newbie questions after fall of france

[jjdenver]

hello,

i'm in a slow pbem game and france just fell. i'm axis. brits are besieging tobruk with only a few italian units in libya.

let's say i want to go for 41 barb. what sort of things should i accomplish prior to barb? when should i launch barb? what should i be building? what else do i need to be thinking about as barb approaches? should i build a few subs? should i send anything to libya or just let it fall?

thanks

[Stelteck]

Hi.
Barbarossa in 1941 shall started in spring 1941, as early as possible. (at least, the historical date end june 1941).
To know what type of army is needed for barbarossa, you can open the scenario 1941 and have at least what the german have in the scenario in panzer corps, mech numbers and infantry.

Until then : Conquer danemark and yougoslavia (quite easy).
Secure Lybia with enough troops to defend it while you will attack russia. (Tripoli shall not fall !!!).
Do some damage to britain in the battle of the atlantic.

Optionnal, with interesting rewards but some risk : Conquer Norway, Conquer greece, invest more in the battle of the atlantic, conquer malta.

Huge risk, Huge reward : Invade Egypt, Invade England, Conquer Gilbraltar, conquer spain&portugal.

Have fun.

[sveint]

Germany is manpower-limited in the long run. Spend your manpower, don't let it sit above 90%.

[stjeand]

You should have at least 10 armor / mech units for the invasion of Russia.
Outside that quite a bit of infantry for initial attacks, cleanup and garrisoning your supply lines behind you.

You should have an armor in Africa which normally is enough to deter the UK until 41...when they have more troops. You can reinforce with a bit more but you need the armor as a stop gap.

Outside that as you see above wide open.

Denmark should have fallen on turn 2 or 3 the latest.
Yugoslavia has a decent amount of PP to is so that is surely a target.
Norway for a newbie is tougher...easy to take tough to hold.

[jjdenver]

Malta sounds tough to pull off since I'm a newbie.

When you say armor in Libya do you mean Italian or German?

[YueJin]

Holding Tobruk with Italian units alone is a potentially disastrous dream in my opinion. There's nothing really of value there for you and the UK/Canada can operate two armour and around eight infantry corps there effectively by late 1940 whilst also capturing Algiers and threatening the far more valuable and vunerable Tripoli from the West. The Axis should either look to fight a delaying action in Africa looking to be pushed off the continent by mid 1942 but preserving Italian strength for the inevitable Sicily and Taranto landings or have at least 4 Italian/German armoured corps ready to contest the British invasion of West Africa.

Personally as the Axis after the fall of France, I like to capture Greece. Sure, it gives the UK valuable merchant marine but two VP hexes that will be held for several years are far more important. If you really don't want to give the free MM you can take the halfway option of just invading Bulgaria which is essentially a free VP. Other than that, mass the mobile troops for Barbarossa and go for encirclements, you can aim big, as the Russians really can't perform any counterattacks with their 5AP armoured units.

[ncc1701e]

Linked to this, for the Axis:
1. Are you upgrading all your army to latest advancement level?
2. Are you buying units at 1939 level and upgrading them later? Or, are you buying them directly at the latest advancement level waiting to have enough PP?
3. What is the average value you are setting for reinforcement/upgrade when lots of battle are occurring?