What I like to do, if the fleet somehow manages to hang around more than a couple of turns (you need at least 2 turns worth of additional INF in Africa), is park it in the WMed SZ AFTER the USUK make their landing in Africa. We play with 2 hit BBs, this may be useless without that, as the BB doesn’t represent nearly as much strength when a single hit will take it down…
From WMedSZ, you’re with striking distance of the UK fleet. The UK has to choose:
Divert their fleet to deal with yours, or let you come at them next turn… If they come after your fleet, unless they’re landing INF into Spain, that’s 1 turn’s worth of INF you don’t have to deal with in Europe.
Divide their fleet, leaving hordes of transports in the UKSZ without their precious carrier to protect them. Sure, there may be a BB there, but that only takes 1 shot per round…
Wait and let you come at them with the fleet… If they do that, you come at them next turn with the Med BB & TRN and ALL of your air force. You’ll lose the BB, TRN, and probably a plane or 2, but you should be able to take out a handful of TRNs… With really bad German dice or excellent USUK dice, this is suicide, but its worked out well for me in the past, with what I consider to be fairly average dice…
If you can come in with 5 ftr, 1 bmb, the BB, and the tran (assuming 10 TRN, 1 CV, 2 FIT on CV, and retreating remaining air when there are 2 or fewer TRNs left):
60% chance of killing 8+ transports.
73% chance of killing 7+ transports.
85% chance of killing 6 + transports.
You should have 1 or 2 FIT left 48% of the time.
At this stage in the game, I would consider that a fairly even trade… The UK player should be strapped for cash, so they’ll probably elect to kill off US TRNs first. This means another “burp” in the US supply of INF to Europe. You should find time during that burp to build another FIT or 2 without sacrificing defense. It should also open things up a bit for Japan on the Russian front…
If you’re playing the Axis alone, you can plan ahead for this by swinging JAP 4 FIT, 1 BMB over to EEu the turn before, and they can finish off the remains of the fleet. They’ll likely lose most of their airforce as well, but the rewards are great Assuming that there are 4 TRNs left after Germany’s attack, (all UK), they will likely not build any additional transports (can’t do that AND fill them). With Japan 1 BMB, 4 FIT, there is a 80% chance that they will wipe out ALL of the transports. 33% of the time, 2 or more of their planes will survive, and 51% of the time, one or more will…
At this point it the game, Japan can most easily afford to replace their planes, and Germany has bought itself enough time to rebuild SOME of their planes… The Allies are decimated. The UK will be unable to produce sufficient TRNs to pose a threat to Germany for a couple of turns. The US can afford to rebuild, but only if they allow the supply liine “burp”.
I suppose that the truly forward thinking German would add a sub to the mix, building it in time to get it into position in WMedSz with the BB and TRN. If you could drop 2 in, things could be truly awful for the Allies, as you should come out with most of your airforce intact (although I think I’d lose 2 FITs before I lost the subs… No chance to shoot back is nice when the subs hit…
With the sub you have a 75% chance of killing 8+ TRNs with 1 + fighters left. 56% chance of doing so with 3+ fighters…
Alright, somebody correct my #s for me…