Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: composer99

SS MIL, GARR and maybe the 6-3 SS INF from 1939 are decent garrison units. Regular GARR and MIL are also good

Right now, given the small CW army you don't need a strong anti-invasion defence. Just cover up the cities on the coast and key ports. Italian and Rumanian HQs are good for maintaining supply in Western Europe outside the range of the capital cities.

MTN units are actually better off used for winter operations in USSR where they are winterized.

Edit: Also, garrisons against invasion do double-duty against partisans.

More Edit: Also, because you want to defend against port attacks on surface fleets in France & Portugal, you will want to base FTR to defend any of Brest, Bordeaux, Gibraltar or Lisbon that you have surface fleets based in. These also contribute to anti-partisan garrison while organized.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Centuur

I would use the white print German MIL's in Russia. The other MIL, GAR and some black print low factor INF units, together with the Italians land units are for this moment enough to garrison the Western European coastline. I would suggest leaving some higher combat factors around Morocco. You need FTR 2 around ports where surface naval units are based (not when there are only SUB's there). Some FTR's should also be around the factories in France to counter strategic bombardment. Together with a couple of HQ's to keep the necessary ports in supply, that's it.

However: when the USA comes into the war, you should be checking the build up of CW/USA armies around the Western Europe/African and react accordingly. That means that, even when you are in Russia, you have slowly to keep sending more INF units into Western Europe to strengthen the defenses of the Atlantic Wall.

On the USSR, I would suggest to send the Italian airforce (some FTR and all LND and ATR) to that theater, together with Mr. Balbo. Build the Italian lend lease Stuka in 1941 immediately. Nothing better than an Italian airforce doing an air impulse, ground striking defenders in an area and after that, the German army, together with ground supporting Stuka's will decimate the Soviet defenses in the German land impulse (however, that is more easily said than done. This means building Italian air units using German build points).

Oh, and use some SS MIL in Poland for anti partisan duty. That's one country you don't want to see a partisan appearing...

quote:

ORIGINAL: composer99

You've got time to move the GARR/MIL to the French & Iberian fronts to defend against invasions. Until the CW has AMPH on the board and some more land units to replace its recent losses I don't see much invasion potential (maybe you see otherwise?).

Concentrate on getting the 'real' army to the East for Barb.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Centuur

You shouldn't be to worried of Partisans. The killstacks and HQ's can't all move by rail into Poland. A lot of those units have to be moved normally to get to Poland. This means that while you are moving, you probably have got enough face up units in the conquered countries anyhow. Don't forget: you are moving almost your whole army. Units now on garrison duty in France should be moving into Spain, the ones in the low countries and northern Germany go into France and the ones in Poland go to northern Germany and the low countries. Also: the airforce need to redeploy to, so there are going to be face up planes all around the map for the next couple of turns.
I expect that you will see a lot of garrison points in place at turns end, to prevent partisans. And Poland isn't going to be stripped of all forces, is it? There are units there already, who are going to be used in the USSR...

quote:

ORIGINAL: ezz

I wouldn't worry too much about you leadership.

Historically the allies did just about as badly as they possibly could have up to mid 1942.
And the Axis did just about as well as it possibly could have.

Allies still won.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Red Prince

Been studying my convoy pipelines, and I'm fairly certain I can get them completely reset and fairly safe from attack this turn, but it's going to require using an HQ and either 2 or 3 of my TRS to reorganize convoy points. This won't have an impact on reinforcing Egypt with 1 unit, and I might even be able to get a 2nd unit there -- if I only need 2 TRS to reorg convoys. That's the plan, anyway. At the least, I can get most of the structure reset and lose only 1-2 BP this turn if I use only 2 TRS for reorganization.

Before anyone screams bloody murder, the other 2 TRS can't do much useful anyway in terms of moving units around the map, and it's either this or lose half my CW BP this turn. Egypt will get its units, and the CW will get most or all of its BP. This doesn't even take into account other naval actions that I'll be taking, though both the N. Atlantic and Faeroes Gap are going to require fairly strong surface forces committed to them until I can get my NAVs in place (and probably after that, too). And I also don't intend to leave St. Vincent or Biscay open to enemy sorties either. Add a fleet of DSB into the Red Sea, and I'm going to have to be smart in deploying the RN.

