Alternate British Med Strategy

[Fredrico]

I was thinking about an alternate Med start for the UK. The basic premise is that you use the cruiser off the coast of gibraltar and all of the planes you can muster to fight the Italian fleet of the west coast of Italy (not Taranto), and then you use your main fleet and crush the destroyer and transport next to Malta. You can also bring some Land units in the transport and invade Libya to slow down Italy.
I have only tested this against myself and it worked pretty well, do you guys think it could be viable in an actual game.
The reasoning behind this is that you still decimate the Italian fleet and leave some ships in the med the Italians have to deal with to get the bonus.

[simon33]

Hmm, and the CV catches the planes in NCM going via SZ96 if it has to?

I’ve pondered it but never actually tried it.

Taking down a sub and a DD isn’t really as attractive as killing the BB and not much less difficult. You also have one less ship in the battle and no spare hits from the CV.

[Fredrico]

My thought was that the remaining navy would still be strong enough to fight the BB and destroyer. This way you also use all of the units in the med that you can as opposed to having some not come online until a turn later, like the fighter at gibraltar and the transport.

[simon33]

The problem is that the scramble could be directed against SZ97 when your strong attack is against SZ95.

[Fredrico]

I think we are having a misunderstanding, I’m skipping Taranto, killing the destroyer and transport in sz 96 with the main Uk fleet, and then I am using my planes to attack the small weaker Italian navy in sz 95, leaving Taranto unscathed.

[MarshmallowofWar]

I tried this once with bidding a strat bomber for Egypt and it worked out ok. As I recall, my dice were not so good but I did win the battle and the game.

Doing it this way actually means that Italy can only engage the French fleet in sea zone 93 with their air power, which is really a bad trade for Italy.

Marsh

[A Former User]

Hi there,

concerning SZ 95,

Contra: you can bring in less fodder.

Pro: every hit is a kill, nothing could be repaired if dice go bad.

Cheers.
N.