We may now be able to add a section on pulling off a successful Sea Lion when playing with the BJR mod.
Maybe we can get joerock22 to provide the writeup because he's about to pull it off against me. I though I was in good shape with most of the Royal Navy, two fighters and one strategic bomber based in the UK for just such an "unlikely" operation. Also, I had 100 PPs in reserve. Well it's July 1941 and Joe has Portsmouth. He's across in strength and I won't be able to hold London much longer. I know of at least two grave mistakes I made. It'd be interesting, if he has time, to hear his strategy and his assessments of the critical mistakes I made.
Also, I'll include potential responses to his strategy as I get them from players obviously better than me (e.g., Joe, Borger, Jim, etc.).
Well, Ronnie, I saw you had 2 fighters so I built a 3rd German fighter before the fall of France. I brought the Italians up too, for a total of 4 fighters and 4 TACs. Air superiority is absolutely essential for a successful Sealion in the mod. But you need more than that. Here are some of the other factors that made this attempt successful:
1. The UK sub wasn't blocking the channel. I made sure of this a couple turns before boarding transport, but it was still nice not to have to worry about it.
2. The RN was off escorting convoys. I made the mistake of letting my subs wander too far out, and they had to race to make it back to guard the channel. If you had struck into the west end of the channel with your whole navy the instant I landed my first tank, you might have been able to break through.
3. I was able to make a lightning landing from Cherbourg (boarding transport and landing in 1 turn). This tank unit, along with air bombardment, reduced the defender in Southhampton to 2 steps. In the same turn, I lined other transports up along the English coastline. The British counterattacked the next turn, but my air support enabled me to surround the city and capture it quickly.
4. Another thing the Axis player can do is shift his sub screen back. After you land the troops you want west of Southhampton, withdraw the 2 subs blocking that end of the channel to a new line: the Cherbourg port and the hex directly above it. The Brits can only attack your exposed sub from 1 hex, and you can obviously repair the sub in the port.
The quick landing from Cherbourg strategy has worked for me 3 times (out of 3 attempts), and I tried it against Jim too. However, he had enough troops in the area to actually destroy the tank. But now his infantry is exposed to the Luftwaffe, and I pounded it pretty good. I landed fresh units south of London, and we'll see what happens from there.
joerock22 wrote:Well, Ronnie, I saw you had 2 fighters so I built a 3rd German fighter before the fall of France. I brought the Italians up too, for a total of 4 fighters and 4 TACs. Air superiority is absolutely essential for a successful Sealion in the mod. But you need more than that. Here are some of the other factors that made this attempt successful:
1. The UK sub wasn't blocking the channel. I made sure of this a couple turns before boarding transport, but it was still nice not to have to worry about it.
2. The RN was off escorting convoys. I made the mistake of letting my subs wander too far out, and they had to race to make it back to guard the channel. If you had struck into the west end of the channel with your whole navy the instant I landed my first tank, you might have been able to break through.
3. I was able to make a lightning landing from Cherbourg (boarding transport and landing in 1 turn). This tank unit, along with air bombardment, reduced the defender in Southhampton to 2 steps. In the same turn, I lined other transports up along the English coastline. The British counterattacked the next turn, but my air support enabled me to surround the city and capture it quickly.
4. Another thing the Axis player can do is shift his sub screen back. After you land the troops you want west of Southhampton, withdraw the 2 subs blocking that end of the channel to a new line: the Cherbourg port and the hex directly above it. The Brits can only attack your exposed sub from 1 hex, and you can obviously repair the sub in the port.
The quick landing from Cherbourg strategy has worked for me 3 times (out of 3 attempts), and I tried it against Jim too. However, he had enough troops in the area to actually destroy the tank. But now his infantry is exposed to the Luftwaffe, and I pounded it pretty good. I landed fresh units south of London, and we'll see what happens from there.
Thanks. Live and learn! The gain of extra PPs from escorted convoys and the few steps that you might take off one or two German u-boats is not worth the risk of opening up the UK to Sea Lion. I know our game is not over but given the thumping that you just gave me in Libya and continue to give me as I hightail it back to Egypt. I've made things infinitely difficult for me. There is a bright side to the Allies for all this. I have much less territory to defend and its much easier protecting UK convoys. As Happycat told me recently when life gives you lemons make lemonade. And boy, do I have a lot of lemons. Maybe I'll open a stand.
rkr1958 wrote:Thanks. Live and learn! The gain of extra PPs from escorted convoys and the few steps that you might take off one or two German u-boats is not worth the risk of opening up the UK to Sea Lion. I know our game is not over but given the thumping that you just gave me in Libya and continue to give me as I hightail it back to Egypt. I've made things infinitely difficult for me. There is a bright side to the Allies for all this. I have much less territory to defend and its much easier protecting UK convoys. As Happycat told me recently when life gives you lemons make lemonade. And boy, do I have a lot of lemons. Maybe I'll open a stand.
