Page 1 of 2
MedWar, Awesome
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 5:02 am
by Marine
I hope u do come out with a PacWar version for the Med. I would love to take Malta and put some backbone into the Italian navy. Give Rommel all the juice he needs for his Afrika Corps and watch him roll into Cairo. Again, BRING it on.
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 5:37 am
by Sonny
Would be nice. Been a looooong time since I played Bomb Alley.

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 10:56 am
by RolandRahn_MatrixForum
Yes!
I would also like such a med game....
With some What-Ifs...
(Spain enters the war e.t.c.).
However, Rommel rolling into Cairo should be impossible unless some major changes occur. (Mussulini not declaring war with a big part of the Italian merchant marine within range of the RN, better harbour capacities in Lybia e.t.c.).
Regards,
Roland
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 11:18 am
by Raverdave
Yeah put me down for a copy as well.......it would be great getting hold of the axis navies and gaining control of the med.....but gotta take-out Gibralta as well;)
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 12:05 pm
by Adnan Meshuggi
Maybe it would be possible, to manage the atlantic, too... or even better (now i´m dreaming) both elements, including the whole world...
would have some interesting advantages for both sides, the axis could cooperate (something they never did) but also the allies could throw most ressources against the japs or viceversa... would be vera great.
But for the beginning would a med. game great.... want it, now...

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 7:18 pm
by Mike Wood
Hello...
We plan on doing a Med War game, using the Uncommon Valor engine. Name for game has been chosen, yet. Expect to publish it next year.
Bye...
Michael Wood
Lead Programmer,
Matrix Games
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 7:39 pm
by Adnan Meshuggi
Mediterranean Theatre
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 8:14 pm
by IanLister
Matrix......you must do this game, please. Solomons and Mediterranean are my two big interest areas because of all the interaction between different kinds of force, and the Med. has never been done properly. A detailed operational level game based on this theatre would be brilliant. To be able to fight through the campaign as the British (OK I'm biased) with the built in equipment deficiencies of the period, to say nothing of Churchill's inept performance in dictating strategy, and still win, would be the ultimate challenge, particular if the AI Italian fleet actually took the war seriously. British sailors did in the Med. what US sailors did in late 42 in the Solomons......fought against the odds in many different ways and came through because they had no alternative. And the challenge of maintaining Malta? Wow!
French and Italian fleets.
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 8:40 pm
by Ron Saueracker
If the Germans had captured numerous units of either navy (being able to man them was an entirely different animal...don't think they had the manpower as they were already raping the Kriegsmarine's surface units for duty in the iron coffins)and could have manned them, the situation for the allies in the Med 41/42 would have been impossible. Med would have become a Nazi lake, and Cairo a popular R&R destination for victorious german troops.
Humour moment. Why did the French and Italian navies value speed when designing their ships? Respectively, the French ships would sink faster when scuttled, the Italian ships could run away faster when faced with inferior quantity and/or quality.:p
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 9:45 pm
by Charles2222
Ron Saueracker:
(being able to man them was an entirely different animal...don't think they had the manpower as they were already raping the Kriegsmarine's surface units for duty in the iron coffins)
In any case, if one enjoyed a very real presence in the Med with surface forces, then obviously the gains might be more beneficial than leaving the former surface men on uboats, and therefore some would be transferred back to surface ships. I assume they were only transferred because their ship was no more, such as the Scharnhorst, later, or that there was more to gain with uboats. Any real possibility of controlling the Med might well be more important than hoping to drive up sinking the merchant fleet.
If the game would play out the entire war in the region, Germany controlling the Med or at least having a viable threat, would sway quite a bit of the war elsewhere, as obviously the Allied NAfrican landing in '43 would be imperilled, which if that were stopped would leave Italy in the war, even if Rommel was just confined to a very limited space and did very little throughout (which was what he was supposed to do; a defensive mission).
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 10:45 pm
by Dunedain
This will be a great wargame and I'm very much looking forward to playing it.
The Germans could send the Bismarck to the Med. instead of going after brit
shipping in the North Atlantic.

Plus their other battleships and cruisers.
This would set the stage for some massive surface engagements with
the brits' capital ships. I can't wait!

