PooBah

Player PooBah signs up to the ladder

I was wondering what the underlying probabilities for the surrender of certain countries. For example, does Poland always fall immediately after Warsaw is taken...what about France...Sweden...Spain... The countries that have another potential capital (Russia, Vichy, England) I understand how they work. However, I have run into instances where contries can hold out several turns after the capital is captured and they have a few surviving units. What are the equations used? Some combination of remaining mpp...combat strength...random factors? Any input would be much appreciated. Regards, PooBah

Heuristic, So most players allied human players would send element of the british navy to the med before Italy even joined the war? That's seems fair, how many and what ships would you send? The Italian have enough their to beat what is currently in the med, and they would have the advantages of ports to repair and they start fairly concentrated. I assume your first moves would be to take the suez ships and park them off the coast of Italy? One problem I see is that the Italians would get the first attack. I of course may be mistaken, I have not played tactics where I pre-empt a minor power in order to attack first. Is the allied player allowed to park his fleet of the coast of Italy and then declare against the italians? Forgive the newbie question, I just don't even think about gamey tactics like that. Thanks to all

Thanks for the responses. I do see a few problems with all the above mentioned counters. Particulary the notion that the brits would send part of their atlantic fleet to deal with the italians. This is the whole purpose of the strategy, to siphon off the brits from scapa to leave them a little more vunerable to a SeaLion, or to inflict such a mpp loss that they can be left to sit while Germany takes on Russia. The counters discussed that I like the best are the amph. assault of Italy, that has real potential and should probaly be done if the italian breakout is attempted, or even if its not. I do have a concern with wormwoods idea that the french fleet will offer any help. By the time the Italian are in the war, the french are about to fall, and the vichy fleet can be surrounded and attacked in port before they even move. I have not playtested the role of the free french that much, I am unsure of their survivability when france surrenders. Again, thanks to all for your input. PooBah

The Allied fleet in the Med? No chance, 3 BB's 1 cruiser, 1 sub. vs. 1 carrier, 1 bb, 1 cruiser in the suez and one bb in Gib? The brits could never muster enough firepower at one time to defeat them. Plus the Italian fleet have 4 ports to re-build. Even with the air fleet at malta, with the FOW turned on the sighting distance is never enough until it is two late. It's a matter of concentration, the italians can turn to defeat in turn the suez, then the gibralter, the the vichy in turn, resting after each engagement. I would like to hear a definative strategy. I read in a book about 20 years ago about the desire of the Italian deep water fleet to get into the atlantic to conduct raids on allied shipping and generally help reduce the pressure on the German fleet. If enough pressure is applied, the Brits have to leave Scapa and engage the Italians, this frees the germans to execute SeaLion or in general inflict such an mpp loss on the brits that the German player can fully concentrate on Russia. I know the strategy has flaws, I would like to hear about them. The AI is very predictable, I would very much appreciate some real input. Regards, PooBah

I have been playing around with the game for about two months now and while I can fairly consistanly beat the Allied AI, I know that would change when I play a real player. That being said, I was wondering what all the learned player out their are doing with Italy. My general strategy is to attempt a "breakout" of the Italian navy through Gibralter. What follows is a run down, I was hoping to get some counters and suggestions to this strategy. 1) Poland, Denmark, LC, France - by April 1940 2) Vichy, Sweden, Nov 1940 This positions the Italian Navy in Algiers, with a few armies and an Italian HQ. My general focus is to invade Spain amph. via Barcelona with the italians, join with a few german troops from vichy, then portugal, move italian armies to southern France. While the iberian front is settled, the Italian fleet ruduces the port at gibralter to rubble and passes through to park itself off the atlantic coast of US. When the US enters, the Italian fleet is waiting for him, all MPP from italy is used for subs to put into atlantic via gibralter. The italian fleet is crushed of course, but this draws the British fleet to the middle of the atlantic, the losses encurred at this point make the game simple. SeaLion comences by early 42' or I build a huge army with germany producing about 568mpp before barbarossa. The AI falls for this every time, I even invade the US a few times with three italian armies and an HQ. What would the real players do to counter... Regards PooBah