I have thought about the fact that yes it does take 5 planes to kill the Battleship and Cruiser with the risk of 3 fighters scrambling to defend from UK. And yes I really want to use those 5 planes in more useful ways. The problem is that Battleship and Cruiser have a naval base so if you don’t kill them G1 they can run away to safety and hurt you in a multitude of ways. If they go to Sea Zone 92 UK1 and your sub pot shot on the Cruiser in SZ 91 fails G1 the UK will have 1 Battleship, 2 Cruisers and 1 Destroyer sitting in the Med. That is to go with the Cruiser, Carrier, Destroyer, Tac Bomber, and Fighters that can then either be combined with that fleet or used to destroy half of the Italian Fleet UK1. So then when Italy takes its first turn it could have half of it’s Navy dead with 2 British fleets sitting in the Med and 1 French Fleet. Italy can probably then safely take out the French Cruiser and Destroyer. Then on G2 the Germans can finish off the Brittish Med fleet that sunk half of the Italian Navy but that still leaves the other Uk fleet that got into the Med after not getting taken out G1 to finish off the other half of the Italian Fleet UK2. So now the Axis are playing with a very ineffective Italy.
That is why I believe protecting the economy of Italy is even more important than using the 5 German planes G1 to smash all of France G1. Yes it can save you a lot of German units to smash France up with the Air Force G1 but value of protecting Italy’s economy is priceless.
