Real chances of Taranto raid?

[Soviet Steamroller]

Hi there!
A Taranto raid is a very nice idea on paper but what are the real chance of success against decent players (i.e. with a 3rd. German fighter plane to scramble in Southern Italy)?

I am not very familiar with this but even if the UK player bring his Strat. from London and fighter from Gibraltar + everything from SZ98 you end up with:
2 @ 4 (strat + tac)
3 @ 3 (2 fighter + Cruiser)
1 @ 2 (Destroyer)
VS
4 @ 4 (3 scrambled fighter + battleship)
1 @ 3 (Cruiser)

If you consider that the Italian Battleship can suck up 1 hit but the UK Carrier can’t (otherwise your fighter from Gibraltar is dead anyway) the Taranto raid does not sounds like a great idea to me!

Even if you somehow get out of there barely alive on Italy’s turn he’s going to wash you clean with his fleet from SZ95!

Is it something i am not seeing here?

[Requester45]

The Taranto raid is necessary to eliminate the Italian fleet early in the game. They won’t have enough IPCs to rebuild a formidable navy, and it leaves them weak in the Med. Although you will likely lose a good amount of your UK fleet, they don’t necessarily need it as much as the Italians. The UK’s main focus will be in North Africa and the Middle East. The small Italian fleet that is left after the raid is not significant, and can likely be taken out by the French and or British forces that are left in the Med. If Italy is left with the Taranto forces, it opens up a wide range of possibilities for Italy, including the ability to move troops to the Middle East, Gibraltar, or North Africa and it causes more trouble than needed.

[Soviet Steamroller]

Humm… that make sense!

Thanks for the advise.

[Requester45]

One important thing to note is that most good players will not scramble the two fighters, as they are more valuable late game for the Italians.

[variance]

It depends on your OOL.

Max Taranto consists of 2 fighters and bomber from UK, fighter from Malta, and the destroyer, cruiser, tac and carrier from z98. Assume Italy scrambles 2 fighters and the German tac that starts out in Poland, and max defense OOL.  Also assume the cruiser and fighter from Gibraltar attack z96 by Malta.

72% if you don’t take hits on the carrier and save 2 fighters for last.  You probably finish with carrier and 2 fighters. The idea is to hopefully leave a loaded carrier for Germany to sink and it costs them some planes.

94% if you sink carrier and 2 fighters from UK first. You probably finish with cruiser, fighter, tac, bomber left. The idea is that you are likely going to lose some planes anyway so sink the carrier and block movement with the cruiser

100% If no scramble You might choose to lose fighter, tac, bomber in order to leave loaded carrier with destroyer and cruiser in z100. You probably finish with carrier, 2 fighters, destroyer and cruiser for Germany to waste planes on. Bomber and maybe another plane likely to survive too.

You probably want to roll the battle in z96 first so you can to decide your OOL in z100 (ie. if you get unlucky and can’t block movement through that zone there will be no point in leaving a ship in z100).  Taranto is a lot harder if  Germany hits that Gibraltar cruiser with subs first.  You might also want to send the bomber with destroyer to clear any subs in z106.

[scousemart]

@variance:

100% If no scramble You might choose to lose fighter, tac, bomber in order to leave loaded carrier with destroyer and cruiser in z100. You probably finish with carrier, 2 fighters, destroyer and cruiser for Germany to waste planes on. Bomber and maybe another plane likely to survive too.

You probably want to roll the battle in z96 first so you can to decide your OOL in z100 (ie. if you get unlucky and can’t block movement through that zone there will be no point in leaving a ship in z100).  Taranto is a lot harder if  Germany hits that Gibraltar cruiser with subs first.  You might also want to send the bomber with destroyer to clear any subs in z106.

I’ve been dong some research on Taranto scenarios and I came across this bit of your reply to this thread and I’m a bit confused, you mention z100 but I’m sure you mean z97. Yes?

[taamvan]

in your original post, you forgot the carrier.  bring that to soak hits.  if they blow the retal, keep it and fighters alive; now axis have 2 french ships and 4 uk hits they need to finish off.

if germany doesnt blow up the sz 91 cruiser it makes the layout for this easier bc it can help kill the dd tt w gib fighter whereas it might survive against just 1 attacker

easy fix to this is to divide the adriatic into 2 sea zones/convoy zones, then taranto is still possible but no better odds than attacking the other fleet and then its no longer a must do attack (tobruk is though)