@baron-Münchhausen Baron, I know you are deeply passionate about the mathematical details of custom unit stats, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about here – I wanted to discuss an alternate set of national objectives.
Many people would agree with you that German tanks are overpowered in Anniversary 1941, but my personal opinion is that the 5-IPC tanks work just fine on this map…the problem with the map is that it is difficult and unrewarding to try to stop Japan from quickly exploding into a very large sphere of influence that includes all of Australia, India, the Pacific islands, western China, and Siberia. The Allies just don’t start with enough pieces in the Pacific theater to put up a credible opposition, and if the USA goes 100% Pacific to try to compensate then it is easy for the USA to wind up collecting ~45 IPCs / turn while Japan is earning ~50 IPCs / turn, which feels weird. With no bid, you can’t safely build a factory in Australia OR India even if you put 100% of your resources into it…so you have to either completely abandon the Pacific and ignore Japan while it mushrooms into a beast, or build a factory in South Africa and land American troops in West Africa and march them northeast to fight the Japanese in Egypt. That’s kind of nuts. That’s the problem I’m trying to solve. I think Germany vs. Russia is actually quite well-balanced on this map as long as the Allies put a little pressure on Germany in the west.
@Cernel I have never played the game without NOs, so you could be right, but I have trouble seeing how the math adds up. Typically on turn 1, the Allies will collect NOs for Russia’s xenophobia, the UK’s territorial integrity, the USA’s mainland, and the USA’s Pacific islands. You might also get an NO for the Philippines, so 20 to 25 IPCs in Allied NOs. Meanwhile, the Axis will typically collect NOs for Germany’s Fortress Europe, for Germany’s Lebensraum, for Italy’s clear Med, for Japan’s Chinese coast, and perhaps for Japan’s money islands: again, 20 to 25 IPCs in Axis NOs. Eliminating the NOs on turn 1 shouldn’t make much a difference.
Later in the game, say, by turn 4, in a Kill Germany first setup, the Allies will typically collect Russia’s xenophobia, the UK’s French bonus, the USA’s mainland, and the USA’s French bonus, for roughly 20 IPCs. The Axis will typically collect 2 German NOs, 0 Italian NOs, and all 3 Japanese NOs, for roughly 25 IPCs. Again, not a huge difference.
If instead it’s a Kill Japan First setup, the Allies will typically collect the UK’s territorial integrity, the UK’s Japanese island bonus, the USA’s mainland bonus, the USA’s pacific island bonus, and perhaps the USA’s Philippine bonus, for 20 to 25 IPCs. The Axis should have all 3 German NOs, 1 Italian NO (assuming modest American landings in Morocco), and 1 or 2 Japanese NOs, for 25 to 30 IPCs. Still not a huge difference.
So if you eliminate the NOs, maybe the Axis lose about 5 IPCs per turn vs. the Allies in the middlegame, but it’s not clear to me that that’s enough of a change (or the right kind of change) to balance Japan’s early explosion.
Also, mandatory effective bomber spam is a pretty big drawback, in my opinion! Have you ever tried using the Balanced Mod interceptor rules (fighters intercept bombers @ 2) to see if that helps contain the spam?
