Does "The sneaky Karl" lock down the fleet or prevent it from transporting units on ncm?

Unfortunately, just like in the real war, the most effective unit seems to be the Infantry.  They have the IPM, they are used in territory trading (what I call attacks of attrition), they can be deployed as barriers to protect valuable units in the rear, etcetera.

Tanks, in my opinion, best compliment the IPM benefit of infantry.

Fighters come in third, as they can range out to hit, but cannot take land.  Great defensive units as well.

Awesome, thanks guys, this is really going to help in my game!

@ArthurJames

Interesting - and quite unusual on this forum - that it took 8 years to see the initital question of the OP has been finally answered.

In that case I accept the resurrection of an ancient buried topic - despite the fact that the OP hasn’t been online since then. ;-)

So thank you.

One thing worth mentioning here is that Africa is essentially a trap for the Axis.   Whether the Italian fleet survives or not, it is very hard to make much of an income difference or gain any NOs before America enters the war and takes it back, or without compromising some other more critical front. Â

Italy only risks 2 IPCs by losing Africa.   In our Game 92 on Saturday, I had the entire Italian navy survive because my opponent did exactly what you suggested, and attacked Tobruk rather than Taranto.   The counter is quite favorable to the Italians, to send in their entire fleet on the attack and clear the med for your NO.   Even with the gigantic navy, I was still boxed in as I couldn’t control either Gibraltar or Egypt in the long term though I took both of them once.   Â

Buying more ships is a trap, and you can’t really hold Gibraltar.   I spent all my $$ on strategic bombers and mechs to help Germany on the eastern front and using Italy to protect the Atlantic Wall or help leapfrog Germany in the East is stronger than trying to take the Maghreb or the Levant.  If you keep any transports, the most effective thing to do with those is threaten/cover/block/rush out of Gibraltar but its going to be hard…

One of my buddies said that far from wanting to reinforce the Italian stack on Tobruk, he wanted to evacuate it from Africa.  Its ineffective and trapped on a good day and easy to annihilate on a bad one.

Right, during Noncombat Move the unescorted transport may offload into a friendly territory - ignoring an enemy submarine.

Thank you :-)

transports do not count as warships

artillery is good, and often underestimated.

Keep in mind though, that in certain situations, when you have tactical bombers closeby, and no fighters, you’ll be happy you have that occasional tank  :wink:

Thanks Krieghund.

There will be a few “Zeros” in the seazone, but with an attak of 3 or less. :-D