UK1 Battleship?

Kinda weak, IMHO.  I’ve purchased battleships before, but it’s normally with America and only so I can move fleet down south or have 2 or 3 hammers to hit Germany with sending in 1 infantry, to knock down their production while I build up invasion troops.

My goal is to remove that Baltic fleet, not build along side it. After all, it is the only place to land in Germany proper.
The sooner the better. If you can get your med BB home, use that and all other ships and the 3 fighters you bought and the planes your started with and destroy. Buy transports before you attack, and on your next turn, you can proceed shipping the limeys
back out to war! (Well, that’s one way to do it!)

Why remove the Baltic fleet?  Are they any threat to you?  You can easily go around the fleet through Norway and W. Europe and not risk loss.  Meanwhile, if you leave the fleet, he might be tempted to attack you and give you the defensive advantage.

Baltic Fleet can be used as fodder for a strafe or suicide attack on an allied fleet which can be very helpful

@Jennifer:

Why remove the Baltic fleet?  Are they any threat to you?  You can easily go around the fleet through Norway and W. Europe and not risk loss.  Meanwhile, if you leave the fleet, he might be tempted to attack you and give you the defensive advantage.

If you can land in Eastern Europe with UK troops every turn, or have the option to, Germany has to worry where they move their
army, planes, etc. (Perhaps they have to maintain a force there at all times?) And if they end up fighting 8 Brits there, they must divert resource from Russia. Plus, I want to keep Norway without worrying about Germany transporting troops over if I leave it a little weak one turn. No ships, no worries.

Don’t forget about landing in Germany proper.  With the German med fleet gone, potential landing zones become:
WEU
GER
EE
KAR
NOR
ARC
and possibly SEU if you have a 2nd fleet in sz12.  Can Germany protect all of these territories from landings?  Can Germany even deadzone all of these territories from landings?  They might have to hole up in GER/SEU to protect everything, in which case they have handed you KAR, BEL, UKR.

BB for the Baltic is too much investment

If Germany invests more than 16 IPC in Navy in Turn 1, they HAVE to get additional IPC’s with it, and that means they are not spending more than 16 IPC in the Baltic.

If Germany spends an ass of money in the Baltic on Navy, the Allies just slow down, solidify, and then BLAST THE SNOT OUT OF IT, while Russia gains major income in central Europe.  Game to the Allies.

It seems to me that 24 ipc for 1 ship to defeat a fleet that poses no real threat is a misallocation of funds.  Once Africa is defended and you have a transport system worked out, then if you have some extra cash you can buy a BB and lay waste to the baltic fleet.

The BB is not just for the navy.

It does also provide a great fleet anchor, and also helps in trading costal territories.

In a protracted game, it would be a good investment.

How to take out the baltic fleet would really depend on what Germany puts down in R1. I don’t like the captial ship buy because after the fight is over surviving planes can be used elsewhere. The BB would not be as valuable as a multi-purpose unit.
Although the extra bombardment could put a hurt on Germany’s shoreline, its not enough for me to do it.

I should clarify my las post…

A BB for UK is what I was refering to with the “protracted war.”

For Germany, they can buy BB’s after they take out Moscow for the assault on London IF Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific are all 100% Axis controlled (in short, after the Axis has already won)

Just because Germany has a fleet in the Baltic does not mean you cannot land in E. Europe or Germany, boys.  You can land just like normal, you just cannot get shore bombardments because you have to sink their fleet (which should be relatively simple.)

Can Germany use it to strafe you with her planes?  Sure.  But that’s why you build your own Carrier, Planes and bring in the Americans for fodder.  I’ll trade American fleet for German planes and he’ll have to start trading planes soon because, let’s face it, his carrier, destroyer, 2 submarines and transport is not a lot of fodder against 2 battleships, 3 destroyers, 2 aircraft carriers, half a dozen or more transports and 4 fighters. (about 50/50 British/American fleet.)

@Jennifer:

Just because Germany has a fleet in the Baltic does not mean you cannot land in E. Europe or Germany, boys.  You can land just like normal, you just cannot get shore bombardments because you have to sink their fleet (which should be relatively simple.)[/quote

Don’t you have to win a sz battle here before you can land troops? I didn’t think you could just go in a sz a drop troops with a defending navy there. Guess I better re-read the rules.[/quote]

Yeah, I think Jen is talking about fighting both battles in the same turn (sea and land).  The problem with this as she mentions is no BB support shot for the amphib invasion, but also some fighters/bombers might need to be diverted from the amphib assault to ensure the sea battle is won.  The allied fleet typically does much better defensively than it does offensively, and may need the added air support to clear out the baltic fleet.

Yea, but odds are you are not going to do both unless you think you can win both.

Besides, it really isn’t very difficult to take out 2 submarines, a transport and a destroyer.  Even if Germany puts 2 fighters and a carrier in there, you can just use the Americans to hit them and then come in next round with England for a shore invasion of Germany, E. Europe or Karelia.  Or just forgo an invasion and stack troops from England into Norway after the battle.  No rule that you cannot move troops into a formerly enemy held sea zone and land them into friendly territory after a battle during non-combat.