We'll see how smart I am, I guess.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

quote:

ORIGINAL: Red Prince

Been studying my convoy pipelines, and I'm fairly certain I can get them completely reset and fairly safe from attack this turn, but it's going to require using an HQ and either 2 or 3 of my TRS to reorganize convoy points. This won't have an impact on reinforcing Egypt with 1 unit, and I might even be able to get a 2nd unit there -- if I only need 2 TRS to reorg convoys. That's the plan, anyway. At the least, I can get most of the structure reset and lose only 1-2 BP this turn if I use only 2 TRS for reorganization.

Before anyone screams bloody murder, the other 2 TRS can't do much useful anyway in terms of moving units around the map, and it's either this or lose half my CW BP this turn. Egypt will get its units, and the CW will get most or all of its BP. This doesn't even take into account other naval actions that I'll be taking, though both the N. Atlantic and Faeroes Gap are going to require fairly strong surface forces committed to them until I can get my NAVs in place (and probably after that, too). And I also don't intend to leave St. Vincent or Biscay open to enemy sorties either. Add a fleet of DSB into the Red Sea, and I'm going to have to be smart in deploying the RN.

We'll see how smart I am, I guess.

Be sure to give some thought as to where the TRSs will return to base.

They can reorganize units from the zero box (if sitting in the zero box is safe). That should give them a wide range of possibilities as to which ports they end up in at the end of the turn. What you want is to have them as near to ideally positioned as possible for the next turn (to move units probably).

quote:

ORIGINAL: Centuur

I personally would have moved the Communist MTN to get those Japanese units west OOS. The Communists are doomed anyhow, since they are surrounded and aren't defending in the mountians anymore. So it is better to force the Japanese into doing things which might harm US entry, if that's possible. It's the only thing the Communists can do at this point, before Sian is going to get taken by the Japanese. Also: I would probably have moved one unit from the stack next to Sian into the mountains, to make sure the MTN can retreat next impulse (getting disorganised, but that isn't that bad in the mountains). Since US entry is already high, the Japanese might opt not to retake Ankang and delay getting the western forces back in supply. Of course, that than would be to the Japanese player to take into account.
It is usually better to get the opponent to react on your play than it is to react on the opponents play yourself. Even when in a desperate defense, don't simply wait for the ax to fall unto your head but force the opponent into all kinds of actions he doesn't want to focus on. Even when moving the Japanese into Ankang and getting the western forces back in supply, that is going to get two Japanese land units disorganised and unable to contribute to attacks this turn...

The CW FTR should never have been put in Dover at the first place. It is the only hex which can be bombarded out of France, so I never put any oil depending unit in that hex. Bombarding is free and oil isn't.

In Egypt the CW needs to keep the Shore Bombardment factors in place to defend Wavell. No way the Italians are going to get anything better than a 3-2 against him. So simply sit tight with Wavell. The Axis needs more air and higher combat factors to kill him at this point. However: if they appear in the area: I would suggest evacuating him. Don't loose him, since that's expensive... 

quote:

ORIGINAL: Centuur

Ahh. But there aren't any Axis high factor units in Egypt at this moment... I simply stated that if that happens, you should be able to get him out. Keep thinking ahead with the CW. Don't think you need to do things this turn or this impulse. You need to keep in mind that you need to do something in one or two turns time. I would think that there might be some high factor combat units or an air force appearing in Egypt in the next two turns to get that nasty and irritating Wavell out of the area. When that happens, simply remove him from the area and give up on Suez (because at that moment you can't hold the place anyhow, so why fight to the death...).
Playing the CW is to throw cheap units at the enemy in early war and to preserve the expensive ones. Wavell is very expensive, so he should be saved, when it looks like the Euroaxis are going to be able to get a good attack on him, not before. At this moment he is a real pain in the proverbial behind for the Axis and they can't do a thing about it, yet. So he should stay where he is, for the moment.