We finished our first play of SS this afternoon. I was Axis, and it went right down to the last combat roll on the last turn. I had been ejected from all of Africa and the Near East, except for my last redoubt-Tripoli. On the last combat round, I had an 1/9 chance of holding the hex, so admittedly there was a bit of luck involved with my victory. Our total play time, including a quick review of the rules (they are virtually identical to those of Barbarossa to Berlin) was a little over 8 hours. Our next game would probably be under 6.

Like all of the CDGs, cycling through the deck as fast as possible is critical. Given the number of cards added in 1941 and 1942, the decks can grow fairly large by the end of the game. As such, I figured any card I had would be unlikely to show up again until very late in the game, which made most of my decisions as to their use pretty obvious. I think paring the deck back a bit, or maybe increasing the draw rate a bit would help here. I certainly don't think it's broken, but if the cards come out in the wrong order you're screwed-you gotta hang onto them because you'll probably never see them again. In the middle of the game I was hanging onto three or four cards a turn in order to be sure I could invade Malta when the opportunity came up. As it turns out, those two extra VPs gave me the win.

I definitely thought East Africa and the Near East were interesting additions. Their effect seems to be to slow down the Allies and divert their efforts rather than create an opportunity for quick victory as the Axis.

The production values were pretty high too. Important map locations have a rules section referenced by their name, for example. There were relatively few rules questions that couldn't be answered quickly (I'm still unclear about Exporter-the card says that the Allies are in full supply everywhere in the Near East after playing, but the rules say it activates Persia and India as supply sources. Wouldn't you know it? The supply status of a battle hinged on the interpretation.) Despite this, I doubt the official errata will grow too wildly.

All in all, a worthy addition to the CDG list.

I'm in general agreement with you about this title. I'd actually written a review a couple of weeks ago, but have never seen it posted, and it covered pretty much the same bases:

1) Malta is huge, both from a RP and VP standpoint for the Axis.

2) How the cards come out is very important. Getting as many cards out of the decks as possible is critical, so most events are no-brainers. See #1 - If the Allies get Spitfire too quickly (as in their first hand of 1942), and Barbarossa out early as well, it can kill the card-cycling for the Germans.

3) The Sideshows (East Africa and Near East) are both of some value to the Axis in terms of VP, but without some lucky card play are mostly there to force the Allies to divert divisions from North Africa. In a solo game that saw the Iraqi Revolt come out in early 1941 immediately followed by Interhemen Irak with the German Mtn division that appeared in Baghdad, the Allies were pushed out of Basra and it required four divisions to take the Near East over five turns. The Axis were one VP away from auto victory. I consider this to be an

As for the Exporter event, all it means is that units in the Near East are in full supply *it* they can trace a supply line. That's why having Persia/India as supply sources is important - If Baghdad is Axis controlled, a stack attacking out of Basra is in full supply after Exporter, in limited supply before (because before you are tracing supply through a port). The same is true in every theater that shifts from limited to full supply (Ethiopia Campaign and Vulcan events).

What has been confusing is the rules for the Vichy. Apparently they are activated at Iraqi Revolt, but only are able to attack and move outside of Syria after Exporter and/or Interhemen Irak. It makes some sense after you think about it for a bit, but the rules and cards seemingly contradict each other if you take "activate" as meaning they can go where they wish.

My impression is this is about as good a game as you could design given a fairly standard "script" with a handful of true decision points driven by luck of the draw. I think it's a blast to play, and two of the three games I've played have come down to the final turn (and that one saw no Axis RPs other than events after the first four turns, again because of luck of the draw with Spitfires).