@Cmdr:
1) Russian Winter - Infantry defend at 3 or less for one round declared by Russia in their collect income phase.
Not bad. But honestly, I think this is too easily countered by not making an aggressive move on Russia. To me, this is best used by Russia when they expect an attack by the Axis and only to inflict massive casualties so the Americans and British can hopefully recover the war effort. This really is not going to help out for those little battles where you have 1 or 2 infantry defending. 2 Infantry + Fighter is still going to kill a “tank” just like they would an infantryman.
However, if you have 30 infantry in Russia turning them all into “tanks” could inflict enough damage on the Axis they only win marginally instead of decisively. (I don’t know anyone who attacks Moscow for a marginal victory, so I assume you would have had a decisive victory.)
At best, it delays the game by a round allowing you to get some more Russians, British and Americans to Moscow.
In my opinion, this advantage isn’t worth much. The threat of it’s use is much more useful for the Allies than actually using it.
A smart Axis player(s) won’t walk into a trap they can see…as you said, it’s only good if you can use it decisively in a fight for Moscow.
- Non-Aggression Treaty
This seems to have some ambiguities.
1) Does Japanese Rocket fire violate the treaty?
2) Do Japanese SBRs violate the treaty?
3) If Japan attacks a territory with Russian units in it, does this violate the treaty?
4) Can Russia counter attack territories that are not orange without violating the treaty?
As for one and two, I’d say yes these violate the treaty. You have to violate Russian air space to engage in these attacks, thus you have attacked Russia.
As for 3 and 4 I’d say no. You are not attacking an orange or red territory, thus you may freely counter attack the Japanese and the Japanese can freely kill Russians who get in the way without breaking the treaty.
I think Enhanced rules clear up all the ambiguities quite nicely…but not sure how/if that applies to 1.3.
- Mobile Industry
Again, some ambiguities.
1) Can Russia move the IC to Russian controlled territories, or only red territories?
2) Can Russia move the IC to Moscow and have two ICs on the same territory?
In both instances I’d say yes. The National Advantage, in effect, makes the IC similar to an AA Gun and you can have more then one AA Gun per territory, but you can only use one gun at a time. So if Russia had two Industrial Complexes in Caucasus, then they would be limited to 4 units purchased.
As for moving into Russian controlled enemy territory, well, it’s Russian territory! It may not be red, but it is still Russian. And if the Complex is taken by the enemy and liberated under an ally, and that territory is no longer Russian controlled, well, then you just lost an IC to an Ally.
Again…I tend to defer to Enhanced rules for this one.
I don’t like this NA much anyways. Where else can you move it to where it’s useful? Ukraine? Kazakstan? Options are rather limited, but…you CAN move the ICs to 1 IPC territories and deny them to the Axis if things get that bad. It’ll tick them off!
- Salvage
To be honest, this is the worst National Advantage in the game. I’ve only gotten this once, and that’s because I had a stellar defense of Russia against the Germans which netted me an extra tank that died to Japan.
Salvage sucks! I’ve NEVER gotten a tank from it, EVER.
That’s another reason I like Enhanced…tanks defending on 4’s in Red territories. :-D
- Lend-Lease
Seems to me that LHTR moved to nerf this from something else. One british and one american unit can add up over time, provided you manage to get one there every round. Perhaps this should be adjusted to just say two allied units totalling 10 IPC or less. That would be a fighter or 2 tanks or tank, inf, or inf, art, etc.
Sorry, just trying to think of a way to salvage the lend-lease a bit.
Again…I dig Enhanced. :-P
But in 1.3…this is still a great NA, if only because you can give Russia a really powerful fighter force that buys you LOTS of time.
- Railway
Okay, neat idea. Not expansive enough, IMHO. If you could extend that rail from SFE to Caucasus then I think we’d have something. (SFE to Yakut to Novosibirsk to Russia to Caucasus.)
Kinda useful in KJF mode though!
It can be very useful in KJF…I had the misfortune of being Japan when I saw it for the first time, and it frustrated me to no end.
Enhanced is awesome though…BURY-YAK-NOVO-MOS-CAU-WRU-KAR. It makes keeping Karelia early a possibility instead of a suicide tactic.
…I dig NA topics. Perhaps a thread for every country??