Thoughts in general.
Things that were discussed when we called for Alpha 3 were:
1) England is far too easy to take out. It is ahistorical and very weird to have London fall almost every time on Germany 3.
***My god. In about a month I will have unrestricted access to my board. We should set it up and play a game of Alpha2 and see how many times you are able to invade London by G3. Barring insane dice I believe it will be 20-30% of the time. G3 invasion was never easy and UK had the resources to make Germany pay for invading. I wish some people on this site would get together and run through the options of a G3 Sealion…oh wait we did!
2) There is no historical basis for Russia seeing little German opposition and NOT attacking the Germans ahead of schedule. If London falls, Russia should be allowed to attack as well.
**I agree, this was a good move and should be kept. Stalin would have jumped at the option of reduced Wehrmacht forces in Poland.
3) America has no incentive to participate in the Atlantic.
***they still don’t really. Paris is not an NO that the allies want to take lightly, they want to take and hold it. US will be making less money because of this, but I still think a mostly Pacific strategy might work for US along the same lines as Alpha2.
4) France is never liberated by the allies because it would strip two industrial complexes from them on the mainland.
***right, see point 3. Paris won’t be liberated until the game is near over, again I see this as a net loss for US and a boon for axis.
5) There are not enough strategic bombing runs.
***Thank god! You of all people rail against the American Exceptionalism aspect, and yet somehow got wrapped up in this propaganda tale that strategic bombing netting anything really positive in WW2. Please read up on the subject if you think it was so awesome, and avoid US authors. SBR should be a once and a while thing, with lots of risk involved for little reward.
6) Axis need some minor boost to make them compatible with America.
***not sure about this point, and its pretty open ended. I think Larry wants America to be the heavy hand, the Axis are on the clock.
He seemed to address all of the above concerns. Others he did not address:
*** :roll:
A) Japan needs more troops in China.
***? Not sure where this discussion was. Is this your personal feeling or what was being discussed on his board because I never saw it. I did see lots of issues with China. Those are easily addressed with letting China invade Korea. Now if Japan ignores China they can defend the whole money coast.
B) Russia should be prohibited from attacking Japan first, EVER.
***? Again this must be your personal view. The actual problem is the DOW system needs to be revamped. DOW’s between Japan and Russia need to be set in stone, not completely ambiguous. I see this part of the rulebook as the area the developers fell asleep on. The reason we want to keep the option of war open between the 2 powers is to promote varied play. Give Japan and Russia the option, but you can assign baggage one way or the other to promote a decision.
C) Japan could use a couple more destroyers in the Pacific.
***perhaps, not sure it would be needed with some of the obvious changes that could make the game simpler while providing varied play styles.
D) Australia should have a second complex in Queensland.
***I don’t see this as necessary, why? Australia can barely afford 3 units for the first few rounds and then has the money to buy another complex if needed. By having their production to the south it both saves their ships from the Queenslandsz, and means they have to stage to that awesome naval base located in queensland. I suppose if you wanted to change the IC for the NB that might work.
All in all, I think he did a pretty good job so far.
Why is life better for the axis?
1) Germany needs to invest FAR LESS in the Atlantic Ocean.
2) Germany is rewarded for riskier attacks into Russia (use your imagination. I am not going to give you a script so you can try and find one tiny little flaw where if I do this on round 7 but you did that on round 1 it all falls apart. Obviously all strategies have to be flexible to take into consideration minor changes in the overall game board.)
3) The axis have a far easier time killing the NOs of the Allies. (Owning France is 2 Allied NOs for instance.)
4) The game is far more historical.
5) The Italian fleet will survive better by being split up more. (Either the Allies dedicate every IPC they have to get 2 transports perhaps losing it all due to a set of bad dice, or they only grab one.) It also forces them to attack the Italians in order to escape the med.
Why is the game better for the allies?
1) England wont fall on round 3 anymore. That by far is the best change for game balance. It can still be neutralized, but it wont automatically fall.
2) The Italian fleet is split more, making it weaker in any one place.
5 pro Axis changes, 2 pro Allies changes.
Thanks for taking the time to put your views down for us Jenn. Wish you had addressed a few of the issues I brought up earlier, perhaps you can go back and check them? My responses are marked with ***.