Build plans for GE sealion

[alexvand]

So I'm going to try a Gibraltar/Sealion/Sitzkreig kind of game.

What build plan should GE be following when doing this?

[paulderynck]

All TRS and Amphs in force pool, all ATRs, all supply units, all Marines and Paras, all HQs, and favor air builds over more land builds, in about that order, but be mindful of building the long term arrival stuff first.

...and hope your opponent isn't looking too carefully at your builds.

[palne]

This is a bit off the top of my head....certain details may be erroneous and I have merged table WIF, Computer WIF, and Computer WIF Bugs in my head and keep certain nuances straight.

Italy:

Take Malta when it is empty if you can. On the declaration of surprise round, take Gibraltar if you can. Use the Marine Corp, Mar Div, and MTN div. If you can come up with another div from a build-ahead situation that would be great too. Then take a WHITE PRINT Inf with the other trs (slowest moving one). When you attack, use your shore bombardment. You'll have low odds, but if Gibraltar is empty, 3 units almost ALWAYS takes it. If there is a unit there--oh well...do the best you can and recognize that the loss of Gibraltar is very very damaging to the Allies. If you successfully take it, I suggest a full-blown sea lion....Put everything into it because its only time in 10+ games you're going to get a shot a sea lion (so go for it! if you fail, songs will be sung!). One side note, it is possible to use the Germans to put Gibraltar out of supply from the west side in conjunction with the Italians in the west med. Not easy, but possible (for an impulse at least).

Germany:

On the first impulse when your gearing is unlimited build out 100% ships. This will really screw with the Allies no matter what happens. If they don't notice, it will be quite a surprise when your navy doubles in size. It will cause the UK to concentrate on naval builds and shoring up the UK land troops instead of going to north africa and screwing with italy. Either way, it's a tasty move for the GER.

Next 3 impuleses, build the synth oil at the rate 1/turn. Since you are sacrificing a lot of your "punch" for USSR, you'll need the oil later.



Airborne Corp with JU52
Mountain Corp goes with JU52 (this is one of the nuances..I can't remember if the MTN corp is possible to air transport to as friendly hex or not. If not, break it down into divs).

Marine Corp with TRS
White Print Inf (at least a 7-3, but perhaps not an 8 or 9 str as it will likely die in the UK) with the other TRS.

Split into all the div's you can get to transport them on cruisers. Keep a scrap paper so you can combine them again once in the UK.

Build the 3pt ftrs--you'll need the range. Place them in north france.
Build the 3pt land bombers instead of the Stuka's. (this is not a 100% unanimous decision. some say the 4 range stuka's are good enough. others say build the stuka's for france, then stand them down and use the pilots in the 3pt land that you build as a hybrid plan, a fourth element is to build both and use the stukas as garrison in poland.).

Keep all white print inf on the west side of the map for possible reinforcements. There is a 2nd mtn unit that is white print as well as a mountain div. These are important later.

Strategic Goals:

1. Conquering the UK is unrealistic in my opinion. But, you can really screw the UK up. Recognize that you are going to increase the UK build so you have to offset this effect and do something else for this inevitable fiasco to be worth it. Where to land becomes the critical tactical decision.
2. Where to land: I suggest the flatlands in the NORTH of the UK. This has LOTS of factories that can be damaged. Damaging these factories is very important for offsetting the UK production increase. This is more important than killing enemy units. Use the divisions to run around and damage factories.
3. Use the corps to get into the mountains. This will make it very difficult to dislodge you. The UK shore bombardment makes their relatively low-strength units actually pretty effective against out of supply and flipped GE units near the coast (which is almost a given because UK is pretty much 100% coast!).
4. Weather can be your friend if you plan on getting where you need to be and then just sitting there. The UK can not afford land losses or they risk the loss of the UK--making almost any attack not worth the price of the candle...
5. The UK will not likely be building convoys. Have the Italians and GE build out their subs and after you are done moving around in the UK, you can then really put a hurt on the UK convoy system. After about 12-18 months, the GE's will be dislodged from the UK, but the price will have been exceptionally high for the allies. The Russians toast in the streets....The germans will find out if the price is going to be exceptionally high for them too!
6. Do not use your O-chit in the UK unless something really spectacular can happen (take London or something on this magnitude).
7. You'll notice, that except for the first turn production, and the inevitable loss of about 8 corp (but some of the nicest units in the GE army), GE has not really built stuff it can not us in the USSR. Specifically the 3 str ftrs and 3pt land bombers are needed in the USSR. The 2pt stukas and inf not purchased during sea lion can be purchased for cheap and in 2 turns. the front is close and you can get ready for USSR pretty quickly.

