@Cmdr:
Anyway, the IPM is not a conservative Germany. Neither is mass attacking the British fleet and sacrificing your navy and some of your air force to clear the waters. Both of those are aggressive tactics.
PASSIVE or CONSERVATIVE is when you ONLY focus on trading Baltic States, East Poland and Ukraine until Japan brings up units to threaten Moscow and then, and only then, when you’ve made France, NW Europe and Germany completely impenetrable, do you advance deeper into Russia.
I interpret anything that doesn’t involve shrieking LEEROY JENKINS and making an all or nothing charge that captures Moscow on Turn 3 to be conservative.
Granted, my “conservative” strategy is oriented towards a London capture on Turn 3 as well, but it isn’t an all or nothing. Even if it can’t capture Great Britain, it can stall Britain, Russia, and anything America throws at it long enough for its Axis buddies to conquer everything else before taking Russia down from below and behind.
@Cmdr:
Anything that is not the highlighted section, is not conservative by definition. Conservative = Turtle (for the unintelligent out there, a turtle would be a wall of infantry defending everywhere, but very little, if any, actual attacking. The goal being to conserve all your forces and to force all attacks to give you the defender advantage.) Aggressive = Judicious attacks on targeted allied assets with the goal of establishing military supremacy.
Turtles have never won the game. If the game goes poorly, turtles have been used to keep your capitol until allies can come to your aid, but it has never won the game for anyone. Starting the game off on Germany 1 by going into turtle mode is like filling your mouth with water, sticking a pistol in it and pulling the trigger. Sure, there’s a chance it will misfire and you’ll live, but I wouldn’t risk the game on it!
If one seriously wanted to do a Turtle, Germany should take the 2 NOs, build an IC in France, then start pumping 16 Infantry out a turn. This strategy will work if the Allies, convinced that Germany is insane for building an IC in France, go into KGF, which in this case is like running into a brick wall made out of hate.
The main think that makes such strategies reasonable is that if Germany believes it can’t take Moscow or London quickly enough, its expansion is probably limited to 9 IPCs on the first turn, 9 IPCs on the second, and it peters out. In comparison, Italy can go up by 12 IPCs the first turn, then spend the next few turns working through Africa, the Middle East, and maybe even the Caucasus or Brazil. Japan can pull off something like +27 IPCs the first turn, +13 the second turn. However, by that point, the Axis have a significant IPC edge over the Allies, and they have a better position tactically as well, holding the Eurasian landmass.