Building Italian fleet - is there a point?

@critmonster:

I2 flattop is awesome, even if only for the allied reaction  :lol:
I did that yesterday and the med was completely ignored the rest of the game

Good point critmonster, we are dealing with people’s psychology as well as optimum strategy. An AC can act as enough of a deterrent to keep the med axis, which with an IC in France can foster some German sub building.

There is a big purpose for the Italian fleet. If it is powerful enough, the U.S. will have trouble taking Italy and the Allies will have a much harder time winning. I think a transport first turn is necessary, and then a carrier and fighter over turns 2 and 3. If a weak Allied fleet sits within reach or is approaching, buy some subs and maybe a destroyer or two to attack them with. You have to respect Italy.  8-)

aa50, with NOs, no tech, with bidding for allies to balance the game

in this case the Italian fleet is already in real danger.

That’s how it works:

Bidding 3 IPC: Uk places one infantry in Egypt. Turn 1 Germany it is impossible to kill all units in Egypt, especially with no luck.
That UK fighter normally survives. Now on Turn 1 Uk, there is an attack with UK Bomber, Egypt fighter und Gibraltar naval units (destroyer + cruiser) against the Italian fleet with an 60% of winnig and a much higher chance to simply kill that fleet even when losing all attacking units.

Yes, losing the fighter and bomber hurts UK, but get that fleet destroyed simply kills Italy. No hope of NOs, Africa gone forever there’s not fun at all to play Italy !

So it seems forced that Germany has to attack that destroyer + cruiser with subs  + air units, to help the Italians.

If bids get higher, the problems rise too: a 9 IPC bid, Uk can place one inf to Egypt and one sub to that DD + Cr fleet.

Anyone experienced that? What do you do in that situation as Germany ?

Italian builds I’ve played with usually involved fighters and carriers once I got the med NO’s.  If you can get Japan through the Suez and Germany to build a factory in France, by I3 the joint Axis fleet is a factor the Allies should have stopped 2 turns ago.  If playing Allies I go for the Italian fleet asap so as to protect Africa’s ipcs/deny italy its NOs.  If Allies take the med, then italy is pretty much reduced to all inf builds, which is still fun to use retaking France every now and then.

The Italian fleet is REALLY important for game outcome, since having those African IPCs is vital for UK to be a threat to Germany and once the navy is gone you should mop-up Africa soon enough.

But what’s the best way of destroying the Italian fleet? I think the following:

1. On US1, build 1 CV+2 bom’s.
2. On US2, move 1 DD+1 fully loaded CV to sz12, move 4 bom’s to French West Africa (note: safe from attack from Egypt and can reach East Med., if Axis has tanks in range, place bom’s in Belgian Congo covered by UK troops). Sz12 might be bolstered by UK fleet if needed for defence against German air strike.
3. On US3, strike Italian fleet with 2 figs, 3 boms. With this air set-up, there’s nowhere for Italy to hide unless they sail out of the Med.! Also, if both figs are destroyed in the combat (as is likely), you don’t even need to sail your fleet into the Med. and expose yourself to counterattack by German air, just land surviving bombers in Africa or Russia.

I think this is the best way since UK can then focus on building an invasion fleet strong enough to withstand air attack. In the case of a CV build by Italy on turn 2, though, you might need a combined UK/US strike to wipe out the fleet, preferably not sacrificing the whole UK fleet but only some DDs/figs. A UK turn 2 move to sz12 with the fleet is a good precaution in case of an Italian CV build.

Without closing the Dardanelles, I think Russia is always threatened by Italy. So even if you spend alot of naval units, you can still do some amphibious assaults, which can deal prevent Russia from going all offensive.

Yeah, Dardanelles must be closed for Russia to have a chance, or Hitler has a field day and takes Moscow on turn 6.  W/o that rule, Italian fleet should be #1 target for UK bombers.

Here’s a twist playing AA50 42 w/NO’s & Tech. G1 cleared sz 12 & 15. Built a German AC in the Baltic.(I know normally this is bad). UK took notice combined its fleet and added to it. G2 I got lucky and got jet fighters (but I would have attacked any way) . I attacked with my German navy and all available air units. Both navies went to the bottom, but I did save about 1/2 my air. Italy/Germany is now cleaning up Africa. My Italian navy is in tact (I only added a transport so far but will add more war ships now) Japans loaded AC, BB and tnsp is ready to come through the Suez. I also still have my Ger DD & transport in the Med. The German AC was just an expensive distraction, but for now it seems to have worked. It’s turn 3 and I own the Med with a rather large fleet, that the Allies don’t have an answer for it yet. I’m going to 1-2 punch Caucus with Italy & Japan. Germany has Len IC with a good size stack and was able to use the Baltic transport for 2 rounds to capture/reinforce it because the fleet stayed alive for 2 rounds because of the carrier.

One of the problems of an Italian fleet is the lack of airforce.  Therefore the fleet won’t have any attack potential.

By contrast, a German fleet can be combined with 5-6 planes.  This is part of the reason why I  would get an aircraft carrier in the Revised game on G1.

If Italy can take Africa for IPCs and keep its fleet intact for 4-5 turns Italy can start doing good.  One game Germany launched an unsucssesful invasion of UK.  Then Italy came out of nowhere and took the UK with one tank left and the US fleet was 3 sz away.  Game ending move.  Italy has potential.