Played our second game last night. The Central Powers did much better this game, I think, but still didn’t win. Some of the success was from slightly better-than-average dice over the course of the game, but they weren’t tremendously slanted.
The Americans did save all their money for the first few rounds, not even buying until round four, so didn’t mobilize 'til five. That was by choice, though, as they wanted to bring a seven-stack of tanks on their first transport convoy.
Overall, the plan for the CP was to not attempt to expand in all directions simultaneously, but to mostly play defense in the west while eliminating Russia, then turn around in force. It went fairly well. Austria and Germany did give some ground in the west, with France even taking Ruhr for a couple rounds (that hurt). Russia was forced in revolution Round 5, which was actually a mistake. Germany really needs that six+ bucks down the road. After Russia fell, though, the CP was able to push back pretty strong in the west, with the Austrians able to take Venice, Piedmont, Burgundy, Marseilles, and Bordeaux and the Germans in control of Belgium and Lorraine.
We actually called the game with a sizable Austrian stack sitting outside Paris, but Germany had finally lost the naval war in the North Sea (the French spent a round buying boats to turn the tide), Americans were landing in Spain, and the Ottomans had stalled out contesting India after Americans landed in Constantinople and a stack or two had to turn around. They had gone almost straight there with nearly everybody–I did divert one round to kill Brits in Arabia, which was a mistake (survivors transported back to India for defense, and my attackers were out of position now).
Review: This is only game two for us, but I’m more convinced now that some balance factors might could stand to be addressed. India is almost impossible to take out, I think. The Central Powers also have no real way to begin to contest the Mediterranean, it doesn’t seem. I haven’t experimented with Austrian navy yet, but it doesn’t look promising.