UK med fleet

[guy]

so what with the alpha3 removal of the med airbases (gib and malta), what do most folks do with their brit fleet down there? i used to stage off of gibraltar or malta since i didn't like hitting either italian fleet and thus lose my own.  without the air cover from those ABs the med fleet seems like its dead from the get go.  whats its best use?

[Spendo02]

I go with the "I'm going to make it as expensive as possible for Italy to recover" tactic.

I prefer to hit SZ97 and let the dice fall where they may, but thats me.  The Italians have a harder time replacing all the units they will lose in that battle.

I prefer to land the TacB on Malta so as to help with an aggressive move out on the remaining Italian fleet or if that went poorly for the Italians, against the units in N.Africa on UK2 and it also gives my CV 2 Ftr to defend with assuming Italy wants to remove that fleet first.

If the CR in SZ91 is alive, I like to send it into SZ96 to attack the DD and Trn there.  I'm more than willing to take the shot of removing 2 of the 3 Italian Trn and having 3 SZ's for the Italians to try to clear in a single turn.

If all goes well I have:

1 CR in SZ96
1 CV (damaged) and 2 Ftr in SZ97
1 CR 1 DD in SZ93 (French)
1 TacB (Malta)

Italians have:
1 CR 1 DD 1 SS 1 Trn and 1 Bomber to deal with it all.

I lost 1 DD, 1 CR, 1 Hit on CV
Italians lost 2 Ftr (Scramble) 1 BB, 1 CR, 1 DD, 2 Trn

[CaptainATrain]

I would probably use it the same way I used it in E'40, and that's basically screw with Italy's head and harassing their expansion.
Normally I shuttle a soldier to Greece to pick up the Pro-Allied troops there, and then relocate the navy there as well.  I would not attack the Italian navy immediately because they can scramble the two fighters in Southern Italy, meaning you will probably suffer too many losses.  I also would move the cruiser in SZ91 (if it survives) to join the French fleet, creating essentially two tough nuts for the Italian navy to crack on opposite ends of the Mediterranean.

[guy]

@Spendo
what units do you send to the Italian BB, cruiser, TT in SZ 97?

if ur sending the AC and gib fighter to hit SZ 96 then ur hitting 97 with what? a DD, cruiser, and 2 air? hardly enough to sink SZ 97 with a full scramble i would think


basically the way i see it, there's no effective way to shut down the italians (barring crazy dice).  if you hit them, you'll prolly lose and won't deal enough lasting damage.  if you stage defensive fleets in the med, italy conglomerates navy in SZ 97, drops greece, and moves its air to Sitaly, staging for a turn2 egypt or syria (using greece to land its air).  neither of these manuevers is beneficial for the allies.

perhaps stage off egypt and funnel UK pac navy thru the suez?
or clear 96 and NCM into 92? from there you threaten German navy AND italy

[guy]

sry spendo got my SZs mixed lol

but a damaged AC can't carry air anymore can it?
and are you using the bomber off London for this attack?
(i'm assuming alpha3 here)

[Axisplaya]

if ur sending the AC and gib fighter to hit SZ 96 then ur hitting 97 with what? a DD, cruiser, and 2 air? hardly enough to sink SZ 97 with a full scramble i would think

sz91 Cruiser + Gib fgt to sz96
dd, cruiser, AC, fgt, tac sz98 to sz97
+add the UK bmb and maybe a fgt and don't forget that you'll take the 2 first hits on your AC. Then you got decent odds.

[Spendo02]

if ur sending the AC and gib fighter to hit SZ 96 then ur hitting 97 with what? a DD, cruiser, and 2 air? hardly enough to sink SZ 97 with a full scramble i would think

sz91 Cruiser + Gib fgt to sz96
dd, cruiser, AC, fgt, tac sz98 to sz97
+add the UK bmb and maybe a fgt and don't forget that you'll take the 2 first hits on your AC. Then you got decent odds.

Even if you NCM the CV/CR through to join the French fleet, you will lose it on the Italian counter and they can preserve their air superiority and probably a BB and CR.  That Italian Bomber makes a world of difference when you allow Italy to combine its two fleets.  And you expose Egypt/N.Africa to 2 Trn worth of units = bad.

Withdraw behind the Suez, you can effectively get blocked behind it and give up the Med to Italy.  I don't like free NO's for Italy, especially with 2 Trn moving freely between Italy and N.Africa / Middle East.

Granted the UK faces Sealion more often than not and cannot replace units in Africa easily, but anything to hinder the Italians for a US invasion is infinitely more valuable so that the US does not have to spend IPC on more offensive naval units than it needs to.  More boots on the ground = bigger gains for the Allies.

Thats why I attack SZ97 because Italy can give up its capital fleet by not scrambling or face losing 2 Ftr, 1 BB, 1 CR = 52 IPC worth of setbacks if it scrambles.  All the while you deny the Med NO to Italy for at least a turn, and prevent it from taking Greece which is another territory it needs for a NO.  If you are feeling particularly brave, you can send that Trn with an Inf on it into Greece to make life harder for the Italians and force the Germans to deal with it, but you likely lose the Trn in the process.  Although 12 IPC for losing 7 IPC may be worth the investment.

Personally I try to hit Italy as hard as possible early.  It has a hard time generating IPCs if it cannot utilize its Trns early, and if you take 2 of them away you're winning the battle, regardless of the cost.

[Spendo02]

To be clear, you only have to start the battle with all aircraft having a possible landing location, correct?