Italy Strategy

A lot of Axis players do this, but I see it as a good development if I’m allies. Any left over French units could be annoying in the early rounds. You have to be sure you can counter France if they take it and get the bonus infantry.

Axis won’t get the +2. Just holding Normandy for 3 turns is 2 more infantry. Axis will need a larger force in France than otherwise to prevent Allies from getting a foothold because USA will be able land their planes in Normandy right off the bat. If you don’t contest the allied landing in Normandy, Allies will be able to trade for Southern France.

A combined Italian-German stack in Normandy is strategically preferable to a stack in France, provided you have the manpower.

If USA could concentrate all its resources on the Atlantic front it would be a different story. But dual victory conditions means that if USA invests enough to make Germany pay for taking Normandy, then they likely didn’t invest enough in the Pacific to stop Japan.

@Krameleon

Welcome!

One thing to keep in mind is that the Axis only need to win on one side of the board.

This means, that if a Japanese strategy is good enough, even if Germany gets their butt kicked the Axis might still be able to win if Germany buys enough time for Japan to win.

It’s still risky, of course, as an increase in IPCs on the Europe board can translate to an increase in units in the Pacific, but it’s an option and a far more viable one than the equal version for the Allies.

Personally I’m not a fan of J1 or G1, but that is more out of principle than practicality.

I found this cool J1 video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRi3aIsj8P8

Important note about this video:

There are some astericks in the video, and it is not explained what they mean. I have gotten information from the maker of the video what they are, however.

The only thing that can/will stop this J1 attack is if the Soviets stacked all 18 infantry in Amur.

In that case, both I and the maker of the video strongly advise not to do this strategy (I learned this the hard way, trust me, it’s painful to watch). I recommend, if the Soviets declared war, to attack that stack. Air units, landing back, can defend Jehol and Manchuria from the Mongolians.

Yeah well a bunch of Italian ground troops on N Italy can retake S Italy right away. Of course losing Rome even if it’s retaken straight away is still a significant setback for the Axis.

Taking out SZ 97 is the most crucial move for UK 1.  Even if Germany is threatening Sealion all UK has to do is send the strategic bomber + the SZ 98 fleet (assuming a sub bid) and they have a 78% chance against a 3 fighter scramble.  The only other viable option is buying an air base and Non combating the SZ 98 fleet over to Gibraltar.  This is an inferior move in my opinion.  Smashing Italy’s Cruiser, transport and BB on turn 1 is just so good.

Italy’s job is threefold:
1:  Keep the UK spending to crush Italy
2:  Assist in Russia
3:  Lure the US Fleet past Gib and into the Med

With that being said, the Italian Navy is important to protect, requiring a DD to be purchased in Round 1.  This will draw more UK attention to the Med, which gives Germany more breathing room to advance on Moscow.  Provided your fleet was not decimated in SZ97, ferry units into Yugo with the TT and at least 1 Armor, possibly 2.

Assisting with Russia being your second goal pretty much requires that Italy activates Bulgaria on Round 1 and Italy either reinforcing the German Flank in Romania on I2 or if there is no immediate threat, clearing out Greece before the Brits activate it.  If Italy purchases a Bomber on Round 2, it puts 2 Bombers and somewhere in the range of 6-8 Inf plus 2 Armor in range of Eastern Poland, or Bess.  You even have a shot to can open Western Ukraine at this point, or if Russia is really incompetent, Ukraine MAY be open via an Armor Blitz (provided 2 Armor went into Yugo on Round 1, and reinforced Romania on I2.)  In any case, Italy can stand to gain some IPC and really create problems on the German Southern Flank in Russia.

As for the last goal for Italy, you need to continue to engage the UK into the Med through the time the US enters the war.  Usually this requires naval investments, I prefer to try to get at least 1 DD in every round.  At some point you’ll need to redirect your Bombers back to Rome / Southern France.  You’re goal is to force the Allies to defend SZ91 and interrupt the US TT rotation.  You need to be very opportunistic here and wait for the Allies to expose TT as lightly defended.  This doesn’t always happen, but it is devastating when it does and you can fly 2-3 Bombers and a send a few SS to potentially sink the TT rotation and buy breathing room.  If this doesn’t look like it could happen, you just have to turtle up and encourage the US to land on Rome and not Normandy or S.France.  The whole goal being to keep the US fleet in the Med and out of reinforcement for multiple turns outside of the 3 units it can place on whatever complex it takes.

Well I like it because it brings mongolia into the war.  I think Mongolia has too many troops, but well…

BTW they addressed the whole ftrs fly from Manch out to sea and attack Amur.  No starting units in Manchuria/korea can be used in the Attack.  So those planes need to come from carriers or Japan.

That is exactly why I attack the Canadian tran/dest asw ell/ Summed up nice Jimmyhat.

See the thing is it still doesn’t matter Germany is crushed and the game is all but over as Italy falls soon after. Then Japan can be ganged up on no matter how many ipc’s they have.