Italy Strategy

The best thing Italy can do is can-open, period.  The more mechs and men it has to do this, the better, and so a mixed 60/40 German/Italian front is fine.  Russia will find it impossible to back-stack its reserve armies because they cannot screen the Italians out and then the German Armor will run through the holes the Italians make.  Its devastating and its why the bid is pretty much required.

If Germany and Italy can both get StratBombers, even better because all of them can fly to China and start can-opening in waves, for Japan.

Italy often gets nerfed by Taranto, but in the case you get lucky or the player doesn’t do it, Going Italy + Bulgaria +SFrance + Paris + 19 IPC is awesome because you will have about 40-50 income on I4-5, and you’re like a baby Germany.

And, if they decided to KGF or KIF, you buy a bunch of fighters and men instead, projecting threat and preventing UK and US from coordinating their attacks.

There are some extraordinary circumstances when Italy should own it such as when Russia is about to fall, and therefore Italy can make better use of the Ukraine factory (for the Middle East).  But in most games Germany should own it because they need to build infantry and artillery there to attack Russia.

@teslas:

edit-
Brazil seems inferior to Central US/SE.Mexico? Both are 4 away from SZ 92. Both are 6 away from London.

The Central US territories additionally also allow it to get back to Hawaii. Brazil does not. Any reason why you prefer Brazil?

You’re probably right.  Two things for you to consider, though.

One is, maybe USA is not at war yet so you can’t land on Central USA.  Maybe ANZ or UK has taken Brazil.

Second is, you do have more options to get deeper into Africa.  But you’re probably right - Central America would be better in many cases.

Agree with a lot of what Anonymous has to say.

Let me reiterate: I’m saying the game is 60/40 at most. The only reason I give the Axis an edge is they have more room for error.  For example, a disastrous G1 roll on the British ships doesn’t necessarily spell game over for Germany.  On the other hand, an early game disastrous roll for the Allies (i.e. a Taranto raid that goes horribly wrong) probably spells doom for the Allies.  If the rolling is even early on I’d be inclined to call it an even split.

If you try it out, you’ll see that the U.K. can’t sufficiently reinforce France, even with the additional 6 French troops, from having Germany crush it on round 2.  Even if every available plane is landed there, and the strafe leaves 2 tanks plus the fighter, it’s impossible to hold.  So all that landing planes accomplishes is wiping out the British airforce (and keeping France from falling to Italy).  The payoff isn’t worth it.

The biggest downsides I can imagine are that (1) it is much more difficult to hold off serious landings at Normandy by the US and/or UK.  Italy then has to protect Western Europe and the Med–although with Germany taking S France, they can dump ships in the Med as well if it comes to that (subs backed up by planes would be cheap).  And (2) delaying the war on the Pacific side until round 3 (which would make this work much better at times, depending on the US builds) means that UK Pacific can shuttle some troops over.

The really nice thing about this strategy is that it’s more efficient to have Italy be the 1 force in the Med, and not have to worry about building enough ships off the S France factory right away to protect them from UK planes.

I think it’s going to be the standard opening in our play group for the foreseeable future.

The counter someone mentioned above about making sure to buy troops in S Africa–either mechs, or infantry/artillery to go with transports, in combination with some shuttling from India, is probably the safe response.

Grover and I just started another game, with me being the Axis, and I’ve got to say I’m enjoying the big Italian boost.

@Bravehart:

How many hours was it when the 5th round was played? Just curious.

Too many something like 5h

If the US is forced to split it’s income their could come a time where it could haved saved the day at Hawaii or get much needed support to a victory city in Europe but it’s hands will have been tied because of polictial rules and the Axis will win.

To be honest I don’t really want to win that way.  I respect your position but I do disagree with it.  I would love to see the Axis made a little stronger but I am actually feel pretty comfortable with the USA staying as is for the most part.

if concerned about dice cheating, insist on using a dice tower :roll: