Sealion counter

@andrewaagamer I definitely agree, I was horrible at playing the Axis but it just took a few games and some new strays to see the unbalance. And I too don’t like nerfing strat bombers because it seems to unbalance it more.

Oh, it is, because all the bombers raises the stakes and risks

You can make the dice work for you - if the ships miss and the AA misses, no amount of strategy and tactical ability can stop that.

If you pull off Sealion and the US isn’t in the war already or sitting on Gibraltar, they are at least 2 moves away from getting any kind of help to London. Italy should take Gibraltar if they can and block out the Mediterranean. Italy can move troops to the west coast and get into Syria and hopefully Iraq (if Russia hasn’t gotten their first) Then take over Africa. Build London up by 6-10 ipc’s per turn (now there are 6 of any kind of build you made, plus all your air units). US at that point needs to make a hard decision, liberate Europe or kill Japan.  Fact is they cant do both. Germany and Japan are making a combined 120-140 ipc’s at that point and Italy can make an easy 30+ with their NO’s running wild in Africa. $ wise, game over, and you didn’t even have to make a move on the US. Still a lot of factors have to be taken care of, like is there still an allied NAVY in the Mediterranean? Does Italy still have any NAVY left? What kind of landing force is left in London. And where is Russia? Can Japan put pressure on Russia? Is Japan bombing the heck out of Calcutta?

@Spendo02:

I don’t see much value in the 70 IPC of Trn once you take London and get your offensive units back on mainland Europe.Â

Spending resources to address their protection seems less efficient than boots on the ground pushing back the Russian advance.

5 Transports and the fleet stay in the Baltic Sea - now you can ferry your infantry/artillery builds directly into Novgorod each round (+13 units a round in Novgorod - there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell Russia is getting it back - ever.)
5 Transports go down to Gibraltar - land in Morocco and join with large Italian fleet - which will probably exist unless England went no defense for England - and take Brazil, Africa, W. Indies and then slide the rest down around the Cape for Madagascar.

There’s a lot of things you can use the transports for.  You could use them to set up a train service to Arkhangelsk through the Arctic Ocean and the other half to shuttle troops from Berlin.

@Violent.copper:

sz 110 max defender 1 cruiser 1 bb 2  fighters
send
108
103
germ 2bombers and 1 tac(landing on the sz 112 AC)
west germ 1 fighter 1 tac
95%

The Allies can defend with a max of 3 scrambled fighters, not just 2.  That French fighter in London can scramble as well.  And remember that any casualties caused by the allied air must come out of German air, the subs can not be used as fodder vs. air.  This will not matter if the cruiser and BB get two hits before they die, but it is a factor to consider.  Germany will still win, but it will be a little more costly.  I’ll leave it to better minds than mine to calculate if it is better in the long term for the allies to scramble or hold the fighters in reserve for defense during the sealion invasion.

@Frank:

I am starting to think there is not a convential road to victory for the Axis in Global Alpha +2 like in say Spring 1942.  That game was all about killing Russia.  While killing Russia is certianly nice and mostly still neccesary in Alpha +2 it in and of itself will not win you the game. If France is liberated in the meantime or Italy is defeated in Egypt then getting that last victory can be out of reach if Axis timing in finishing Russia is off even a little bit.

Yeah, I think Global 40 is the first game where defeating Russia is not a game winner for Germany.  In previous games, it seemed to me that once Germany took out Russia, it was just about over for the Allies.  Germany just had too much money for the Allies to stop them.  There are exceptions, like if Germany concentrated so much on taking Russia that they left Berlin absurdly weak and UK or USA slips in with a relatively small invasion force and takes it.  I have seen this happen.  UK takes Berlin, USA lands troops to back them up and most of Germany’s hardware is too far away trying to take Moscow.
Still, in Global 40, there are a lot more variables.  Even if Moscow falls, so could Rome and Germany has Allies right on their doorstep, not to mention losing a precious victory city.

@Peck:

How does the fighter in Malta get too London in time, is it not attacking with the UK fleet on Italy

You have two rounds to move a fighter from Malta to England.  That’s only 7 Territories, realistically 8 (since you have to land enroute) but that is perfectly within the limits.

Yes, I count the Inf, Arm in Quebec because its the worst case for Germany.  I always judge from worst case scenarios for an overall opinion. When playing a game, I look at realistic and worst case, but this isnt a real game, its a theoretical one.

Anyway, one could run the odds without the inf, arm from Quebec to see what would happen.  I doubt it would be much different, but it may be, it’s 2 units that you can lose and 5 defensive punch, so it may shift things 7% (just a mental guess).

And yes, you give up the Med to Italy, but you keep London so you can continue to fight.  Right or wrong move, I don’t know.  All I know is if England doesn’t go “balls to the walls” defending England on round 1, I assume it will fall on Germany 3, in which case, I use Japan 1 to cripple the American fleet, sink the British transport and stage an invasion of Australia to press the advantage.

If this is correct, then how would a newly built carrier in SZ110 not matter?

-  The UK can now launch an air attack on SZ113 with 1 or 2 fighters (depending on if a destroyer was also built in SZ113) and kill the entire transport fleet along with any hopes of a G2 operation Sealion.
-  Depending on any surviving UK naval unit it can also launch an additional attack on either the damaged (?) battleship or the lonely cruiser with the remaining fighter in the UK and 1 or more destroyers.
-  Finally the main attack on the Italian fleet can still go ahead as planned … and depending on G2 builds, the air units used can fly back to the UK the following round to assist against a possible G3 Sealion.

… all that for the cost of one carrier? Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

It is correct except UK can still attack 1 BB, 1 CV and my 2 Fighters with 4 planes. The CV build stops that. It is necessary. MY APs are placed with the CV and protected.

odds are like less than 10% for him to win.

3/3/3/4 vs. 4/2-2/4/4/0/0