Yes, you can take out the 2 Italian transports but at what cost? If you do that, the Brit navy is toast by the Germany airforce and if anything is left over, the Italians finish them off, then rebuild their transports(cheap), get 5 NO’s for no Allied navy in the med, can take N. Africa(another 5 NO’s) and take Gib(denied Allied access to the med). I’ve always put the Brit fleet in SZ92, away from the German airforce, 3 spaces away from SZ109 and SZ110 and the Italians don’t have enough firepower to take them out if you put 3 FTR’s in Gib, plus another 2 FTR’s or 1 FTR, 1 Tac on the AC. Much better option, IMHO. I’d rather lose Egypt than the Med, N. Africa & Gib. I always retreat from Egy if I need to. Kill the Italians in Eth, build in Saf because usually the Germany player doesn’t go for Sea Lion once you build enough stuff in the UK and you usually have enough IPC’s to build a few units down in Saf. By the time the Italians take Egy and every thing else they need, the US is the in war, takes Gib and Mor back Turn 4 and makes things very sticky for the Italians the rest of the game. And the Brits would have held most of Africa from the Italians. And the Italians can’t really do much w/Russia by then, so it’s game over for the Axis. I believe the better Italian strategy is, take N. Africa, forget about Egy, unless it’s really easy to take, try and take out the Brit navy in the Med if possible but go hard for Russia, by going through Syr, Irq and Npr in the south. And helping the Germans through Rom.