If Cairo falls should Saudi Arabia be attacked?

[jjdenver]

Once Egypt is conquered should Axis attack Syria? Saudi Arabia? Or just push into Iraq always?

Thanks

[Taxman66]

Careful with Saudi. There are a lot of very inconvenient partisan spawn hexes.

On the other hand they start sening mpp convoys to the US as soon as they are slightly pro Allied and the US is in the war.

[jjdenver]

So it sounds like Saudi not usually done and not a good idea?

And Syria? Leave it alone since it's going to swing Vichy countries against Germany? Or take it to provide more routes/bases for attacking Iraq? It seems that attacking Iraq through the long desert road will be hard without Syria or Saudi to serve as another set of air bases and approach routes? Or am I mis-understanding how it goes? Have never fought there so need viewpoint of someone who has. Thanks.

[Sugar]

To DoW Syria may also influence Turkey, and Saudi-Arabia is best occuppied from both sides to prevent the convoy from running in case it isn't already (and won't provide a shortcut into Iraq). To attack Iraq you better bring more than one HQ to secure supply, all routes are vulnerable to strat. attacks. Be aware chaining isn't perhaps working as expected due to a bug, which will be corrected in the next patch.

[sPzAbt653]

If you are trying to secure the Middle East as the Axis, then you need to take Saudi Arabia otherwise it could become an Allied Base. Saudi is not an easy capture, it is a long way to its capital and supply is bad enough to require two HQ's for a decent offensive there from Palestine south to Saudi's capital. If you declare war on Saudi, the Allies will be able to Operate Air Units there, and could transport units to the Saudi east coast via its one port there. Once captured, you must keep a decent garrison in Saudi to combat partisans and prevent the Allies from assaulting it from the seas.

Syria is very easy to take, but it has Political consequences so you might want to be careful. I have played entire games without touching Syria, but generally if I have overwhelming Axis strength in the Mid-East, then I will bowl over Syria because it has the only rail line that runs from Egypt to Kuwait, and that is fairly important.

[Robert24]

If I am successful in Egypt there is no reason to go into Iraq right away. I'll sit in Jordan and force the UK to spend MPPs on Iraq's defense. The MPPs I don't use for a cross desert trek into Iraq are used for Turkish diplomacy. After Turkey is Axis I am in one of the best positions to flank the USSR in the Caucuses and the UK in Iraq.

[Sugar]

Iraq is worth 70 MPPs/turn, perhaps not the best idea to wait.