@Unknown:
I think unit bids have a yucky effect on the game - changing the set-up completely alters the dynamic of the game.
What I would prefer is bidding away an amount of cash - your opponent chooses how the pain is distributed among your teams.
I agree with this. I’ve never really liked the fact that bids alter the starting setup. If a new bidding system is introduced for AA50 I’d like to see strictly cash bids.
I think it originally started as a way to alter the game set up because Germany’s chances of survival could be virtually destroyed by Russia round 1 if Russia scored slightly better than expected dice and went with an aggressive strategy. The extra units stop that from happening.
In revised it was a mixture of cash and units (yes, you could get cash in classic too, most people did not and still do not take cash I have found) because you just needed that extra oomph to get Egypt or to stop Russia from taking Ukraine to balance things out a bit.
In Anniversary, I think (with NOs only) the game is pretty well balanced with the better player generally winning in the long run. Techs might unbalance it but only because one side might get lucky and the other not so lucky. Then again, the same could be true for any large scale battle, if one side does really well in round 1, it can shift the battle from 90% odds of winning to 10% odds in the blink of a die.
As for Dardenelles and Escorts, phooey. Don’t need them. I cede the validation for dardenelles from a logistical, historical and tactical standpoint. I do not cede that closing the dardenelles is necessary or even helpful to the allies in a proportional way (that is, closing them can make it too easy for the allies (or too hard for the axis if you want to think of it that way.)
Escorts are just silly the way I read them. If you want to use escorts, may I suggest the AARe/AA50e rule for escorts where you first have to get Jet Power and then they act like AA Guns hitting bombers on a 1 (and only if your opponent does not have Long Range Aircraft and sends fighters with their bombers on a 1 to 1 basis to negate the defending jets?) At least that requires you to first get some technologies to establish Cover Air Patrol and to Negate Cover Air Patrol so SBR campaigns are not completely nerfed into uselessness.