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Hey Folks,

I am new to this game and am on my second 1939 game. I am wondering if certain technologies help amphibious Transports evade attacks. I just encountered a situation where intelligence indicated there was an American amphibious transport about 16 or so hexes from Gibraltar. Sensing an American invasion of North Africa, I mobilized every available German naval asset in the Atlantic which amounted to 2 battle cruisers (no upgrades) and 6 submarines (upgraded to level 1 of advanced subs).

I quickly discovered a group of 3 unescorted amphibious transports, containing 3 American army units. Here I though I was about to sink an entire invasion force!

My battlecruisers bring one transport down from strength 10 to 1. I then planned to use my subs to sink that strength 1 Transport and then sink the other Transports.

Well, I watched in horror as every single one my 6 subs seemed to hit the strength 1 transport before getting a message stating something like damage evaded. So rather than sinking 3 Transports I sunk 0.

The Allies then came in destroyed the battlecruisers and the 3 of the subs. The next turn the Transports were just outside of Gibraltar. So, in one final effort the remaining subs attempted to the sink the same strength 1 transport and then hopefully sink another 1. Yet the same thing happened again...the subs seemingly hit, but the strength 1 transport evaded the damage. So in the end, half (the other half was in the Baltics and Norway) the German navy tried to sink 3 Transports, sunk none of them, and all got sunk in the ensuing allied counterattacks.

Do any techs play into giving amphibious Transports protection against subs in particular or was I incredibly unlucky? The surface units seemed to do pretty well against them, but out of 9 total sub attacks, none hit.

That is called bad luck. Don’t bet all your money on the same number in the casino on the next weakened!

As far as I know, no, there aren’t technologies that change that. But I am also quite newbie on this.

Allies sank 6 subs + 2 Battlecruisers in 1-turn? Dang, you must have ran into quite a bit. Were you playing that goofy Naval Mod scenario where ships evade (aka screen) to no end?

yep, amhpib tech adds some more chance to evade attacks (starts from 20% if remember correctly, and get 10% more for every lvl of amphib), but your run is quite a bad luck. Also losing that many subs is a bad sign, but you have lvl 1 subs in '43, so yep, against lvl 2-3, maybe more subhunter, that is a bad situation.

Yeah, Elvis, I lost all but 1 sub.

I certainly under-invested in subs this game. I feel like I got a firm grasp of how to conduct the Pacific War as Japan, but, but am still struggling with how to conduct the War in the Atlantic. Obviously need to invest a bit more in sub tech and build more subs.

Putting money into Subs/Naval can enhance the 1940-1942 game play. In reality, ever MMP needs to be spent in Russia to achieve victory, unless you're going for the last until 1947 route. Just depends on the opponent also. Once the British, get Anti-Sub tech, and patrol the Canada/USA <---> England route, not much Gerry can really do, except get a few cheap shots in, maybe a raid or two, but it's bye-bye U-boats eventually. Can run to the Arctic Circle, South Africa, etc. Early in the game, it's a big deal, to cause England monetary and build design problems. Slows British somewhere else on the board. Good luck, and happy hunting.