Practical Counter to Pearl II

@ponef In regards to what? This thread kind of wound up diverting itself in like 3 different directions:

Whether UK should retake Egypt B1 Vs. send the FTR from the India Carrier over to the US Pearl Harbor Fleet. Whether Japan should attack the Pearl Harbor Fleet, the UK India Fleet, or both on J1. Whether UK should attack Borneo B1 or not.

The answer to basically all of these boiled down to some combination of “it depends on how the dice went G1” and “are you playing under WBC Rules or not”. Seeing as WBC no longer runs tournaments for Revised (or any A&A, for that matter), we’re left to assume all games being played will be OOB rules (or at least LHTR), in which case Egypt suddenly becomes much less of a priority in the grand scheme of things.

Personally, I got to try the strategy out at the 2018 WBC in one of my games. It worked well for me, as Japan was routinely baited into attacking the USN, losing the TT and the DD in the process. This allowed me to wipe out the remaining IJN Fleet A1 (Bomber from East USA + FTR from West USA + Navy from US West Coast + FTR from Hawaii). This crippled the IJN and let me rapidly come to dominate the Pacific.

@Woodstock:

In this thread, the G1 AC + 3 TRN buy seems to put quite a load on both UK and USA, right to RND2 at least.

If you know what you are doing, then AC+3T can be a very good buy.

If you dont, you can be defeated much easier.

I said it wasn’t going great, but it’s not a done deal because you don’t have it to take Berlin, not before Russia goes.

I guess the reason I have always taken the back door approach to attacking Germany via Russia is b/c from my experience US and/or UK can take WE but Germany just reallocates forces to WE instead of sending them to the Russian front. In the end I see it as Germany is going to buy those troops any way whats it matter where they are fought? So I pick the Russian front another reason being lets just say Russia and Germany are going one for one (not likely but for sake of debate lets just say its so) any UK or US forces are just icing on the cake to repel Germany. Then I tend to be bi-est to my Allied 1, 2, 3 punch. It also works when the Axis are taking down Moscow, lead with Germany and mop up with Japan before Russia gets their turn. I don’t think I would rather Japan have the capital I think Germany should take it in order to deal with Great Britain on their door step, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  :evil:

@Jennifer:

As the allies, how do you counter the German 1 build:

3 Transports, 1 Aircraft Carrier, built in SZ 5. (+2 Fgt from the mainland.)

Assume a standard 6 or 7 IPC bid to Africa to close Egypt.  All fighters and bomber not on carriers in WE and the Med fleet in SZ 13 (SS, Trn, BB because odds of the defender getting two hits is almost nil when you attack it heavy with your own BB.)

9 Victory Cities or more: Play more aggressive with Russia to the south.  Have US & UK build a Sub instead of a Transport, or upgrade one to a Destroyer.  I anticipate the difficulties Germany introduced to US and the UK will be offset by the lack of pressure against Russia.

8 Victory Cities: …um… KJF?  shrug  Germany just built a nice bridge from Berlin to Leningrad.  I have doubts that Russia can hold it in the short term.  Perhaps I would protect against Sea Wolf, and try and defend Calcutta.  I don’t know.  Have set up a board and think about it.

You got it Paint… and with an average of 5 FIGs to play with, that is a LOT of shenanigans!

To get the maximum defense in the London on Round 2

1. The Russians should have landed their fighters in Moscow on their first turn. They can both land in London on Russia 2. The sub on Russia 2 can go block a med navy by going to SZ12
2. The UK can build 5 inf 3 arm (30 IPCs), which provides maximum ground fodder under the restriction of mobilization and cash, and also land the tank from W. Canada to UK
3. The US can land 2 inf 1 art 1 arm in London through SZ8 on their first go, plus the fighter/bomber from E. US

There is absolutely nothing the Germans can do to stop this massive build-up, except possibly bombing the UK for 6 IPCs.

In the best case scenario for the Germans, they build 5 transports on G1, send their Med fleet westwards, bomb UK for 6 IPCs, and have all aircraft in range of London. But the Med fleet cannot attack London because of the Russian sub in SZ12, so the maximum force they can bring against London is 6 inf 6 tanks 6 fighter 1 bomber (5 built transports + 1 original in Baltic).

The defending force is a composite of the following: 2 inf 1 art 1 arm 2 fig 1 bomb 1 aa originally in London, + 8 inf from build assuming only 24 to spend from a perfect bombing, +1 tank from W. Canada, + 2 fighters from Russia, + 1 fighter 1 bomber 2 inf 1 art 1 arm from US, for a total of 12 inf 2 art 3 tank 5 fighter 2 bomber 1 aa.

In that perfect scenario for the Germans with a perfect bombing, they have right about 1% chance of winning.

Alternately a naval build by the UK like 1 car + 1 dest can deter a German landing, but the UK navy will be destroyed and you’d better hope some transports didn’t get through because the UK doesn’t have the bulk of its land forces ready.

Sealion is not the way to go.

1. Odds not in your favor: A. survives: 22%  D. survives: 73%
2. If you fail, you have just lost the game.
3. If you succeed, you will have lost more units than the money you will get from UK, while letting Russia get ahead in the builds.
4. You will lose Gbr against the UK or US counterattacks. If you retake it, you will lose it again.

According to odds and some of my calculations, this strategy will win you the game less than 20% of the time.