Egypt and South Africa

In Post Sea-Lion I usually shoot a German transport +1 armor onto the other side of Gibraltar.

Else… loading from Northern Italy works.  I have played it before where I’d always leave 1 german inf in Northern Italy for that purpose, and when the time came, load him up to get him over to north africa.

Alot of it is situational though… Egypt doesn’t always fall early.

I remember one situation where the British fighters attacked German ships. It ended up with both sides destroying each other, but the German player was just glad that his transports survived… until the French fighter launched off and ruined his day. Hehe.

@minus: While I agree that “all costs” must always be used carefully and is hardly ever right I think you should also consider the following things:

1. Cairo underlines one NO of Italy even if Gibraltar might fall into the hands of US/UK for 5 IPC each turn
2. You must consider that saving units cannot win the game once the income somehow gets imbalance and time will clearly play into the axis’s hands

So it clearly depends on if even w/o Cairo the allies have realistic chances to win even in the longer term. If time will only play for axis in case Cairo falls, I can imagine there are situation where you should either stand or resign.

Don’t abandon Egypt. Build a factory T2 there. you can hold this pretty easy if played right. Of course this all depends on whether or not Germany builds a lot of transports on T2. Also if Germany doesn’t build a carrier and 2 transports attack SZ97. If he does it might be best to retreat the med

@Endeer:

In that case it would be entirely worth it for england if they can get the man power to the battle. If they could bring a tank or two infantry, and drop them. Than they can bombard with the cruiser that is off the Brazilian coast.

They can indeed hook up with the cruiser there, but Brasil is pro-Allies so it would be rude to bomb them ;)

When I play test, I set up the board and try to find counters to an idea as I work though the turns, so no opponent. Obviously, that will not mean the idea works until I try it live. Its just to test the concept. If the concept is sound, I use it in a live face to face game and see how the other guy(s) respond.

This first game I focused on the subs for blockading. That part does not seem reasonable at this point. Its still interesting that it delayed the US transports and gave Germany a nice income, but I don’t think the axis will pull a win out of the bag. By the way, when I meant to blockade I would leave the surface fleet back in the face of a large air force and wait for additional subs, you could then counter attack a DD build with air and sea, taking the air units off so that the carriers can stay back. Even convoy raiding for 22 IPCs would be nice.

Next test, I want to build a G2 transport wave as well, this will force UK to keep with Infantry making Italy’s job easier, and give me the resources to secure S. America while the US is neutral, with enough, I hope to divert 3 towards West Africa again, as having the German land unit in Egypt is a nice thought. I realize UK is the same amount of IPCs as S. America, but I’m testing the concept of taking an area out of America’s way plus they have multiple factory sites if it seems possible to use them.

There are some early risks I discovered. The G2 move to Gibraltar in the first game put the German Fleet of CV,BB,CA,2FTR in range of a UK CA,3 FTR and TAC…a bold player might take that shot. I also had UK do a weak attack [CV+FTR+CA] on the Italian fleet, it worked [damaged CV with a CA] while leaving the Tac for London.

Turkey was a tight fight G3, as I only had 5 inf, 3 arm, 1 tac, 1 bomber in range…I ended with 1 inf, 3 arm and the 2 air. Losing 2 units in Greece could have made it 4 inf for the assault. Turkey missed a lot, I could see losing armor in the future as an outcome.

Other concerns are if Russia stages north and drives on Norway, Germany’s income would plummet. With many transports, I hope to discourage that option.

I had UK protect Quebec, but I’m curious about how many players would suspect a G3 three transports full landing on Quebec? The potential to send planes staged in Gibraltar to sz 101 has merit as building carriers in 106[Quebec] would allow them to land and enable a weak looking axis force to “surprise” the US navy round 4. The transports can then hit Venezuela, West Indies and/or Central America turn 4. [This may prove to be a great move for a failed Sea Lion as sinking a US fleet would delay the US a round or more.]

The South American concept seems crazy since the US can just build large amounts of land forces. However, the US must choose fleet or land, and typically will go fleet, meaning there is “some” time for early gains and possible factories. I’m trying to limit the investment to two German productions as I want turn 3 and 4 builds to prevent Russia from getting their foot in the door.

Exactly- if you look at the hi-res pic of the board- it looks like the desert runs along the border between West and Central.  While the border itself it bright blue (not covered by the white of the desert as it is along the SW border of Algeria) the desert looks like it covers the entire border on the FWA side- making a crossing impossible.  But it Does need to be clarified.

Well hopefully Japan can keep US from doing as it wants in Europe.