Larry Smith
Posts: 203
Joined: 4/14/2001
From: Williams Lake, BC, Canada
Status: offline
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One of the tricks to deciding when to activate the Axis minors [Finland, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and Siam] is what you get for their forces. Remember, for each one that gets activated, you Germany gets one less resource from Russia. At the start of the game, Germany had more factories than resources, so they don;t need more factories - they need resources. You need to balance what you will get with what you will lose. For example, if you decided to declare war on Yugoslavia in 1939, and thus activated Hungary in order to get a wider front from which to attack Yugoslavia, you lose one resource - you were already getting the Hungarian resource, so that doesn't make up for the loss - but if you conquer Yugoslavia quickly enough, and advance far enough [good luck with that in the time you'd have, unless you weakened your assault on Poland for this], you would gain two resources, for a net gain of 1.5 BP [which may or may not round up, depending on how many PP you were already getting before factoring in the 0.75 modifier]. Over the course of two game turns, that is a net gain of 2 to 4 BP, depending on how things rounded up for you.
Here's the rub, though, you lose the free Hungarian FTR and it's pilot, which means a loss of 4 BP. The FTR isn't all that strong, but it is a FTR, and more importantly, is a unit to contribute to the overall Hungarian unit count. For me, the pilot is much more useful, since I just send the FTR to reserve in Mar/Apr 1940 and bring the pilot back in a much better German unit in the May/June turn.
And that's not even considering the possible losses you might have incurred conquering Yugoslavia [losses need to be replaced, and that costs BP]. From a mathematical point of view, that is a target best left for later. The common reason for DOW on Yugoslavia in 1939 is to later activate Rumania and prevent the Russians making a claim on Bessarabia [and a wise Russian player will see it coming, and make the claim ASAP]. Rumania is easily protected - just allow the Russian claim. The Russian can't DOW on Rumania until they make the claim, and if it is allowed, they can't DOW on Rumania again until they are at war with Germany. The same goes for Finland. The only reason to disallow the claim is if the Russian player was stupid, and made the claim with nothing substantial to threaten Rumania with [or to exploit the potential for bad weather in Finland, and make the Russian suffer a bit]. Otherwise, there is no reason to risk either Minor by refusing the claim. The effects seem to be the same, either way, since to enforce peace you are allowing the claim. There used to be a rule, that if no MP unit was left inside an unconquered minor it was at war with, then the minor had won that little war, and would again come to peace, but that seems to have been done away with. Rumania is best left for 1940 - you get the HQ for free that way - or even till 1941, as I believe there is another free unit for that year. As I said earlier, Germany does not need the factory in Bucharest yet - any excess resources after the fall of France [assuming that went as usual] should be used to allow for stockpiling oil, and also to boost Italian production [if they are in it].
As for Finland, don't activate it post-war/border claim until Jan/Feb 1940, since then you get the full Finn air force, and can send all four to reserve in Mar/April 1940, for four free pilots. You also get a free Mot corps, and an extra Ski unit. That all easily outweighs the one or two BP you'd get from activating Finland in 1939. On the downside, any damaged Finnish ships, or disrupted oil-dependent units [the HQ] show up disrupted if you never reorganized them [though that may be if they were that way the previous turn].
Activating Bulgaria prior to 1941 is also inadvisable, as you lose out on the free LND and another pilot, and though the Russian resource you lose is replaced by the Bulgarian one. The only reason to activate Bulgaria prior to 1941 is if you needed access to their territory, or desperately needed their units to for anti-partisan garrison duty.
As for Siam, 1940 is the year to go. Activate Siam in 1939 and the Japanese will have to finish the Siamese navy themselves, instead of getting both counters for free, and immediately upon activation. But if you dither, and wait till 1941, those ships are lost [the Siamese got frisky with the French garrison in Indochina, and both ships were lost]. They aren't all that great, but they will do for convoy escorts.
Now if only I were patient enough to practice what I preach! In my solitaire games, I usually activate Siam just to stop the Malay resourced from using the nearby Siamese minor port, which means they're unnecessarily using the French convoy in the South China Sea, and thus denying the French the Hanoi resource! {I'm about ready to mod the map to cut that rail line and stop that nonsense!}
Anyway, I hope this helps new players with deciding when to activate their minors.
< Message edited by Larry Smith -- 3/25/2015 8:26:00 AM >
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When to activate Axis Minors - 
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