Operational movement invasions with AVL

[havoc1371]

As the Allies, you can have transports and AVL's sitting off Gibraltar in the Atlantic. Then use CV's (or maritime bombers) to check ports in Vichy France (after a DOW) or Italy, to find ports without ships, and strategic bombers and CV's to find open ports. Once a clear port is found, operationally move AVL combat units to land and seize the port. If the port has more than "5", there is a high probability that it will be taken with 5+ remaining. Then the Allied player can operationally move the transports into the port, landing more units who then can move and exploit.

This creates an unrealistic dilemma for the non active player of having to defend every port on the map without any means to counter the landing with air or ships. If the attack is made with a DOW, then the country invaded has no chance, as the player knows what port will be undefended by initial mobilization.

I believe that the option to "invade" with an AVL that moved operationally should be removed from the game. If they move operationally, then they cannot invade. Thoughts?

[BillRunacre]

When you say operationally moving an AVL, do you mean the Naval Cruise function that doubles its range of movement?

[The Land]

ORIGINAL: havoc1371

This creates an unrealistic dilemma for the non active player of having to defend every port on the map without any means to counter the landing with air or ships.

Out of interest, why do you believe this is unrealistic? What methods did the Axis historically have of knowing where the Allies might land on the European coastline?

[pjg100]

I think the US and Brits used the equivalent of AVL for Operation Torch.

Adopting a rule like this would likely detrimentally impact JA ability to launch a full suite of late-1941 invasions, or at least make it an even larger logistical pain to get everything set up "just so" than it currently is. Particularly where the US is on an accelerated schedule due to Axis aggression in Europe (invading UK, invading Spain, etc.), the ability to pull your invasion force together and send them off to the four corners of the Pacific at the last moment is quite useful.

One response to havoc's concern would be to station GE and IT maritime bombers and a FTR in the Med and garrison the main IT ports. That way you can at least extract some payback against the supporting CVs. Vichy DOW situation should not typically be a problem as Vichy shouldn't last long after the US is in the war anyway.