Why is Taranto raid so popular?

@Gerry said in Strategic bombing and escorts. How does a raid work?:

@mainah Thx. But then these fighters cannot be deployed to another battle. The price difference seems small to me (10 vs 12 ipc). It seems more useful to use multiple bombers (as long as the possible interceptors are the same amount or less then the number of bombers). At what point should you refrain from strategic bombing with regard to number of interceptors? Interceptors are only fighters or also tactical bombers?

Same goes for the bombers as well. Doing strategic bombing removes them from other targets.
A strat bomber run only has an expected outcome of 3.5ipcs. In most battles it can make a much bigger impact.

I suppose if you want to find some middle ground between G40.2 and BM, you could give the bombers a first strike like in 1942.2 but also have the fighters A2 D2 but without first strike attacks.

Seems a bit unnecessarily complicated and fixes something which is not broken to my way of thinking. The BM rules are the ones which aren’t broken. Another possibility is to remove or reduce the first strike of the AA gun.

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”.

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.

AA is unique to the extent it fits in between light “war games” like the ones these guys like and the real mind buster/hex and counter games.  People who want more realism etc go for the latter while lighter players go the former, leaving us who want something in the middle with AA.  It’s hard to convince either type to go in for middle when they want something really complicated or easy.

Pack the UK with Inf, move the Indian fleet towards the Med and start being very aggressive with the Soviet Union.

@Cow:

The egypt minor is for convoying sz 97 in the long run and taking italy out of the game.

That can change when Germany (if) takes Moscow and turns towards Egypt.  In my most recent game, Germany ended up taking Moscow and redirected the prior round’s purchase of Armor towards Egypt along with a Ukr Arm purchase Germany had something like 9 tanks sitting in Ukraine ready to blitz ahead of whatever survived Moscow.

UK went on the defensive at this point, but Italy was already convoyed to death with minimal effort.  It really goes to show how important sinking the Italian fleet is if Germany is going to Moscow first when Italy is stuck from round 6-7 on being able to only put 1 or 2 Inf out a round at best.

Get more Axis ships into the open waters of the Atlantic to at least stall the Americans.  Tighten the noose on England and hope that Japan is threatening the USA enough that they can’t afford tons of units for the Europe half.  Italy has always been the weak point to the Axis, hence why we took them out first in the real war.