Is the Taranto raid 100% neccesary on Turn 1?

French mop up?  With their ships?  France goes after Italy, so those are usually dead and they are def. blocked from the correct square, I’m not sure how France can help

There are two ways to Taranto.  Neither of them are “required”, but if you don’t do it, you’ll be facing Italy Rampaunt rather than Italy Nerfed.

Way #1  Bring it all.  (sub) dd ca cv tb fighter fighter strat.    He has 1 TT left after you are done with him, and the chances of success are high.  If he doesn’t add a german scrambler, then chances are awesome.    If you trade uk air for the Italian air, that’s still probably a plus because the Italians cant really replace their starting airforce.

Way #2  Taranto Lite (sub) dd ca tb fighter fighter strat.    This way lets you build a new fleet in the red sea of 1 CV 1 CA 2 TT and 1 BB if you don’t get J1d.    However, against 5 units (with 6 hits), its not enough and you can blow the attack.

Way #3.  Don’t do either.  You are much safer from Sea Lion because you kept your planes, but Italy has choices.    With a nice sized fleet, Italy can 1) take da oil 2) double sea lion you 3) block Gibraltar with everything its got to delay the American cross.

If you’d played the game with Italy Rampaunt (Italy without the diminishment of Taranto), you’d probably come to the conclusion that you’d rather deal with Italy on the basis of Way #1 than Way #3.  If you keep getting sea lioned and turtled, then your Taranto may be too predictable.  And unless you Taranto Lite, you lose pretty much all the good UK stuff that is in that area, and it is not replaceable.

Not sure we are talking about the same plan.  Taranto is destroying the Italian navy on Turn UK 1 before the Italians can do anything about it.

The French go at the absolute end of the turn order, so in most advanced games, all they can do is cry and hide.  Those 2 ships are an annoyance at most and the Axis can pick them off or ignore them.  France only has the 3 combat units that can possibly attack, they can’t beat even the leftovers of the Italian navy because after Italy’s turn, Italy should still have

dd ca sub tt + up to 3 scramblers

Those two units however can accomplish a lot, if somehow they can survive, because you can use the French ships to block the Axis attacks on the other Allies later in the game.  In fact, a French destroyer in a G42 game was the difference between victory and defeat….

But, its better not to just throw units at a superior force in the hopes of getting 1-2 hits because you don’t know what else to do with them…I suggest keeping stuff alive until turn 6 and then determining what use can be made of it.

GIBRALTAR AIR BASE UK1 Plan In-lieu of Taranto

Sometimes I’ve seen a few people purchase an airbase for Gibraltar then stack a huge UK fleet there with the additional 3 fighter coverage. They hit SZ 96 only and ensure a blocker there and SZ 99 to protect Cairo from a 2 transport landing attack. This plan results in enough defensive power to where Italy can’t retaliate. Another plus is that it also means that the UK can also move to SZ110 to protect against a German Sea Lion Build. They think it will work against me; especially since my usual G1 build doesn’t include a ship.

It is not too difficult to mitigate this plan and start picking away at UK ships. I like to respond by buying a small German fleet, (total of 5 transports w/ 1 carrier, 1 destroyer, 1 cruiser (already had that), if the battleship was able to retreat to SZ112 then even better). The UK then has to start building on London because they only placed 1 fighter / 1 infantry there UK1. And oh by the way, I even bomb London on G2 to scare them even more. This then stalls and hurts their KIF plan. While Italy starts picking off ships in the Med and building on that battleship they kept; the UK is building on London instead of a placing a Persian factory or expensive builds in SA. So the UK player is behind on their G40 “traditional” responsibilities. Germany doesn’t do Sea Lion most likely, but instead buys lots of infantry w/ some artillery on G3/G4 to shuck/shucks troops to Leningrad in order to make up for the cost of the ships. Since it’s only a purchase of 4 transports, 1 carrier, 1 destroyer (probably going to purchase a carrier and 1 destroyer anyways), the “Sea Lion” fake buy isn’t too much of a financial burden on Germany. Meanwhile Italy is establishing a strong dominance of the Med and the UK has lost ships and is behind due to having to build on London or combine and build more fleet in SZ110 which risks annihilation by the German fleet and 11 planes.

What’s the moral of the story? Don’t get silly in the Med, just do the Taranto Raid.

UK Responsibilities:

I think it’s not too difficult to sack Moscow on turn 6 or 7 with a German max Moscow effort if the UK does not get a stack of fighters up to Moscow. So, if the UK did not neuter Italy on UK1, then they might be distracted about holding the middle east or Cairo or both.

Nothing new or unique in what I’m saying here.

Not 100% necessary. It is just easier and the most optimal thing you can do.

I play with bids and don’t play allies under 12 so uk1 I scramble everything cos I am a jerk and uk1 attack my 2 sub bid is great, 1sub 1cruiser vs dd and 2 fig bomber tact sub + Egypt ships slams and yeah it is nice. Sometimes I take Greece with malta stuff and leave 2 fighters on carrier (in which case I attack with 3 figs) yeah land in the small island below Greece instead of malta if I do this. But yeah sweet things happen sometimes.

I find Taranto to be a great way to slow down Italy and pick off some German planes, which is critical. You can also land in Greece with the Malta troops and leave the transport in 99. That way you can lose the carrier first against a German counterattack, and you offer an extra target to hit.

Example in this game in which a Taranto was done, and Greece held until I3:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=39603.0