@Gallo:
Cheers,
I know this is a game and playability is important (probably more important than historical accuracy), having say that:
Shoudn’t UK have at least a Strategic Bomber? (RAF had them in 1940, actually had more and better bombers than the Luftwaffe, which had no real strategic bombers)
I’m fairly confidant that the reason there are no British bombers at setup is due to balance. There has been a bomber placed in a version of Alpha, very very briefly. The problems are thus:
If the bomber replaces a fighter, UK defense is substantially nerfed, either making sealion and German naval offenses easier due to fewer scrambling UK fighters (problem 1), or worse yet, keeping the fighter (which leads to problem 2).
Due to the airbase movement bonuses, bombers have such a massive range that they are able to get from the UK on rd1 and help annihilate the italian fleet UK1 (problem 2) AND still have range to land safely in protected areas, serving far more useful purposes than UK bases bombing missions, thereby leaving the UK no reason to keep the SBs in the UK. And if the fighter count is maintained and a bomber is added, the Taranto raid is ridonkulously destructive and knocks Italy out of the game far too early.
Your very reasonable request (believe me, I wish it were so) for historic setup accuracy is then rendered moot as game mechanics and balance supersede actual unit capability or historic playout (UK based bombers sure as heck didn’t help with Taranto). Game pieces are used to their full game potential, not historic potential (SBs were rarely effective in naval battles).
The setup we have therefore loosely emulates history without introducing too many positional imbalances of historic setups and their conflicts with established game mechanics.
In my dream world, the italian naval setup would have more subs and fewer destroyers with the BB to encourage primarily air attacks (historic even if the italian naval unit disposition isn’t) rather than the joint UK attack we see instead. But what we have is what we have and there are reasons for every unit, even if my personal hope would have been that aircraft/sub interactions could help drive different options of configuring a Taranto attack.