Yes: my playgroup and I only play OOB.
Because:
a) I am the only one of us on this forum
b) I haven’t even looked at any Alpha setups yet and
c) we haven’t discovered a major issue with OOB
I also play occasionally with some friends who had until December only known of the original and AA Revised… so to them, the balance issues were probably not even noticed. Even in my typical group, there aren’t huge issues playing OOB because we only get to play about once every two months on average… so who cares about alternate setups. Granted if you play with a bunch hardcore experts who have each turn down to a planned science, the experience changes. Such people, as many of you seem to be, are more seroius about the game. Not that we are not serious, because we are by no means amateurs, but ‘how to make AA more balanced’ is not our crusade.
My other issue with the whole balance thing is this: whoever said the fight was, or was supposed to be, fair? And what kind of balance are we aiming for here? Starting balance… overall game experience balance… ideal balance after so many turns? To make the game in such a way that both sides have equal chance of victory seems ahistorical. I am not saying the Axis had no chance of victory from the start, because of course they had a chance, but not in a prolonged conflict; which is what the War became and what this game, Axis & Allies, models. The Axis ran wild up to 1941-42… then they started sucking it up once the 2 industrial behemoths entered the war. The Axis’ only real hope of victory lay not in a conquered Allies, but in Allies who would at some point be fed up with war and ask for peace. Historically, Germany and Japan could never have attempted invasion of the United States, hoped to go over the Urals to fight Russia, attack deep into China and do the many host of things in between to even get to considering these things… it just was not possible. The Allies on the other hand had the resources, manpower and logistical capacity to move across the world and defeat their foes.
My point being here, we should probably look at changing victory conditions, rather than focus on battle winning and unit balance. I suppose people could disprove or discredit me on my statements here because I have neither looked at or played the revised setups… so I can’t speak from experience. But what I have read over the past… well since August… seems to be all about the Axis not having an equal shot at victory. What kind of victory that is, I am not sure. My group generally plays for Total Victory because the game lasts longer that way, and it is much more challenging.
OOB Axis chances for Total Victory are as good as nothing. Major Victory is still quite a long shot. Minor victory is somewhat achievable if all goes well.
In a Total or Major Victory sense, the Axis should not have it any easier than a 10-15% chance… if even that much. As for a very ernest look at all this I’d have to do more reading and comparing, but this is what I have to say about it now.
OOB is good enough for a player such as myself.
