Capturing Gibraltar

[Tomokatu]

Does anybody have a strategy for taking Gibraltar from the British?

I thought that with a German aircraft carrier, I should be able to conduct recce flights to allow a shore bombardment preparatory to an amphibious landing, but carriers cannot (it appears) do reconaissance.
If Spain is still neutral, is it possible to carry out a recce from air units based in Africa in Oran?
This means either invading Free French (or Vichy) North Africa and I'm working on the diplomatic front to ally Vichy to the Axis (93/100 so far).

Can it be done at all?

[Maximeba]

The only way to capture Gibraltar is to conquer Spain or make Spain an Axis ally.  Unfortunately, you can not conquer Spain as it is a pro Axis nation.  I don't know if it is a game glitch or not but you can not make Spain an ally.  The ai resets Spain back to 15 diplomacy points just about every turn the Axis player attempts to increase thier political strength in Spain.
You can always do what Dave and I do with Spain and that is paper and pencil it.  When the Axis player spends enough Diplomacy points for Spain, then you can modify Spain so that it is an Axis minor.
After that Gibraltar will fall quite easy.  Put raiders in the appropriate sea boxes to put Gibraltar out of supply, shore bombard it, then make air and ground attacks and then the Italian navy is free to rome the Atlantic.

[Tomokatu]

Thank you, Maximeba
A couple of times I've had the "Invite Spain to join the Axis" event, but the Generalissimo has never accepted the offer.

[simagis]

If France is Vichy you can stage both bombers and Fighters in French Morocco ad do both recce and bombing which makes the amphib invasion much more likely.

Or if you conquer the area from Casablanca to Fes you can do the same