Slitherine

Is there going to be an Africa Corps DLC? I enjoyed the Desert scenarios for AK but once past the oil fields (and maybe including the oil fields scenario) I felt that things left the realm of Panzer Corps and headed into the realm of Fantasy Corps. The Caucuses scenario being a prime example. The main campaign completely ignores Operation Torch (unless you follow the loosing path?) If the Germans's had captured the Suez, Torch would have attained an ever GREATER significance. What I would love to see would be a Africa Corps DLC that highlighted the fighting in North Africa in more detail. Maybe a split scenario where you have to take a reduced force to confront Torch while another reduced Corps keeps a British attempt at recapturing the Suez at bay. I think then end of the DLC should be the capture of the Saudi Oil Fields. As it is, things in the general campaign gets out of control where the end is about as feasible as the invasion of New York. Lets give Africa Corps the detailed attention that the East Front DLC got.

thanks,

Kevin

Apples to apples, I think AK goes into equal operational detail compared to most of the GC East years. I think you may be overestimating the scale of the combat the Afrikakorps engaged in. I've read The Rommel Papers recently, and honestly, there isn't a significant combat that Rommel describes that isn't modeled in the game. Adding the "what if" component helps stretch it to a marketable size in my opinion, and also lets the PC fan have a little fun. I think the twin narrative components of neutralizing Ultra and taking Malta make the alternate scenario reasonably enough plausible to let you just sit back and enjoy the game - I was able to do so.

Torch was against the French, you recall. There were limited set-piece engagements against the German forces until Kasserine and the Tunisian bridgehead on the Western end.

A really telling figure that Rommel cited to compare the scale of combat in the desert vs. continental European action was the battle deaths. He wrote in his papers/draft for his unfinished book that in Afrika, his German Heer troops suffered about 5,300 battle deaths from the time they landed until the end of '42 or so - 20 months? He pointed out that was a typical week in France.*

* from The Rommel Papers, as I recall it and may be a little off on the citation.

Yes, I do recall that Torch was against the French. However the goal of Torch was to bring a second front to North Africa to confront the Germans so I did not see how you can just ignore that. The what if's in AK are nice for the most part but get overblown when you look at the Caucuses with an Airlift capacity that the modern US Army would be jealous of. As was done in the East Front DLC, breaking some of the Key battles down in to multiple battles could add some depth. Just some wishful thinking I guess.