Best posts made by DoManMacgee

@SuperbattleshipYamato hard to argue against any of this really. The IJN was so far gone by this point in the war that there’s not really much they could have done to salvage their situation one way or another. The bit about the allies not having many LSTs in general is something I never knew before though.

@all-encompassing-goose Compared to the more “modern” games like 1914, G40 and even AA50 to an extent, Revised’s map is pretty simple (meaning games on Revised are a lot faster than those three).

That being said, I would personally ignore the OOB Victory conditions (which are ludicrous, since Allies taking out Tokyo and Berlin is unfeasible in a realistic amount of time and Axis getting 2/3 Allied Capitals is similarly long and drawn out). Try something like the following:

1. If Axis gain control of Leningrad (Karelia SSR), Moscow (Russia) and India, Axis win.

2. If Allies take one Axis Capital while holding all of their own, Allies win.

If you want to have the game done in ~5 hours you can use the old Face-to-Face tournament rules from the convention I used to play at that ran events from 2004 - ~2019. It’s a custom set of Victory Cities you can play with that adds a bit of depth to the game strategy wise.

@Topmat
Just donate it. Who knows? You might just inspire the next generation of A&A Players.

@taamvan Not sure myself. My attempts to host a game have all failed for whatever reason (I’ve been too lazy to look into it).

I’m currently in something like 10 games right not, haha. Most of them are just idling in the lobby but the few I’ve been in have been going smoothly.

Having a harder AI would be beneficial to newer/inexperienced players who are trying to ramp up to real opponents. The current AI is a joke and I’m pretty sure that even the “Easy AI” from TripleA could beat it.

I wasn’t able to send fighters to their death in my game (post-patch). It even forced me to NCM a Carrier to pickup a Fighter even though I would have rather had it die. It seriously screwed up my gameplan because it left the Carrier and Fighter in-range of a US counter.

You can turn the combat animations and stuff off on the options menu (little gear in the upper-left of the UI), but there’s still tons of clicking you have to do.

I agree with all of your other points though, especially the option to “play live”. I don’t understand why this game is being dogpiled on when it’s in Early Access. It’s supposed to be a buggy mess, we’re basically paying to be bug testers for Beamdog right now. The game’s actually improved a fair bit (no more random JavaScript crashes, faster load times, less rule errors, etc.) since it launched last week, and I only imagine that things will continue to improve as we roll along.

@the_good_captain Game History

Round: 4

    Puchase Units - Russians
        Condition TankProductionRussians: Russians has their production frontier changed to: lateWarProduction
        Russians buy 2 artilleries and 3 infantry; Remaining resources: 0 PUs; 

    Combat Move - Russians
        Turning on Edit Mode
        EDIT: Removing units owned by Russians from Ukraine: 14 artilleries and 1 infantry
        EDIT: Adding units owned by Russians to Ukraine: 2 artilleries and 18 infantry
        EDIT: Removing units owned by Russians from Ukraine: 2 artilleries and 18 infantry
        EDIT: Adding units owned by Russians to Tatarstan: 1 artillery and 14 infantry
        EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
        2 infantry moved from Moscow to Karelia
        1 battleship moved from SZ 10 to SZ 9

    Combat - Russians
        Battle in Karelia
            Russians attack with 2 infantry
            AustroHungarians defend with 1 infantry and 1 port
                Russians roll dice for 2 infantry in Karelia, round 2 : 0/2 hits, 0.67 expected hits
                AustroHungarians roll dice for 1 infantry in Karelia, round 2 : 1/1 hits, 0.50 expected hits
                1 infantry owned by the Russians lost in Karelia
            AustroHungarians and Russians reach a stalemate
            . Battle score for attacker is -3
            Casualties for Russians: 1 infantry

    Combat Move - Russians
        Turning on Edit Mode
        EDIT: Adding units owned by Russians to Ukraine: 19 artilleries and 5 infantry
        EDIT: Removing units owned by Russians from Tatarstan: 1 artillery and 14 infantry
        EDIT: Removing units owned by Russians from Moscow: 1 artillery, 1 factory and 4 infantry
        EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
        Turning on Edit Mode
        EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode

    Place Units - Russians
        Turning on Edit Mode
        EDIT: Adding units owned by Russians to Moscow: 1 factory
        EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
        Turning on Edit Mode
        EDIT: Adding units owned by Russians to Moscow: 2 artilleries and 3 infantry
        EDIT: Turning off Edit Mode
        2 artilleries and 3 infantry were produced but were not placed

    Turn Complete - Russians
        Russians collect 10 PUs; end with 10 PUs

Combat Hit Differential Summary :

Russians regular : -0.67
AustroHungarians regular : 0.50

1914-game-4-r4.tsvg

My edits got SERIOUSLY screwed up on that turn while I was trying to get the battle in Ukraine to not fire (but stay contested). I think I got everything set back up right correctly but double-check my work.

