North Africa/Mediterranean Expansion(s)?

Hey all. It’s been quiet here lately, so thought I’d throw ideas out there for discourse haha.

I think I’d posted some time ago about potential expansions anyone would like to see. I still maintain that an Axis Minors would be a cool one, but that’s already been discussed elsewhere haha.

Curious as to what people think of potential North African and/or Mediterranean expansions? I could see this working as two separate expansions, but also possibly one larger one as well!

They obviously have the Afrika Korps Expansion. I think it’s a fun, really simple way to get some excitement for the Axis into North Africa. I think it ends up being hard to get a lot of German support down there otherwise, so the existing expansion is a fun way to get that support.

But what if it went further? Would be fun to see some kind of 8th Army unit/roundel/special ability to kind of counter the Afrika Korps ability to retreat vehicle class units in combat. Maybe they’re like 3/5 Infantry like we’ve seen in other expansions. Using roundels or something could also open up the possibility of introducing South Africa as a minor Allied power as well, basically the same as Canada, still part of the UK in terms of movement/attacking/etc., but with it’s own economy. In terms of the new V3 map, having some sort of special rule for Tobruk would be cool. Obviously desert is now a terrain feature, so that can also be built upon in an expansion sense. I think having an Italian detriment might be interesting too, unless German units are present. Italian units were prone to retreat or surrender somewhat quickly in the early war, and we’ve seen setback rules like this too for the KMT units in combat (I think it’s when they roll a 10+ in combat they retreat). It would also be interesting to have some kind of combined arms situation with Germans and Italians, where a certain amount of Italian units could come under German control or something, but making them unavailable on Italy’s turn. That might sort of simulate how Rommel sort of disobeyed orders (he was technically under Italian command for most of his time in North Africa) and sort of cowboy-ed forces for his attacks as he saw fit.

This might be getting more into a wider Mediterranean idea, but having Malta play a bigger role would be fun too. That little island was such a thorn in the Axis’ side to supplying North Africa. I think the game currently doesn’t do it enough justice! Again, the Afrika Korps Expansion sort of touches on this, with the Allied ability to get free shots at the arriving Afrika Korps units, but something more would again be fun. Maybe some kind of extended CAP? I don’t know. This could also open up some sort of special rules/abilities to introduce Greece and Crete some way too?

What do you all think? Anything at all that would excite you to spice up the game in that area of the world?

@GeneralHandGrenade Unsurprising that you have the intel GHG! And ultimately unsurprising this is in the works. They’ve done such a great job with diverse expansions, this was bound to be an area for one. Very intrigued it’s the same designer as Latin America, as I think that Expansion (and China at War) was one of the best thought out ones they’ve done yet! Will be very interested in seeing this in the future, I think it could hold a lot!

I completely agree, I think the Med/North Africa could be a great standalone game. I posted on the forums here years ago how cool it would be to see an A&A game like that done, though really any similar game like that would be great. There’s so much that can be done.

The biggest criticisms I’ve really heard on the topic was that you couldn’t really do a true “final victory”, since any map would obviously not actually include a Berlin as a final destination to take, and that this game wouldn’t feel like you “won the war”. Well, I guess that’s true, but who cares! One needs to look at is as a Theater-level game. You’re objective is victory in the Theater. That might mean taking Rome and Tunis for the Allies, or taking Cairo as the Axis, or it could just mean surviving a certain amount of time.

The other part of this would be how to incorporate the US. Do you start a game on the eve of Operation Torch? Or have a game similar to Global 1940, where the US joins starting a certain turn? I personally would advocate for the later. I’d love to play out a game where I do what I can with British and Commonwealth forces early on, and then see the tide turn with a US entry. I’ve seen complaints of how people think it would be dumb to just have US forces bought/appear from the edge of a map (since the US would presumably not be represented here). Again, I say you’ve got to be able to have fun with a game!