@Cornwallis Not my experience, are you scrambling to 110 or doing something else non standard?
I kind of agree about Gibastion not being so optimal because it means you have to deal with the Italian fleet for a long time until you can sink it. Not too sure what you mean about “backfire so easily” though.
With a bid of 16+ I like the idea of sub 98 ftr Malta, that way you can sink the Italian BB and keep the UK CV alive in 92 with the 109 DD. Surviving ships in 97 need to be attacked by Italy. so normally the Italian fleet is pretty toast after this attack. Weakness is that Italy can land on Algeria and then the Luftwaffe can attack but expect to lose 2 planes in the first round. I suppose the transport can put 2 UK land units on Algeria.