Operation Sea Lion

[Belleh]

I am struggling to conquer UK as Germany when I try to naval invade them in late 1940 yearly 1941. Every time I gain some land and move my main army to the island (24 units) I start to have a lot of supply issues and I am unable to gain more land as british show up quite fast and encircle me with over 40 units.

Looking to hear some tips from you and how do you beat UK before the USA join the war. Cuz in every save I have played if I cant beat the UK and then I start Barbarossa after a year or 2 I always end up losing the war.

[HappySack]

Air superiority is key, you will have a much easier time if you win the fight in the air then secure the channel with naval bombers and your fleet so you can support your invasion forces when they land.

I prefer a 4 pronged invasion using floating harbours to make sure there's supply (with the divisions split up from the 30 limit due to the tech at the time) targeting Dover and Portsmouth but I've heard Scotland is also a weakpoint if you use Norway as a staging ground, when you land all you need to do is to secure your ports while pushing aggressively so you can make room for the rest of your divisions to flood in.

I did a landing in my second playthrough when I failed the first when I was still learning the focus tree but I'm not sure how you can lose the war if you don't foolishly gamble on a quick victory against the USSR as no one in their right mind would possibly do such a strategic blunder.

Here's an old pic of my Operation Sealion, it doesn't show anywhere but I did get two collaboration governments before capitulating them:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3367785132

[pacpinball]

I personally get a good paratrooper division and paradrop portsmouth and dover area with 28 divs, quickly get london and supply will be good. Scotland i don't do because supply is terrible.

[pjd110]

You need some kind of surface fleet to protect your supply convoys

[Khorps]

The AI seem to have gotten an overhaul in the last update. The British are definitely more annoying now. Before, they would constantly cycle their units around the empire so divisions in Britain would never stay in place for long leaving big gaps in their line. But now, they show up with a whole army as soon as you land and go on an unrelenting offensive. At-least, that's my experience.

But, at-least on normal difficulty, even without air and naval superiority, if your divisions are decent enough, as-long as you have a port and can rotate divisions in and out of combat, as-well as enough stockpile and production to sustain the defense, the British divisions will eventually become so de-organized from attacking that you can slice through them like butter.

[Mack]

The key is having a couple dozen very good armoured or mechanised infantry units that can hit the beach after and immediately push before defensive lines are setup.

Good thing if they've also got a couple thousand long range fighters & CAS to back them up.

You also want subs surrounding the UK to whittle down the UK navy.

[thats crazy]

for the uk now (atleast in my experience) you now have to do multiple naval invasions


first try to Invade somewhere around the city of hull. you will likely make it a few tiles before getting stuck, try to grab the airport and flood planes in. you might have to make a few last stands as the uk will literally kill millions of their own men to push you out. they WILL win eventually.

The uk will now be shifting their boats around like crazy, there will be tons of opportunities for you to nab sea zones with your surface fleet

make other naval invasions where you can, even if its in scotland. if you can ever get one off over the english channel while theyre dealing with other invasions the uk is pretty much cooked

if youre using tanks you probably shouldnt put them in the naval invasions, unless you get one across the english channel like i said before

also if you want to further distract the uk, help italy take egypt and let them and the uk duke it out in sudan

[pjd110]

I naval invaded UK in 1938 no problem. If you take France out before they join the allies you can get all their ships. Helps with naval superiority