that’s why the Axis are winning; the game is unbalanced and the Axis will always have the advantage, no matter what openings you pick. Dumping money into southern France will shift where the Axis is winning from eastern Europe to the Middle East, but they’re still going to be winning unless you have horrible dice.
If this was a Balanced Mod game or a game with a significant Allied bid, then I’d be asking what Russia was doing while Germany and Italy were throwing everything they had into the Med campaign. If Germany doesn’t build any new units to send east, then Russia should be building artillery and tanks and threatening Finland and Romania. You can’t guarantee that Persia won’t fall if the Axis focus all their resources on it, but you can make Persia so expensive to take (assuming a reasonable bid) that the Allies will get generous compensation elsewhere.
-
This is just straight OOB, but this game I added tech rolls. You had to pay for the rolls so only 4 countries got tech.
Russia went Red Skies and bought 3 SB’s turn one. Counterattacks are blowouts when the 3 SB’s are in on it.
Germany has been scatter brained (Japan too). On Russia’s first turn at war they sent a SB to each of the two new German factories and the third SB to one of the counterattacks. Germany didn’t bother repairing the damage next turn and instead dropped inf all over western Europe because every single inf died on G1.
Germany and Russia keep trading the same 3 territories back and forth. I’m just starting R6 and they will only be able to take two of the 3 back this turn.
On I5/G6, they gave up on trying to take Persia and burst into the Caucasus. The shucks from South Africa just made Persia too large to take even with a can opener, follow up. Stalingrad going down next turn as Japan has six tanks and 5 planes ready to hit it, and one space away is 5 tanks, 2 ftr, 2 tac, 1 sb.
Russia has been slugging it out with Germany and holding its own. Now Axis is about to hit them from the south and the east so they need to turn their attention away from the west.
Germany has rockets. I think next turn I will drop two AB’s in Romania and Slovakia to get extra damage on Moscow IC.
Japan is in Australia and needs to figure out what to do. US has large fleet and 5 fully loaded trns in Iwo Jima. US has blocker to stop Japan from taking Hawaii in one move. IF US was going next, they will be taking Tokyo. Japan goes next, so I think they will drop an AB in Korea and create six ftr scramble with whatever boats I add. It will be too much for US to risk… US could plop into Asia but large Japan fleet in Australia can cause real pain if US gets that far out of position. US was initially trying to take back Phillipines but Japan played dosey do to keep them away and they hit Iwo instead.
I want to be super aggressive with US, but I know that will end up costing them the game so I think they will return to Caroline Islands next turn to protect Hawaii… but then the two fleets in Japan and Australia can converge into one massive fleet to wipe out US. Gotta figure out what to do with them.
So far UK has spent every dime on Persia and South Africa. Now that Axis has peeled away from Persia they can focus on Europe.
US just landed decent sized fleet and 3 fully loaded trns in Morrocco with the intent to hit other side of Med to help save Persia. Now they are going to hit either Holland or Normandy and let UK set up bridges. Germany has been dropping inf all over west Europe (normally it’s pretty bare) so it won’t be easy for the Allies.
UK pac/Persia has a lot of ftrs and they will be going to Moscow soon - if Japan goes north instead of west. UK pac has Bay of Bengal and Persia area fully stacked, and a six ftr scramble for Calcutta so Japan is going to bleed . UK has radar and India has 6 AAA. Basically, Japan is going to howl when they try to get to India. As such, Japan decided to go after Russia instead to help Germany.
-
Starting R7. Wild mood swings this game. couple turns ago thought Axis had it locked up. Turn ago looked like Allies were going to win. Italian and German one-two response last turn might have swung it back to even.
First five turns were a global battle over Persia with every country involved except US and surprisingly, Japan. The French destroyer was involved.
Now the global battle has shifted to Caucasus. UK pac getting too big for its britches in ME as Large Japanese fleet with 5 loaded trns pivoted to Java instead of heading north. UK Pac needs to decide this turn whether to keep going in ME, or head back to Calcutta.
Germany finally sent its tanks into Ukraine to link up with Rostov. Germany had been holding its tanks back since R3 when Russian bombers wiped them off the map. Red Skies going to wipe out the Ukraine tanks now. The Russian bombers have been holding Germany in check, but now Moscow getting it from other side so they will eventually reach Moscow - then bombers will relocate to Siberian troops to retake Moscow.
edit: this game was the most responsible I’ve ever played Germany - their entire G3 purchase was inf for western Europe. Normally that’s pretty empty. US/UK D-Day got pushed right back into the ocean because I had so many ready inf/art in adjacent territories. and now enough planes to go after the d-day fleet.
-
@dazedwit To keep the discussion alive, i´ve been making some strategy videos.
Here´s one for the UK:
-
@Cornwallis good job.
-
@crockett36 thanks! Feedback is welcome.
-
@Cornwallis Can’t imagine I would recommend the bomber buy but there is an option not covered - 5inf 1mIC for Egypt. Also the Gibastion strat I don’t recall being mentioned.
-
@simon33 everytime i buy a minor on UK1 they sealion me on G3 so i don´t do that anymore. The bomber can be a thing when for exemple you still have the Canadian transport left so 2 more units on london.
Gibastion is in one of my other videos but is also suboptimal and can backfire so easily bc you need to reinforce algeria a lot and italy can go for egypt more easier. -
@Cornwallis Not my experience, are you scrambling to 110 or doing something else non standard?
I kind of agree about Gibastion not being so optimal because it means you have to deal with the Italian fleet for a long time until you can sink it. Not too sure what you mean about “backfire so easily” though.
