Taranto Fail… What next in the Med?

@flyingbadger

Absolutely badger.

While we may see the fight in the Mediterranean from different perspectives, what we inevitably all agree on is that it’s one of the more significant fronts that can easily sway the game for one side or the other all down to the results of a simple raid on Italy.

For me I stick by my philosophy that every Axis piece on the board should be doing something, or playing some sort of role. Which is why I’m a firm believer that scrambling the fighters into the Taranto Raid as the Axis should be done every single time because fact of the matter is, a lot of people tend to say that it’s better to save those fighters for something new but in the end nobody really knows what they’re saving them for, and that’s what causes Axis players to lose. I mean granted Squire had previously said earlier to save those fighters against the French ships or the remaining British ships in the Med but for me the Taranto Raid is the only time I’ll really be able to take of British Planes if I scramble these fighters and when they’re throwing this many planes at me then that’s my objective. Obviously you won’t be able to have absolutely every unit doing something and playing some sort of genuine authentic role but you can get very close to having every single unit active on the board, which is what wins you games.

@SuperbattleshipYamato
Doing all 3 might be risky but the risk might be worth it.
Taranto is a given if you send the carrier chances of Italy scrambling are low anyway.

Toburk is also pretty easy just the naval battle before it might be tricky. You could remove the destroyer from the taranto raid to make that combat even more safe.
Or the cruiser from gibraltar if you still have it.

Dont think you need the tactical for the taranto raid, you could swap the figher for the tactical to make tobruk safer

Its 1 cruiser + 1 BB + 3 fighters ( 19attach. 6 hitpoints ) vs 1 destroyer 1 cruiser 3 fighters 1 bomber 1 carrier 18attack/ 8 hitpoints ) your first 2 hitpoints dont cost you a single die as well.

I feel like the “3rd” option is stacking UK navy in 92 and building an air base in Gibraltar UK1.  Same risk of Sea Lion as building the IC in Egypt UK1 tho.  This requires “breaking out” by attacking the Italian Destroyer in 96 with air power (bomber from London and Fighter from Malta).  I would also recommend an attack on Ethiopia via India support combined with the Tac and TT with 2 units from egypt, then consolidating Alex/Egypt forces in Egypt.  If, for whatever reason, UK navy in 110 was avoided, send them to 92 as well.

Just another option to consider with lots of “ifs”.  Germany’s opening move should dictate your options rather than have a hard and fast “this is what the UK MUST DO”.

Very True Simon, Sea Lion even if successful increases allied chances of victory, so unles its 90%+ as Germany, I’m not doing it.

I pretty much always leave the Med to Italy. Even if Germany takes S. France, it usually only uses the IC there for making infantry to protect the Atlantic coast, or maybe a couple of subs to help Italy clear out the Med right at first.
Maybe one of those German infantry will go down, catch a ride on an Italian transport and land in Egypt for that German NO there, but this only happens if Italy is doing very well down there and that usually only happens if the Germans are successful at Sealion so UK is pretty much out of the European theater. Also, the US is usually busy in the Pacific and not doing much in the Atlantic.
So, the Germans getting the “Land Unit in Egypt” NO is fairly rare.
So in our games, Germany has little to no involvement in the Med.  They are either busy attacking England or going after Russia. Either of those takes too much financial commitment.

Also, unless you declare war on the allies on turn 2 on your plan, india will block you anyway so he really wont need to turtle.  The idea is to trick the allies in that it is business as usual.  If japan got straight for india turn 2, then it becomes 100% clear that Japan is giving up the pac and so the US will start dumping in the atlantic while UK turtles egypt harder.

Thanks for the detail. I think I am going to have to leave SZ 97 alone. Even without German fighters, it is too risky to attack. What that does do, is allow Germany to not have to move fighters south since the attack on 97 is no longer truly feasible UK1.

Thanks for the quick reply Cavin……