Unrealistic strait in Denmark

[havoc1371]

I realize that designers may have put the strait existing in Denmark to represent the Kiel canal and allow the Axis to move freely from the North Sea to the Baltic, but it becomes an unrealistic advantage for the Allies. All they have to do is land any unit in the hex and they have instant and unfettered access to the Baltic. I've seen more than one game where the Allies land, then send a massive US/Br fleet and AVL's through and invade Germany/Poland from the Baltic. No realistic way for the Allies to seize the canal and transit fleets and transports like the game allows.

Can we get a restriction (fix) on that strait that prevents the Allies from doing this unrealistic action? Maybe a transit feature like Gibraltar that limits Allies controlling the hex to only one ship per turn? This way the Axis still can transit freely, but not the Allies.

[havoc1371]

Didn't expect to get just "crickets" with this...

[hasmat_slith]

Interesting post. One could argue that Germany should just leave an Infantry unit in space (97, 32) to reduce the odds of a successful intrusion without significant effort from Allies.

But I believe that's not the only Danish vulnerability that can let the Allies pour into the Baltic. There's also space (99, 30) so now that's 2 German Infantry tied up defending territory normally considered an afterthought in most WW2 games. It does seem a high price to pay for Danish channel defenses, especially during the critical German expansion years of 1941/42.

Of course, there's always garrisons that could be used, instead of the more valuable Infantry, but they are very brittle in Clear terrain and may not be an effective deterrence.

[Duedman]

I was on the receiving end of a very early intrusion into the Baltics from Fafnir.
It was very unplesant but interesting to witness.

I would like the Baltic Sea to be a "automatic damage zone" for Allied ships until 1943 or something. I saw something like that in a mod (TRP iirc).
But since this is very unlikely to happen, you can always houserule these things out

[Helsingor]

Maybe the map could be re-jiggered so that the Kiel Canal is set up like the Suez Canal with a port on one end. In the game, this set-up of the Suez has the effect of forcing the Axis to take Port Said (the town and port) before they can move ships freely through the Suez Canal. I think this is realistic. It's easy to deny enemy shipping the use of a canal if you are in artillery range (think Suez in 1967 when the IDF advanced to the canal and it became unusable until the Camp David agreements).

On the other hand, I think it's accurate to give the Allies the ability to pass through the Great Belt (between Odense and Copenhagen) or the Oresund (between Copenhagen and Sweden), provided they control Odense or Copenhagen, respectively. The Great Belt has a pretty wide navigable channel and while the Oresund has a narrow chokepoint at the north end, I think it's fair to assume that a neutral Sweden wouldn't block Allied naval movements.