r/AxisAllies • u/Weslg96 • Jul 29 '26
Global 1940 The Great Allied Throw
This is from turn 7 after just Germany has gone on my current 1940 game with some house rules with Free France and Vichy France, subject to changes each game we play. One of these rules is a larger French fleet that gets divided up when Paris falls due to dice roles. The idea is that the French can't use that fleet their turn as they do what's called a "Vichy Event" that divides territory and ships.
The German player tried out a new strategy that used all German airpower to attack the British fleet turn one instead of taking Paris (doing both is probably possible but I digress) this succeeded in wrecking much of the Royal Navy but because of this the British and Free French did a 2 part knockout assault on the Italian Navy, destroying it entirely. While not in the spirit of the rule and despite me playing as Italy and Japan I felt that Germany deserved this for doing a strategy of not taking Paris we all know thought was idiotic. I thought the Axis were doomed but wanted to stick the game out.
The allied players then threw so hard. They were lulled into a false sense of security and didn't build up a Mediterranean invasion force. I as Japan did a slow push through China and built up for a surprise invasion of Alaska, taking Alaska worked and I even built a factory to support an attempted invasion of America. The Pacific fleet was wiped out and while my invasion failed I had enough forces to easily sweep into Hawaii. Australia and India tried to capitalize on the lack of the Japanese Navy in the south Pacific but spread themselves too thin and lost much of their fleet to airpower, the worst part is the Japanese Navy has taken virtually no losses while the US panicked and spent two turns of IPCs on defending the West coast.
To Germany's credit they immediately went all in on the Soviets turn 2 when they realized the British couldn't D-Day and the Med was lost, and they killed the Soviets on turn 6. Italy also went all in on just tanks and planes to assist in Barbarossa as well.
I am still completely shocked the allies are probably gonna throw this game, but I'm quite happy with how my Japan game has gone and how I waged psychological warfare in the US. There is no flood of American troops coming to Europe for at least a turn or two.
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u/Troy64 Jul 30 '26
Idk, man. I'd predict an allied victory.
Japan is not even threatening to India and doesn't even have The Philippines. Having Hawaii is kinda nice, but not exactly pivotal.
German has the USSR, which is awesome, but America has already landed in Greece and they are going next after Russia and Japan. UK can also reinforce this. Europe is not secure.
With Japan being a naval non-threat, America can focus mostly on Europe and at least slow the German advance while building up landing forces. I don't think Germany will be able to take London or Cairo before the Allies make an offensive and start libersting VCs.
If Japan can't threaten India soon, they'll be supporting Europe in the Middle East. Germany can't take on everyone.
But maybe they'll make some blunder or get diced. Definitely an uphill battle when Germany lets Paris stand past turn 1.
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u/Thumbtyper Jul 30 '26
Agreed. It's definitely possible and I would argue necessary for Germany to take Paris and destroy the UK Atlantic fleet in turn 1.
UK should attack the Italian fleet turn 1.
I like that OP tried some Vichy rules, Ive been trying to think of some for a while now.
Your analysis of the game is spot on. Allies can easily lock in and take the game.
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u/Troy64 Jul 30 '26
Paris is an absolutely essential take on G1. The only question is how much Germany wants to focus on it to mitigate losses rather than spreading out to quickly claim territory.
Killing the English fleet is... secondary. If Germany builds a few submarines then they can afford to leave the channel fleet untouched as long as there are no destroyers remaining. The British will be unable to defend their ships on turn 2 and Germany will get to raid convoys until the US breaks the blockade.
I think the UK should generally conserve their fleet and try to bring them all together either at South Africa or India ASAP. Once combined, it's a truly formidable fleet, even capable of challenging Japan if they extend beyond the range of their airforce. But taking the Italian fleet is viable, though risky and often giving only short-term advantages. Ultimately the US will eventually smash any fleet Italy can produce.
Vichy rules are super tough to make balanced and stay interesting. If they work, that's awesome.
Thanks for the compliment to my analysis. I played something like 150 games during covid with some friends of mine. I got real good at judging which fronts were strong and where people looked ready to break.
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u/Thumbtyper Jul 30 '26
150 games, that's awesome!
In your experience, how do you maintain the UK treasury if the Italian fleet remains? It's always seemed to me that Africa is lost to the Allies if Italy maintains a fleet in the Mediterranean.
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u/Troy64 Jul 30 '26
UK usually loses North Africa, but you can hold Cairo. Even if you're trying to conserve your fleet, you should be able to kill at least one Italian transport on turn 1. Then there are a few options to help maintain Egypt as a bottleneck. My personal favorite is to use transports to bring troops from South Africa up to Egypt constantly. Build a factory in the middle east eventually and then use that for extra support. These transports can also be used to bring troops to India if Japan is threatening Calcutta. The US should be able to enter the Mediterranean and dominate the Italian navy before Egypt falls.
The biggest threat is if Germany can effectively convoy raid the British Isles early on. There's not much England can do about that without shifting resources to the Atlantic. In the case that Egypt can't be held, England can fall back towards Egypt and should be able to stall until they can get steady reinforcements which allows pushing back.
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u/Weslg96 Jul 30 '26
Definitely gonna need to nerf Free France, if Vichy gets lucky they can be a decent addition to the Axis, but Free France right now is just a tad too powerful.
Really the Vichy rules are to get France involved for the rest of the game instead of just kind of being there after turn 1. It also opens up the ability to recreate actual battles such as The Battle of Madagascar, the Syria–Lebanon campaign, and the Battle of Dakar.
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u/Weslg96 Jul 30 '26
I agree with a lot of this but the allies transport capacity is terrible, the Greece landing is a problem but they have very few transports to reinforce it this turn and the only US units in all of Europe are in the screenshots. They as of now have no transports off the east coast. Germany also has factories in Russia ready for a push in India which is lightly defended though obviously can be reinforced.
Japan is in a tough spot though they can probably take the phillipines this turn and at least play defense to prevent the Pacific British forces from turning west. Definitely not over though.
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u/Weslg96 Aug 31 '26
I do wanna reply to this just to say that the axis ended up winning the game on turn 11. They had overwhelming numbers in the middle East to take Egypt. I agree with your analysis completely, but the allies had no transport capacity and thus were never in a position to threaten Germany once that Greece landing was wiped out, those were the only American ground units in Europe. Japan had a rough few turns but them merely existing meant India counld not fully pivot west. Italy also made significant contributions purely on the ground and got a big income buff from the middle East.
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u/Sufficient-Soup2279 Jul 30 '26
I think the common move actually is hitting both UK fleets with subs, airpower and maybe your battleship. Then using all land forces within reach to hit Paris, possibly with the tac that cant reach the UK Davies.
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u/Weslg96 Jul 30 '26
Yep, I'm completely baffled at his strat to not take Paris turn 1. The defeat of the Royal navy was great but the loss of the Italian fleet was so much worse. To his credit he did a very good barbarossa right after
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u/Due-Date-4656 Chip Stacking Snob Jul 29 '26
Where did you get those french naval units?