Gamerman, as your comment shows: one doesn’t have to be a great historian to be a great G40 player. :) I do congratulate you on your (imminent?) League Championship. And, yes, I’m curious what your variant will entail. Sneak preview?
@Gamerman01:
Historically the Allies DOMINATED the Mediterranean, so much so that the Axis couldn’t reinforce their Africa holdings.
It sounds like you might be talking about historical outcomes rather than historical starting conditions. Its kinda like saying “Historically the Allies DOMINATED the Pacific, so much so that the Axis couldn’t reinforce their Pacific holdings!” Really you could say that about any theater in WW2, couldn’t you?
When we talk about “historicality,” here, we’re not talking about ensuring historical outcomes. We’re talking about creating historical starting conditions, modelling them as closely as possible within the context of a balanced, fun-to-play game, and putting players in roughly the same situation, presenting them with the same dilemnas, decisions etc. as existed at the start of the war. How a player chooses to respond to those conditions is of course up to him.
@Gamerman01:
Without the bid, it’s horribly ahistorical. A lot of players dominate huge areas with Italy and Italy becomes a major player. That’s ridiculous historically speaking.
Actually, I find that in most games where Italy comes to dominate Africa (after a successful Taranto), it is because of substantial support from Germany. Which is perfectly fine, historically speaking. However, the notion that “the Allies DOMINATED the Mediterranean” from the outset, and your implication that the outcome was a forgone conclusion, is just plain wrong.
“Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.”
-Winston Churchill
The First and Second Battles of El Alamein, described by historians as the major turning point in North Africa, occurred in the summer and fall of 1942, respectively. In gameplay terms, thats round 5 or 6 (not round 1, before Italy even has a chance to act. lolz). Notable events that illustrate the point:
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Axis taking Crete in first-ever major air invasion, May 1941.
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Axis beseiging Malta almost to the breaking point, with a planned invasion of the island in Spring 1942. The invasion was called off only because Axis, through rround-the-clock bombing of the Island, managed to secure shipping lines to North Africa, and Rommel campaigned to make Egypt/Suez the top priority.
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Rommel’s German/Italian forces successfully beat back UK forces to within 250 km of Cairo in Summer 1942. Notably, this caused such a panic in British military command, headquartered in Cairo, that the Brits frantically burned confidential papers in anticipation of the entry of Axis troops into the city (“Ash Wednesday”). Hardly what Allied “domination” of the region looks like.
In short, your blanket assertion that allies simply “DOMINATED” the theater glosses over this long and rich history of military successes and setbacks for both sides. And the typical UK bid in the Med often truncates that history, as well–to the great detriment of historicality and gameplay enjoyment, in my opinion.