Italian Ships Leaving Med - Thoughts?

[archmache]

Asking a question to the Community?

Do you think there should be a penalty for Italian Ships leaving the Med before mobilized?

My opinion is that if the Italian fleet leaves the med, they can then be put into position to raid the UK convoys. The problem with this is that the UK fleet cannot fight both the Italian and German fleets, combined at the beginning of the war. Since subs were buffed and the UK only has 3 destroyers (that do about 1 point of damage) it takes forever to take the subs out. If the UK fleet leaves to go attack Italian cruisers raiding the convoys then the lack of ships in port will result in an German successful SeaLion.

The result is that the UK must leave ships in North Atlantic to protect Canada Convoy and protect SeaLion, all the while losing tons of MPPS. By the time UK secures North Atlantic dominance they can send ships down to convoys but by then the ships are level 2/3 in EXP.

How do Allied players deal with this? I could just be doing it wrong but every time an Axis player does it against me = instant loss.

[lwarmonger]

My experience is that a successful Sealion is usually driven by how many ground forces the UK keeps at home more than how big of a fleet it retains.... specifically, the 4 ports within range of German airpower need to be heavily garrisoned (ie with more than a garrison), and then some aircraft to provide top cover.

As the allies one of my first moves is usually moving most of the French fleet to the med, including two ships to block the transit hexes to the Atlantic.... so an Axis player can, at best, get two vessels to the Atlantic before that is shut down. The gamier part of this is the Axis using the Italian fleet to spot for the German one before Italy joins, which is irritating, but hardly game ending.

[petedalby]

I do the same. 4 French ships will block all access to and from the Med. No more than 2 Italians can get out on T1.

[lwarmonger]

I do the same. 4 French ships will block all access to and from the Med. No more than 2 Italians can get out on T1.

See, I think the more units Germany puts in the med the better... a very small confined space favors numbers, and Britain has numbers. Playing hide and seek across the Atlantic is what eats up a lot of time and MPP's. I usually just keep the Italians from leaving.

[kaigab]

Well, standard turn 1 move as Allies is to cover the hexes in Gibraltar so Italy can only move 2 ships/units before med is closed.