Bismark to Med?
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 11:01 pm
by mogami
I wonder how shes going to enter the Med? Of course you could say she was making a port vist in Italy when war starts but then the Med fills up with Allied BB and the med is a much harder place to hide.
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 11:27 pm
by IanLister
You won't need the 'what ifs'. Try playing Allies in 1941-2 with thw Fleet Air Arm's string and cardboard planes and the RN's AA capability against the Luftwaffe, plus a real admiral in Italy.
If you need hypothetical, what if the Germans had delayed Barbarossa until after the fall of Malta, Tobruk and Egypt?
Bismark would never have got to the Med. They'd have had to build it in Toulon or somewhere.
Cardboard planes
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 11:32 pm
by mogami
Those cardboard plane sure suprised the Itailians (and gave funny ideas to the Japanese) I was going to suggest a really long canal for Bismark et al but thought better about it.
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 11:47 pm
by IanLister
The Germans built some great motorways in the thirties to move their military gear..... now if you built a loooong truck, and loaded the Bismark on it....................of course you'd need to capture a port in the south of France first.
Do you blame the Italians for being surprised when they first saw the Swordfish? They probably didn't know what it was. My dad and 5 uncles did various military jobs in this theatre during WW2 (2 didn't come home), and one of my uncles was an engine fitter working on the Swordfish on Malta in 40-42. You should have heard him talk about them flying backwards in a headwind.
Pigs
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2002 12:09 am
by mogami
Italian frogmen riding their Chariots into Alexandra Harbour.
Is the plan for the whole med/north Africa 40-43?
Remake of Bomb Alley?
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2002 12:43 am
by pad152
Sounds like a remake of Bomb Alley any one remember that one?
The Italian navy was so bad!
I would like to see a remake of a more modern version of North Atlantic 86 with the Falkland inlands and China/North Korea.
(WITP meets The Operational Art of WarII).
There are very few modern games of this scope, I don't think the on-again off-again Harpoon IV will every be released or an over baked crap if it ever is.
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2002 3:13 am
by RolandRahn_MatrixForum
Originally posted by IanLister
If you need hypothetical, what if the Germans had delayed Barbarossa until after the fall of Malta, Tobruk and Egypt?
First of all, I seriously doubt that there was the possiblility of Egypt falling.
Seconed: If Germany does attack later than June 22nd, 1941, they will loose earlier.
Later in 41:
They won't come that close to Moscow before General Mud strikes....
In 42 or later, there will be some problems like
- the red army is recovering from the purges
- the Soviets continue to build these nasty tanks like the KV and the T-34, while the Germans continue to build Pz III and Pz IVs...
The development of the Panther was triggered by encountering the T-34.
No Barbarossa in 41, no encounter with T-34 in 41, no major effort to develop something that could counter the T-34, .....
Most important, the major problems are the limited naval transport and port capacities.....
Perhaps if the Italians would enter WWII *after* ordering their merchant marine to return to Italy....
And if the port capacities in Libya would be larger....
And even then I would seriously doubt that Egyt would fall....
Kind regards,
Roland (desperately waiting for UV;) )
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2002 10:09 am
by bradfordkay
I think that there could be a couple of interesting "what if?" sceanrios.
Off the bat, you could have the French Fleet honor the treaty with their ally England and join the British while their countrymen suffer under the yoke of the Nazi occupation.
Conversely, having the Germans take control of some or all of the French fleet would certainly have made things a lot more difficult for the British.
I could see the possibility of a large German vessel or task force being on a "friendship visit" at the declaration of war. After all, there was precedence in the SMS Geoben saga of WWI. This one on conjunction with the French joining the brits would be especially cool...
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2002 2:08 pm
by Adnan Meshuggi
Some wishes for what if - campaigns in the med game....
Campaign One:
After a few days of BoB, with high losses, Hitler follows Raeder with his Mediterian Sea First Strategy.
Start of the Campaign, around October 40 (i´m in the office, at wich date come the desaster of the italian africa army ??)
Changes to history:
German invades rest of france qucikly after the decision and have a good chance of catch a lot frensh ships nearly undamaged
German troops can be assigned and withdrawn because of other decisions (like Barbarossa begins, or a surprise attack of russia)
Only limited access to german production of planes (only some factories (as off --map, but could be dameged by allied air attacks both from england and later form africa ??)
Partisan activity in greece, yougoslavia, crete....
For Opertion Torch the allied player need to prepare large quantity of troops/ships of
Victory conditions:
If the british forces in the med are totally destroyed, this could be an auto victory for the axis side
If the allies land in italy successfully (after the loss of africa and sicily for the axis) the war is over, too.(cause we have no sea war anymore)
Conquering Alexandria didn´t stop the campaign, if the allies could achieve a invasion in africa (maybe only at the atlantic coast and can establish an strong force
Options:
 Spain on the axis side (starting March 41) (on/off)
 No Operation Barbarossa (because next to the Lebensraum plans it was the idea of defeating uk in the east...) (on/off)
 Heavy ships can move from France to Mediterian AFTER fall of Gibraltar (asap after gibraltar is axis)
 Early war decleartion of USA because of heavy losses OR Spain on axis side (allways on)
 Stronger supply support of the USA, even ships reflaged under british flag, so the brits have more ships, if things start going wrong (allways on)
 British homefleet could be send to alexandria, too. (if the german heavies are in the med, the british heavies could go there, to (no fleet in beeing) (after Gibraltar fell and german heavies are in the med or the british navy in the med is fully destroyed... (activated after Fall of Gibraltar)
 Turkey delcare war aginst the allies (after the fall of Gibraltar AND Malta, or one of them and Alexandria but not if an allied landing in North west africa in on the way) But only some turkish troops as fortifications at the border. Only if german troops are marching in and invade syria, they could follow (allways on)
Well, that are my first impressions
