Malta and Gibraltar

[canuckgamer]

The special rule allowing Malta and Gibraltar to be blockaded guarantees the Axis taking both places without invasion combat. It is December 6 1940 and the garrison unit in Malta has just been eliminated from lack of supply. All the Axis has to do is move subs adjacent to Malta and station a number air units in Sicily to prevent Allied naval units breaking the blockade.
The Axis have now moved 6 air units in to North Africa in the Casablanca, Oran, and Rabat area to do the same thing to capture Gibraltar. The Allies cannot counter this as they only have one hex to base an air unit, Gibraltar. Again, if they move naval units to break the blockade they will be sunk by Axis land based air.
I know that if the Axis take Gibraltar there is a +15 to USA entry but this does not seem significant to me.
Historically, Hitler had plans for an airborne invasion of Malta but opted for Crete and shelved the plan to take Gibraltar when Franco would not allow the transit of German troops through Spain.
It is ironic that the two most important ports in Med are the easiest for the Axis to take because of this rule.
I plan on moving 6 AA into Gibraltar to find out if that protects naval units there to break the blockade. If it doesn't I would say that this special rule should be re-evaluated. I am also of the opinion that the amphibious capabilites of the Axis is overrated in this game.
I would be very interested in hearing from other players as to what their experience in regards to this is.

[morgand]

I'm having a devil of a time taking Gibraltar even though I am following this plan. I have three Italian 42 naval bombers with German fighter protection hitting the ships he keeps moving in every turn to break the sub blockade. I occasionally do a point or two of damage to his ships, but the 6AA is like a buzzsaw to my planes and I regularly am losing 15+ points whenever I do a full three plane attack. I'm sure he'll be happy to let me keep pounding his fist with my face all season.

[Nirosi]

All units have a a three turn supply reserve before they are truly OOS. So for Malta, every third turn, all the UK need to do is to send subs withing Malta range (or even a whole fleet into port with AA protection if he fells lucky).

SO with this approach, the unit should never lose any steps due to been OOS. Of course, some UK ship will be lost, as many Allied ships were lost in the real war in supply runs for Malta.

[canuckgamer]

Has anybody been able to figure out the impact on Axis supply in Africa when the Allies hold Malta? For example how much is the port supply of Tripoli or Tobruk and or other ports reduced?

Wouldn't the best option to supplying Malta when it is blockaded be sending naval unit(s) in to the port hex where they would be protected by AA? I am assuming that if air conducted an interception that the AA would be triggered as well. Nirosi, when you say "within Malta range" what is this range? Are you talking about the range subs can attack? Would this also mean that the range for surface naval units would be 5, their interception range?

Thanks to you and morgand for your replies.

[Nirosi]

By "in range of Malta", I simply meant the 1 hex range for either blockading it or breaking blockade. Sorry for the confusion.

I believe that the AA in Malta will not protect the ships "moving in" during interception. The interception would be just "outside" the port.

But one could try, for example, with subs (they are not "interceptable"). Also, only one enemy air unit would intercept a fleet coming in, keeping damage minimal for the interception against a big fleet. Then the next turn (the Axis one), the AA (land based and from fleet) would work with any UK fighter also there. UK would have loses, of courses, but after that, no need to keep supply in Malta for 3 turns as the unit there would have its reserves back (and maybe even steps repaired if needs be).

It would be costly, but for both sides. It all comes to how bad does the Axis wants to take it vs the UK wants to keep it. I have seen a few games of such "cats and mouse" going both ways.

For all ports, in Warplan, supply must physically be raided by either naval or air units. Just owning Malta has no effect on Axis supply in Africa (no special rule for example). But a bomber in Malta will raid the Tripoli supply either reducing it (very moderately I would say) or forcing the Axis to put a fighter there. It would also raid shipping coming in such as units. Depending on the range (a anti-sub medium bomber for exemple), it could even attack/intercept ships (but no supply raid) Benghazi.

Malta is mostly useful later on if Axis is out of Africa. And it is also a nice naval base in range of all Med once the Axis is too busy in USSR to cover it well.

[ncc1701e]

You can also use night move to avoid air attacks. If you have 6 AAA guns in Malta and two DD groups, you can always have a ship in night move, raider mode to avoid a port blockade.

[AlvaroSousa]

As said above the UK can move a fleet every 3rd turn there. Of course they would suffer some naval attrition for supply as they did in the real war.

If Malta were to be invaded they would have taken it fairly easily with the giant Sicily airbase in range. Kesselring wanted to invade it before Rommel advanced. Rommel said it wasn't requires. You can guess who convinced Hitler.

Axis supply disruption is a subject that I find many people not properly educated on. The Italians delivered 90% of the supplies and reinforcements to the Axis forces in North Africa. Technically they accomplished their naval goals during the war. You can argue that at certain times they sank a critical oiler or supply transport with 50 tanks but that level of detail just isn't in this game. If you are interested in this war read Struggle for the Middle Sea by O'Hara

As for Gibraltar. One of the keys is for the UK to hold on to Morocco as long as possible and run the supply gauntlet like Malta. Put 6 AA guns in Gibraltar. It is the most important asset in the Western Med. You should defend it with a lot of units and plan for it's defense even if you have to invade Morocco to do so.