Luftwaffe Strategy

I kinda thought the attack on pearl was mandatory, otherwise that fleet will bite you in the ass in the atlantic… Just go the easy way with 3 inf and 2 trannies. I assume You put 1-2 inf on man with your bid. Do the standard stuff, take Chi heavily, go after Pearl, with either everything or min forces. Get your forces from the islands and go after Russia. Build your first IC’s on the mainland in turn 3-4 and you should be fine. Let the Germans violate neutrality in Mongo, so in J2 you have a lot of options to cut of the Russians.

If it were done that way in history more bloody wars would have occurred very soon after the end of WWII. The USSR would not likely have done well as it would again be squeezed from east and west.

Not to mention all the bloody guerilla wars they would have had to fight in those countries they took over.

@Zakes:

The trick to screwing over Russia on the first round is to throw everything, literrally everything at Karelia on the very first round, and buying tons tanks so you can reinforce your front on the second turn.

I initially thought so as well.  But these folks showed me the implementation of US and UK strategies that I had never seen developed to the level they use them that preclude Germany from HOLDING Karelia to be able to build there in G2.

To take Karelia against the best defensive buildup that Russia can muster requires your Air Force.  But if you use your Air Force against Karelia, the UK navy is intact, and does an amphib in Karelia (2 BB’s, 3 fighters, 1 bomber, 2 INF, 1 tank) to kick Germany’s few remaining forces out in UK1.

Even if UK fails to kick Germany out of Karelia, what forces does Germany have left?  2 INF in Western, 4 INF and a tank in Eastern, 1-3 tanks in Karelia, 2 fighters, and a bomber; and their “total tank” build of 6 tanks in Germany.  That is a BEST case survival scenario.

Going forward against this, you have Russia building 7 (or more) INF per round, UK with a “full” transport fleet to use against Germany and the US also with a transport fleet that starts hitting Germany in US3.

Believe me, I used to agree whole heartedly with you, but failing to take out the Allied naval forces in the 1st and 2nd rounds is certain quick death for Germany.  And without them, you can;t crack Karelia.  Even if you can, you can;t crack it with enough force to threaten Russia the following round.

What is your game plan. What are your goals. How are you coordinating the 3 allies to achieve those goals? What are your opponents goals? How can you block him/her from achieving those goals? I am not talking about taking a capital as a goal. That is the end goal. I am talking about short term goals. (e.g, take and hold Western Europe. Hold the Yakut Sinkaing line against the Japanese for 4 turns. etc.)

What is your overall all strategy? Your goals are steps on the ladder of your strategy to victory.

When you can answer these questions, then you will find you will fare better in your games.

Lastly, be flexible. You will lose important battles. Plans will be countered. Be ready to adapt to these events. Balance risk of loss versus risk of gain. Retreat is often the best thing to do after a bad roll of the dice in a big battle. Reinforce and try again next turn. If you can’t wait for next turn, then you are being outplayed. Study and learn why.

Cheers!

Germany must defend on three fronts…
Eastern Europe, Africa and Western Europe.

You should disable the allies fleet as long as possible and hold your territory in Africa as long as possible.

Buy 8 inf and 1 transport on T1 (you can attack Egypt with maximum force on T2)

Keep buying infantry and hold the russians at base untill the Japs are at the gates from Moskou/.

RE: transport dropping off. A transport cannot drop off 2 infantry into two different territories during combat, you only want to drop off one so that obviously is ok. The rule states that during non-combat any unit that has not moved can move. I’d say the infantry like a fighter could leave the ‘mother’ ship even if the ship had moved it’s full 2 moves and/or did combat. During non-combat you CAN drop 2 infantry from 1 transport into two different territories, just can’t do it during combat.

A tactict for South Africa. If you can, try taking Kenya with an infantry and take congo with an armour. I know how tempting it is to think “I’ll be up 2 IPC and he is down 2 IPC and I just want to get it over!”. Be patient. Some statistics.

1 Tank attacking 1 Infantry
50% You win
25% You lose
25% Both destroyed.

1 Tank, 1 Infantry attacking 1 Infantry
53% You win with no losses
37% You win with loss of 1 INF
5% Both destroyed
5% You lose

With a single tank you only have a 50% chance of somthing good and there is a 25% of something very bad. Even if you are both gone, it takes awhile to get more units down there and tanks are precious, heck all german units in africa are precious and must be nursed. That extra infantry decreases catastrophe by a factor of 5 and nearly doubles the probablity of an acceptable outcome.

As for the German Med fleet, I am a huge fan of bring the BB and Loaded transport against the brit sub. This of course relies on extra units in Libya and having libya attack Egypt with the amphib assult. There is always a drawback, and here it means using both baltic naval units against the Brit fleet around Britain and the german sub in the atlantic attacking the southern bit BB with an air unit. If the brit sub hits and you hit, take off the BB, you transport really can’t be easily attacked unless they want to land their air units in Syria, right next to a stack of german land units.

All and all it sounds like you did a good job, congrats!

BB

With me, I usually do take the worst-case scenario due to my cautious playing style :wink: Even then 180 IPCs are not the worst-case scenario, not unlocking heavy bombers at all would be (which you mentioned). Now unlocking bombers is like strategic bombing. Usually your bomber will not automatically get shot down on the 6th subsequent run – sometimes soon now or later then. I only use the “guarantee” which you stated.

Now lets say I lowered my 180 IPCs to 90 IPCs (which is pretty favorable). Will you still be willing to spend 90 IPCs for heavy bombers? Can you afford to?

It’s not to say that I won’t lock other technologies on the way, but the true gems are heavy bombers and industrial technology. What use will rockets do me if I’m Japan or Super Subs if I am Russia?

I have been reading the threads regarding Germany turn 1. I believe that even with a RR it is still nearly impossible for Germany to do anything. I have a question what about taking the transport and grabbing 2 guys from Finland and putting them in Africa? What should I do about Eastern Europe. I am basically pulling out of ukraine except 1 guy putting my armor in germany in italy and leaving 9 guys in Eastern Europe setting up a dead zone for the Russian to attack. I purchase 1 trannie and 8 guys. I do nothing with the battleship and bring over 2 guys to libya. Next I take 1 tank and 1 guy 1 territory south of libya and I land a plane in Libya. I also wipe out all British ships and leave the Russian stuff alone.