You'll be dancing on the head of a pin, but it is possible. Pay very close attention to USA entry and don't have JPN do anything to hasten it. If USA comes in before you are ready to "SIT" in the UK and wait to die, you'll regret the 2nd front that will come in 1943 (or possibly earlier!).

[AlbertN]

I am not sure how a Sea Lion is even feasible.
Just by landing on UK you give USA 1.5 chits. You increase the production multiplier of UK and your units will struggle to get supply / reinforcements depending on the Royal Navy activity in the sector - which in the case I expect to be massive.
Due to the builds for Sea Lion requiring an amount of turns, you telegraph your intent to the UK long before you can enact it and they can eventually focus on what they need (land units) which will anyhow be used later on for the West Front meanwhile once Sea Lion fails, all the BPs wasted in shipping will be wasted for the Axis.

In the while Comrade Josif has built up his force pool and has massed forces on the border ready to strike, without his own production having been dented or shrunk.

[Jagdtiger14]

Don't do it! Even the best player to have played this game failed to succeed vs an unsuspecting CW player at WiFcon.

I did it in A3R one time though!

[brian brian]

The most fun Sea Lion is the shoe-string surprise Sea Lion. Sometime in the first winter of the war the German lift assets quietly return from East Prussia to their base at Kiel. The CW goes all-in with the BEF and proudly launches the hulls of the new Implacable CV class. The Germans invest heavily in armor plate but send it to Krupp's tank factories. The Fallschirmjaegers drop for the conquest of Belgium and then they just kind of wander along just behind the front. The German INF stacks topped with 2 ART come to grips with the BEF. The Bismarck finishes sea trials and awaits a combat mission. A few infantry divisions post up along the coast on the Dunkirk front, where they stand guard over extensive airbase construction (invisible). The Germans blow open the French front with an O-chit and Lord Gort summons the British tank reserves from Harwich to deploy to France with the new Alexander HQ for a counter-attack which the advanced Panzers brush aside.

Suddenly it is British forces under attack everywhere. Italians make surprise landings in Egypt. German artillery opens up on the Tommies and the Stukas scream down as well - the BEF is pinned in place and German infantry assault whistles are heard in the distance. The real shocker is the elite German I Corps unloading off the Rhine barges all along the coast of Kent while the Fallschirmjaegers seize all the completely undefended road junctions inland. The Home Guard wilts in dismay. Soon German transports are loading a Panzer Army HQ from Antwerp, commanded by Guderian. There is only a single Garrison unit holding London and some Scottish Militia railed down to the Midlands...

Spring 1941 finds the Midlands mostly wrecked amidst a static front line of Infantry everywhere. German engineers are finishing off the last factory demolitions with the supplies flown in from the hastily assembled Supply Unit. But then the Kriegsmarine declines to deploy their last gruppe of Merchantmen to supply the Wehrmacht troops ashore, partly because it only has one WWI era Battleship left as a functioning surface combat unit. A TRS arrives in London to sail Guderian back into the Baltic for deployment in East Prussia. Large portions of Africa belong to Italy now and their new proxy state in Iraq hosts a major Axis troop build-up warily watching the Russian conquest of Persia, while Stalin can't admit to anyone that he has been sucked into an overcommitment fighting over almost nothing of any real consequence in northern Manchuria. Hitler delivers a fiery speech to the Reichstag declaring the time has come for Germany to seize it's Lebensraum and give the rotting Russian house of cards one swift kick...

[Jagdtiger14]

Awesome Brian! That's probably the best way to do it! Combine that with taking Gibraltar and releasing the Kraken...and I assume continuing German sub construction?

[brian brian]

Gibraltar is a focal point of the game, and is more important than even London. Only a total newbie CW player would ever leave it empty, even for an impulse - the turn can end and the Allies might not move first, next time. As soon as the Axis have a corps-level asset that could possibly launch an attack on the hex, it needs two units. Then three.

