(Probably) All versions of Axis and Allies are Imbalanced (yes, even Anniversary)

[CentralCommando]

@The_Good_Captain I understand your perspective, but as you said in your video (and this topic), It mostly comes down to a skill difference. Soloplay is good when testing balance as you are in the same headspace as your opponent, which means you’ll be fighting at the same skill level. Games “seeming the same” is actually a good tell on how balanced a game is. For example, if the Axis win more often than not, even if you change up your strategies, then the game is Axis-biased. Get rid of/move a couple Axis units or add Allied ones and see if it changes the outcome. You keep doing this until either the Allies win roughly half of time or if they greatly surpass the Axis. If the latter is true, reverse the trend. Also, make sure to ever so slightly change your strategy every playthrough, and then have games where you measure the impact of responding to that strategy or not as the enemy.

I mostly only do Solo play if I’m playtesting/balancing a game, or if I’m lonely. It’s almost always better to play with other people when you can, but for solely balance purposes Solo play is the way to go in my book. Also, no offense taken!

[barnee]

@CentralCommando said in (Probably) All versions of Axis and Allies are Imbalanced (yes, even Anniversary):

or if I’m lonely. It’s almost always better to play with other people when you can

Only time I play solo is when I have no one to play with :)

[VictoryFirst]

@CentralCommando I think a mix of both is better. You can’t discover true balance with only solo play, as you will not get exposed to strategies you did not think of. @The_Good_Captain gave some good examples of this.

However, solo play can be good for discovering new strategies yourself, as you can quickly play a large number of games, try out something new each game, and easily make small changes to the strategies until you’ve fine-tuned them. This is harder against opponents because opponents will play differently and you’d also have to wait for them to do their turn.

[The_Good_Captain]

@VictoryFirst …that is a good point. To be frank, I have repeatedly played out the UK dual IC build in classic by myself to get it to work right / find out when or when not to do it. That can/should be considered solo play.

Yeah, good point.

[Narvik]

@The_Good_Captain

Hi Ryan, it looks like you were an official playtester in Renegades North Africa and Stalingrad versions, maybe even more games that I’m not aware of. So I got some questions. How exactely does the playtesting works? It’s basically an economic game based on math, so it would make sense to use computers, AI, data etc to sort out the patterns. And propably thousands of human playtesting games to include the human factor too. And yet still all games are imbalanced or bugged. Many A&A versions have second editions and erratas to try to fix some of the worst imbalances and bugs, but will A&A ever be a perfect game?

[The_Good_Captain]

@Narvik they made us all sign non-disclosure agreements which I think is silly but it was a pre-requisite to help out. I play tested. I didn’t help with design so as for how they compute the game economy or any use of computers or AI is unknown to me. Some playtesters brought their own methods of balancing or rating these things and provided input but that was largely left to Renegade.

I wish there had been more time to playtest. I will say that about Africa and to a lesser extent, Stalingrad.

As for all the other versions and imbalance in general: I will say that it appears that playtesting and balance took a back seat to production deadlines. It appears that the thousands of human playtesting games that you and I would agree need to be done, were likely not done.

I hear D-Day is being re-released here soon. I have high hopes that that will be fully balanced. We’ll see.