Unfortunately, 42 (1st Ed) is caught between a rock and a hard place.
The game has Revised’s Map/Setup but with Anniversary’s Rule Set (sans China and Italy).

This succeeds at alienating both the “old school” players, who prefer the rule set of Classic/Revised (Transports that can defend themselves, subs that defend on 2, old AA rules, etc.) and the “new school” players, who prefer the larger and more involved maps like 42SE and G40 (and its many variants).

It also doesn’t help that defenseless transports combined with the small scale of the board make the following tasks absurdly difficult:

• Establishing a US/UK Navy in the Atlantic capable of landings any earlier than round 3/4

• Establishing any sort of German Fleet capable of holding Norway/taking UK

• Establishing any sort of meaningful (i.e. capable of threatening the Pacific Islands) Japanese/American Fleet

Not that this doesn’t leave a balanced game (it sort of does, in my opinion anyway), but it severely limits the diversity in strategies that can be employed by both sides.  This leads to the conclusions that Wibe has made about the “optimal” strategies being relatively stale (compared to other versions of the game, anyway.  Even in the fairly static Revised there’s a few variations in strategy available to both sides).

In my opinion, you might be better off going one of four ways:
1. Keep playing 42 1st Edition.  Don’t let some pessimists on the internet get you down!
2. Try playing with the Revised setup/rules on the 42 1st Edition Board.  The setups for the games are identical (just swap out
3. Try buying 42SE (or make the leap to G40).  All the rules (for the most part) are the same as 42 1st Edition with bigger and more detailed maps/setups.
4. Any combo of 1, 2, 3.  Don’t limit yourself to just one version of A&A!

@Xlome_00 If you download “World War 2 V3” from the maps collection, it will come with two scenarios. “World War 2 V3 1941” and “World War 2 V3 1942”. Which is which should be obvious.

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog Appreciated!

If it helps from a debugging perspective, I played two “sessions” yesterday. First session was 8PM EST - 9 PM EST and the lag issue was pretty bad. Second session was from 12AM EST - 12:30 AM EST and the lag was not nearly as bad. I made moves in 3 separate games in the latter session and only had to reset once during a NCM phase. During the earlier session I had to reset after every turn I took, sometimes 2-3 times during a turn as well.

I’m thinking it may be tied to server load/bandwidth issues from too many people playing/too many active games on the server, but I don’t have any hard proof of my thoughts since (obviously) I don’t have logs/health status checks from your Servers.

My ping to the game is fine btw. Like 120 ms.

@the_good_captain Game History

Round: 5

    Puchase Units - French
        French buy 3 artilleries, 1 fighter, 2 infantry and 1 tank; Remaining resources: 0 PUs; 

    Combat Move - French
        1 transport moved from SZ 16 to SZ 14
        2 infantry moved from Portugal to SZ 14
        2 infantry and 1 transport moved from SZ 14 to SZ 16
        2 infantry moved from SZ 16 to Marseilles
        1 artillery and 1 infantry moved from Piedmont to Venice
        1 artillery and 3 infantry moved from Lorraine to Alsace
        7 artilleries, 2 fighters and 29 infantry moved from Belgium to Alsace
        10 infantry moved from Picardy to Lorraine
        3 fighters moved from Paris to Lorraine
        1 artillery and 1 infantry moved from Paris to Picardy

    Combat - French
        Battle in Alsace
            French attack with 8 artilleries, 2 fighters and 32 infantry
            Germans defend with 2 infantry
                French roll dice for 8 artilleries, 2 fighters and 32 infantry in Alsace, round 2 : 15/42 hits, 18.00 expected hits
                Germans roll dice for 2 infantry in Alsace, round 2 : 1/2 hits, 1.00 expected hits
                2 infantry owned by the Germans and 1 infantry owned by the French lost in Alsace
            French win, taking Alsace from Germans with 8 artilleries, 2 fighters and 31 infantry remaining. Battle score for attacker is 3
            Casualties for French: 1 infantry
            Casualties for Germans: 2 infantry

    Combat Move - French

    Place Units - French
        3 artilleries, 1 fighter, 2 infantry and 1 tank placed in Paris

    Turn Complete - French
        French collect 30 PUs; end with 30 PUs

Combat Hit Differential Summary :

French regular : -3.00
Germans regular : 0.00

You’re right on the mine question, actually. Now I’m confused as to how the port in SZ17 ever got flipped at all.

@panther Ah, that’s right. Somehow I misread the board category since usually 42SE is the one with the bad reputation while most tend to ignore Spring 42.

