Play Balance Issues

[Lou Wigman]

Of late I have been playing the Allies at Expert+1. A number of issues have become apparent.

Air Interception

This basically does not work. As the interceptor I typically lose 3 times as many aircraft as the AI. This means that my airforce is useless in a defensive role. The fact that I might have a large numerical superiority counts for nought. After France falls I have to put my airforce in Scotland to prevent it being demolished. The AI simply keeps attacking London. The Brits are effectively -10 MMPs for the whole game. This just isn't right!

Relative Allied Strength

I can nearly always stop the Axis near the Russian border. I sometimes lose Riga or Odessa, ocassionally both, but that is about it. The Brits, as I have already explained are effectively 10 MMPs down for the whole game. The Yanks get 180MMPs. This combined strength makes an effective D-Day landing just about impossible to sustain. If the Axis AI concentrates on Jet Fighter Research, the Western Allies are pushing runny poo uphill. It can't be made to work. This is of course tied to point I made above. Effective air defense is just not possible. Dare I suggest that the Soviet Union receive fewer MMPs and the Western Allies more?

[Rastan]

I only play at Normal, +0, but I've wished I could turn off the interceptor feature. My full strength airforce does no damage while losing 4 points while my defending ground unit hurts the enemy while losing only 1-2 points. Of course, if the enemy intercepts me, I'm losing 4-5 points before I even get to attack his ground unit. This with normally a 1-2 tech advantage over the enemy air unit. It has gotten to where I don't attack his ground units unless I mass air units and take out the defending air through massed means. And forget about Russia having any airforce with interception going on, it isn't worth the $$ to keep the units going when they keep getting blown out of the sky the next turn.

Didn't the Japanese after a while only go up after bombers? Or was that just Black Sheep fiction? In other words, they chose when to intercept or not intercept?

Also, if you are the Germans, forget about trying to take out the Malta air unit. I've been lvl 5 tech vs lvl 2, 15 strength vs 10 strength and I'll lose my unit if I continue to attack. Thankfully, I can operate rockets to Sicily to seriously weaken the defending unit.

BTW, what is up with fog of war and air units? Couldn't the forces being attacked recognize the strength of the air fleet attacking them? and the # of losses they inflicted? And when you go attack an enemy airforce, shouldn't you be able to tell the strength of the forces at the airfield? Maybe the effect shouldn't last past the actual attack so you'd have to pay attention during the attack to find out the size of the attacking/defending unit. But, after attacking an air unit with 2-3 air units, you'd think you'd have a brief idea of the strength that is left before reinforcements.

[ September 02, 2002, 08:35 AM: Message edited by: Rastan ]