Can I move some of my units starting in hostile sea zone out to not participate?

@Panther great thnx!

It’s chief effect in gameplay terms is to make it harder for the Axis to build/support a med fleet in the deep endgame. Particularly in cases where Japan manages to take the Caucasus, or has parked a fleet in the Med, since they don’t have the black sea safe zone to build. This is the kind of thing that usually doesn’t become a factor until Moscow has fallen. In rarer instances it prevents the Allies from dropping on Ukraine/Caucasus (again usually after Moscow has fallen) in an attempt to sneak in a wedge, or see the formerly Soviet territory come under Western control.

In the opening rounds it prevents Germany from making amphibious drops into Ukraine, or attacking Caucasus directly, which in turn means that the Russians don’t have to defend it quite so heavily.

I think for game balance it’s probably better closed, though most players I’ve gamed with seem to leave it open. Whether you play Open or Closed, or with interceptors on, is something that should be determined before bidding for Allies, since it can have an effect on how the Russians open (e.g. how much emphasis they need to put on a Ukraine opener.) The Ukraine strafe/take by the Soviets is much more attractive, if there is no threat posed by the German transport in the med.

Thanks for the responses so far! These replies on dead zoning and light trading really helped to better grasp the tactic of it. I plan to try and use what you guys said in my next games.

MarineIguana, it sounds like you play very much the way I do. I’d love to see how I’d fare against you. Would you care to try a Triple A game and put that streak to the test? We could make it a live game, a forum game or a PBEM game, as you prefer.

I find the concentrated bomber strategy very interesting as an approach for the US, for the reasons outlined here - the cost of getting US infantry into the action is incredibly high, so much so that Air power compares much better vs. land forces  for the US than for other nations.

How many bombers is too many? I was picturing maybe 2 US bombers on US1, but for the purposes of strategic bombing, the early IPCs denied will be magnified throughout the game, so perhaps a US1 buy of 3 bombers makes sense?

Unless Japan was posturing in range of a US attack, I imagine I would build the bombers in western US and then send them directly to the UK for use in SBRs vs. Germany (or sinking/deterring a German fleet). Would you agree?

Don’t think of loading/unloading transports as using the units’ movement point, think of it as part of the transport’s special ability to carry units. A transport may load units up to its capacity, so long as those units have not moved yet during the turn, and may unload any amount of cargo (none, one unit, or both) once per turn (so no split unloading). However, units that have been unloaded are not able to move for the rest of the turn, and you may not load or move a transport after unloading.