G1 Taking all of France

Yes, it has to be reactive.

Even with the bid I proposed, Tirano points out to me that they can still easily take down SZ 110 and SZ 111 as long as they bring the BB in.  Don’t know if keeping that UK navy is even possible but after the G42 lessons learned, you need that on the board naval stuff as the nucleus of your fleet if you want to have any chance of even Annoying Germany First.  Unless the bid is allowed to be placed all in one territory (like in the tournament), there doesn’t seem to be a way to save it on G1, and if you are allowed to place all in one territory, he says, why not stack France?  Seems sound…then he cant attack SZ 110 and 111 AND Paris.

Then we fall back to making Egypt and Med Navy tougher, suppressing Italy earlier, like you guys said.  Guess its just the clearest weak point.

@General:

Right, the UK should take full advantage of the Commonwealth and have Ottawa operate as the backup European capital. At that point the UK player could help the US mount a liberation campaign from Canada or put all its resources in South Africa to help out Egypt.

I like the general idea, but it could upset the balance of the game. Sea Lion would become less of a threat and may not be good option at all because it requires a substantial investment on the part of Germany. And with Sea Lion out of the way, the UK may not need to focus on home defense so much, and may be able to send more planes south towards the Mediterranean.

On a side note, I prefer to give Persia to Russia. The 2 inf are very convenient for taking Iraq next.

Well, stacking in Yunnan proved to be a bad plan.  Japan hit it with everything and with a 55% win chance, took it with a tank and lost 5 Fighters.  However, with India’s fighters gone now (died in Yunnan), and China’s stack gone- nothing will stop Japan from Calcutta and taking all of China.  Combine this with the Luftwaffe crushing the combined British/American fleet off of Gibraltar (made possible by Italian landing in Gibraltar), this game is over.  Russia was doing fairly well after taking Norway, Finland, and Iraq, but it was the only position that was doing ok.  (This with the German stack in East Poland on Turn 2).

So, with the writing on the wall at the end of Turn 2 (!!) I conceded.

What to do better against the G1:J1 onslought? 
#1 Be more conservative with India and China - stacking Yunnan Turn 1 proved to be fatal- in one fell swoop, Japan crushed the mainland asian allies’ main forces.  Sacrificing all Indian ships to slow the Japanese was not effective.  I just traded a DD and CA for a Transport and 2 DD.  Didn’t phase Japan at all- and India has no ships.  A “fleet-in-being” in the Indian ocean forces the Japanese to split up their fleet a little. 
#2 Even with a G1, Russia has time- especially if it is taking Iraq and tactically retreating, avoiding the big stack battle.  The bigger threat in the early rounds is Pacific victory, so the USA should spend 75-80% of its $$ in the Pacific. 
#3 Don’t stack Gibraltar SZ until you can hold it and land troops in Gibraltar if Italy looks like it can take it.  As the UK, concentrate on holding Africa after a sealion looks unlikely.
#4 As UK, slowly build up a fleet at Canada- Thos Gerrman Subs laround the UK are annoying, but its more annoying to lose your fleet piecemeal.

@manstein39:

@orania:

6 Infantry, 2 Artillery, from S.Germany into Slovakia

How about using those to strafe Yugo for 1 round and then retreat into: Slovakia.

Does Italy need this help?
What are the loss / kill chances?

It’s a common practice, but if you are attacking Russia round 1, you can’t take the chance that you accidentally score 5 hits and conquer Yugo since you need those units for counter attacks on G2.

Correct, Italy can easily take Yugoslavia on their own round 2 or 3 without Germany spreading thin by strafing G1.

@Alsch91:

Normally I think UK could take back both Shan State and Yunnan on UK 3 before pulling back to Calcutta.
Thus your planes have no landing spot.

Might be costly, but also might be worth it for the reasons you suggested.

As the Germans another fun little trick is use the transports you start with to land in lenningrad and take it very easily on G2 and maybe even G1.

one time japan ended up in brazil not sure how it happenend then when they took africa The us and the bags of money shot me out of brazil took the IC in south africa and got to keep africa for a little wile Then i ended up in the middle of russi a with moscow lenigrad stlingrad still not 100% sure how the heck the happenned…

That was precisely my thought, McLovin.  I feel, at this point in time, Germany needs a method to produce warships in the Med.  If one allows Italy to take S. France, this - essentially - means that Germany has to build a complex in Yugoslavia.  This may be a good idea in the long run anyway, making it a little easier to reinforce the south against Russia. (OOB this could be a major complex, Alpha 2 I do not think it can.)

I feel an Airbase would be nice to accompany the complex in Yugoslavia, if you go this route, since then you can put 6 fighters in the air for cover air patrol.  But again, if you have S. France, I think you would not need this. (Little harder since you have to build Italy in one zone and Germany in another instead of combined, but much cheaper.)