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Hubert. Axis cannot be stopped. You better make a balancing patch.


zappsweden

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Axis cannot be stopped unless axis makes big mistakes or if the allies are extremely lucky on research.

Reasons.

1) The unfortunate combination of Air vs Navy advantage and The one-way transport loop forces Allies to abandon the Mediterranean. There is no way to escape from Egypt, so especially the expensive allied navy there will be slaughtered by a combo of axis air and italian navy. The more navy allies transfer to mediterranean, the more air fleets the axis transfer there. It is a win-win situation for Axis.

2) The axis dominance of the mediterranean makes one-turn crushes of vichy France and Greece easy.

3) When Russia and USA joins the war a good axis player have taken all neutrals except for Turkey and ofcourse Finland. Axis will then have more MPP than the allies and turning the tide becomes impossible.

4) The USA should have more MPP, especially later in the war. Perhaps UK should have a slightly increase of MPP too.

5) All the standard options (partisan, free french, ...) are already switched in favour of the allies so there can be no balancing there.

6) The double cost of buying units compared to reinforcing them is simply too big. I would like about 70-80% instead of 100% more expensive. Axis can just kill 2-3 Russian units per turn and Russia will never recover and be any threat.

[ January 04, 2003, 09:04 PM: Message edited by: zappsweden ]

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I'm going to second the need for another patch. Here's my suggestions:

1) Increase Russian and US readiness overall, especially for Axis attacks that weren't originally anticipated when the game was designed. I.e., Axis attacking Spain, Portugal, Gibralter from the Spanish side, Sweden, and Iraq, and Vichy early on. If Alexandria and/or Suez falls, readiness up. Italian naval units in the Atlantic, readiness up. Axis corps off Canada, not even landed, readiness up. Finnish entry should be less likely too, depending on how the Axis moved leading up to Barbarrosa. These outside the box items should really push readiness up, as they provide the Axis with a boon in mpps, especially since the resource hexes they get increase to 8 and 10.

2) If a country is subjugated, it's resource hexes can only increase to 5. There would be Allied biased exceptions. I.e., Vichy could increase to 10 for the Allies only. If a resource hex is liberated, it can increase to the max, 8 or 10 as the case may be. This would work going the other way also, so Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria would only go to 5 if taken over by Russia. The African, Italian resource hexes, since originally subjugated, would go to ten for the Allies if taken.

3) For an attempted Sea Lion, slightly quicker US and Russian readiness. This would allow the British player to defend Alexandria better. Also, England cannot surrender until ALL three cities are occupied. I had Britain surrender on me once when Manchester fell (and London), even though I had ample units remainng. (I believe some on this board are under the misconception that a Sea Lion is certain Allied defeat. It's my experience that even a successful Sea Lion results in Allied victory about 2/3s of the time! Next time you get Sea Lioned, just hang in there and watch what happens. It's very interesting.

4) I would be hesitant to increase British units on the Home Islands, as a full defense of France can already be tricky to newer Axis players, but start Alexandria with an army rather than a corp. And maybe have a couple corps show up in late 1940 from Eastern Africa, after the Italians were defeated, like a mini Siberian Army.

5) Allow Suez to ship the other way.

6) In late 1940 have a few hundred mpps show up in Britain, labeled "American Lend Lease Arrives." You could do this two, three times before American entry.

You could do the same in Russia, maybe starting in mid-1942.

7) Start America at level 3 ind tech, and give them more units, and maybe two more research chits. Hell, give them three more research chits. And maybe another couple resource hexes. Maybe a tank and a bomber to start also, and always some cash, so they don't sit there the first turn with an empty wallet, unable to transport their units. Another ship wouldn't hurt, maybe a cruiser. American entry should get the Axis player a bit nervous! As it is now, a good Axis player almost scoffs at American entry.

8) More Russian partisans. They seem really hit and miss to me. Each partisan is 57 mpps to the Russians, which helps.

9) Maybe more Russian mpps. Maybe another oil hex.

10) Possibly move Caucesses capital to Grozny.

I could go on and on. Increased Russian readiness would be easy to program. Some of the others would probably be easy to program (American increases), and others may be SC 2 material, but I'm throwing them out for discussion.

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must have modified scenario
OK. Let's accept for the moment that there will be no more patches for SC and we won't see a beta version of SC2 for many more months. House rules may or may not work with everyone, and certainly will not work with the AI. So what kind of modified scenario are players looking for?

FWIW, I've pondered a lot of the issues for a long time and put my Campaign mods on the table for consideration. They are NOT perfect and in fact I submitted yet another set of updates to Otto today which should be posted soon. However, within the limits of the current game design, they do address many play balance issues and improve the game somewhat. I cannot say they are perfectly balanced, nor are they historically accurate to the point where OOB experts will be satisfied, but they generally result in decent games.

I posted "my" mods a month ago when v1.06 was released to generate feedback and hopefully a concensus for what the ideal tournament scenario(s) could be. This deserves continued debate and I'm willing to adjust the Campaign scenarios based on gameplay experience and comments. Now that folks have a few games under their belt and are looking for something different, perhaps now is the time to talk about modified scenarios. If my Campaign mods are on the right track for most players, how can they be improved? If they're not, what mods should we be talking about?

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JollyGuy, I especially agree with you on the Americans.

If axis take Spain (and thereby Gibraltar), Vichy France, Portugal and Iraque then axis has gained more than the 180MPP the USA will put in on the allied side. Add to that the plunders and the income from it that axis has gotten BEFORE USA joins.

Allied player:"Remember that if you attack those countries USA will join me" :cool:

Axis player says:"Ooooh, I'm so scared!" :D

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