What the Axis should do between the Fall of France and starting the fight with Russia

Managing the Months Between Collapsing France and Barbarossa While Pursuing a Historical West First Plan

by Jim Moir

This article assumes an historical start with the Axis driving West First, collapsing France in the Summer of 1940, and preparing Barbarossa for the Summer of 1941.

The Axis player needs to keep the pressure on during the lull between the French and Russian campaigns when following the historical West First plan. Just because the Axis will want to stick with Limited War cards and have to deal with a lot of weather during this period, doesn’t mean they should give the Allied players an easy time of it. This article focuses on what the Axis player should be thinking and doing during "the interlude" between the closing of the French campaign and the opening of the Russian campaign.

First, do not telegraph your intentions. Axis forces can easily be deployed ambiguously, thus affording you many options. Even though you might have finalized your plan that a Summer ‘41 Barbarossa is what you will do, make the Allies guard against other options in the meantime. These are the things that you could do and that the Allied players need to think that you might do, such as:

The secret here is to leave a good portion of your multi-step units unbuilt for awhile. If you have three corps stacked up in several different spots, your opponents must worry that any of the stacks can become a new HQ unit and guard against that possibility. This ‘masquerade’ stratagem is vitally important to set up in France. Leave several stacks of corps at invasion jump off points right up until the March-April ‘41 turn (at which time many of these corps should be marching eastward to the Main Event coming up in Russia).

Those threatening stacks in Cherbourg, Le Harve and Antwerp will probably never be used, but just look at them! Attacking Britain in 1941 could be your plan (we already know you’re heading east, but you’d never know it looking at that deployment in France). Why should you all but tell the British player that England is safe by shifting forces eastward prematurely? Force him to play like his head is still on the chopping block for as long as possible.

In this manner, a good proportion of Britain’s few meager steps will be hunkered down in England - meaning away from North Africa. Even if you don’t have any U-boats in the way, it takes months for the British to transfer a large army overseas… or to bring it back. They have only one mobile HQ (BEF) for the entirety of the early war years, and it is slow moving (a 1-2-2). Meanwhile, your troops can get to Poland with time to spare if the fake invasion is cancelled by as late as March-April ’41.

To go with those decoy stacks, put the German Convoy Marker in Transport Mode and start placing support units out in the North Sea during non-snow weather turns. The British player will oppose you because he must oppose you. He knows that during your Organization Segment you can build up two armies and a HQ and wring his neck like a chicken’s. Make sure the Western Allies player sees the paratroops lurking near Hamburg that you appear to be trying to hide and the panzer corps in a convenient port on the North Sea. These forces are enough to hurt England if they can capture Southampton or London, and the British player must extol his Churchillian best efforts to stop you. So let him sweat!

You might ask what good it will do to place support units when the British have you outnumbered anyway? Well, anytime from Autumn 1940 on, you will have a minus 1 (-1) Delay die roll modifier (DRM). That means when you go head-to-head with the British, your unit returns first 21 times for every 10 times theirs’ returns first. The more often you fight, the better the chance you’ll come out ahead. Optional rules, if used, like Big Ticket Items, Luck Markers, or Option Supplement cards make this strategy even more appealing. Air power is important in Barbarossa too, but even if you toss the whole Luftwaffe in the Delay Box in March-April ‘41, it almost always returns in time to help with the Summer campaigning. Meanwhile, you are weakening Britain so that they won’t be able to make so much trouble for you elsewhere around the edges of the map.

Obviously, the phony invasion ploy won’t have as much credibility in the Winter when forming beachheads in the North Sea is prohibited. But the Western Allied card hand during this part of the war is incredibly stingy with British steps. It won’t be easy for them to pull units away from England during the safety of Winter when the threat of Spring is right around the corner.

You can also put some pressure on the Mediterranean Front. The idea here is to proffer a credible threat, one that is potent enough to make the British deploy their assets to oppose it. In addition to the distraction of a potential Sealion, you may be able to tempt them into placing forces in Greece or Iraq (if those are potential "fronts"). It is important to spread the British thin and maybe kill some of their steps before Barbarossa. The trouble with the British is that you can only kill their steps you can reach, so often that means trying to draw them in where they don’t want to be just so you can reach ‘em.

One good threat to make is an invasion of Malta. If you can actually take Malta, the British are handicapped for a long time. Although less so than Sealion, it would also use up a bunch of Axis resources to capture Malta, but the British player only has to think you might do it in order to need to respond to the threat. Those same paratroops that you had lurking in range of England can, say, hang around Rome for the Winter of ‘40/’41. Another invasion threat is to look like you’re considering a landing behind those pesky Commonwealth troops guarding the Libyan frontier. Watch what happens to the "huge" British army when you have them spread out guarding against phantom invasions everywhere. You can give them ample opportunities to lose the delay battles here in the Mediterranean as well the North Sea.

