'Bids'? and Scramble ?

[Matt89]

I keep hearing references to ‘bids’ and I cannot find it anywhere.  Am I missing something?

2nd question-

Say I have a German fighter in Southern Italy.  UK attacks the Italian navy off the coast (no German ships), can the German fighter scramble to protect the Italian fleet?

Thanks!

[taamvan]

1: bid is a house/tourney/balance rule, its an auction to add units to the game.  Its used to balance the original setups or handicaps in league or club play to make things more fair.

2: Yes, but still your limit is 3 per airbase.  You choose which 3 tacs/fighters go up each time.  Having more than 3 total axis fig/tacs on rome is a great idea mixing striking//intercepting/scrambling

[Caesar-Seriona]

I don’t like the bid system because I get the logic that the Axis powers have the largest advantage of turn 4 so adding units for the Allies balance this out but the Allies will end up winning in the end.

I don’t know how everyone else does it but the group I play with, the two largest bids are Axis and then you average those two bids for the allies so if the top Axis bids are $20 and $10, then the allies will be awarded $15.

[simon33]

@Caesar:

I don’t like the bid system because I get the logic that the Axis powers have the largest advantage of turn 4 so adding units for the Allies balance this out but the Allies will end up winning in the end.

I don’t know how everyone else does it but the group I play with, the two largest bids are Axis and then you average those two bids for the allies so if the top Axis bids are $20 and $10, then the allies will be awarded $15.

Allies didn’t win in the end in league games in spite of being spotted 20+ IPCs. Axis was about 70% IIRC.

[taamvan]

I just give the Allies 12-18 G40 to start the game because we usually pre-choose sides.  Against dave, 12? House bid.  Axis still wins most games (except against dave!)

[Arthur Bomber Harris]

I do “bids” based on the relative difference between sides.  If I am much better, the Allies could get up to 100 PU of extra units.  If they are much better, I usually just give an extra UK sub in the Med.    In games of even skill, the bid is typically in the 20-40 range.  We definitely see from League games that the Axis can still win >50% of the time even with a 20-30 PU Allied bid.  I think that approximately 40 is now necessary to give the Allies a 50-50 shot of beating a skilled opponent.

Just mention the word bid and you will start to hear people whining that the game MUST be balanced because it MUST, and how they are able to beat lower-skilled opponents without a bid, or some other long rant.  Yawn…

[barney]

“Bids and Scramble”
sounds like a good name for a board game  :lol:

[WILD BILL]

@barney:

“Bids and Scramble”
sounds like a good name for a board game   :lol:

IDK “Chutes and Ladders” just came to mind lol