Caspian sea

@Soviet-Steamroller said in Attacking an empty sea zone?:

Hi there,
As i’m reviewing the scramble rule a question came to my mind.
Can i assign planes to a sea zone with no ennemy warships just as a safety against scramble?

Bringing units against a potential scramble is a valid combat move, indeed.
Rulebook Pacific 1940.2 page 13

… Further, if enemy air units could potentially be scrambled to defend the sea zone, additional units may be moved into the sea zone to combat them in case they are indeed scrambled.

I worded it a bit funny, in the 2nd example the UK was attacking.  Thank you for the clarifications!

@cyanight:

That might be the reason Harris designed it so the Flying Tigers stay in the mainland of China. If Hainan was labeled a Chinese territory then the whole rule on transports could become an issue as well as the Flying Tiger being able to attack units in seazones. The way the game is setup the plane is penned inside of China with the exception of Burma and Kwangtung.And if the Chinese could load onto transports it would be easy to use them with USA since their turns are back to back.

Good theory – that may very well be the explanation.  I’d always wondered why Hainan was incorrectly represented on the game map (from the point of view of which territories were Chinese when Japan started conquering them in 1931).  Formosa and Korea I could understand, since China ceded Formosa to Japan under the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki and recognized Korean independence (which proved to be short-lived, since the Russians and the Japanese both had territorial ambitions there) under the same treaty.

Note that I play 2nd edition. I don’t know how this compares to alpha+3.

The first thing that I look out for with the UK, is what is Germany doing? IF a serious sea-lion is posed, I move every available ship from the UK med-fleet (and the french if they survive) to Gibraltar, as well as every ratty old plane the UK has in the med. This requires removal of the Italian TRS+DD in SZ96 in the 2nd edition.
With this move and smart builds in London, Sea Lion will fail miserably. Italy on the other hand will be stronger in Africa but you can’t have both London and Cairo. Rest assured that you will take back the latter, if Italy takes it at all. If Germany continues on the Sea Lion Path, all the Gibraltar stuff moves north to fight Germans, who will fail, Russia will roll over Germany and it is game over very quickly for the Axis. EVEN if Lucky dicerolls hands them over London they will not be able to stop the Russians anymore because they will loose too much in the battle of London… Unless they roll SO DAMN Lucky that they manage to keep all their Luftwaffe + take London with their last tank  :roll:
If Germany does NOT continue with Sea Lion (you can tell by their production), move the Gibraltar stuff + STR and FTR from London back into Africa, ending the Italian dreams there with moderate effort.

If Germany never poses/feighns a Sea-Lion threat, do a ‘Taranto’ or ‘Tobruk’ UK1. The specifics vary from the preferences from player to player but in general it comes down to attack as much Italian ships (or its units in Tobruk) with as much of your air/ships.
Personally I prefer to kill all Italian ships in SZ96 and SZ97 with all UK-ships that can get to them plus all aircraft that can get there. Note that the STR in London can get there and land in Malta as well as 2 FTR from London that can land on the CV if necessary. I personally take ships (even the CV) as losses, and land all surviving aircraft (which should very well be all) in Malta, but this may also differ according to your preferences.

If you fear/don’t know how to handle a ‘surprise Sea Lion’ from the Germans, seriously consider to consolidate around Gibraltar UK1, doing ‘Taranto’ (sort of) UK2. Taranto is most effective UK1 but loses not much of its effect if executed UK2.

Good luck and have fun playing!

The allies can always make sealion next to impossible if they really set their mind to it (UK build infantry, no Taranto, bring ships home, get Canadians, prepare US airstrike).  If they do everything in their power to make it costly and Germany still goes for it, then Germany will be in bad shape after the sealion “victory”.  In that case, losing London is bad but not necessarily a total disaster.  Suppose the opponents don’t really like playing Japan and they’re not very good at it.  As long as USA, USSR and remnant of UK can hold the line against germany, the axis are placed in the crummy position of having to win as Japan.  In that case, it might actually be preferable to intentionally allow a (costly) sealion in order to put the onus on Japan.  If its a team game and the guy playing Germany is more skilled than the guy playing Japan, then coaxing them into a costly sealion might work out OK for the allies.

Yeah it would still be G3 but since UK didn’t build anything for defense and they did something adventurous like attacking the Italian navy, you don’t have to bring as much.

In the current Alpha +3 scenario I think the best way for the Axis to still go Sealion is if Japan hits SFE and Hawaii hard. You need to divert at least some of the American and Soviet attention towards yourself or the Euro-Axis is doomed. Now this will make things hard for Japan, intentionally putting more pressure on themselves but with UK London not producing more units it won’t be long before we see Italian units moving towards Italy to help Japan along with a Germany collecting tons from UK and an Italy gobbling up many of the UK’s African territories. In the event of Sealion as Italy I always push all the way to South Africa since it cannot be reinforced and taking while UK is still out of commission denies it to UK if/when they are liberated.

THANK YOU! At least one other person acknowledges this and YES i realize the Pacific ocean is bigger than the Atlantic you jackwagon! US transports should have to travel further and linger out in the Atlantic in the U-boat kill zone where US air power cant reach. Germany then would have a chance at slowing down US landings with relatively cheap.