@Hansolo88 Saying that G40 (which OOB has something like a +60 bid) is more balanced than this game is quite the statement. From the perspective of someone who was on the playtest team the win rate was pretty close to even by the end of the ~8 months that were spent working on it.
I’d give advice, but without details of what you were doing with Germany (other than being “over the bulk of the learning curve as the Axis”) it’s hard to really give anything beyond vague platitudes. All I can really say is that if the USSR is spending “hundreds of IPC” over the course of the game Germany isn’t being aggressive enough. I will agree that the Germans are generally harder to play than the Soviets though, at least at a high level.
Re: Bids, like NA, bids should have been codified in the rulebook. I’m 99% sure they are, but I don’t have my copy with me right now to check.
Unrelated, but at the risk of breaking NDA I pushed for this to be a Case Blue game centered around the actual objectives of the campaign (getting the oil supply) instead of Stalingrad but was vetoed by the design staff, who wanted Stalingrad specifically (IIRC it was to appeal to the pop-culture understanding of the campaign as “Madman Hitler and his OBSESSION with the city that had Stalin’s name”, but the tests were a while ago so I don’t have the full details).
I’m glad that you at least enjoyed the game despite your grievances (everything other than the balance I actually agree with you on). Hopefully a TripleA implementation comes around at some point so it can be more thoroughly tested beyond kitchen table play.
