First Impressions

[Colin I]

Good

Enhanced diplomacy (more chits, more nations, belligerence).

Simplicity – I like lower resolution map and fewer unit types – lets you concentrate on strategy over operational details.

Enhanced strategic options with coordination of Axis powers and Allies.

Enhanced battle of Atlantic.

Direct amphibious assaults on occupied tiles.

Blockades.

Bad

Scripted reinforcements and take-over of some countries (Singapore, Norway) feels arbitrary and wrong – you can’t stop this with realistic strategies and have to memorize scripts to see these coming. With reinforcements would far prefer these to be in production.

We need more or cheaper or double strike fighters for air defense.

Operational movement needs to be limited or cost more over very long distances – especially for air.

Balance

Still hard to say. Russia feels more vulnerable to combined assault and TAC air but US has huge flexibility and resources. Also its not trivial limiting UK Empire whilst keeping focus in Europe. Still trying to decide.

[xwormwood]

Colin, relax and wait for the cavalary (patch 1.01).

[heatrr]

Being I do not play against human opponents because of real life time schedule, etc., I find the AI lacking in competitiveness and competency. I can wage a world war on multiple fronts against the AI averaging 3-5 minutes a turn for me....the AI takes 20 minutes a turn....and still gets drummed.

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Colin,

As xwormwood alluded to the scripted reinforcements and automatic surrenders should for the most part be resolved with the first patch as we've made quite a few changes there. Regarding having the reinforcements in production, we really did think about this but as mentioned earlier it really can throw off the balance if the player can place these units themselves. Again these were only added after the initial design to balance out key areas of the map and the idea being that if we allowed them into production then it would allow too much unit concentration and the perfect example of this would be Japan and China.

If Japan were to receive all the scripted reinforced units off of the production queue rather than to garrision various islands or as part of the preparatory planning for various amphibious assaults, most players would quickly realize they can simply bring these units to China and finish her off much earlier in game and essentially a-historically instead.

Balance is really one of the key challenges in designing a Global game and probably why many of the popular games in the past, such as the board game Axis and Allies, start in 1942 where the unit concentrations are all set and the above is no longer an issue.

[Hubert Cater]

heatrr,

Have you tried any of the higher difficulty levels to see if it adds a bit more of a challenge?

Hubert

[Bill101]

Being I do not play against human opponents because of real life time schedule, etc., I find the AI lacking in competitiveness and competency. I can wage a world war on multiple fronts against the AI averaging 3-5 minutes a turn for me....the AI takes 20 minutes a turn....and still gets drummed.

Could PBEM with someone be another solution? Most of the people I play against live in other parts of the world so it's only for part of the weekend that we might be online at the same time, but we still enjoy great games and give each other a tough struggle.

[macg]

So far, I ...like it! This game offers what no other game offers at the moment, though many have been waiting for; global WW2, and it does so with the brilliant simplicity that made some of it's boardgame predecessors great successes. The problem some games of this genre have had is that they've become too 'niche oriented' for the detail-minded, showing perhaps more detail, than consistency with reality. This game is extremely playable with no rigid sequence of play and I love that. The fact it's editable makes me want to personally buy the developer a drink.

There are a few things that I think could be improved upon, but the way the game is setup these improvements(Ship/aircraft/tank images and more distinct technology levels (ie. -BF109G2) I think are all but inevitable.

There are WW3 and Cold War mods underway? Somebody pinch me.

[heatrr]

heatrr,

Have you tried any of the higher difficulty levels to see if it adds a bit more of a challenge?

Hubert

Yes, currently playing a modified scenario on +1.5 expert. AI is still getting drummed, still takes 20+ minutes to finish its move, and still lacks competency such as keeping unit cohesion, etc. What the AI ultimately determines as a "opportunity" ends up being a half baked attack that is easily countered. Not saying the game sucks, Hubert....I love the game...it provides countless hours of fun. All I am saying is I wish the AI oppenent was better or had the ability to progressively learn and improve during the game and then used what was learned in other games.

[AZGungHo]

It seems strange to me the AI is taking so long for you. It's not nearly that slow for me. Hmmm - maybe I'm not giving it a hard enough time so it's just taking it easy on me??

[xwormwood]

Have you enabled the quick AI movement (sorry, forgot the correct name for this new feature)?

This might help.

I don't know what kind of computer you're using.

Mine is reather old (P4 3,0 ghz, Win XP, 256MB Radeon 800XT, 2GB RAM, but all i have to wait is about 5 minutes (in times where all hell breaks loose on every frontline).