Taranto Fail… What next in the Med?

@tmartin if the sea battle fails and the Transports weren’t hit during the combat,
at the beginning of the next Round,as the attacker, you can choose to retreat the Transports. They can retreat one SZ from which they came into the battle . There might be 2 or 3 options , depending how many routes were taken to arrive at the SZ.

The units that were going to unload would still be on the Transports , of course .
It would be up to the other side to attack them on their Turn and try and sink them .

@Arthur-Bomber-Harris said in Let's talk the Taranto raid.:

@shadowhawk it does take either good dice rolls, an Allied bid, and/or meticulous execution to pull of the alternatives to Taranto. Otherwise you find that you lose Egypt, Gibraltar, or London early in the game and it is almost impossible to recover.

I have to spend a long time battlecalcing every scenario if I decide to place my fleet next to Gibraltar. That certainly is the best option if you can avoid mistakes, but I wouldn’t do that in a face to face game.

Yea i agree there, taranto is the easier option to pull off.
But in the case or rare dice in 110, or just a weak attack there, sometimes you can pull it off.
Having a BB + 2 cruisers + destroyer + carrier + 3 fighters available will deter any attack on it from italy or germany and that fleet can easy defend sea lion or punish the italians for moving anywhere but stay put.

But just doing taranto is the easier and safer bet.

@hengst

This only works if there are only Italian aricraft scrambling. I usually use two fighters from the United Kingdom terirtory, and the fighter from Malta-the fighter from Girbraltar should be used along with the cruiser off of Girbraltar (it takes three submarines to have more than an 80% chance to kill it, my normal standard to win a battle, so the submarines are usually used for easier prey in the north, especially if Germany attacks the Soviet Union in the first turn, which will nessecitate one submarine in sea zone 125) to destroy the Italian navy off of Malta. If a German aircraft lands in Southern Italy, I usually will call of the attack, as there is a less than 80% chance to win. All of this assumes Germany invades the Soviet Union in the first turn.

@hengst

Awesome that the Axis won! I have np advice, but I always love seeing game reports! Keep up the good work!

One thing the Germans can do is hit the UK Cruiser in SZ91 which I used to do but stopped because those two subs are better used hitting SZ110 and therefore preserving more of the Luftwaffe.

Taranto is a pretty much all or nothing option for the UK but assuming it happens and succeeds the UK fleet is generally toast anyway. Is it really worth going to much length to stop?

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.

@Eqqman:

@P@nther:

No, that is not correct:

@Europe:

Transports can move to friendly coastal territories
and load or offload cargo, unless they loaded, moved,
offloaded, or were involved in combat during the Combat
Move or Conduct Combat phase.

Hmm, well, if that is the real intent of the rule, they should have said OR load/offload cargo, since by saying AND they are only prohibiting offloading when the ship tries to move and offload together.

@Europe:

Whenever a transport offloads, it can’t move again that turn If a transport retreats, it cant offload that turn

does that help?