@The_Good_Captain said in "East & West" by Imp Games - Discussion:
You don’t even need to buy a nuke as NATO
Correct, the US and UK instead need to add how many transports to the board, to even be viable? Compared to how many the USSR needs?
You’re trying to do the “crying poor” argument as the USSR, and it doesn’t wash because I’ve already laid the numbers out.
If the USSR “needs” 2 nukes and 2 spies to win the game, that’s 60 IPCs
If NATO needs 3 spies and at least 4 transports just to be competitive, that’s 62 IPCs already. So let’s call that a wash, for the sake of argument (maybe it’s 2 spies and 5 transports, etc.)
If the USSR is collecting 70 IPCs at the end of their 2nd turn (which, they are) that’s already putting them at 35 inf compared to a (reasonable, but generous/rounded up) 32 for all of NATO; if that trend holds, the USSR can basically afford to not purchase 3-4 infantry for 6 rounds, build 2 nukes with that money instead, and put the game out of reach – while still being at parity w/r/t ground forces.
And that’s to say nothing of the fact that after turn 2 they can likely/reasonably still boost their economy by invading:
[one of] Sweden or Finland
Switzerland
Afghanistan
…at a time when NATO is maybe maintaining parity in France, and often is struggling or failing to hold onto Italy.
Prior to rd3 NATO is only ever nibbling around the edges of the USSR, and at best they’re “trading” those territories – meaning both sides cash them in. The problem is that trading territories is a losing proposition for NATO, because their infantry cost so much more.
If NATO spends 2 infantry to kill 1 infantry and take a 2 IPC territory, and then the USSR spends 2 infantry to kill NATO’s 1 surviving infantry to take back the territory – guess what? We’ve both lost 6 IPCs in units for 2 IPCs in territory… but the USSR started with the territory, and also ended with the territory.
This is why the game stagnates; there’s no point for NATO to attack, unless they can either a) catch the USSR with their pants down, taking out tanks or aircraft with a nuke or paratroopers or similar, or; b) make a big enough landing that it can’t be pushed back, and also can be continually resupplied. Yes I’m talking about Kamchatka.
The problem fundamentally is that nukes are a hard-counter to anything NATO is doing involving transports, while the hard-counter for nukes is…? There isn’t one. If anything, the only counter is to be winning the game militarily/economically, which I think I’ve pretty clearly established that NATO is not the faction which is in the driver’s seat, in that regard… in addition to being at a disadvantage in spying, too!