Sealion Version 1.0

Italy taking London?! Now I’m intrigued!  That sounds crazy awesome.  Have no idea how it could work.  A risky move, no doubt. Like letting Italy clean up Paris after Germany does the dirty work.  I’m a big fan of non traditional strategies.

I was the Allies and my Father-in-law was axis. He pulls off sealion on his 3rd turn I think. I was not seeing it as a real threat like I should have. Nice move, he held it for the entire game(9 rounds). I never took it back from him and I defeated him with only Russia and USA. He is not the greatest player but he is not that bad. I consider myself good but not great. This is a tough game for the axis to win.

He held UK all game?  He took away from the Allies $20 - $30 a turn for all that time and still lost?  Imagine how bad it would have been for him had the UK been in the game spending that money all along - right next door … .

I’m as gentlemanly as they come, but I’d check-raise my Grandmother if she sat at a poker table with me.

IMO Germany has to do some things early game to have any chance at all.
1. Take out France turn 1(or have Italy finish it off)
1. Kill the UK fleet turn 1 and build transports to get ready for SeaLion
2. Take London or failing that cripple the UK to the point that it becomes pretty useless.
3. Have a large enough fleet to force Amercia to spend time building esort fleets instead of just rushing transports into Africa or Europe.
4. Build a stack of tanks for the attack into Russia. Because if Germany doesn’t attack Russia will.

Can’t believe, that there is a way a _(Standart-Experienced-)_UK-Players looses his Capital-City.

Must be a blind one…

Sorry. :|

We never tried sea lion, cause if the german player fails, the whole game ist over. Russia first!

Miamibeach, true if you can counter the SZ112 fleet of Germany you don’t go after the Italians I guess.

However if you can’t or Germany does not go Sea Lion this is very good attack and I am not quite sure this attack was foreseen during playtest.

p.s. you talk about 9 inf defending UK, but what about the Canadian troops coming in?

Meh, really, it simply depends on the Axis’ focus on any particular game.  It looks like Russia only gets a crappy +5 NO once it is at war with the Axis, so compared to pissing off the Americans, war with Russia (only) would be a much more palatable option for Japan.  18 land units, while it is quite a lot, would not be expected to be massed together right at the border with Japan, so they could be picked off a bunch at a time, and definitely doable if Japan gets a major industrial complex in Asia (which it probably will in most games).  Plus, Moscow it so far away that sending reinforcements east is probably not Stalin’s top priority, so Japan could hold onto the Russian IPCs for a long time, gaining back whatever the cost was in killing the units over 3-4 rounds.

Also, it is subterfuge to some extent; forcing the Soviets to respond to threats on their eastern front would pull some attention (and troops) away from the western front, which would help Germany and Italy pull off a successful Sea Lion AND Barbarossa in turn.  Kinda of like not letting your left hand knowing what the right hand is doing.  However, with a Sealion going into action on Round 3 or 4, Japan may be forced to focus entirely on eliminating India so that the UK is incapable of sending reinforcements anywhere else.

I’m wondering what Italy will be required to take in the Med to stop UK air from reaching England.  Definitely Gibraltar and Malta, and all of the African coast, excepting Egypt maybe.  Italy has its hands full.  Maybe it would be best for Germany to ditch Sealion and just go after the Med early and take what it can get?