Italy Building Fighters Working Well.

[Chesty Wilmot]

Has anyone tried building 1 fighter a round with Italy. I thought I would try this and it’s worked great. Every round I’ve bought a fighter with the Italians. What I ve been doing is flying them up to german industrial complexes to defend against USA 's 4 bombers. I ve worked on having up to 3 fighters at each major industrial complex between the germans and the italians. This has kept him from using bombers and using the Italian fighters in germany has freed up the German fighters to go and fight in other theatres. Also it s developed now that I decide to build an airbase in sicily which when the time comes will work like an aircraft carrier defencively. This now makes the italians a very tough prospect for the allied fleets in the Med. I now have 8 fighters and 1 bomber my navies got 8 destroyers, italy tough in hardware seems to be the way to go. Has anyone tried the fighter build doctrine with the Italians?

[ghr2]

I havnt, just it seems very situational.

[anderb]

what about africa or the eastern front… i just cant see 4 US bombers sitting idle in London (or a nearby airport).

[Gargantua]

Having fighters sitting around just for the purpose of defending factories is kind of pointless…  And so is an Airbase in Sicily.

An Airbase in Northern Italy is far superior, it gives planes extra range towards the eastern front,  defends 2 seazones instead of one, you can build new units at that location, and if you don’t scramble your fighters can protect the territory itself too

I like your enthusiasm tho,  a fighter strategy for Italy isn’t bad, but only so long as you have the ground units and transports to maintain the war in the middle east, and so long as you dual use the fighters on defense AND offense.

[ghr2]

Southern Italy does defend 2 seazones though

[taschuler]

I guess it depends on what happens before Italy’s first turn. In my current game UK didn’t sink any Italian ships. I decided to gamble and roll two tech dice and got super subs but wanted the improved shipyards. The 10 IPC start that Italy has would be good for a first purchase, unless the UK blew up your boats, then you may need to replenish a lost ship with it.

[JimmyHat]

Not to mention that SItaly is the captial…I think its pretty important that the allies hold there over NItaly.(although NITaly is closer to Moscow)

[Gargantua]

Alpha+.2 Italy starts with an AB in Southern Italy…

[trackmagic]

I like the idea. Fighters move fast to different fronts and Italy needs mobility. Even if your transports get taken out then you can still move force around. Plus if the Allies are preparing to assault the Italian fleet they might make the allies think twice.

[Xandax]

I must admit that I do not see much need for Italy fighters until at least some additional land is occupied.
Until then pushing out inf/art and tanks and the occasional minor IC to help move the front, seems much more bang for your buck.
Once the Mediterranean and Africa have been taken, fighters might start being a good option to help keep US off your back and for pushing into south USSR/West India - but until then I feel using 10 IPC on a single unit is expensive.

[kdfsjljklgjfg]

@JimmyHat:

Not to mention that SItaly is the captial…I think its pretty important that the allies hold there over NItaly.(although NITaly is closer to Moscow)

To be fair, I always like to hit NItaly once as Allies in order to knock that complex down to a minor and limit Italian ground troop production.

[knp7765]

@kdfsjljklgjfg:

To be fair, I always like to hit NItaly once as Allies in order to knock that complex down to a minor and limit Italian ground troop production.

That is an excellent strategy.  I just recently started using it myself.  My gaming group, myself included, was always stuck with the notion that you didn’t attack a territory, especially an important one with an IC on it, unless you could hold it.  If the enemy takes it right back, we felt you just wasted your troops.  They thought I was crazy when I would take a territory with a Major IC on it but only have a little force left that was easily destroyed.  That is, until they realized that they could no longer produce 10 units.  Then they have to either spend 20 IPCs to restore the major or suffer with only 3 unit builds per turn from then on.  I have gotten away with it for a couple of games now while my opponents still shied away from it so I didn’t get any retribution from them.  I’m sure my next game will change that if they get the chance.