In Axis and Allies, Should Germany build a first turn transport and try and control the Med/Africa?

Question

When playing Germany in A&A 2nd Edition, is it a feasible strategy for Germany to buy a Italian transport on the first turn, for the purposes of cementing Germany's Mediterranean naval presence and enabling it to sustain troop transports into Africa?

Don Rae's essay on purchasing recommends this buy, but I rarely see it used and I wonder why. Is it because people think it's a flawed strategy (and thus never give it a shot), because they've tried it but not successfully executed (thus giving up on it), or because most people have simply never heard of (or independently come up with) the idea?

If you think this strategy works, what does it change about your first turn German attacks (i.e. presumably your med Battleship and Transport do not engage in naval battles, so how do you re-balance your attacks accordingly)?

Answer 1

Germany has a small window in which it can afford to bolster its navy. Presuming the Russians are building a suitable wall in Karelia and the US and UK are planning to shuck-shuck, Germany needs every IPC later in the game to build infantry and armor and cannot afford to build a transport, sub, or (gasp) air craft carrier or battleship.

For that reason, Germany's only chance to improve her navy is first or second turn. Moreover, she must build it in the Mediterranean Sea, as attempting to build a navy in the Baltic Sea Zone is suicide given the proximity to UK and Russia's air forces.

Without that extra Mediterranean transport, Germany's options in Africa are limited (presuming the Allies make it a priority to eradicate the German navy). The transport buys a little insurance for Germany, an extra few turns in which it has to secure Africa and enjoy her IPCs before the Allies come storming into Algeria. And if the UK player is bent on building a South African factory that second transport is a requisite to have any hope in taking it out before enough of a defense can be constructed.

If you think this strategy works, what does it change about your first turn German attacks (i.e. presumably your med Battleship and Transport do not engage in naval battles, so how do you re-balance your attacks accordingly)?

Personally, I almost always use Don Rae's suggested first turn buying advice for Germany: purchase a transport and 8 infantry. Since this immobilizes my battleship and transport, I use a sub and fighter to off the British battleship and a bomber to nix the sub.

If those attacks fail, Germany is pretty much screwed, though. That's one thing I dislike about Axis & Allies in general - the first turn or two really has rippling effects through the rest of the game. A couple of bad dice rolls in the early game almost guarantees defeat, especially as the Axis where the margin for error is so narrow.

Answer 2

What I have had success with is sending both subs with 3 fighters to the North Sea and 2 fighters and bomber to wipe England's battleship in Gibraltar. This allows the two transports and battleship to hook up in Spain's sea zone and put pressure on atlantic.

The English have to decide to send in their transport and all the airforce to sink the German Battleship, which puts their fighters out of randge of kar or possibly even losing their airforce which would make it impossible for an india factory. If instead they leave either the German fleet or any surviving subs in North Sea alone, USA can only use a transport and a bomber to try a 2nd wave of attacks.

As far as Africa with this move you pull libya back to Algeria and save the Norway tank and move the infantry in west europe to Algeira to slowly advance and have Japan land in Egypt by turn 3. I have done plenty of tests of this strategy, and typically it forces England to not buy any navy or (ind?) first turn, and instead buy some infantry and fighter to cover their butt if the German fleet survives for sea lion or even a brazil assault. so with this move Germany can buy and employ all forces towards Russia with UK and USA scrambling to rebuild an airforce and navy which puts any direct threats past turn 3.

Answer 3

My sense that it is not only feasible but necessary for Germany to spend more effort on building/maintaining a navy than is usually the case. One of my opening gambits is move the Med battleship and transport (plus infantry) to Black Sea for amphibious assault on the Caucasus to give the FORMER a "safe" mission. If that's the case, you really need to build a second Med transport to ferry troops to Africa. (I'd use airpower against the British battleship off Gibraltar. A bomber or fighter lost vs. that ship would represent a savings.) These were some of the issues I explored in various iterations of my naval/sub question.

It's not just the transport. Then I'd build subs to control the Atlantic as long as possible, but there may come a day to build a second battleship, cost what it may. (Or an aircraft carrier with two fighters.) But think of that as what you need to do to keep Africa. Otherwise you'll lose anyway.

One possibility of avoiding this is to enlist Japan's help in the Mediterranean. (The British actually did this with Japan against the Germans in World War ONE.) One of the answers I was hoping to hear from my US vs. Japan in the Pacific question was, "BOTH sides should break off Pacific combat and send their fleets to the MED, which should be the site of the game-deciding battle. (But you provided some GREAT alternatives for Japan in the South Pacific.)

Note: Despite my numerous questions, I've never actually PLAYED the game. What I've done is "play test," it i.e. play both sides of say, a Japan-U.S. Pacific confrontation, a German-Russian east front battle, a German British-Med fight, etc.

I like your question. If I ask questions that seem not to be from actual games (yet), they WILL be, if I ever get around to playing.