@taamvan:
Both are odds battles though, not sure things and most or all of your UK stuff will be dead even if you are sucessful, which means that the UK has to start from scratch in that region…If you don’t do (both), they may be tempted to try for a North Africa game which can be a gigantic waste of resources if they don’t get the oil.
In a Bid game that I lost, I was able to do Taranto, Tobruk, and Ethiopia all at once. But as the UK, I still lost most of my stuff (odds battles). I felt like it was kind of pyrrhic and since I lost so much stuff, I had to work on beefing up Cairo for critical turns. In another words, the UK’s primary role (IMHO), when the US is focusing on Japan in the beginning, is to churn out fighters from Persia for Moscow support. The UK’s roll was stalled, and instead of trying for Russia to stack Bryansk with UK fighters, Germany was able to drive to Stalingrad. I still managed to get enough UK/ANZAC fighters to Moscow to prevent an early capture, but Germany was firmly entrenched on their Supply Depot of Stalingrad (which by the way was the historical original purpose of that campaign, to become a forward supply depot for future Caucasus Ops).
If the US is not going Europe Board first, on triplea at least (where the Battle Calc is “King”), Moscow is often sacked on turn 6 or 7 if the UK doesn’t send up lots of fighters. On a table top game I’ve done it 2x and I think the Russian player was as good as me or better. That’s why I think Ethiopia is the better option over Tobruk (of course do SZ 97); it helps to keep/secure the UK’s NO objective quicker and it doesn’t take much off the board. It’s easy to defend Cairo with minimal stuff so the Persia factory can churn out lots of fighters, and ground units (however which way you do it) while Italy either tries to evacuate their marooned forces or adds more stuff, which I think is usually a waste.
I think Italy doing the can opener role is the best role for it. If Tobruk is done to me…Italy fully and completely does the can opener role. (Historically speaking, Italy did have a sizeable contribution on the E. Front). The reason it’s important is that it can assist Germany make the drive to Stalingrad and sit there even though the Russian stack might be more powerful because Italy could can open for German Mechs/Tanks to hit Moscow. This in turn lets Germany continue to collect lots of NOs.
GHG: Your original question of the thread: “The only question I have is it a good idea?” IMHO, it’s not a good idea to both, but always do Taranto (SZ97).
