Two things that really make me curious are:
There are some key TTs (territories) that make for excellent bomber bases to stop all unprotected tranny travel ie. France, Hawaii, Australia. And its not like you can just put 1 destroyer in the mix to protect a convoy. Unprotected trannies was just how the usa and japan did business, so now youll need to spend a significant? amount more to water craft (as usa and japan mostly).
Now that germany goes first in '41, it sets itself up nicely for a 1-2 punch from italy - germany. The traded TTs that sit between germany and russia can now be breached by the italians, and the blitz thru by the german tanks/planes. And of the game tester try to exploit this yet?
On 1) I would say it changes a lot. In the Atlantic you are more vulnerable to air strikes so a UK CV is now almost a must. You need to keep the fleet together mostly and it’s harder to strike vs. two areas such as Norway and Algeria. In the Pacific it’s even more strong: because your opponent has a CV strike force at his disposal, you must protect your trannies. Typically, Japan has to have a home fleet in Sea of Japan and it also limits the possibility of striking at several islands at once. USA will have a problem moving their fleet forward from the West coats because they can’t build extra transports for the follow-up without a strong protection.
As for the Italy+Germany punch, check out the thread “Italian overrun tactic”!
With bombers reduced to 12 IPCs I think we will find that they rule the waves. Also with what experimentation I have done based on the now know to be incorrect '41 set up the Baltic fleet goes down much more quickly and painlessly for the Allies.
