The Italy Option - Allied Strategy

[GDS_STARFURY]

More often then not people seem preoccupied with a early war defence and do not take advantege of thier striking potential. The following strategy allows the allied player to defeat the axis by mid 43 and not loose France at all.

At the start of Fall Weiss the allied player should take all available naval units and move them south into the Med. Take care to kill the 2 northern subs by England. All allied troops in a port should be put on transport and also sent to the Med as fast as possible. Take the 2 French armies that arnt in Maginot defenses and move them to the southernmost French port. On the 3rd turn youll be able to have the vast majority of your naval assest in the Med and have Rome surrounded with armies and corps in transports. The 2 French armies should also be put on transports and landed on either side of Rome once the invasion begins.

While all that is being set up and the units put in their places the Allied player should be building as many Brit and French corps as they can. Form a hedgehog defense around Paris and transport the Brit corps to the mainland as fast as possible. As the Brits come ashore move them down the line to form a backbone to the Maginot and the eventual German attack.

There will come a point were you know Italy is about to join the war. If this happens at the end of a Axis turn then your all set to invade Italy without suffering political reversals with the USA and Russia. If you think Italy win enter the war at the begining of the next Axis turn then preempt them by declaring war on Italy first and launching your invasion.

The result of this attack completly effects the German drive into France. Done correctly, and by scouring every available unit at the start, the Allies can launch into Italy with 5 to 6 units early in the war. By bringing all of your naval units you can effectivly crush the Axis Med navy, use your carriers to ware down the Rome garrison and completly upset any German timetable. The French dont have to worry about their south flank as those Italian units are now marching back into Italy to defend their capital. By pre-placing your transports before war with Italy you can land in the mountains and use the terrain to your advantege during the Axis counterattack. Ive gone as far as to operate all air units to French Africa to back this attack.

Success can knock Italy out of the war very early and give either France or Britian a huge boost in MPP resources. This also forces the Germans to divert effort from France into Italy. This allows more then enough time for France and England to pump out a huge number of corps. Between this defensive shield and a instant war on 2 fronts, Germany is stretched to thin to complete the dual tasks of take France and regain Italy.

The economy for this strategy should ignore all research and focus on the production of corps and transporting them first to Italy and then back to the mainland. At some point its usually neccessary to reinforce the Italian group with 3 fresh corps. This should be no problem if you can act early and correctly gauge the situation.

The political downside to this is that Russia and America do not enter the war until late 41 and more often in mid 42. This delay can be aggrevated if you also choose to attack the Low Countries first. This can be usful as it negates the available plunder for Germany. This stretches German resources on a 2 front war incredibly thin.

I think the main difference in this strategy vs most Ive read is that its pro-active. Because of our collective sense of history we often fall into the pattern of early war defence while we take the semi-historic course of building up and then attacking. The main fault with this is that it gives your opponent, either human or AI, the initiative. This strategy takes the initiative back and lets the Allies dictate the early war. This in course lets the Allies win the war and all without France falling and without the help of Russia or America.

[jon_j_rambo]

Hi GDS_STARFURY, that's a cool strategy. If you need a good "head-cracking as the Allies"; I'm the guy you need to speak too.

jon_j_rambo@yahoo.com

[Kuniworth]

THis strategy been put forward before in diffrent shapes.

[Carl G. E. von Mannerheim]

Well, if you really want to put an early invasion of Italy strategy to the test. I suggest dowloading my 1939: The Turkish option from either schq or Mannerheim's Bunker.

CvM

[murks]

I doubt that it works. A good german player will let you take italy while crushing France really fast with his 6 experienced airfleets. After France has fallen, retaking italy can be done with a fraction of the german troops. This leaves the allied player with a weakened Britain and, if you declared war on italy, no prospect for a US or Russian entry any time soon. Sealion will likely follow at the same time as the recapture of Italy with the Royal Navy still on it's way home.

[blackbellamy]

that is correct - this strategy might work against the AI but it will doom britain since in order for the invasion of italy to work the british player has to strip his little island bare

the german player will have his fleet, six airplanes, and enough transports to take care of britain in the same amount of time it took for the allies to take care of italy

[Der Panzinator]

I do like the idea of attacking the low countries first as the allies.

Since this is where Germany must go through on its way to France then a build-up of troops may significantly slow down the German blitz.

I'll have to give it a try. Sure would be nice for an early plunder for the allied cause.

[GDS_STARFURY]

Murks: if a German player is letting his ally get taken then their not being a very good player. First of all either France or Britian get the plunder for taking Italy which directly translates into units at the front during the next turn. Personally I like letting France take the plunder as I wont have to spend MPP on transporting. With Italy's units gone the whole south flank is now open and the conquering country get whatever MPP Italy's territories offered per turn. The naval situation with this strategy is also such that the entire Axis Med fleet can be annihilated in 1 turn. Once this is done the only ships that you should keep in the Med are the carries for support. The rest of your fleet, which could be as many as 9 ships, can move back to British waters or the French coast by the 9th turn. If things are going more or less as planned the ability of Germany to even think about Sealion is nil. Early in the game this lets the allies win the battle of attrition. England and France are now producing almost 3 times as many MPP per turn as Germany. The attrition level brings me to my second counter to your statement. If your buying 6 air fleets that early in the game, and the Allies are now out producing you in MPP, and your frontline units are now wareing down exactly how are you taking France. Keep in mind that only a total of 6 units are needed to take Italy. The total sum of Allied production can then go to France. With fog of war on a German player might not detect this shift of forces until its to late. A sharp Allied player can also declare war on the Low Countries to keep the MPP plunder from Germany. I understand that long term this is a very bad idea but this whole strategy is geared to a very early finish anyway. In fact I might go as far as to try declaring war on Denmark and Norway just to really put Germany on the short term shoe-string.

What the Allies need most early war is time. Time to position, time to produce and ability to upset the timetable for Germany. If the Allies can deny the Axis those early victories theyve basicly won the war.

[David Brown]

GDS_STARFURY, the real question is: have you actually tried this against an experienced human player or not?

[Yohan]

Have to agree with Mr. Brown and others. This will not work against a good human. And who cares about sacrificing Italy if you can whack France and GB in lockstep?

I'm up for a game if you want to try it <eg>

[GDS_STARFURY]

The real answer is: No Only had the game about a week or so. I generaly try to dig around as much as possible solo before going h2h with humans. No matter how good a person is those first few h2h games are always painful no matter what the game. Soon Ill be ready, I just have a few more things to work on.

[Yohan]

Anytime, hope you enjoy the game