Matrix Games Forums

The Italian Expeditionary Corps DE fires BEFORE war with the USSR.

I am not sure about the appropriateness of this.

Mussolini did not have any forewarning of the German plans.

Maybe this DE should be delayed until war with the USSR and only after Kiev has fallen?

The way it is now, in every game I have played I have simply moved the HQ and two corps elsewhere (Greece, Africa, UK).

It sort of takes away from the point of the expedition?

I remember this being discussed a little while back, and someone posted to say that having the Expeditionary Force turn up at a random time, i.e. before or after the USSR's war entrance, simulated well the unreliability of the Italians, either turning up to the party too early, or too late, but rarely on time.

I did like that view, which is why I didn't change the trigger. It's also not impossible that Germany could inform their Italian allies of what is afoot, but at the same time their arrival in the east would warn the USSR of what is coming.

The option to move them away to somewhere else will always exist, and players might actually be more tempted to do so if the Axis are already deep into the USSR. The reason being that if you've got to operate them somewhere, why not operate them to where there are other Italian units the HQ can command, rather than to just provide a small boost to Barbarossa.

My own use would to provide extra supply and partisan protection during the initial advance into the USSR, but where they end up later on would vary from game to game.

I'm not necessarily dead set on keeping things the way they are, but thought I would explain my reasoning for not having changed it since it was last discussed, and I welcome further contributions on this.


On a slightly separate note with regard to the triggers, I wouldn't want to tie it into Kiev falling because there may be games where Kiev doesn't fall.

Perhaps Germany must at least declare war on the USSR before the DE could trigger.