@All-Encompassing-Goose As Panther said, ignore the critics and play on. Most of the complaints about this version are about the lackluster components (money, plastic guys, etc.) rather than the actual gameplay. If that kind of thing actually bothers you or your friends just use the pieces from one of the other games (if you own any others).

@djensen In it to win it.

@taamvan Whoops. I was at work when this was all going down. Sorry I missed the boat.

Agree with Black_Elk though. I’ve been playing all my games on a PBEM-basis. I just don’t have 3-4 continuous hours of free time to sit down and play out a full game live these days. Best I can manage is like 1-3 moves (countries, not full rounds) per game I’m in a day.

@the_good_captain You can’t move the Ottomans out of Sevastopol and into Ukraine:

Pg. 15 of the rules (under “Land Units”):

“Land units that begin the turn in contested territories can only be moved to territories that are controlled by your power, or to territories that are also contested and already contain units belonging to your power. If they are moved by transport, they may also remain at sea.”

I bring this up because I would have done the same thing you did (move most of my units from Sevastopol into Ukraine) had I been allowed to.

The links to tournament results are on the A&A WBC archive pages. This index links to all the history pages so you can see what the meta was like over the years:
http://boardgamers.org/eventhistory/a&a.html

The actual link to the rules is dead because A&A is no longer hosted by WBC (due to low attendance numbers among other things). Fortunately, a link to the rules is still available via Archive.org and the wayback machine. Link below:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150905215134/http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbkex/a&apge.htm

Full dump of the rules in my next post.

In it to win it again. Sorry I was a bit late.

@Black_Elk @JuliusBorisovBeamdog Interesting news for sure! Is this the LHTR ruleset or a new and unique setup? Can’t check Steam as I’m at work.

Thanks for doing this, though! I still have my dream of playing other versions on this client but I’m grateful for having OOB + an alternative setup for this map (for free) within ~1 month of launch.

@The_Good_Captain Wait I screwed up the FTR movement in Europe. Can you edit 1 French INF from Alsace back to Lorraine?

@Hansolo88 said in Axis & Allies Stalingrad: Early Review and Balance Impressions:

assuming you are talking about both scenarios (as I still think the tournament scenario feels superbly balanced right from the start).

Assuming you’re calling the “Operation Uranus” scenario the “Tournament Scenario”. That was not the intent by the staff. “Race to Stalingrad” is the full game that is expected to be played. The Uranus Scenario is supposed to be a teaching/tutorial scenario for a quick game.

I don’t claim to speak for the rest of the staff, but we actually spent far more time working on the base scenario Vs. the Uranus one. If anything, the Uranus one is an afterthought. I’d be alarmed/surprised if Gen Con and the other “powers that be” are promoting it as the “official” scenario. IMO USSR is better there, but there is a lot of variance due to the cards.

Playing with awareness of and trying to take advantage of “No Step Back”

This one is critical for German success, which you already seem to understand.

Gaining some experience on approaching and attacking into the city from the 3 possible options
Gaining familiarity with the force multiplier ability

Speaking strictly from a High-level, I would generally recommend picking 1-2 entry points max and not all 3, since Germany will get its forces spread too thin otherwise.

Being sufficiently aware of the supply system to take advantage of attacking the Volga ferries on specific turns etc.

Another point about supply that I see potentially being overlooked (from what little I’ve watched of others playing the game, anyway) is the rules nuance that each ferry only supplies one section of the city (color-coded), and that you cannot draw supply from a ferry to a different point, even if there is a clear land connection.

Understanding how to play to the victory conditions

This could potentially be a trap if Germany is aiming for something like a minor from the word go. If they can’t be aggressive and actively deny the Soviets their IPC-producing spaces in the city they’ll just get drowned (like what you are experiencing in your games).

I’m going to throw in a few (again, general high-level points since there is no TripleA plugin I can use to illustrate and I don’t like “backseat gaming” too much) other points of interest that I see get overlooked:

• Germany needing to know when to sacrifice its air ball (or at least risk sacrificing it) to break down a position on the city map.

• Making the supply drop via air to the cut-off territory (I forgot the name sorry) on turn 1 to ensure (or almost ensure) a win there.

• Not overstacking the river IPC territories on the north flank of the map (and just using the once-every-two-turns INF to bolster the numbers there).

• Not attacking into the Soviet reinforcement zones on the Don map (since, if they are not contested or occupied, they can only produce one unit per turn).

• Abandon normal A&A high-level concepts like slowly INF-pushing and pursuing a mobile war where you race to get on top of some of the IPC tiles in the city as quickly as possible.

• OOL timing being much different for Germany Vs. what you’d expect from A&A. I was typically going Minor Axis (since they can’t force multiply) -> ART -> STUG -> INF -> MECH -> TANK.

