hakon
Posts: 298
Joined: 4/15/2005 Status: offline
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Hi, Jerome Germany really can't wait until SO40 if they want to buy the most useful things for an anti-UK campaign in 1940. They really should start building subs and maybe some SCS in 1939 or early 1940 in that case, and often it is a good idea to lay down an amph in 1939 as well, just to keep the UK guessing. And they definitely want to start thei condors and ftr3 as soon as possible. This is of course all impossible if they want to break the garrison vs Russia, of course. Germany can still make a dash for Gibraltar through Spain, even without these things, but will not be nearly as effective as they can be if those units come out early. They could have trouble setting Gibraltar and Morocco out of supply for instance. Besides, they usually will have to have installed Vichy by this time, if they want to be in a position for a Barb, which is not so good if they suddenly need to go to Spain instead. As they have not challenged the CW at sea, the CW will have been in a position to build a lot of land forces for Spain and or Morocco, and the general lack of a sealion threat (amph and trs) will enable the UK to send more forces abroad. While Germany still has a good shot at taking Gibraltar, it will be far from as automatic as if they had planned for it from the beginning, especially if US entry is high (which it is likely to if Germany has to collapse Vichy to get into Spain). In any case, Gibraltar will hold longer (usually), which leaves less time for finishing up in the med, by taking Suez, Morocco and Greece. If the allies can hold on to Er Rif, Spain is only partially conquered, while the allies still have access to the western med, something that significanlty reduces the benefit for Germany and Italy of holding Gibraltar. If the allies can also hold Egypt, they are in a really good position. RUSSIA, on the other hand, is free to wait until SO40 before they switch from building to maximize garrison, to building units better suited for fighting a defenisve war. If they start to build in SO/40, they can build 3 artillerists, their HQ-I's and 6 fighters that will arrive in time for Barb, and also any divisions that they want. In fact, it can be argued that Russia loses no flexibility whatsoever by waiting this long to decide. (Except for the ability to attack Japan aggressively, but this is something they should probably never do, anyway, until they are sure that Germany is heading west. Cheers Hakon
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