@BigBadBruce:
Sure Alpha+2 is not perfectly balanced… a fully balanced game is call Chess, where both side starts with exact same units at exact same places.
Actually, Chess is not a fully balanced game as all time stats show that White pieces overall win more often than black pieces (something around 5% if i recall).
Now back on the topic.
The question was : Why an Alpha 3 ?
Bruce, you might have lost sight of a simple fact: the game is designed for the largest public possible, NOT SPECIFICALLY for AA total freaks like you (and me :lol: :wink:).
My best guess is that for the average player, winning with Allies in Alpha + 2 is a bit too complicated.
The biggest change from Alpha 2 to Alpha 3 is : UK is better equiped to face Sealion.
At first, i was shoked and disapointed, but now, the more i think about it, the more i find it very reasonable. I mean, i can’t recall a single game that i have lost when taking UK on G3 or even G4…is this normal ? I don’t think so…
For that UK beefing, Germany has received another bmb, and has a MUCH MORE easy battlefield in Fra, Wfr. They can now take Fra, Wfra and Sfr on G1 very easily and at minimum risk.
So, with Alpha 3, the game is going back to the traditional Barbarosa. That is what the creator of the game wants, and i’m ok with that.
Sealion is still there to punish any inacuracy in Allies play, and a new funny device is also there : a G2 Sealion Gamble for those UK players who like to build a Mic or other foolish things on UK1, can also work against heavy Taranto fans(of course, one has to build some transports on G1 for that).
New monglian rules are fun, it’s always good to get to play on territories that were never used before. AA guns changes are also fun (good for UK, bad for India).
Our real life Group is willing to play with Alpha 3.
The only change we’re not very enthusiastic about is : new convoy rules dice rolls. But again, for the ocasional player, it’s fun to roll more dices. So, it’s no big deal.
I like Alpha 3, but haven’t played it enough yet to say that i like it more than Alpha 2. Still have to explore it a lot more before i can decide if it’s better or worse than Alpha 2.