Finally, it is imperative to build up your Axis ground forces in Libya as quickly as possible and to include at least a few German units among them. You want to be able to build the German-Italian HQ at the very least and extra German units will be required for offensive punch. A good philosophy is to ship in whatever you can for a few turns and then start attacking. Don’t worry about a long-term strategy in the desert. North Africa is seldom worth a deeper commitment after Barbarossa commences. If you can kill a couple of British units, that’s their reinforcements for a whole Season or two. Think about that.

An obvious strategy, and the one historically used by the Axis, is to play Treaty cards during the interlude period to gain allies before the ’41 campaigning season. Of course, which minor countries you target with Treaty attempts tends to telegraphy your intentions for next Summer, but you can’t have everything and it’s where the Germans are that matters. Since you’re planning on going east in 1941, having Rumania join the Axis prior to Barbarossa especially important (for pre-Barbarossa troop deployment flexibility). There is also a small chance to activate Turkey, and that would spread the Soviet defenses a little more.

Some players prefer to go with three Treaty cards in a row for Autumn ‘40, Winter ‘40/’41, and Spring ’41. This does give the Axis a bigger chance for diplomatic success. However, let me make a case for using an Ultimatum during Spring ’41 instead.

First, having a Treaty card left in your hand will keep the Allies honest. Wise players will worry about Turkey suddenly becoming an Axis minor and leave garrisons near the border. You will have a better chance to use the Treaty after you are winning, because of favorable modifiers with a rising Axis Tide. It may also be easier to sort out the best diplomatic opportunity if you wait until after you see the results of your initial attack on Russia. For example, activating Finland with Barbarossa might open up a chance to roll for Sweden later.

A Spring ’41 Ultimatum gives you a Blitz Combat Segment that can be used for both turns in the Middle East, and in the first turn everywhere else. The Ultimatum is also handy for cleaning up any loose ends that might have resulted from bungled diplomacy or Churchillian troublemaking. For example, many players go for an alliance with Yugoslavia right away. It’s a great idea, except how do you get all those Yugoslavian forces into to Russia where they can do some good? Well, Hungary makes a perfect Spring conquest and provides a nice highway for the Yugoslavs to march along on their way to Moscow (so consider that Spring ’41 Ultimatum).

If the Allies decide that Hungary will be a Soviet ally (hey, it could happen), give the Wehrmacht a rest. The Yugoslavs can handle the job with a little help from some Italian Ex corps that might be transiting their way east. (By the way, I seldom send the Italian Ex units to North Africa. They are extremely helpful everyplace else, from Brest to Baku, so they’re my Axis "tourist" units.) Note that Axis minors can go into the Soviet Union and attack with impunity. Make sure to have the Yugoslav army deployed to attack Hungary (just in case). Once Budapest is captured, Hungary turns into an (occupied) Axis minor country. So, go ahead and send a pile of Germans in during the April-May ’41 mud turn. You can un-occupy your new ally later (after the front moves sufficiently eastward) or you can change it into a conquered western country if you just want to keep the road open for future Yugoslavian replacements.

You may find other attack opportunities during the Spring ’41 Blitz, too. If Rumania or another minor ally borders the Soviet Union, see if they can’t stir up trouble a little early. After all, they can march on Moscow without breaking the Nazi-Soviet Pact prematurely. I’ve seen defenses where there are several one-step corps guarding Bessarabia, for example. With an Italian Ex armor corps and the Rumanians, you could get two pretty good Segments of combat against these garrisons and open up the southern flank a little.

Meanwhile, in Poland and East Prussia, don’t be too quick to organize your German forces. The situation here is similar to that in France. Make the opponent guess where the HQ units will appear. During the April-May ’41 (mud) turn, you can organize and deploy your forces as needed, with minimum opportunity for the Soviets to correct their defense. Whatever you do, make it look as if you could launch your invasion of Russia in the Spring. You also want to be sure there are plenty of corps in the force pool when you actually reveal the Barbarossa card, so you don’t shortchange yourself on replacements by not planning ahead with your forces’ organization!

Prior to launching the attack into Russia, it is highly worthwhile to spread your attack potential along the entirety of the front. If you have Rumania or Turkey allied to you, make sure they get a panzer step or two plus sufficient forces to form a HQ unit. The current trend in Soviet defenses leaves smaller forces at the borders. Lots of panzer corps might be better than fewer large panzer armies, and those little guys can move lots faster.