Axis Operations - Historical or alternative path?

[econ21]

I've had a blast playing through AO from SCW and have now reached the fork in the road in AO 1943 where I can choose the historical or alternative path but I can't decide which to follow. What did other players pick in their first playthrough and, if you did ultimately played both, which did you like more? I am thinking ahead to 1944 and 1945 too, as I'd probably want to stick with one path throughout.

On the one hand, I always like learning about history from games and find real battles more compelling.

On the other hand, Panzer General/Panzer Corps seems to work best when you are the attacker - the blitzkrieg type scenarios are my favourites.

I've read conflicting opinions on the two paths, so would be interested to hear what people think.

[FrancescoT]

I usually do the alt history branch first because winning every map on my way to Berlin leave a bitter taste