Best posts made by Domsterlord

There is something very inconsistent with AA50 regarding play balance and Nos.

In both 1941 and 1942 axis has very easy access to at least 30 Ipcs of Nos and not that hard to get 40…

Allies have easy access to 10 Ipcs and sometimes get 5 or 10 more.

Thats a 20-30 Ipc swing for axis at the very least.

Now This is not a problem in itself, the inconsistency is that Nos are OPTIONAL. How can 2 versions of the game be balanced if in one of them axis has a huge bonus of Nos and in the other they have nothing?

This leads to two conclusions:

Either the game is balanced with OR without Nos but it cant be both at the same time.

If Nos are inbalanced, is there a way to fix them?

Its not the total of The nos that make it unbalanced, its their difficulty to achieve:

Japan: 1st No is given
2nd No is very easy (given in 1942)
3rd No is easy, especially in 1941

Germany:

1st No is Given
2nd No is Very easy (given in 1942)
3rd No is easy (kiarelia or Cau, Hard for Russia to defend both)

Italy:

1st No is easy ( at least at the start)
2n is not that hard to get

so axis: 25-40 easy to medium Nos
Allies:
Russia:
1st No is easy but prevents allies to be on Russian soil.
2nd No is pretty hard to get, at least very early in the game.

Uk: 1st No is hard to kepp as you have to keep Egypt
2nd No is very hard to get unless Us goes for iwo jima?
3 No is average to get, hard early on

USA:
1st no Is given
2nd No is almost impossible to get
3rd No: same as 3rd of Uk
4th No: not that bad but takes a couple of turns in 1942
allies: 10 easy
10 medium
and 30 hard to get.

If the allies get those hard to get Nos, the game is probably over anyway…

I do agree that they force some sides to do historical things. Taking france or Africa is a very good example.

The only problem is I feel that they are way too hard to get for the allies. Commonwealth No for England requires to control ALL territories, Egypt is gone turn 2 at best in most games, there is almost nothing that can be done to prevent this.

The phillipines one is even more ridiculous…

I dont know, I think they have to be tweaked a bit.

I Think some people missed my point…
I am NOT against Nos, I find they are a great rule in essence. My point is that Nos are an optional rule, but they skew the play balance. Now either they inbalance an otherwise balanced game or they balance an otherwise inbalanced one, taht remains to be determined. however for them to keep play balance about the same they would have to be modified slightly. For example, Japans second No could require to capture all 6 territories instead of 4. Its just that I dont find that its fair to think that they dont advantage a side…