I think you've done very well as the Allied defender of Britain. Germany has paid a very high price to finaly get control over Britain. It will be 1941 before the resistance is pacified. It's more important that you've pushed the Axis away from the Egyptian border. So he won't be taking Iraq. If you can grab Tobruk or Benghazi you lower the number of Axis units in Africa due to the Malta supply rule. It means he can't reinforce Libya to save the situation before it's all over.
Worst of all for Germany is that a 1941 Barbarossa is now impossible for him. His best forces are in Britain and it takes time to get them to the eastern front. He must build many new units to have enough units to get to Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov in 1941. Germany hasn't even taken Yugoslavia and Greece. Those countries can be taken in the Spring of 1941, but Russia is out of the question. That means Germany can go after the Russians late in 1941, but then they won't get far before winter strikes.
Then comes the worst part of all for Germany. Russia mobilizes in October 1941 and can retreat all front line units to safety behind the Dvina and Dnepr. Building a double line here is easy and since none of the front line units are killed in the June 1941 surprise attack it means Russia will be formidable indeed. The extra production from Russia won't offset the much stronger Russian defensive position in the Spring of 1942 (the earliest time for Barbarossa). Russia can afford to build Zhukov, Koniev and Rokossovsky and have them placed on the map in time to give each Russian units a considerable efficiency boost.
There is no way Germany can breach the Russians lines and will be stalled against this defensive line or decide to not attack at all.
What's tragic for Germany is that the lost income from Russia will be counted against the extra income from Britain. You need a big defensive force in Britain to keep the US at bay until 1943 and you will have the occasional partisans arrive in Britain.
The German oil situation must start to become quite severe now spending oil fo so many extra turns in 1940. You need to SAVE oil in 1940 for Barbarossa in 1941.
I think that Germany will probably lose this game. The German Sealion attack took way too long to finish and they failed to use the broken British to storm into Iraq.
I think the biggest mistake the Axis do when they launch a Sealion is to send TOO many units to Britain. They ignore reinforcements to Libya and they don't invade Yugoslavia and Greece with some air support. I think you only need the extra air units until you capture the first port in Britain. Then it's only a matter of time until you succeed anyway. You need to fortify Libya before the British kick you out of there.
But how can you make a faster conquest of Britain with fewer units? That's not possible. So maybe the best choice is to designate how many units you need to win and use overwhelming odds to capture the first port. Landing 20 units in Britain is simply overkill and costs 160 PP's just in transport cost and you need to pay as much to get them back to the continent. A good Axis player can take Britain with 8-10 units. The biggest problem is the British navy. They're a big nuisance.
So maybe it's a better strategy to use the bombers to bombard the navy and the southern British corps units for a few turns BEFORE Sealion is launched. If the British defenders lose efficiency then they can't be as deadly in counter attacks. Each bomber can deplete 2-3 steps on a BB and that means you can cripple the British navy if you also engage your subs before Sealion. Fewer naval units means never shore bombardments against the invaders etc.
But all of this is still so risky and against a determined Allied player you simply end up using too much time. So long term I think Sealion will often become a strategic blunder. If you take the British player by complete surprise and get London etc. quickly then it's another matter, but who plays a strategic WW2 as the allies game hasn't heard of the Sealion threat? Maybe it's better to fight the battle of Britain instead of Sealion. That is to harass the British every turn with your fighters and bombers so they get so much to repair they can't build new DD's, labs etc.
The conclusion is that Mrplow is doing very well. He will get his revenge in a few years and his opponent will end up regretting Sealion. Mark my words.
