US/British "resurrection"

[JyriErik]

Playing against the AI an interesting thing happened. I was trying a "west first" strategy against the AI and took out the British and then the US. What happened after the US fell was strange. The British launched operation Fork again, and retook Rekyavik and the US reinvaded the Azores so that those two airbases went back to Allied control after a minute under Axis control. No effect on the direction of the game, but felt weird (to say the least).

Jyri

[Tex01532]

You caught my attention with an invasion of North America pre-Barbarossa. How'd you accomplish that? I imagine you invaded in 1942 which would mean that the Soviet's declare war that summer leaving you exposed in the east. What's your timeline for this? Did you conduct a simultaneous Sea Lion and NA invasion? What about the Royal Navy?

Thanks,

[JyriErik]

This ONLY works well against the AI.
1940: refuse French surrender in order to get Spain in the war. Invade the UK as soon as Paris falls (the AI has a BAD habit of leaving London open after a few rounds of heavy air attack).

1941: take out Yugoslavia/Greece/Portugal/Gibralter and prep for Barbarossa/Invasion of Canada. In Iraq use the partisans to do most of the fighting while the Italians clear Syria and the middle east.
The invasion force is 3 Pz Kps, led by Rommel or Guderian (the other goes east with Manstein), 2 German infantry, 2 TAC, 3 FTR plus everything Spanish not garrisoning Portugal/Gib. Barbarossa in 1942 isn't that difficult to create. 4 Pz Korps, Max Mech, 3 FTR, 4-5 TAC, and as much Inf as you can build. I still decalre war on the last possible date in 1942 to get the bonus and the Red Army gets chewed up pretty quickly in the border zones.



I max out Uboats & allow the RN to bleed itself dry bumping into the ambush spots I set up around Halifax (the AI can be suckered easily once you figure it out).

[mineral]

I also thought this was an interesting twist on the game vs the AI. I had an old turn from a post Barbarossa invasion (made the armistice with France, had almost finished off Britain, invaded yugo/greece, romping through russia) I thought I would try with this. The turn was just before the USA gets attacked at pearl harbor.
Dec 19th 1941 turn.

I tried first saving up for a proper invasion of the USA (5 germ pz/mech/corp/fighter/ss corp, 2 Ital, 1 corp, 1 mech (paying for the extra ship at sea)) along with 5 subs, 2 bb, 1 destroyer, with 2 carriers being built, more pz, etc. But by the time I had assembled it all and made it over to the USA, they had already built a ton of mech/inf/etc and my invasion in april1942 failed.

I backed up and instead, built a Germ Carrier, sent what I had at ports in Britain (1 para, 1 mech, 1 corp) to invade. I sent all my navy (ie the surface ships, subs were already there) and a leader. over the following turns I built a 2nd carrier, then built additional PZ/Corps/Figher/tac.

The next turn the USA is now at war with me. I was able to invade 5 turns later, waiting for good weather in Feb 1942. This time I made it with the 3 germ units and 2 IT. The USA land units were still sparse on the ground at this point. Was able to take NY the following turn (it had an bomber sitting in it), and at that point I just reinforced with PZ (and a 2nd PZ and corp's I brought later) and take Washington. That triggered the USA surrender (and all those mech/inf/bombers suddenly disappear!). It slowed me down only a little in russia (my 1942 attack was missing the extra panzers/corp's I would normally have if I hadn't sidetracked). I've not quite done yet, but it looks like I will have Canada and Russia finished off in mid/late 1943.
The USA is surprisingly vulnerable close to its declaration of war. Well, the AI run USA is! A human opponent would have eaten up my invasion fleet in 2 turns...

[JyriErik]

My invasion hits the first turn of clear seas in 1942 and I hit NE Canada. The AI fills the Halifax area with MASSES of troops, but NE canada is almost always empty, so most of 1942 is spent moving towards Ottowa, whih the AI leaves VERY lightly guarded in favor of Halifax for some reason. Once the British are knocked out, the US still over defends the Halifax area. In the last game the US had a dozen corps around Halifax, and 6 covering the "Ottawa front". Was easy to cut off the Halifax troops with a blocking force and have the rest of my troops grab WDC.

Jyri

[Peter Stauffenberg]

The events for Greenland, Iceland, Azores etc. are scripted and doesn't take into account that both USA and UK are knocked out of the war at that time. The Allied player would surely surrender if that would take place in a PBEM game.

If you play against the AI and can force USA and UK to surrender so early in the war then the AI is obviously not an opponent worth spending any effort against. This is similar to playing chess against an opponent you know you can mate in 20 moves. What's the point doing that.

Give the Allies max bonus in the options and then try. Decent human players should still be able to beat the AI.

[JyriErik]

The AI is fine for what I use it for. Trying out "oddball" strategies to see what will happen. Most are useless, but some things work out well enough to use "for real". After all, not likely to see an Axis invasion of North America against a human opponent ever (unless they're incompetant). Too much ocean & too many ships blocking that from happening.


Jyri