Sea Lion was too easy, it almost always succeeded with the right German purchases. You could even get up to 40 ground units to England reliably. That was insane. So making it a little (and I emphasis little) harder is a great boon to the game. You can, and probably just as reliably, take it on round 4. I have twice now and with England dumping everything into homeland defense.
Germany can, and maybe does not have too, take London in Alpha 3 as they could in Alpha 2 and OOB and Revised and Anniversary. The difference is a matter of degree of difficulty. It’s no longer assured on Germany 3, now it’s plausible on Germany 4.
Alpha 3 is fine. There’s still a way for Italy to avoid the dread of losing all their boats in the Med.
Because Larry didn’t want Germany focusing on London as their be all end all goal. He wanted ground combat between Russia and Germany. It’s why he allowed Russia to attack Germany if London did fall. It makes the German player more honest, in my book. You can’t just strip all your guys from Germany leaving a clear path to Berlin so you can take out London, because Russia will just blitz into Berlin and win.
Yes, I like the AA Guns. They cannot fire at 40 aircraft anymore, now you need at least 13 guns to shoot at 40 aircraft. ANd it’s still just one shot each in opening fire, so it’s not as drastic as some people thought originally.
Yes, Normandy should probably be given up. France is not really all that much harder, most players do not even use any aircraft in France (neither did they in Alpha 2).