YourAdmiral
Posts: 25
Joined: 4/29/2008 Status: offline
|
joerock22, Some interesting points, but it seems like the key to your Axis strategy is an early fall of France. In numerous games with an equally matched opponent, with both of us switching sides for different games, we've never been able to accomplish this. France falls in September 1940 at the earliest, in some cases as late as January 1941. Here's why: * The French player typically adopts a static defense, building up units behind the river just south of the Belgian border. While the Germans finish off Poland, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium (and Norway occasionally) the French mass all their units along this line and through Lorraine to the Maginot Line, and by the time the Germans invade the French have developed a double-row of entrenched infantry with a river defense bonus that is very tough to break down (the double row prevents the forward French unit from retreating from their river defense position when attacked). In some cases Germany has invaded France earlier, before Holland, but in this case they still don't have a good ratio of forces compared to what the French have. And the quality of French forces is actually rather good. * The British stay out of France and conserve their PPs. The Mediterranean fleet is moved to the UK to give the Brits a massive navy to fend off Sea Lion. As for new units, the Brits can go three ways -- invest in infantry to defend the landings on the UK coast (bad idea), invest massively in air to hammer the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine when Sea Lion starts (better), or buy destroyers, typically getting 2 additional ones (probably best). With three destroyers, the UK will be able to charge through any sub screen the Axis uses to defend the Sea Lion landings. * If the Axis player still pursues Sea Lion, the UK's massive navy (both Med and Home fleets combined off the UK coast and typically out of air range until the landings occur) will be able to sweep down from the North Sea and break through the sub screen and kill the surface ships that the Axis needs to keep the landing units in partial supply until a city is captured. The UK can even be extra tricky and buy its own subs ... these can be incredibly frustrating to an Axis player who isn't expecting them when their transports or subs start to move into position. Even if the Luftwaffe has air superiority, they won't have enough tac bombers in late 1940 or early 1941 to be able to stop the slaughter of the surface ships supporting the invasion. You're talking about 2-3 tac bombers versus something like 10 Royal Navy ships. The landing forces will be left totally without supply and eventually will be destroyed. In addition, the Brits really only need to kill or weaken the armor in the invasion force while its on the transports in order to blunt Sea Lion -- at most 1-2 units. Infantry alone on the UK beaches won't be able to capture a city in order to secure the all-important supply. If the RAF doesn't have air superiority, I simply pull them back such that the Luftwaffe doesn't have the range to attack the fighters directly, but the RAF can still provide air cover to the sea hexes in the English Channel and North Sea. I believe you need to put a fighter 9 hexes away from whatever sea hex you are trying to protect in order for this to work at this stage in the game. * Having wasted its forces on Sea Lion, the German player will be too weakened to pull off an effective invasion of Russia. The alternative, of course, is to not do Sea Lion at all, but instead focus on Russia. We've found that in this case, the UK and US are able to produce enough units to launch an invasion of France by mid-1942. Unable to advance in Russia and forced to defend its rear, Germany collapses by 1943. This has been the case with multiple games in multiple scenarios, such as invading Spain, Turkey, etc.
< Message edited by YourAdmiral -- 2/24/2009 10:32:35 PM >
|