With a bid of 16+ I like the idea of sub 98 ftr Malta, that way you can sink the Italian BB and keep the UK CV alive in 92 with the 109 DD. Surviving ships in 97 need to be attacked by Italy. so normally the Italian fleet is pretty toast after this attack. Weakness is that Italy can land on Algeria and then the Luftwaffe can attack but expect to lose 2 planes in the first round. I suppose the transport can put 2 UK land units on Algeria.
-
@simon33 no i don´t scramble in 110 anymore. Have done it 3 times and got diced all three times. We play with no bid.
Backfires as in they take algeria and destroy your fleet cheaply with luftwaffe. -
The Middle-earth strategy is often seen online. Granted variations of it are always different. It is a solid strategy. I play a couple of games a week on Triple A and there is a good chance I see it weekly.
I have even seen the version detailed here, with the Harbor in Persia.
Interesting strategy.How I see the Middle-earth strategy used over at Triple A is as follows.
1.The Allied player occupies the Middle East and gets IC’s up and running.
-
Planes fly down thru Africa and around to Middle East(Once threat of Sealion is gone)
-
The Russian players fight a delaying action. Very few counter attack ( I always attempt to counter attack).
-
When the fall of Moscow is inevitable, anywhere from turn 5-8 the Russian player abandons Moscow. They then usually fall back on the Middle East, looking to join the Russian stack with the now sizable Brit forces. This often slows the Germans considerably.
-
USA sets up a schuck/schuck thru the Med. USA-Gibraltar-Egypt. Where somewhere around 8 troops a turn are dumped into the Middle East.
Then with the Germans facing a huge Wall in the Caucasus and unable to advance further…the USA will attempt to finish off Japan.
Once Japan is neutralized or defeated then the full might of the USA is applied, usually thru the Med…but sometimes to the North thru Norway.If done right, the Middle-earth strategy can lead to very long games. 18-25 turns. This is the most common style of Middle-earth strategy that I encounter. It can frustrate Axis players with low attention spans (looks in mirror) For the Axis to win, it will be a slog. Which is part of the strategy, bore your opponent to death and suck the fun out of the game. That being said, it is effective. I still lose to it on occasion, even when I know it is coming. I have probably lost to it 3-4 times in the last year, yet I have seen it dozens of times. Usually the economics defeats the Axis. When I have lost to it, people have done well to neutralize Japan.
-
-
Middle Earth is a rather intuitive strategy; however, there’s only one problem and that’s Japan. Back when I experimented and replicated a typical Middle Earth strategy you described, the downfall of the Allies was quite literally Japan winning the game with 6 victory cities. And Japan won before Germany could even get to Moscow.
I see middle earth as a double edged sword. Sure the Axis cant get to you directly, however you’re sinking a lot of your money into an area of the map where the game is not won and lost.
-
I am no advocate for it…I do not use it. Just commenting what I encountered.
-
Whats a good alternative UK strategy that you like using?
-
The problem with middle earth is the british are poor, 30-35 ipc usually. They cant build a lot of infrastructure, minors/airports/naval. For it to be successful, maximum a minor and airport in egypt. Then a tranny shuttle to and from egypt/SA can work. But as a minimum it cost 15 each round (3 inf in egypt and 2 inf in SA). If you cant afford that, its not worth it. Suddenly you need to a 25+IPC investment in london to support USA landings
-
@oysteilo Much of the point of Middle Earth is that you skip the landings-from-London. The US comes to Gibraltar and supports the UK in attacking Italy.
A factory built in Egypt itself is typically not safe, and as you point out, the UK can’t really afford to fuel more than 2 factories for most of the game. So, you use the factory in South Africa, build one in Persia on turn 2, and then you have 6 British units per turn that you can use to secure Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. This then lets you quickly send subs built in South Africa into the Med to start convoying Italy. If the UK can hold Egypt and Jordan and bother Italy with subs, then Italy will usually be far too poor to resist a strong US invasion; the US can buy whatever transports, land units, destroyers, carriers, etc. are needed, while the UK buys only the relatively cheap infantry and subs, plus maybe 1 tank in South Africa now and then. This makes the best use of the larger US income and also sets the US up to ‘fork’ West Germany, Normandy, and Italy from the sea zone next to Gibraltar.
The thought behind Middle Earth is that you usually need to invest something in the Med/Africa in order to avoid losing most of the British income, so as long as you’re playing there at all, you may as well go big in that theater. Better to just keep on pushing in the Med / Middle East than to try to pivot to an Atlantic strategy that will require substantial UK investment in many transports, destroyers, carriers, and so on. As @oysteilo correctly points out, you want to keep UK investment in infrastructure to a minimum…but you start with harbors in South Africa and Egypt, so the only infrastructure you need to buy for Middle Earth is a single minor factory in Persia and two transports (one at a time) to shuttle troops up from South Africa to Egypt. Total investment is 26 IPCs. It doesn’t get cheaper than that, as far as effective strategies go.
As @Galendae correctly points out, the strategy can lead to extremely long games against a competent Axis player; if the US needs to spend most of its income containing Japan in the opening, then a serious US invasion of Italy won’t come until much later in the game, by which point Moscow has probably fallen or at least been crippled. I don’t see a good way around this, which is part of why I prefer to play Anniversary these days rather than Global.
I’m curious if anyone can recommend other UK strategies, especially if they’re likely to lead to a shorter game. There was some interesting discussion of “Gibastion” a few years ago, but I haven’t heard of new ones since then.
-
@TheDesertFox
The Best Allied Strategies are those that adapt to what the Axis are doing. You must be flexible and take what is available. My only axiom with Allies; “the 1st USA landing in Europe has got to stick”No getting pushed back into the ocean.
I do prefer the northern route thru Norway if it makes sense, rather than go up thru the Med.
-
To fully take advantage of the minor in south africa you need a naval in Persia if you shuttle there. That can make sense if you can keep axis air out. It is also in danger of Japan subs
Suggested Topics
