How to achieve balance part 2-> bids

Hmm you are probably right bugoo–Karelia and Egypt in the same turn is too risky.  Actually though, I once played a game where I took Karelia, killed the bb, and took Egypt…  However with only 3 figs Karelia is obviously too risky so the better play is probably pursuing the dd/tranny combo with the 2 subs–the bb can be kept out of Finland/Karelia by landing all fighters in Finland…  Re. Karelia, in a ll game it comes down to whether the aa hits.  If no fighter is shot down then sometimes Karelia can be taken without sacrificing a fig…and that is pretty devastating for the Allies.  If a fighter is shot down, then sometimes that’s 2 figs down for the Axis.

@Subotai:

It is not possible to be prepared against tech rolls, or any dice rolls regardless of regular dice or LL. The only way to be prepared, as such, is to look into the future, and we humans are not able to predict the future.

True.  True.

That’s why I said, “…trying to be prepared…”

Peace.

With my friends, we play with Dardanelles closed and I gotta say that this limit Italy alot and gives Russia the opportunity to counter attack without fearing the Italian troops. Yes, the Italians can still clear a path, but it’s much harder with their ground troops (Italy have little tanks, and little infantry)

With Dardanelles closed, the Allies certainly see their chance of winning increase.

That said, with or without the Dardanelles closed, I believe this game to be fair for both side. I’ll give a slight advantage to the Axis simply because of their strong start.

Right now, we just discovered 42. We feel it is more balanced than 41 (for some reason, and maybe it is really more balanced).
Personally, I’d say this : If you want to balance (if it isn’t) 41, just remove some Japanese transports (I don’t believe in the “add some Chinese units”). 42 shows how Japan is weaker in the first few turns because it lacks transports. Like force them to take 1-2 more turn in order to take the free 8 ipcs in East Indies/Borne or something, or prevent them from sending that many ground forces in their first turn. From there, you will see how it limits Japan’s capabilities.

Robert

@axis_roll:

@ithkrall:

we have an agreed balance shift instead of a bid in my group

1 extra UK infantry in Egypt
2 extra Chinese infantry in the areas behind the front
move flying tigers back 1 space so it cant be attacked 1st turn
UK NO requires 4 of canda, egypt etc

that’s our balance tweaks

1 extra uk infantry in New Zealand.

That’s because we are New Zealanders and didn’t like our home country being undefended :) Has yet to come into play though until the game is basically decided.

Those three UK tweaks can be quite large.  Holding Egypt G1 is huge, possibly enabling a tank and a ftr to escape even if Germany did attack G1.  Adding more NO income enables more UK options, and the 1 extra inf in New Zealand makes an Australia IC more possible (in conjunction with the UK ftr from Egypt that gets to aid the defenses on UK3).  US can support that UK with 2 ftrs a turn quite easily while building a fleet in sz56 as the ftrs built on the existing US carrier can make it 4 spaces to Australia.

Bare in mind we have a gentlemans agreement not to move the NZ infantry out of NZ either

We found that the germans/italians could easily take egypt, everytime, thats why we added in the extra infantry.

The germans were moving a tank/infantry from france and the bomber to support. That would either win, or almost wipe the UK out. Italy would easily win the next exchange.

Now the UK has a 50/50 chance of holding (at least y our play experience)

China was getting wiped out on turn 1 as well, they needed a buff.

Its minor tweaks, but enough to find us seeing the game very balanced for us.

Assuming 1941 setup and using NO’s, here are a few minor, simple, yet helpful setup changes to the board.

1.  Exchange the sz4 Russian sub for a Russian destroyer.  In Revised, Russia had an 8 IPC, 2 attack, 2 defense unit which could block ships, so give it back to them.  This both helps Russia and Germany, because if Germany wants to, it can hit it.

2. Exchange the sz56 US transport for a US cruiser.  This seems to make Japan’s opening moves a little more clear and it means that the US cannot immediately take a Pacific island on its first turn which helps Japan, but having a capital ship, helps the US as well.

3. Add 1 Chinese infantry to Yunan.  I know that many people want more than this, but I think that this would force Japan to be more careful with its first turn moves, but I think that Japan could still do just about everything that it wants to.

These changes actually give the Allies 10 IPCs worth of unit/unit upgrades, and with all of the talk about the Axis having the slight advantage, maybe these changes would help.

@chunksoul:

subs turn 1 for america to kill italian fleet turn 4

even building more fleet every turn it can’t survive

then bring american fleet underneath

Just wondering, how exactly do you get the fleet of subs close enough?  If I see 6 subs off EUS on A1, I’m going to take the Italian fleet back to SZ14 and build 2-3 DDs per turn.  You see, the problem is that you can’t get the subs close enough, because if they go to SZ12, I’m just going to move my fleet there and make them defend.  If you scatter, then I’m just going to block with 1 DD, or take out the front sub with DD+FIG.  There’s nothing you can do to get close enough to the Italian fleet, I can just stall the subs forever and keep building more DD.  If the point is just to lure me out to SZ12 so you can hit the fleet with a plane strike, well, ok, you’ll probably kill the fleet, but at the cost of a bunch of subs and planes.  I’ll take this trade at turn 4+, the fleet has done its job and now it’s all up to Japan.  I still think a surface fleet is the only real way to get the job done on the Italian navy in any sort of cost-efficient manner.

Nah, axis-roll’s idea of 3 trans, 1 AC, 1 inf, 1 arm is better and what i’m  using now.

@Cmdr:

An all out attack on Japan’s worked more often. (Russia holds the front against Germany and stacks up to help with China/holding Japan back while England puts down ICs in Africa/Asia Minor and America blitzes in.)

Maybe this is why Japan is so strong?