First of all, what shouldn’t be happening is the UK moving ships from the channel to 91. There are plenty of German ships and aircraft to wipeout the channel boats. I can see gerry leaving them the 91 cruiser or the Atlantic Destroyers and Transports, but sparing the heavy hulls that are in fighter range is a poor first turn strategy for Germany. Whats obviously happening is your opponent is in a kill Italy first strategy and he seems to be doing a good job. You need to remember that your Italian force is strong, however, the UK player is not intimidated because he is giving himself options. He has the fleet in 98, he has the guts to take Tobruk and he is somehow landing in Algeria. I know that dealing with the British African forces can be tough, I mean look at some of the posts in this topic. It literally tells you how to wipeout Italy, but it also talks about how difficult it is to do so. The first thing you need to do is take away the UKs options, Germany and Japan go before the UK and they should put so much pressure on the Brits in the other war theaters that they can’t possibly sent everything to Africa. Next, you need to plan purchases with more vision, if your not sure how to react to the Brits moves, than save all your money and make a more foccused buy next round, and remember, Italy needs her NOs more than any other nation so work at one at a time like clearing the med of all allied boats. That’s the first NO for Italy in my opinion. And last, roll good dice, believe that you roll well, cheer when you hit and brush it off when you miss. Always whisper to yourself " ones and twos, ones and two" trust me it works…
If the brits move their entire fleet into 98 without making any attacks on the Italian fleet or Tobruk army, I would rejoice as Italy! There is a 65% chance that UK loses that entire fleet with scrambled planes and Italy keeps its BB and CR (loses sub, 2 destroyers, 1 cruiser, 1 fighter = net 44IPCs / UK loses 67 + no med fleet/airforce anymore = no pressure on Italy). They can also use 1 transport to drop 2 inf in trans jordan sealing the canel and 2 transports to hit Alexandria along with Tobruk forces effectively eliminating whatever you put there. The Egyptian airbase would soon be a nice Italian gift, an endowment if you will. The key with UK is to be aggressive, do not let Italy be untouched or you will be burned by a good axis player. BTW, with this strategy you are seriously undermining an already weak force in the very heart of UK. Even if Germany isn’t threatening, you are relieving a huge burden off them - they do not even need to defend the west coast, so heavily you have spent towards Italy - which allows them to mow down the Russians, and when they fall it doesn’t much matter what happens next, IMO.
While I am always ready for gambling attacks, as they make the game more interesting, you must always ensure your defenses are secure.
Never sacrifice the strategic locations unless a more strategic position is being threatened. In this case, London must be held against potential sea lion.
Build planes first turn, as they defend against sea lion, and also can be used later in the Mediterranean very easily.
