Sinai

[Darkman]

Heya,

Does Sinai belong to north africa or middle east when it comes to supply for the Italien Convoy Zone ? In my game the axis are Out of supply due Convoy damage in North africa and now i ask myself if troops in Sinai or middle East are affected aswell ?

[Mark]

Yes - it should be for all Italian units that have to trace supply back to Italy via Mediterranean ports - Sinai and the Middle-East should be included (unless Turkey is an Axis ally enabling supply to be traced overland).

[Darkman]

Ok Thanks ! So the Vichy syria axis Port in Damascus is also counted up to the Convoy ?  By the Way :-) Mark please check your PM's (3 Mails )

[Darkman]

Sorry to triple post, but the rule is not thought to the end i think

The Rulebook:
Italian Mediterannean Convoy Zone
For each Axis controlled port in North Africa, place a chip in the Italian Med convoy zone (count only Axis owned ports – not Vichy controlled ports).  The number of chips represent the number of units the Axis can supply in Africa.  The British can reduce the number of chips by strategically attacking them with subs, planes and ships.  When supply is calculated at the end of the turn, if there are more axis units in North Africa than chips, then Axis units (beginning with armor, then planes, then artillery and finally infantry) are marked out of supply. 

It says that all axis units are affected in Africa (North, West, East, South) and only axis owned ports in north africa are counted up. 

So the rules ignoring ports in cairo, anglo egypt sudan, italian east africa, palestine, damascus, basrah, bushire (if axis owned)

So if affects all axis units and not only italian units several questions come instantly up.

What about supply routes from africa to greece & yugoslavia (if axis owned) and what about axis units in middle east (and syria & iraq units that joined axis) How are they affected by the "special italian convoy supply rules" :-)

All a bit vague Mark

We should either say the italian convoy route only affects units in north africa (not sinai and middle east) and let all other ports (middle east & rest of africa have different supply routes..)

or change the rules to include all ports to the italian convoy zone (Africa / Middle East)

What do you think?

[Mark]

Yes - I have never been 100% happy with the Med Convoy rules.  I like the latest thinking on convoy supply attacks from Mike which I posted here:

http://www.ww2wargame.com/forum/index.php?topic=440.0

Making each sea zone that contains a port for supply a space that can be attacked seems like a very clean way to deal with the Med and other theaters.  In this method you just count up all the ports you are tracing supply through back to Italy or wherever and any one of those port sea zones can be economically attacked to reduce the number of units that are using them to trace supply.  We've played this the last few games and like it instead of the Italian convoy zone.

If playing the Italian convoy zone as written in the rules - please use all ports in Africa / Middle East the Axis are tracing supply to (and from those ports back to Italy) when determining how many chips to place in the convoy zone.  Ignoring the East Africa ports was a mistake (omission) as in most games either the Italians can't trace supply to those ports or the ports can not trace supply to Italy.  But, if the Italians capture Egypt, they should for sure be able to use the Egyptian ports for supply.

Will get to the PM questions shortly