Excellent points as always Wild Bill. I will say in answer to your question, that the issue is indeed economic.
I would prefer a UK south africa if the economic situation was different. But by different I mean more than just half measure NOs at 5 ipcs.
There is not enough money in OOB G40 (especially for UK) to support the new production structure we are proposing. There is probably not enough money in OOB G40 to support the OOB production structure either, but I’ll leave that point alone for now. I think Wild Bill at least knows where I stand, since we’ve had many conversations about IPCs on the Larry boards
:-D
This was the point I was trying to make early on, and which I think YG also noticed in playtesting. For example, playing with VC income bonuses the Allies (and especially UK) can ‘just about’ make use of their Major factories (and that was giving them a sizeable boost compared to the normal money). At regular income levels, the new production scheme is harder to get off the ground in terms of its strategic interest potential. Since you guys scuttled the City Objectives idea and seem pretty intent on keeping income adjustment very limited, then I definitely have to come out in favor of a Commonwealth that includes S. Africa (for gameplay balance strategic reasons), because UK is too weak to do anything with it otherwise. Even though I agree with all the points, regarding the UK and the factory spread, that Wild Bill just outlined.
The reality is that Allies are still going to get hosed. Perhaps there just aren’t enough people seriously testing this yet to see what the 3 tiered Production ideas are going to do to game balance, but I was noticing this from the first solitaire I tried… with Rome producing 5 and Poland optiobs right now Allies are pretty underfunded. The production set up is essentially Axis advantage right now.
If you do want a UK faction to control Africa, then I think you’re looking at a lot more ipcs per round out of their NO than has been suggested so far (they should likely have 2 or more NOs, at more value than a paltry 5), but even then there is a very good chance that the UK player will direct this cash to other parts of the map anyway, given how tight things are. So to clarify with no substantial income adjustment overall, then I prefer commonwealth south africa. If income is adjusted then I favor UK south africa, for strategic reasons. But I believe this is going to require more money than you guys have been willing to allow into the Halifax game so far.