But what to do about Gibraltar is a far bigger topic than Sea Lion tactics.

[Centuur]

It is so easy to counter a possible Sea Lion by the CW. The answer is boots on the ground and FTR's in the sky. Apart from starting an AMPH in the first turn of the war, the CW should stick to HQ, MIL, INF, GAR, FTR2, FTR3 and CVP to fill the carriers available to them, untill all carriers have a CVP and the force pools of those units are empty.
Also: don't go all out in France. Yes, people say that Flanders and France are the start of the defense of the Soviet Union, but as Brian Brian wrote, four German Corps with an HQ in the northern UK can wreck havoc for years and years on the war economy. That's why it is so very nice to leave a German division and a 7 factor INF sitting with the Kriegsmarine in Kiel, while the battle of France rages on. Germany normally doesn't need those two units in France...

Therefore: always make sure that there are at least 4 CW corps (one being the MECH) in the UK, together with FTR's covering most of the Midlands, Glasgow and London. That's enough to counterattack any German invasion force. And beware for the quite dirty trick of Germany getting a 7 factor INF as reinforcement with no or just 1 land unit in the UK...

A lot of players like to finish those CW CV's. Forget it. You don't need those in 1940 or 1941. At that time you conclude that the US has far better CV's available and you don't need those lousy CW CV's... Same with the BB's. Build what is in the repair pool and leave the rest unfinished rotting at the shipyards. 1942 is early enough if you decide you need those BB's after all to give D-Day an extra punch for shore bombardment...

[brian brian]

And after the HQ, MIL, INF, and GARR (in that order), start in on the MOT too. Oops now we are on a CW build plan.

Here is a new German build plan for Sea Lion that I like. It might not lead to wrecking the Midlands factories, or even technically setting foot ashore in one of the United Kingdoms, but it might lead to wrecking the CW economy all the same.

Sep/Oct 1939 - 2 Pilot, aircraft (CV plane), HQ-A. Italy invades in the Oran area and maintains a laser like strategic focus on the area. 4 MP German INF walk to northern Italian ports, double time.

Nov/Dec 1939 - 3 Pilot, 2 aircraft (CV plane), start AMPH, save some BP. CW freaks out.

Jan/Feb 1940 - increase aircraft gearing (2 Stukas + new Me-109), HQ-A, repair Pocket BB, save some BP

Mar/Apr 1940 - start a SUB program, possibly maintain at least one aircraft gearing (more Me-109 pulls until the He-100 comes along and actually empty the FTR pool in 1940 to get at the 1941 FW-190 when the time comes), finish Graf Zeppelin and Tirpitz. save all extra BPs. take zero risk with the new PARA

May/Jun 1940 - finish 3 Hipper-class CA, maintain minimum SUB gearing, MIL, advance build Manstein HQ-A

Jul/Aug 1940 - Air-landing division, Parachute division, Condor, SUB, finish AMPH, re-start Pilot program

Sep/Oct 1940 - MAR, Marine division, Condor, continue SUB program, 2 Pilots if needed - depends on combat losses

Nov/Dec 1940 - Offensive Chit, NAV-3, Pilot

Jan/Feb 1941 - Stuka, FTR2

Meanwhile the Italians are doing about all of the same things, patiently assembling a new AMPH, MAR, PARA, divisions of the same, a couple ATRs, NAV, FTR-2 and SUB with any extras, staying on program into 1941

In 1941 all of that is hurled at The Rock, from both directions, impulse after impulse, without declaring war on Spain. Once taken the left-over toys are used to take Ireland and mount a full court press on the CW convoy lines. The Panzers should be still staring down the NKVD border guards in Poland but things will be getting tense over that way.

[Jagdtiger14]

Brian's plan is usually the plan for Gibraltar other than in our group, CW always DOW's Portugal. Morocco is also crucial for both sides...and there is usually a fight there. CW maintains control of Cape St. Vincent like a MF'er and most times keeps Gibraltar in supply...as well as units ready to replace lost units there. For a while CW can control the Western Med, and then eventually has to retreat out of there. Germany/Italy repeatedly invade/airdrop regardless of losses impulse after impulse wearing down the defense until one side is completely spent (normally not many toys are left over unless lucky). At the same time German units are ready to cross the Pyrenees if all else fails.