@Imperious:
He should not have attacked Karelia on G1. Big mistake IMO. He cant get good odds until G2. If he went to Karelia he would have to bring his planes and since he used them elsewhere he lost alot of infantry. Russia cant do anything to prevent it but can even win the battle on G1 if he tries it.
He has to plan the targets with more care and may even perform a number of leaching operations on Caucasus or Karelia. So hes just killing enough and not taking and retreat back to a position where he can strike both north and south. He would take provided he gets support from Japans planes or Italian forces. Only in Karelia this is not really possible.
Good point about Karelia, IL. He definitely spread himself too thin, which gave Russia the time it needed to bulk up on infantry. Also, by “leaching”, I assume you mean “strafing”, which is not a bad idea either. I also think, upon reflection, that Germany should still buy SOME infantry. Not a lot, but at least enough to support strafing as a strategy. Because if I strafe, I’d much rather lose infantry and save my expensive tanks until I’m ready to move in in force.
@TG:
Thanks for your review Gamer.
Japan goes BEFORE UK? That’s insane.
Can someone please inform me of the proper turn order in A&A:50?
If Japan is indeed that powerful, this puts a huge crimp on the game. Not from a balancing standpoint, but because I was really looking forward to the Pacific theater opening up. As it stands, USA has no reason to go after Japan even if it wanted to because Japan’s Navy is so strong.
So, in summary, the biggest change, the map aside, is the fleet rules, and they suck for the Allies, period. It’ll be interesting to see how the Allies compensate.
What are these fleet rules?
The fleet rules are as follows:
Cost differences – subs cost 6, transports cost 7, DDs cost 8, cruisers cost 12, carriers cost 14 and BBs cost 20.
Battle differences – subs can’t shoot at planes AND planes cannot shoot at subs, period. Subs attack on a “2” and defend on a “1”. Transports die automatically if attacked and have no offensive OR defensive value whatsoever. Their ONLY function is to transport land units. So in the case of Germany’s Med transport, I could attack it with the Egypt fighter and automatically kill it without risk. So what this means in practical terms is that you still have to buy transports as the Allies in order to set up D-Day, but now that purchase does NOTHING for you in terms of fleet defense. Nor does buying subs, for that matter, since they cannot be taken as losses against air attacks (the most likely kind from Germany in particular). So you are buying DDs as fodder IN ADDITION TO buying transports. But the DDs attack and defend on a “2”, so that doesn’t get you any true defensive punch. For that, you will have to buy cruisers, carriers and planes. So, without any additional income for America (you start with 40 IPCs), and with a carrier in lieu of a BB from the West coast, you either go KIF/KGF, as always, while constantly watching your back for the stab from Japan – OR – you go on a MASSIVE spending spree buying fleet to try to compete with Japan. Say, a carrier and two fighters on US1 (34 IPCs total) off the coast of LA and moving your existing carrier and fighters up to the same sea zone. That MIGHT survive J2 depending on how Japan stationed her fleet after J1. But now you’re still 2-3 turns at least from seriously threatening Japan. Meanwhile, Japan is cashing out well over 50 IPCs, assuming it hits its NOs, which it should.
Oh, and your question about turn order, it is as follows (in the '41 scenario): Germany, Russia, Japan, Britain, Italy, US.
A couple more points:
1. Even though they are cheaper at 20 IPCs, BBs are not as good a deal in this game. They nerfed the BB by only allowing you 1 shore bombardment per attacking amhip unit. So you no longer have the option of dropping one guy in France and getting 6 bombards. The rules prohibit that, which makes the expensive BB much less attractive as a purchase when you can buy a cruiser for 12 IPCs and get almost the same benefit (attacks, defends and bombards at 3).
2. The quality of the plastic pieces in this set was VERY disappointing. It was almost of the quality of the old Xeno Games W@W set – piss poor. For $100, I would have expected something more on the order of the quality pieces that came with A&A: Europe, which cost HALF as much as this game. In fact, IF I buy this game, I would be tempted to throw out the pieces that came with it and buy up odd sets of A&A: Europe pieces on e-bay or whatever to replace them. The map and counters are too nice to be played with with such crappy plastic pieces, IMO.
