I’ve been perusing strategy papers from various A&A revised resources cough Caspian Sub cough and I noticed that a commonly referenced German strategy for beginning players is to station most or all fighters in Western Europe. I’m wondering what the logic is behind this move… I believe that I read somewhere that it is to “defend against naval attack”. I don’t see how it could accomplish this, since a ship can be three squares away on one turn (and thus out of the fighter’s attack/return range) and then adjacent on the next turn, therefor able to offload tanks and infantry right into your expensive fighter planes. Now Bombers, I can see, since their effective range of 3 means that they can attack any naval threat at least once before it gets to offload, but the fighters just confuse me.
Are they intended to just sit in the territory and actually be the frontline defense? Without tons of infantry that seems crazy, as your opponent gets to trade infantry for fighters. Anyhow, I’m sure I must be overlooking something. If necessary I’ll look up the reference where I read this, but hopefully someone can clear this up. Where do YOU park your fighters on your first few turns as Germany?
With all those fighters and a few infantry the allies would lose that landing unless they had a massive landing force.
With the fighters in Western Europe they can attack any naval unit that is anywhere near Europe or Northern Africa.
So yes they do a good job of keeping the navy at bay without fear of losing the fighters to a landing.
don’t forget, fighters defend on a 4, 5 if a jet, which makes it the most defensibly capable unit on the board. That’s a plus also when defending a territory.
Epicurus- I would strongly recommend that you tithe 1 or 2 Infantry per round to W Europe, keeping an advantage over the total amount the allies can bring at all times. German Fighters should NEVER be placed in a position to be killed- but a stack of Infantry with Fighters as a backbone is one of the best defenses possible.
Think of it this way- you’re forcing the allies to move carefully at sea while also being able to attack Karelia and Norway and return to France after the battle. If you need to attack deeper into Russia, you can set up a chain- for example- 3 Fighters in W Europe, 2 in E Europe. The 2 Fighters in E Europe can attack the Ukraine or Belorussia and fall back to France, while the Fighters in France can attack Norway or Karelia etc. and land in E Europe. If you hold Karelia it’s even better- you can now hit Archangel and W Russia and land in Karelia, while the Fighters parked in Karelia can attack and end up defending France.
Yeah you don’t defend with just fighters…you stack infantry so your fighters are well-cushioned and wreak massive havoc on attacking forces…
Yeah you don’t defend with just fighters…you stack infantry so your fighters are well-cushioned and wreak massive havoc on attacking forces…
I most certainly agree. In fact, that was probably the source of my confusion.
Anyway, it makes sense in light of the tactic of sending a few infantry per turn to support the fighters there, which makes Western Europe both a good staging area for fighters and also a very imposing defense. Thanks for the clarification!
P.S: Very quick and well-informed response! I’m impressed with the forum.
Well I realize you don’t just use fighters alone, you use them in conjunction with inf as powerful back up. :wink:
