@CWO-Marc @SS-GEN @captainwalker Hose down the deck and clear the barrel for the next encounter, sailor!

@Caesar-Seriona Most of the AxA games have balance/geometry issues. Most wargames do. As a community, we’ve playtested the map+setup for 100000s of hours. That can’t possibly be expected of the designers/original playtesters. The core Global map is a masterpiece–you can make custom games and setups for any era from 1936-2020. HBG has gone even further and made a more complex map and setup. I’ve also laid out my tweak, there’s G42, BM, Sired’s setup. I’m not a huge fan of events, new units, and other house rules in general but there is a myriad of choices out there–as some have pointed out these variations would all need to be vetted and playtested to death to know if they are balanced.

I really like the G42 setup and the 7 hour/7 turn environment, and hope to repeat in 2021. Same Siredblood–I don’t think that ruleset is well playtested yet but its well thought out and its a good new environment to try.

@Afrikakorps Sweet plan and Bob Roby (3 time national champ) loves to protect the carrier that way but Germany zaps the blockers with its air and just like Italy can help Germany beat the Russian forces, Germany can help the Italian stack clear the med. The Allies would need an Egypt or Gibraltar Air Base to change this dyanmic and those work pretty well but the more straightforward approach is to do Taranto at best odds, turtle UK properly and not to leave the rest to luck. I did the Gibbastion strategy and the Italians declined to attack but for the UK to make hay out of that they have to assault the Italians at some point and then they’re back to trading queen for queen (because you have to bring it all, and the Axis nuke whatever survives), but at a later juncture.

@Afrikakorps @Caesar-Seriona The Germans have so much money and air power, moscow is screwed–in plenty of versions you’ll need fighters to stop that from happening. Russia starts with nothing–the Axis start with over 30 planes. Your plan of crossing the atlantic and forcing the Germans/Italians to get ready to stop that is great, but America isn’t calling that part of the plan, Japan is.

Its a great game, a great setup, and a great map. What is missing is that the Axis get a bit too much power/money so that they have .5-1.5 turn more time than the Allies can afford. The Global map and plane plies give them too many advantages for the Allies to overcome that in any situation or time frame. Taking away 1 combat air pair would be game changing. Giving russia a bit more air/armor or Germany less money would be game changing. Any other approach fails to recognize that the Axis are too flexible for any 1 attack approach to work and that why the game feels so chesslike.

In preparation for Gencon 2021, Dave and I have returned to playing G42 and that version is even faster, more chesslike, and emphasizes these factors even more but the Axis have to attain a very specific set of territory goals (all original territory, all china, all spice, all the 2+3+4 value territories to attain economic victory after 7 hours and 7 turns of regulation play). That game is very closed to being balanced and its up to great play, luck and endurance.

we are omitting that shutting off US NOs means they are at minimum income all game. A different game for sure…but probably not an Allied advantage

@Xlome_00 I suggest you reduce the Leningrad, Caucasus, Moscow and Stalingrad bonuses from 5 to 3. If thats not enough, you could nerf the calcutta and spice bonuses back to 3 as well but those are both good incentives for hard to accomplish goals. You can also add a tank or a fighter to Urals and that doesnt affect the open but it does make USSR a bit more viable. The reason the game appears so imbalanced is that a 3-axis all in destroy Moscow is optimal, if the Axis goof around in any form or fashion, the game is much more balanced. Also, if all the players are veterans or experts, they’ll choose to slay Russia. Newer players trying to have fun and goof around experiementing with new ideas? The game is balanced.

@crockett36 did you read my allied playbook post forgot to flag u

@djensen I overstated “admonish”, entreated would have been a better way to put it…we are all trying to be patient and passionate at the same time…as usual. As for the technical details…I’m clueless except as it pertains to actual face to face posturing and dice slamming which is why we’re all here.

@Afrikakorps yes check out the northlock idea (inspired by this old post) that I put in the Allied Strategy Guide 1.0. The problem with the original idea is that it spreads Russia to every corner of the map, when at most, you might pick one strategy to pursue. IMO Russia shouldnt bother with any exogenous areas and should just get ready to defend/counterattack. Germany’s most conservative buy i’ve come up with here is to start with buying 1DD 1TT 2 INF 2 art so that they start stacking Norway/hiding in Finland for the optimal defense/counterattack without depleting the eastward push of cheap ground units and contest the 125/SZ bonus all game, with an eye to turtle scandanavia all game even if the baltic fleet is lost. Which is hard to do if the Bismarck BB+CA+DD+3 FIG are there to stop it, and germany could deploy much more.

@djensen You’re more an IT guy than me…I’ve seen plenty of anomalous results and like you admonished me a couple days ago–when were playing dozens of games we should expect to see all the possible outcomes…still there is just this “dice vs RNG” debate that we can never resolve. As a slight departure; Chessex has 2 stands at Gencon–the dice are made to look great but whether they are in any way random…I have no clue. One might expect that if no attention is paid to how the dice are physically made the plastic mix must make some sets biased…is that any different than our debate? My IT guru buddy says that random.org uses fluxuations in the radio transmission intensity as a proxy for true randomness…is this all voodoo?