Bumping into the Royal Navy

[blackcloud6]

I'm playing the 1939 scenario for once past the Fall of France trying the learn the game once and for all. My Italians are just doing poorly. Their fleet got clobbered in the Med and now Axis transports are bumping into the Royal navy whenever they try to cross to North Africa. How can one do maritime recon? This capability eludes but seems to me to be crucial otherwise he war at sea is a crap shoot.

[Sugar]

1. send cheap ships like destroyers or preferably subs to scout the route
2. bumping (recon fights) is caused by unspotted enemy vessels, use the mechanic to your advantage by placing subs into the narrow between Sicily and Tunesia. Let the AI bump into your ships, use the italian med. bomber to attack first, he will also do some scouting along his path.
3. buy a cheap german maritime bomber asap, he will come in handy for scouting and damage dealing purposes
4. ship the italian units before they join the Axis, if you also send an HQ you'll be able to reinforce once you arrived
5. from Aug. 40 onwards the libyan ports will suffer from the Malta-Effect, reducing the port's capacities randomly. Keep in mind not to be able to unload transports below a capacity of 5 in the same turn of their arrival, but you may be able to unload after waiting to the next turn. This is dangerous of course, so it`s best to transport even german units before that date. Or simply conquer Malta asap after the fall of France, there are numerous threads describing how this is done easily.

[nnason]

Sugar,
Good information even for old hands.
I am sure everyone appreciates your sharing your winning tactics and strategies. I know I do.

[blackcloud6]

Sugar:

Great suggestions, I tried some of them and they helped to get reinforcements to NA. DAK has shown up and Graziani is holding out in Tobruk. Time to counterattack.

I think I am beginning to see how the Italian navy is to be used.

[El Condoro]

One thing that I have done to improve the Italians is to let them take Vichy France. The Germans do all the hard work of removing the Vichy corps but the Italians take the city and Monaco (on the same turn). That way they get more MPPs and can eventually afford research as well as bumping up the strength of their units. When they take Greece later - alone and without German assistance, although it takes a bit longer - they get even more MPPs per turn. Assuming the Regia Marina has not been destroyed, it then becomes very useful in either the Med or Atlantic.

[DTX111]

One thing that is now obvious in retrospect (i.e., it took me a long time to realize this), is that any air unit can do recon. Just select a hex in the ocean within the unit's range and send it on the mission. It will reveal any ships along its path.

Note that if the hex is within range of CAP, your air unit will be attacked. However, this can be a good thing if you are trying to "bait" enemy planes into attacking your fighters.

Hence, any air unit can be used for air recon, but because bombers have the greatest range, they can see the most. As the British, you can also use a bomber to see if the German fleet is moving into the North sea.