Hello Marsh I would first like to thank you for your well thought out replies and for posting them, you will find though that I have picked them apart and have found that not everything you have presented is quite logical, so let me explain.
“So you are planning to build up a Mediterranean fleet. Awesome. But you are leaving part of it to die in sea zone 96 while you build in sea zone 81. Why waste the units by letting Italy destroy them in detail instead of massing your fleet in sea zone 81 and moving back into the Med on UK2?”
This “fleet” in SZ96 is a cruiser, thats is all, and it came from SZ91 IF it survived German Atlantic assault, this cruiser is not intended to live, I would be skeptical if it did, it is simply to help take out the Italian Destroyer and Transport.
Now as for this, "This is a 76% battle for you. If you lose (one time out of four you will), you have weakened India and not gained anything in the process. Sure, you killed a couple of Italian units. You would do better to have taken Persia with those forces and retreated the Anglo-Egypt Sudan forces into Egypt proper. You have 0% chance of losing, make one more IPC out of it (two more IPCs 25% of the time), gain two free infantry (another six IPCs), set yourself up to take Iraq on UK2 (another two IPCs), and secured Persia as a landing zone for planes that you might later send to Moscow or India.
My mistake – I did not include the support shot for the cruiser from sea zone 39 in my calculation. This is an 85% battle for you. You win basically four times out of five."
You say you win 4 out of 5 as if that is terrible odds for the Allies? Would you not do an odd with 85% success any other time? very reasonable. But even so it is actually 98% seeing as you can bring the Tactical bomber from the carrier in SZ98 which increases your odds to 98% as I said. (to be fair I forgot to mention that)
“Also, I didn’t see any reference to you deploying a blocker to sea zone 99. That means Italy can do a joint amphibious/overland assault on Egypt proper, which you have barely reinforced, on I1 with two infantry, three tanks, one mech, a strategic bomber, two cruisers, and a battleship. Italy has a 50% chance of winning this battle, trapping your sea zone 81 fleet outside the Med until UK3 at least (longer if the Luftwaffe lands there on G2, to be reinforced by slower forces from Tobruk and an Italian build in Egypt on I2. 50% of the time in this scenario, you have lost the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East. That’s pretty much game…”
So Perhaps you did not account for all of my Egyptian forces ? Because surely you realize I will have 2 Inf from Anzac, 2 Inf from South Africa, Infantry 1 Artillery 1 Tank from Alexandria and then of course my original Egyptian forces which are 2 Infantry 1 Mechanized Infantry 1 Artillery AND the fighter from Malta that lands there. That brings the total to: 7 Inf 2 Art 1 Mech 1 Tank and 1 Fighter. Now match that up against your very Impressive “two infantry, three tanks, one mech, a strategic bomber, two cruisers, and a battleship.” You will find that the UK has a 97% chance of winning that fight, which is a risk I can afford. So that negates the need for a SZ99 blocker, or the risk of the Luftwaffe coming down.
Now regarding Calcutta you said that the Pac building transports and shipping Inf to them is great because now “Now Japan can come light for Calcutta, or come normal heavy and then destroy your Middle East presence after it crushes India with a LOT of force remaining…” If it comes light then my med force liberates it 2 Turns later, if they come heavy then I am still safe for a turn in sz81 because they cannot reach in 1 turn even with a naval base. If they head my way then i pull to SZ98 where now the Italians can hit me, but as you pointed out, they only have a 22% chance of winning. Especially if I have flown UK fighters down to Egypt and built an AB there, which is possibility in later rounds. And if not then no biggies perhaps the RAF is defending Russia.
And to this “Why sea zone 39 instead of 79? The position of the battleship on UK2 would be the same, but parking it in 39 might allow a J2 attack to kill it.” The reason is so that it is at a Naval base, so If Japan is for some reason going for an Early Sydney then I can maybe position this BB as a blocker and if Japan is doing a J2 attack on India then I have a blocker. So that is my reasoning there, although perhaps you are right and I should not put it there.
As for the UK fighter, that is simply a difference in opinions, and both of us have stated ours.
I think I have addressed everything that you threw my way, but if I did not let me know :-) Also I am sure I messed up something in this reply so let me know what it is ASAP lol
