@Cmdr:
Shadow, why not move the puny British fleet in SZ 98 out and get it to SZ 39? (Not the aircraft, the fleet)
I have seen that done and worked surprisingly well for the British…
I find this discussion thread very interesting… Very interesting even!
Looking at the fleet battles, there is really no reason to go crazy about defending 112. Let’s assume for a second that the English fleet is wiped out except for the cruiser in 91 and the destroyer from 109. Although, Normandy will survive… So in that case, why not going for not 1, but 3 sub ($18 IPC)
So UK will have 4 planes attacking with the destroyer and cruiser. Since the attacking destroyer is present, the subs can serve as fodder.
4 planes at 3 + 1 destroyer + 1 cruiser against 1 damaged battleship, 1 cruiser, 3 fighters and 3 subs is not a good bet at all, even with option to retreat… Then, what’s next for UK?! Cannot build fleet, too many subs. Need to build infantry and put fleet out of range of all the subs (if not, that’s crazy). Next turn, one sub gets to work in 109, 1 in 119. 2 more subs get to 118 and 108 (assuming 1 sub survived the naval battles of first round) and the other one gets to work in (with or without the rest of the fleet). How will the UK get out of trouble with this? The best they can do is to kill one of these four subs (with the 109), and they will lose the destroyer after the first turn. They can’t build fleet again either so they go land. Then, just starve them off with subs!
And with these 3 subs, how about adding a bomber? If Italy takes gibraltar, the bombers can come in quite handy!