• Abusing the fact that the other player must attack in contested territories during their turn. This means that attacking into INF-heavy USSR territories can ultimately work out in the long-term as they are forced to attack @1 during their half of the turn.

• Intentionally contesting territories to deny the IPCs to the Soviet player.

@Hansolo88 said in Axis & Allies Stalingrad: Early Review and Balance Impressions:

As for the Soviets getting 100s of RPs worth of units, I don’t see how the Axis can prevent it. The Axis can’t truly penetrate into the city until Turn 4 at the earliest; by that point the Soviets have already picked up ~50 RPs directly, plus another ~40 from the factories,

40 from the factories? In 4 turns USSR would have 2 ART and 2 TANK, for 20 IPC. Minor nitpick but that might make a big difference if you were missing that detail.

and they’ll continue to get a lesser amount depending on how the fighting in the city goes. That’s in addition to the easily ~100-150 RPs worth of units from Operation Uranus.

If Germany is playing properly they should be able to properly layer blockers outside of the city to make the Uranus forces irrelevant with regards to the fighting inside the city. How exactly they go about doing that would vary greatly based on the game state, of course.

There simply aren’t enough Axis units to push through the starting Soviet units, deal with these constant reinforcements, AND garrison the RP spaces so that the Axis can eventually get some RPs of their own.

The reinforcements from the Soviets take ~3 turns to reach a relevant point in the city, if not longer depending on where the fighting is happening:
1: USSR buys units, places them in Krasnaya, and moves them onto the ferry (at a rate of 1 INF per turn before the river freezes later). Also note that ONLY INF cross the river.

2: The INF unloads in its relevant rally point. If any of these territories are going to be contested by the unloading then Germany is probably doing very well.

3: The INF move up.

Even then, if Germany doesn’t go overly wide in their attack, speaking strictly about reinforcements, only 1-2 Soviet INF per turn should be able to actively make it to a relevant area in the city in the first few rounds of the game. The TANKs from the tractor factory are a strong point for the Soviet player, since they have 2 Movement and good stats, but in the initial, critical turns where Germany is trying to get its foothold in the city there will only be two of them. Additionally, if the German player is targeting the factories (another point of interest; once a factory is lost once, it’s gone forever).

My point with this wall of text is that the IPC counts you’re referencing do not reflect the full reality of how the game actually plays out if Germany is not playing a conventional, slow-but-steady INF push strategy.

@Hansolo88 said in Axis & Allies Stalingrad: Early Review and Balance Impressions:

You are correct that bidding was included in the rules as an optional rule, per page 28. I have not attempted this yet but it’s in theory an easy fix for boosting the Axis starting forces.

Reducing/Boosting the Axis starting forces is actually very delicate. Given how small the IPC count is across the board (16 in the city, 4 on the outside), if Germany takes even 6 IPC off of USSR you will see that they begin to completely collapse across the board due to lack of reinforcements. The Uranus forces are extremely powerful (the general idea is that, if Germany can pressure USSR to blow their Uranus deployment early (round 5/6), then Germany will be at a huge advantage going into the late game, but if USSR is able to defend well enough to deploy on the last possible turn (round 7), then Soviets will have the edge unless Germany somehow racked up a huge IPC count for Winter Storm.

@Hansolo88 said in Axis & Allies Stalingrad: Early Review and Balance Impressions:

. However it does feel like the entire box ix focused on a narrow popular view of the campaign rather than the full picture of what the Axis were trying to accomplish

Two Last/minor points: Even though I defended them from a balance perspective in another thread, I do wish the Minor Axis pieces had something else to them to give them more flavor (beyond being yellow for Romania, anyway). They were actually added pretty late in development and there was a desire this time to avoid making the game feel overly bloated with minor/one-off rules (since the complexity level of North Africa was divisive).

There was also some discussion to make the starting date earlier, as the in-game start date reflects a point where the Germans already took a surprisingly large number of casualties by attrition (meaning the battle was basically already lost), but that was also sacrificed because the feeling was that the game was already running long (which was apparently the correct call, since F2F cons are apparently talking about using the shorter scenario for tournaments with the game as-is).

Happy to keep discussing if needed. I apologize that I keep generalizing but I generally do better with this sort of thing when I can have TripleA open in front of me to show specific moves/battles/probability calculations.

EDIT: I misstated that there were only 14 IPCs in the city. That was a typo. There are 16.

@djensen I hit “honored” by mistake because I did not realize “distinguished” was an option.
Can I buy a second “honored” tier to get the “distinguished” role (120 X 2 = 240)?

The bug fixes are super appreciated. I can get through my 8 active games in ~20 minutes now Vs. ~2 hours before. Having the LHTR as an alternative setup is fantastic as well!