Flipping Norway?

[gremlok]

MP game as Axis - UK parked her North Atlantic fleet on the trade route depriving me of 40 MPP per turn. Norway is currently at 30% Axis but do they only flip at 100% or before? Its Dec 1039 so I am wondering if I should invest a chit in diplo and have Norway join me or still plan on invading by Decision in April?

[klschult]

At the appropriate time the AI will give the Germans a (practically) free, automatic and successful invasion of Norway and Denmark. Do not use chits on Norway.

Countries are controlled only at 100%. In general, they will not send you money if they are not aligned in your direction. A few countries have a few changes at other levels but no control until 100%.

Enjoy the game.

[gremlok]

Thanks - so there is no upside to losing all of my Norway trade? That's 40 MPP every turn and little I can do about it as the RN will destroy me if I try to chase them away?

I barely make the Brits loose 40 MPP from my own raiding given the distance going back to resupply whereas the RN can keep up raiding with no impunity.

[Markiss]

There is very little you can do about this initially, but once Norway belongs to Germany and the convoy route changes, a maritime bomber will drive away the Royal Navy. You will get 2 attacks on Royal Navy ships every turn, and your opponent will end up spending more to replace his ships then he is taking from you with convoy raiding. As soon as they realize this, the raids will stop.

It sucks to have the Germans spend precious mpp's on a maritime bomber, but when you get your 40 mpp's per turn back from Norway, it will pay for itself very quickly. Once the Royal Navy gives up on Norway, you can move the Maritime Bomber to the Med, where it can be very useful indeed. Once the USSR is in the war, it can also be used to raid the Arctic Convoys.

This cheap air unit can also be used for recon missions that you don't want to use up a bomber or fighter for. Once you get a couple levels in Long Range Aircraft, they have a vast range, similar to that of a heavy bomber. Is that National Morale City empty, and vulnerable to amphibious attack? Use a maritime bomber to scout it. Is there an armored formation behind my enemy's front line, waiting to counter attack? Use the Maritime Bomber to fly the recon mission, it is cheap to reinforce and you don't waste an attack.

It's something to consider. Getting the 40 points back per turn from Norway makes the Maritime Bomber a worthwhile investment, even if you never do anything else with it.

[Taxman66]

Just to note, somewhere in the last few patches Maritime bombers can't recon into (empty) land hexes.

[PvtBenjamin]

The German Maritime Bomber is also useful for Sealion, attacking Brit ships like the CV that arrives, in Sicily and Egypt (especially).

Due to the fact that I only play Allies I have never seen this. IMO it seems very gamey and shouldn't be possible to block 40 pts per turn so early in the game. I imagine people block the convoy way up Norway. Why doesn't the convoy just start in Kristiansand, that would make it much more difficult.

[Soulcollector]

I like the maritime bomber. Just position it in Brest to scout the british/us ships and (amphibian) transports. Then destroy them with your subs.

I usually don´t care much about the british raids on my norwegian convois. Try to hurt them back. You got two subs in kiel. Bring them out immideatly in turn one to start raiding the next turn. With the cruiser and sub in north atlantic you can block the Halifax port to shut down the canadian convoi completly. Then go north to resupply in greenland after denmark has been taken. Then go southeast (raid the routes again) and bring your subs to france/spain.
If you can not reach the next route in one turn, then dive to save your supply.

[gremlok]

ok thanks for the advice on the maritime bomber, makes sense. I guess flying all my bombers up after the fall of France for a massive attack might also do the trick now that I am in July 1940.

[AlexSF]

Or even better fly all the bombers from France to Sicily and hammer/kill Malta before dropping a para into it. Sink any British ship crazy enough to get close to Sicily then gradually redeploy to Balkans and the East Front...

[archmache]

Norway has like a 50% chance to move 1-3% over to the axis side every time the allies raid. If the allies constantly raid from turn one in the '39 scenario then Norway will flip to Axis by itself by around 1941/1942. I think this is the best way since if you do the Norway decision event you automatically lose Narvak and the mine city to an allies assault that prepares for it.

[Duedman]

ORIGINAL: archmache

Norway has like a 50% chance to move 1-3% over to the axis side every time the allies raid. If the allies constantly raid from turn one in the '39 scenario then Norway will flip to Axis by itself by around 1941/1942. I think this is the best way since if you do the Norway decision event you automatically lose Narvak and the mine city to an allies assault that prepares for it.

I had this happen against me because I was not aware. But I think it does not really help the Axis player. You lose the income from "Event-Norway" for over a year. This weakens the GE economy at a very vital point.

On the convoy matter:
The Naval Bomber is of no help if the British really want to deny the 40pts. They can get air cover from Carriers. To counter that, the naval Bomber needs fighters and an HQ....and then it becomes way too ressource intensive.
Also, the British can just stratbomb the Cuxhaven Port to cancel it.
These 40pts are lost by design I think.