Yeah, now I have to sail all the way across the Atlantic to hit convoys. I could build a ton of subs to completely cut you off, but Barbarossa will suffer if I do that. Plus I now have to leave some forces behind to defend England. But doing Sealion is a lot better than not doing it, and the extra resources will certainly help me build larger and faster in Poland. It should be interesting when we finally get to mid-1941
Now that I thought it through I missed the most obvious "Red Flag" that Sea Lion was about / going to happen. You had a DD based in Cherbourg's port and an armor unit in Cherbourg. The DD was perfectly position to provide supply to the channel skipping armor unit and if it's transport happen to be repelled by an Allied sub between Cherbourg and the English coast the DD along with Axis airpower would handily dispatch it. In retrospect the fact that I didn't recognize that "Red Flag" for what is was was an error; but not my biggest. My biggest was allowing the Axis to achieve the tactical positions they did without a fight. That is, their position in Cherbourg and their control of channel choke points by u-boats. Priority One for the Allied player (at least for me for all my games from now on) will be to control the English channel from the start of the game! This can be accomplish using the UK sub and French fleet prior to the fall of France. However; when the fall of France is near then the Royal Navy needs to be in the ports in and around in the English Channel. Also, UK air needs to be based such that it can cover the entry in the channel south of London and the Royal Navy based in those ports.
Joe, sorry to give away you secret though it'd be interesting to see what would happened if a Sea Lion was tried against a well prepared Allied defense. Also, even if you did execute Sea Lion it would be relatively cheap to set up for it and force the Allied player to respond leaving open North Africa and UK transports for attack. However; large wolfpack attacks against convoys near their spawning points we be a good indicator that you weren't serious about Sea Lion ... unless you had built extra u-boats to control the choke points and these attacks were bait. Ahh ... the fun of PBEM games.
I guess playing multiple games and learning/refining strategies is equivalent to the numerous wargaming exercise that all sides engaged in during the war.
MrLongleg wrote:Please check the link, it does not work anymore...
Thanks. Apparently, as the message says when you click on the link, my ISP is changing servers. I had to call and reactivate my account. The link should be working within 24-hours.
If you want a copy of the document just PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you.
First off, this belongs somewhere else. Second, typing in all caps often puts people off. If I knew the answer to your question, I'd be tempted not to give it to you. Some simple politeness usually goes a long way.
First off, this belongs somewhere else. Second, typing in all caps often puts people off. If I knew the answer to your question, I'd be tempted not to give it to you. Some simple politeness usually goes a long way.[/quote im sorry i have the answer thanks
brivadois wrote:I am a newbie and french (nobody's perfect) and I need help for this great game. I'cant download the file of rkr1958.
Thanks for your help.
Links removed (OBE) with more recent and up to date references and discussions carried out below.
Last edited by rkr1958 on Sat Aug 21, 2010 3:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
All, I'd like to use this thread to point to other relevant threads and / or resources on relative to strategy, tactics and "did you know". Also, we'll be able to keep up with threads that are still relevant but which may get pushed down after a time (e.g., discussion on leader's impact on effectiveness by Buddygrant).
Last edited by rkr1958 on Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
OddsBodkin wrote:Thank you for your helpful thread.
But I have a problem:
Changing unit names does not seem to last..when I next click on the unit the original name has returned.
I am trying to make a feint invasion with a garrison renamed [Armour]. But I cant seem to save the change.
Thw invasion of England is at stake!
Try changing the name and then hitting "Enter" before moving your mouse. That always locks it in for me.
Note - there is some debate as to whether renaming transports deceptively (i.e. changing a garrison into an armour) is proper game etiquette. Many (myself included) feel it's better to rename by number so your opponent doesn't know what they are but you are not actively deceiving him. I would make sure your opponent is okay with what you're doing before doing it. Though that might defeat the whole purpose of renaming transports in the first place...
I was looking for a "Save Changes" button of some sort. But now you mention it, how to tell any computer programme to register changes made onscreen? Hit "Enter"! Doh
I'm interested in your point on etiquette. I agree it is always important to play fairly and with respect for one's opponent.
However isn't it the case that the allies made several deception plans even going so far in 1944 as creating an entire false army in East Anglia with simulated radio traffic, and Patton announced as its Commander?
I think that counts as re-labelling!
However the test of fair play is whether or not the other player feels he has been cheated. My opponent is an old and cunning gamer. I think he will admire my use of what back in my day the Soviets used to call "maskirovka".
If you every get about to installing and playing the GS 2.00 expansion the GSv2.00 user's manual that's installed along with the expansion contains this information for the expansion.
We may now be able to add a section on pulling off a successful Sea Lion when playing with the BJR mod. 
I though I was in good shape with most of the Royal Navy, two fighters and one strategic bomber based in the UK for just such an "unlikely" operation. Also, I had 100 PPs in reserve. Well it's July 1941 and Joe has Portsmouth. He's across in strength and I won't be able to hold London much longer. I know of at least two grave mistakes I made. It'd be interesting, if he has time, to hear his strategy and his assessments of the critical mistakes I made.
