England invaded

[noel60]

Just played a game whr axis took London and most of England and seemed to have no effect on USA or USSR's move toward war.I would think if England was successfully invade England at the least usa would enter the war. Once Germans got a toehold there was no stopping them.No allied units can even begin to stand up to German units.They steamrolled England with no real move toward war by either USA or USSR.

[Capitaine]

Not sure I'd agree with your view of history. Why do you think a successful invasion of England would've accelerated a US entry? The fall of France didn't do that. If anything it could be argued that without Britain as a foreign staging area the likelihood of US involvement would decrease. It would really depend on what Nazi Germany did versus the US, not what it did to other European countries. Until Pearl Harbor there was little enthusiasm in the US for war.

[FriendlyKomissar]

noel60 does make a good point. If the Axis make a grab for England, they will likely succeed. Mostly once they get a port in the south thats it curtains. The time waiting for new units to be built usually means London will have fallen, and if Manchester falls too you cannot place any units in the remaining UK (e.g. Northern England / Scotland / Northern Ireland) which is a bit of an issue. Perhaps the captial should move to Edinburgh after Manchester as it might be possible to fight it out for a few turns in the hilly terrain of the north, but maybe that's me being biased towards Scotland.

What I have noticed is someone tried sea lion at the same time as barbarossa, to my surprise this prompted the US to join the war. Although as Capitaine says, the UK being lost would probably push the US away from joining. My only gripe about the game is there is no penalty for early (e.g. 1939) axis invasions of the low Counties/Denmark. In real life IMHO the German general staff wouldn't have taken such a risk, as Adolf wanted to get the western offensive going but opposition from the general staff prevented him doing so. Too bad for him he didn't listen to them in later years but I digress.

But from my experience I would advise keeping as many forces in the UK as you can possibly justify. Armies in the southern cities ports, and at least 4 fighter units. Aircraft Carriers in Bristol, Liverpool and possibly even London to give an extra boost to air defences. Artillery is useful as is a HQ. Elite units are useful (i.e. Special forces and Paratroopers) as they tend to demoralise the invading units. Invest in Anti-Aircraft guns for the South East cities and ports. Maintain as much of the Royal Navy as you can in the southern ports. Battleships if possible defended with a ring of destroyers or motor patrol boats. If invaded try to hold out for as long as possible. Do as much damage to the axis as possible and try to drag it out for as long as you can. In one of my PBEM I managed to hold the Axis player fighting for England for at least 6 months, and at a cost of around 1800 mmp (destroyed air units, HQ's etc) which is effectively all the axis plunder mmp at that point.

[Fintilgin]

Funny. I invaded England in late summer/fall of 1940, and around the time I took Birmingham (spring 41?) the US joined the Allies.

Does the Axis AI ever attempt a Sealion? I've never seen in it any edition of SC, which makes me sad. Let's you play the British more reckless when you know the AI will never invade. In fairness, a botched invasion would probably really damage the AI, so I wouldn't mind a difficulty level where they got a boost and some free units to try to crush you if the AI makes that choice.

[sPzAbt653]

Both the USA and USSR will move towards joining the Allies if the Axis do Sealion.

I'm not so sure about the computer executing a Sealion as I am not that familiar with those scripts. I can say that I have played many full games over the past 10 months and have never seen it happen. I also believe that I have seen a script for the computer to do a Sealion under the condition that Russia has surrendered.

[Guderian1940]

The AI will try Sealion if London has no garrison. Easily defeated though.

[noel60]

Problem with keeping all those units at home, FriendlyKomissar , is you will lose Egypt that much quicker. I have only played the 1st scenario and feel its way out of balance in favor of axis ,but can be adjusted by giving allies either a boost in tech MPPs or exp. Or a combination of them.

[FriendlyKomissar]

ORIGINAL: noel60

Problem with keeping all those units at home, FriendlyKomissar , is you will lose Egypt that much quicker. I have only played the 1st scenario and feel its way out of balance in favor of axis ,but can be adjusted by giving allies either a boost in tech MPPs or exp. Or a combination of them.

Yes that is true. But in this game its usually a choice whether you want to keep Britain, or North Africa. Its very-very difficult to keep both of the axis player decides to attack all out.

Of course losing North Africa means the axis player can attack Iraq / Iran, and the southern soviet union without any supply penalty

[Leadwieght]

In my experience, Sealion against a human player is NOT a sure thing. As the Axis, I've succeeded at it, failed at it; and as the Allies I've defended successfully against it and also been beaten. Clearly, the amount of resources the Axis player puts in is a major variable, but Allied skill plays a part as well.