Destroyer in the Baltic?

@Infantry:

As for being bottled up in the Baltic and then sunk, isn’t that better than Uk landing in eastern on turn 2?

Eastern Europe rnd 2??

Thats too early to lose an important TT, which is easy for Germany to defend, even for a newb like me  :-P

I don’t think there’s much risk of England in E. Europe on UK 2.

As for fleet, I’m still wondering if massive fleet > little fleet < no fleet.

Of course, if you have BB/SS/TRN in SZ 13 and the Allies go for fleet unification in SZ 12, you may not need MASSIVE fleet.

The thought of 2 Submarines, Transport, Destroyer, 5 (or 6) fighters and a bomber attacking it on Germany 2.

If you plan on linking fleets or suiciding against the allied fleet both the carrier costs more and does less. I suppose two transports would be the other consideration but the destroyer costs less.

You’re sort of right. It costs more and does less - for suicide purposes. But for linking purposes, a carrier + 2 fig is vastly more powerful defensively than 2 tran. If you build 2 tran + link, the UK could easily start with a 3 fig buy and sink you by themselves. Or even if they didn’t sink you by themselves, they would do a mighty strafe and the US could easily follow up. But with a car + 2 fig, it becomes very uneasy for the Allies to spend so little effort to sink you.

Proper purchase for England, via a large German build up is:

Submarine >> 8 IPC
2 Fighters >> 20 IPC

This allows you to hit the Germans with SS, 2 TRN, BB, 4 FIG, 1 BMB (5 FIG if the SZ 35 FIG went to W. Russia on UK 1.)

Each round that goes on, just add another submarine or two.  Submarines are great for sinking carrier defended fleets because you hit navy only with them.  The fighters, thus, cannot be targetted and you get the juicier targets like destroyers and carriers and can submerge when it’s down to just fighters.

A Baltic Fleet alive beyond UK1 is not defending Eastern.  It is defending the entire Atlantic coast, especially Norway.

The problem for the Allies with a living Baltic Fleet is that it can be used as fodder for a massive Luftwaffe attack on the Allied fleets.  Remove the Baltic Fleet, and an air only attack on the Allied navy is highly unlikely.

With a dead Baltic Fleet, UK can land with impugnity in Norway on UK2.  With a living Baltic Fleet, they are delayed at least a turn (meaning 6 to 8 land units less in Europe for Germany to contend with, plus no USA reinforce).

By spending $16 for an AC, I defer about 10 units into Europe; making them arrive 1 turn later or more (usually 2-3 turns).  That is a significant decrease in Allied pressure during the earliest phases of the game when Germany needs to be hammering Russia and depleting UK’s income.

Or the Allies let you use your fleet for fodder.

Honestly, I prefer to land in Russia and build more in SZ 2.  Then, if you move to cleave me in twain, I can attack from two directions for one round and retreat all to one sea zone or the other.

Then I get to strafe AND you are denied the use of your Luftwaffe (except the ones on the carrier) in hitting my fleet back.