Current Version Sea Lion

[tetsu_maru]

No way to secure 50% naval superiority in Channel to launch invasion into the Isle not even close for a minute. Cannot get above 40%. Never had this problem before. Anyone successfully Sea Lion with this version yet?

[Bravo]

Don't land across the channel, there's no practical advantage to it and the AI is coded to prioritise the channel (for some reason).

Land in the north, the AI will fail to protect it within a couple of months even if you don't beat the fleets that are there.

[Ahriman]

Did it more than once by now.

The way I do it is by position my fleet in one of the ports by the Channel, but I do not assign any orders of any kind until my Naval Invasions are ready to go. Once they are, I put my planes up over the channel, though usually by this point the Allies have basically under 100 Fighters so hardly a point, and then click launch invasion, then put on the Strike Force order. Occasionally the AI will abandon the channel either due to unfavourable situation as CAS planes are withering away at its patrols there, or the Home Fleet has decided to go try and hunt down one the AIs many Sub groups, giving me enough supremacy combined with the Air bonus to launch when I flicker it. The AI tends to then immediately react by putting their ships up immediately, but because of that single frame flick of over 50% supremacy, the forces are already on the move.

Without Paras, you can't really do a Sealion until post Barb now however, but they are easy to cap by '42 at the latest anyway. The Brits like to actually keep their fleet around the Isles for once instead of hyperfocusing on the Med and then losing the war in '40.

[soldier]

British AI prioritises the Isles now, they place units ALL along the coast and keep more of their navy around the isles. and even if you manage to land at first, the british AI will be incredibly aggressive to try kick you out of your controlled areas.

[jr3050t]

I've also noticed that the fall of France and all the resulting new front lines plus the creation of the hostile Vichy fleet causes the UK to briefly to lose control of the channel. But you must have your invasion ready to launch from the the Netherlands (so 5 x 2 div invasions), you don't have time to plan one afterwards, your invasion launch window is probably less than a day. Otherwise the method above works for me (planes to clear the channel, 3 sub packets convoy raiding everywhere except the channel to distract).
The hardest part is after you land. The UK has 35/36 divs on area defence who will swarm your landing with bonuses for attack and defence on UK core territories for 180 days.

[Dedelblute3]

Originally posted by I aim like the trump assassin:

British AI prioritises the Isles now, they place units ALL along the coast and keep more of their navy around the isles. and even if you manage to land at first, the british AI will be incredibly aggressive to try kick you out of your controlled areas.

Man I thought it was just me struggling with the insane British AI just attacking whenever possible (or not, they can attack you even whilst pinned and rarely suffer from in-multiple combats). I had to restart 3 or so times (Not including all the various reloads due to terrible luck) to finally achieve the perfect Sea Lion (Before I even did the Sea Lion focus) a scant month before Japan would typically declare on the USA.
it's just crazy what kind of stuff they'll put on the Isles. I've seen 34-unit stacks on Plymouth, CONSISTENTLY! (one time I actually checked via tagging over to find out why there were so many divs on that port specifically, and all I got was finding out the British lend-leased around 50 or so divisions to AI Ethiopia)

[Val]

No sure what your issue is every time i want i manage to have the superiority needed

[tetsu_maru]

Originally posted by I aim like the trump assassin:

British AI prioritises the Isles now, they place units ALL along the coast and keep more of their navy around the isles. and even if you manage to land at first, the british AI will be incredibly aggressive to try kick you out of your controlled areas.

Yeah they def changed stuff there. I used to be able to get enough superiority in the channel for the tick I needed to launch the invasion. I know the, don't do the channel, strat, but it had worked in the past no prob so something's changed.

[Wintermist]

Did it just yesterday while just securing air above the channel, I wasn't Germany but was in the faction, and the fleet does move around and eventually my raid landed and took the island. So it can for sure happen just randomly without needing to hold the channel.

[johnknott]

This sounds like an improvement. Sea Lion is supposed to be hard.

[Mayer]

That's only half the problem, once you step on the Isles your bridgehead gets constantly attacked and the supply situation is terrible.
I had more luck, grinding the British forces in Africa and invading Britain at a later date.