Threatening England

[IBender]

I have played 2 global games now. both to 1944 and learned a lot. One thing stands out is that I have not figured out how to threaten England. In both games, neither I nor my opponent felt in a position to threaten England or invade Endland after the fall of France and therefore turned our attentions to other areas like Africa / Norway / Balkans / Russia. Neither of us ever returned to England.

Also, in the AARs I have read, I dont recall any german player (that I read of) that threatened England proper either. I dont think I saw a battle of Britain, havent seen aggressive bombing, havent seen an invasion in AAR or in my two games.

Basically, can I get some ideas how what / how people do to deal with the English mainland? How do you handle it, because it seems if they are not they are not hurt and kept hurt, they grow strong and by 1942 / 43 they are pretty strong.

[Courtenay]

Almost always Britain is ignored. The two main German strategies are a '41 Barbarossa, with the idea of crippling, if not conquering, the Soviet Union, or the Close the Med strategy, trying to take Gibraltar and Suez, and if possible Iraq and Persia, before turning their attention to Russia. If the CW adequately garrisons England, it is, if not impossible, at least very difficult to effectively attack Britain.

Remember, historically the German lost the Battle of Britain. Rather than getting involved in a losing fight, the Germans are well advised to look elsewhere

[Shannon V. OKeets]

The Commonwealth doesn't even have to defend Great Britain with very many land units if it has an imposing fleet in the North Sea. Of course it then has to be vigilant and keep substantial naval power in the North Sea even at the start of a turn. That usually means starting each turn with a Naval Action.

EDIT: For the Axis to invade Great Britain they will need to take Gibraltar and Egypt so the Italian navy is free to move into the Bay of Biscay. That then requires the Commonwealth to defend two sea areas to prevent an invasion. But by then the USSR typically has a massive army on the German eastern border, ...

[Jagdtiger14]

Well advised to not do this. I was involved in a convention game vs the greatest WiF player of all time (Andrew Rader), who was not able to make it work. There are so many negatives even if you do manage to land. As mentioned above, a small force in Britain can defend well enough, which is what happened vs Rader. The CW fleet made its presence in the North Sea, and that was that.

By the time the Axis take Gib+ in the Med, the US is already making its presence felt and is probably close to entering the war. Even if you landed in Britain, the US would be on the way, and you will be kicked out.

Waste of time and resources. Losing strategy.

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: Jagdtiger14
Waste of time and resources. Losing strategy.

I don't know why, but when I read this sentence I imagined read it with Trump's voice [:D]

[Jagdtiger14]

quote:ORIGINAL: Jagdtiger14 Waste of time and resources. Losing strategy. I don't know why, but when I read this sentence I imagined read it with Trump's voice



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Yuuuge compliment! Thank you bro![&o]

[Centuur]

As a strategical option after the fall of France, it is indeed a losing strategy.

However, if Germany manages an invasion of the CW before the fall of France, things are totally different. The CW doesn't have a lot on land units and if they are not paying attention, the Kriegsmarine can suddenly attack with an HQ, a MIL, division, a PARA and transport a MTN to England in the spring of 1940. When there are no (or only very weak) land units in the UK, and the RAF has been used to defend ground strikes in France on the BEF, this is an option which is a gamble, but when it succeeds it's a disaster for the CW, especially if the CW can't return land units to the UK that turn...

So it's not a bad idea to keep the CW to play honest and maintain two corps and a division on the Kriegsmarine in Kiel...

[IBender]

Very helpful thank you

[Viktor_Kormel_slith]

ORIGINAL: Centuur

As a strategical option after the fall of France, it is indeed a losing strategy.

However, if Germany manages an invasion of the CW before the fall of France, things are totally different. The CW doesn't have a lot on land units and if they are not paying attention, the Kriegsmarine can suddenly attack with an HQ, a MIL, division, a PARA and transport a MTN to England in the spring of 1940. When there are no (or only very weak) land units in the UK, and the RAF has been used to defend ground strikes in France on the BEF, this is an option which is a gamble, but when it succeeds it's a disaster for the CW, especially if the CW can't return land units to the UK that turn...

So it's not a bad idea to keep the CW to play honest and maintain two corps and a division on the Kriegsmarine in Kiel...

Interesting trick but only possible if you don´t play with amphs. We use to play with it. Playing boardgame in old editions it was easier, I have seen it a handfull of times and every time except one ( France never was conquered) Germany won the game but with RAW 7 it ís near impossible... or not

(1941)jul/aug