Does anyone know some good strategies for playing Italy without the pacific(focusing more on Mare Nostrum)

@cds

Thank you! Seems like G2 is better than G3.

Ok, sounds like a lot of guys think it is not necessary to take London to win?
For sure you already have your “sealion” invading force on the board by turn 2 (as demonstrate by Siredblood) but i have to admit that 63 IPC for those 9 missing transports is a lot of money!

The main (and maybe only) reason why i thought about taking London (besides extra IPC) was to prevent US/ UK from using it as a launching platform to bomb/ invade mainland Europe by turn 5 and up!!

My current plan is this (almost cut/ paste from Siredblood’s Cobra-Kaï):
G1:
Eliminate Royal Navy in SZ106, 110, 111
Take France (leave normandy/ south France to Italy)
Ping-Pong Yugoslavia back in Romania (Leave it to Italy)
Barbarossa (Bessarabia + Eastern Poland)
Of course annex both Finland and Bulgaria
Build a Minor Complex in Romania (to pump tanks all along)
put a destroyer in SZ113 and regroup navy.
Italy 1
Buy 1 tank & 1 mech (to speed up with both tank from Albania/ North Italy and meet German forces near Bessarabia)

G2
Retake Bessarabia (unless Russian player is too dumb to give it a thought)
Take West. Ukraine
Strategic bombing of London
Move all my “Sealion” forces into West. Germany/ Germany (to "bluff away" Sealion)
Pump 3 tanks in Romania and keep all the rest of my IPC (42) to keep my opponent in the dark as much as possible!

G3
Take Ukraine
Drop 9 transports in SZ113 + 3 tanks in Romania
Italy 3
“can open” Rostov with tanks and all air force!

G4
Tank rush into Stalingrad with all tanks and air power (2 Tac, 2 Strategic)
“Sealion”! Bouum!
Pump 3 tanks in Romania and in Ukraine
Move back 6 of the 7 guys from Finland to Norway (will bridge to uk/ Scotland in T5)

G5
Rebuild forces in Stalingrad/ Ukraine, bring some planes
Strat bombing Moscow
Bridge some infantry from Norway to London and 1 to take Scotland
Buy a max of aircraft (strat. and Fighters)
Italy 5
“Regroup and can open” Tambov or Briansk with tanks and all air force!

G6
Moscow boum!

By then the Axis should have 8 victory cities (Italy’s role is to take Cairo and reinforce by turn 4 max)
I don’t even give a rat ass about Leningrad as it is already way too strong right off the bat!
Also on turn 6 i would start to take back infantry Eastern Poland/ Baltic states/ Romania that might be scattered to turtle them up on Warsaw!
At this point the goal is to hang on tight for 1 turn!

Of course all along Italy is putting 3 infantry per turn on South France and move them to Paris on turn5
Italy is also to put 1 destroyer in SZ92 on T4 simply to delay US and buy Axis 1 turn.

This strategy is stretched to the max and of course bad/good rolls might turn it into either a brilliant victory or a shameful beating!

Any piece of advise or parts that i am missing?

I use OOB rules.
I bought this game in November and play one on one against my usual A&A opponent.
We’ve played seven games so far and the axis have won four…allies three. So we think it’s pretty balanced…the only thing we don’t like is the starting IPC’s for Italy. You can’t buy sh*t with that and they lose half of their starting fleet before it’s their turn.
But since the axis have won four out of seven it hasn’t really affected the overall outcome.

@gen-manstein Actually haven’t played with bid in solo games, so I hope that will be an advantage.

@Krieghund:

Welcome, drmckool!

NO stands for National Objective.

thank you very much, I should have figured that’s what it was, I actually love the national objectives, particularly Lebensraum; even though the historical link between lebensraum and the actual launching of Barbarossa is slightly tenuous. I found as a historian the national objectives (NO) really adds to the game because it really grounds the action in concrete history.

@Piazza2425:

You guys do remember that if you damage the aircraft carrier, the planes cannot land on it right?  :roll:

Yea that’s why I suggested keeping the CV out of the battle and placing it w/French fleet in sz 93 to pick up surviving air units. I don’t see expensive CV’s making to many attacks any more. They have no attack value, and can’t have planes return if hit. I like it that way, seems more of what there role was. I guess there is the occasional suicide run, where you take it in just to soak up hits. Sometimes that will get you an extra roll out of your air units. I would at least try to make sure any surviving air has an alternate place to land though, hate loosing air for that reason.

Man I cannot wait to try these gambits out! Too bad I’m gonna be knee deep in homework and studying by the time I get the game (school starts 8/19 for me).

I assume the German player will destroy the French DD and CA in SZ91 on their first turn.  The UK could make an ill advised attack on the Italian fleet, and might not destroy anything(flip the BB?) and in return lose a FTR and a TAC.