I want information. Information as to why or where the rule came from and information I do not already know as to what would make it impossible, unlikely, or overly dangerous to fly over the sahara. If there is no info to give, then oh well. My supposedly frustration, (remember, its written, you can’t see my emotions or facial expressions) is from people giving house rules as suppose to the info i was requesting, that is all
I believe it originates between the Classic Map and the Revised Map. In the classics map, only Neutral Territories were represented, and due to the small number of territories and adjacencies, there were balance issues (I’ve seen arguments either way, but in general the smaller number of territories was a problem). In the Revised map, with the addition of more territories, there was probably also a desire to represent more historically accurate unit movements (and reduce axis advantage in snagging parts of africa and vice versa later in the game). The Himalayas isolated India from China, and the Sahara created a buffer between the axis mediterranean territories and british territories directly south.
In Classic, Germany had multiple routes to Africa (go south!). In Revised, there is only one (short of transports) - egypt. The benefit to this was to force egypt to become a back and forth battle between britain and germany as they vie for a strategic advantage.
In order to create a simple rule that aligned with previous mechanics (impassible neutrals), I would imagine that they simply desired these territories to follow the same rules and not allow flyovers either. After all, while it was possible to fly over the sahara and himalayas, it was very dangerous and hardly the preferred route.
As the game map has grown (classics - revised - AA50 - AA40), it has clearly remained a desire by the designer to maintain the strategic route through egypt. And because at the outset of the game allowing flyovers would favor the Axis (far more planes available in close proximity), I would imagine it’s a balance issue as well (at least, early game). Removing the restriction dilutes the value of Egypt.
Satisfied?
