The Suez Canal

[gsayhi]

Hello,

I'm new to the game and I'm very much enjoying it. I do have a question about what looks like an error in the game. There is a convoy that runs from the mouth of the Nile river to Britain. There is no convoy out of the Suez Canal. This seems like an error. Shouldn't the convoy be moved from the Nile to the Suez Canal? This is the 1914 Call to Arms scenario, vanilla.

Gsayhi

[mdsmall]

Your question is understandable. The answer is that the game mechanics require convoys to start from a resource hex (ie a city or town) and allow only one convoy route to be operational at any given time from a minor power to a major.
The convoy leaving from Alexandria represents exports to the UK from Egypt. There is a separate convoy crossing the southern Atlantic that arrives in Bristol that represents exports from India. (Its notional starting point is an urban centre tucked out of sight in the far north-west corner of the map in the Canadian Arctic). I suppose the designers could have run that convoy up the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to the UK. But for game play purposes, the existing convoy to Egypt already provides a target for raiding by CP subs in the Med, while the large convoy from India that arrives in Bristol gives the Central Powers a good reason to send German subs into the Atlantic to attack that trade route.

[gsayhi]

Meah. I may go back and edit the scenario so that their is an "Island" called India. Perhaps set it so it is invade-able. That way if the Turks take the Suez Canal the convoy line gets stopped.

[mdsmall]

Of course if the Suez Canal had fallen, convoys could have been rerouted from India around southern Africa to reach the UK. It sounds like you should be playing the 1913 Great Game scenario!