The Gibraltar Lockdown -and what can the allies do about it?!

Regarding SZ 110, I got hosed one time on a UK scramble. Usually as Germany, I send 3 fighters, 3 Stukas, 1 bombers and sometimes 1 sub to SZ 110. Our UK player had gotten in the habit of not scrambling in order to save the RAF for future action.
Well, this one game I made the mistake of just assuming UK would not scramble. I sent 2 fighters, 2 Stukas and 1 bomber to SZ 110. The other fighter and Stuka I sent to kill the French fleet in SZ 93. Well, UK taught me a lesson. They scrambled and wiped out my planes. I didn’t even kill all the ships in the channel.
Never made that mistake again.

I think a very important component to strafing is understanding how it can rapidly move units beyond their normal movement range - which has been displayed in the G1 Yugoslavia to Romania example in prior posts.

It would be impossible to get the units from Greater Southern Germany to Romania on G1 without understanding strafing.

Of course, the units could simply step into Hungary and still be in position to strike at Eastern Poland.  However, you sacrifice the utility of clearing out much of Yugoslavia and thereby helping Italy by not understanding the mechanics of the “Strafe”.

Russia can also employ a Strafing strategy that would trade resources (generally Russian infantry) with Germany in a way that blocks a German blitz or denies the Germans the use of a minor IC.

In example:

Russia withdraws its stack to Bryansk in response to a German stack in Eastern Poland, inviting a German blitz of
Armor and some Mech into the teeth of 30 infantry, and another half dozen armor and artillery supported by Ftr and Tac.

Germany, unwilling to risk its Armor without protection, elects to blitz a single armor to Ukraine, waiting on a stack of Mech to arrive as reinforcements in Eastern Poland.

On the subsequent Russian turn, the Russians strafe into Ukraine, which is currently owned by Germany with 2 Infantry, 2 Ftr and 1 Tac.  Russia prevails, losing 1 Inf.  Effectively, Russia has denied Germany the use of the Ukraine IC, and traded a 3 IPC INF for a 6 IPC ARM.

On the subsequent German turn, Germany claims Ukraine for good, losing 1 Inf in the process.

Total cost for the Russian strafe:  6 IPC for Russia, 9 IPC for Germany + losing a turn of production out of Ukraine that can immediately threaten Moscow.

That, is the value of a strafe from the Russian perspective.

The list goes on, but understanding the strafing technique helps develop the early round strategies to keep pressure or alleviate pressure depending on the nation you play as.

Later in the game, understanding the strafing strategy can completely ruin your opponent and potentially tilt the scales in your favor to an economic stalemate or quickly end a game for a player not cognizant of the strafing applications.  From experience, this becomes a significant strategy to understand in the Pacific theater in application during the mid to late game.

A final input, is a variant of the strafing is a can-opener applied by Italy.  Italian units, due to their turn in a round, can open a door for a German blitz that Russia planned on having blocked.  Italy typically accomplishes this with Mech/Armor and a Bomber whereby opening a flank can ruin Moscow’s day.

The US has a variant of this if Germany leaves Berlin undefended whereby the US seizes Denmark, and the UK sails through the straights to land on Berlin.

Neither of these are true strafes, but they employ the same strategy of taking territory or denying territory in unconventional ways.

Guys,

––Just to add to your answer a bit. ‘Kreighund’, the rules guy, basically said that in order to CONQUER an Allied teritory, there must be a ‘COMBAT’. What that in essence means is that the teritory must have been previously conquered by an Axis power.
----If the Allied territory still has the same ownership after having it’s Capital subjugated,…you are simply ‘Re-inforcing’ the territory for the current owner.

Tall Paul"

@Entek:

AFAIK in league you can’t add any units to China or to France with a bid, and you can only add units to territories or Sea Zones that already have units.

The Chinese bid is perfectly legal in the Global `40 league (unless it just changed).  Strictly speaking it is also legal to bid Chinese units which they cannot buy in the normal course of a game, but that probably will be changed if it hasn’t already.  There has been plenty of discussion on that topic.

Placing a French bid in Paris should also be perfectly legal.  I don’t think doing so would be that helpful since at best maybe you’ve delayed the German attack on S. France or Normandy by one turn, which i don’t see as having a lot of strategic impact on German play.

man been awhile since I played some lobby games of global. I am getting bad, but I can still beat most players.

Well i was misinformed then.Do you think there is going to be a “global edition” or something that improves on AAG in the near future or do you think that AA42 is the standard and AAG is the deluxe for the next 5+ years ( excluding AA50 reprint )

UK pac is the answer to EURO axis after a KJF… that’s why people do KJF. Japan shutdown… ok uk pacific you make 22-30 right? ok that is what russia was making before he went down… you go hold egypt down till usa supply train shows up. don’t worry anzac got yo back. japan makes 0 from naval bombard… it can be so sick sometimes.

I don’t like the aa gun buy. also I tend to buy strait inf for uk1, because I sink the hell out of italy. I don’t care if I get sea lioned. Gives usa something to do in the atlantic, because I tend to buy some mech for russia anyway. so the turn london is nabbed i got romania hold and can hit the other adjacent to russia spots.

Which is why I never really minded sea lion so much. russians bank hard. i save persia for them to blitz too, I always do that russian income thing in iraq/persia and if i can get the two italy territories in east africa, I do it too. just 3 mech all i need to start banking. get a bomber to bring down there so 2-3 mech inf 1 bomber kills 1 ethiopia guy or w/e unless uk has it.

@Gargantua:

So there is a DEFINITE seperation between invading a Friendly Neutral, and a friendly/allied territory.

That is what we’re currently trying to determine.

@kcdzim:

A) if the US controls finland (or has fighters there), it’s no longer neutral.  It MUST be at war to be in Finland, no other way around it.
B) if any axis power declares war on Russia on the Europe side of the map, Russia is no longer neutral (it’s at war with someone, so it’s a friendly power to the Allies).
C) Declaring War occurs at the beginning of the move phase, and scrambling occurs at the end (at which point Russia is at war with at least one Axis power).

So in your example, as Russia is not neutral, and the US is not neutral, US planes in Finland can scramble to the seazone against an attack on Russia.

Correct, except that TheDefinitiveS said “UK”, not “US”, but that is a minor point.  Either way, the scrambling power is at war.

@kcdzim:

Neutral non player powers are different, in that they never automatically flip to a side, they just change to “friendly neutrals”.

Not exactly true.  When attacked, they join the opposite side from the attacker.

@kcdzim:

And even “friendly neutrals” require a non combat move into them to take control, even after they’re forces have been activated by a failed enemy attack.

After being attacked, they are no longer neutral, but friendly to the opposite side from their attacker.  However, the territory and forces are uncontrolled, as you say.  The question at hand is the timing of this status change.

@kcdzim:

And a friendly neutral is not the same as a player power not yet at war - they have completely different diplomatic rules.  For example, if Russia is not at war on the Europe map, Britain CANNOT noncombat move through their spaces.  It is NOT the same as a friendly neutral, for lack of a better term it’s a Neutral Power, completely different than a Friendly Neutral or a Strict Neutral.

Correct.