In an in-progress game against my opponent, the axis invaded Syria and over the course of two months managed to transport and supply a gigantic army to Syria, running through the Royal Navy and heavy air cover in the process. -Invading Vichy Syria with no reaction from the rest of Vichy is a little absurd in and of itself (but that's not the main topic of my critique here).
You would think that this would be a gigantic strategic error. If the real German army transported a huge army to Syria through a Royal Navy blockade, half of them would likely be sunk in transport. Even those who made it ashore would find impossible to supply themselves. (Not to mention the political fall-out from Vichy France).
Not only this, but then the Axis player proceeded to continue to invade Egypt/Syria with suicide squads to disrupt lines. Maybe the initial invasion gained the benefit of surprise... However, these subsequent suicide squads have no hope of ever being in supply, but are just there to be annoying. Some of these invasions happened directly beside 3CV's and multiple battleships, not to mention being beside a full-sized corp. - This is utterly ridiculous. The allies have complete naval superiority having one a battle early damaging multiple Italian BB'sships who then retreated and have not been around since the first turns of the invasion.
(Aside: it is rather silly that you need to be within 5-hexes of a port to blockade it when a huge army is being supplied. This mechanic might work for ports like Malta / Cyprus, but when a huge army is present, supplies are going to be coming from all over. There is no reason why British CV's would only be able to interdict supply underneath an axis air umbrella)... when we are talking about supplying armies on this scale, the system seems to break down.
To add insult to injury... the combination of stacking mechanics, map mechanics, and embarkation mechanics mean that nearly the entire English army will get trapped in Egypt. In the real world, a broken Commonwealth Army likely could have retreated to Southern Egypt and beyond if needed (further stretching the Axis supply lines). But there are no ports that far south and the map arbitrarily ends.
I'm certain I have committed many tactical blunders that have allowed this to happen. That's not really the point... I'm sure with better play this could be dealt with better. However, for a game that aims to have some semblance of realism... Could we ever imagine a realistic real-world scenario where the German army could have the transport/convoy/logistics capacity to supply something approaching the size of Army Group South in Syria in September-December 1940 without naval superiority? How would Germany teleport its entire merchant marine from the Atlantic/Baltic for use in the Med? Surely most of these ships cannot be transported by rail. But Warplan because these are not real units allows them to be teleported.
Anyway, that's my rant... I'm obviously a noob, but I'm curious to see what other folks out there have to say. Do folks not care about the realism? Did I miss something obvious?
