Axis and Allies Anniversary Series on YouTube:

[The_Good_Captain]

The first two of what will be a twelve part series on Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition (1941 setup) are now available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ibSw0y4zkI&t=16s

[The_Good_Captain]

the first strategic video is up, Germany (part 6 of the series): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8t_hnN3D7c

[The_Good_Captain]

Japanese strategic video is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMXsyTXfGzc&t=12s

[The_Good_Captain]

@the_good_captain Russian strategic video is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igTq-F8Jub4&t=5s

[Cernel]

@the_good_captain I have immediately to disagree on your statement that “this game is, unfortunately, unbalanced in favour of the Axis”. I belive the game itself is well balanced or maybe even slightly in favour of the Allies as long as it is played with no optional rules at all (mostly meaning without National Objectives and without interception). Of course, I’m stating this on the assumption that Americans will invest heavily on bombing raiding (which is a huge game-changer, favouring the Allies more than the Axis, as long as both National Objectives and interception are not used).

[The_Good_Captain]

@cernel

Right. If you don’t activate “escorts and Interceptors” I agree the game is imbalanced in favor of the Allies.

In my series, I advise the use of that optional rule to fix that particular buggy aspect of the game. My “green skies” video addresses this in more detail.

[Cernel]

@the_good_captain Actually, I didn’t affirm it to be clearly unbalanced in favour of the Allies. I’ve almost no experience in playing with no options, so I’m not sure, but I tend to think the game is about perfectly balanced with no options (the sort-of-broken bombing raiding rules about exactly counterbalancing the advantages of Axis without taking bombing raiding into account). Of course, the game cannot be actually perfectly balanced, so I guess it is more likely slightly in favour of the Allies than of the Axis when played “vanilla”.

[Cernel]

@the_good_captain said in Axis and Allies Anniversary Series on YouTube::

@cernel

Right. If you don’t activate “escorts and Interceptors” I agree the game is imbalanced in favor of the Allies.

In my series, I advise the use of that optional rule to fix that particular buggy aspect of the game. My “green skies” video addresses this in more detail.

Also, I’m positive that, if you don’t activate “Escorts and Interceptors” but do activate “National Objectives”, the game is modestly in favour of the Axis. Pretty much all optional rules favour the Axis except the Dardanelles closure, which is impacting very little on balance (as Italy has good alternative options), and the 13 victory cities condition, which just requires the Axis to be a bit careful avoiding the Allies sneaking an early victory but doesn’t really impact much.

Of course, with your strategy of stacking both Belorussia and Caucasus on round 1, having the Dardanelles open (allowing Italy to take averagely slightly more than 1.5 infantry out there in exchange for 1 infantry and 1 artillery) may seriously impact on balance, but I don’t believe Russia has to be played that way.

[The_Good_Captain]

@cernel okay, I see what you’re getting at now. The thought of leaving National Objectives “on” and Escorts and Interceptors “off”(or “vanilla” as you call it), to take a shot at balance definitely occurred to me. Both were obvious bugs to me but I played, I think, just two games in this format to see if “two bugs make a right” and it became apparent that the NOs still outweighed the potential damage from the “green skies” saturation bombing.

[It was found that paying off the IPC damage as the axis is far, far less economically consequential when N.O.s are in play - when you’re pulling in 15 IPC extra per turn and the max damage is 20 IPC per turn, it just doesn’t hurt that bad, not to mention AA guns will start taking a toll. In other words, the adverse affects of both of these bugs are not equal in my findings. They do not cancel each other out or otherwise make for a good game.]

I am open to stacking another few games towards that calibration but I felt (and still feel) confident in my experience to come to the conclusion I have. The tipping point for me was the mandatory build out of the USA player. “build bombers or bust - you bastard” is a nonstarter for many players.

Further, I can say with confidence that experienced online players on this website don’t do NOs or at least don’t do them without some massive bid for the Allies.

Also…Keeping with the same group of online players: regarding Escorts and Interceptors I feel there is still some confusion as regards why it’s needed. (not helped by the fact that TripleA has the wrong rules for EandI for Anniversary). But I’m confident enough to say, as I have said in games without NOs where I’m the Allies, “If we don’t use EandI then I have to tell you before the game exactly what I’m going to do as the USA so you can try to stop it from happening.” But insofar as I can tell, it cannot be stopped.

So in my conclusion, NOs without EandI is a bust (as is not using NOs without EandI).

This is why I recommend the optional rules be set to the following:

13 victory cities
No Tech
No National Objectives
Close the Dardanelles
Use Escorts and Interceptors

Its still easier (imbalanced) to be the axis with this setup but at least there are no bugs (no USA bomber spam and no massive cash influx for the axis).

[Cernel]

Actually, with “vanilla” I meant no optional rules so neither NO nor interception.

@the_good_captain said in Axis and Allies Anniversary Series on YouTube::

Also…Keeping with the same group of online players: regarding Escorts and Interceptors I feel there is still some confusion as regards why it’s needed. (not helped by the fact that TripleA has the wrong rules for EandI for Anniversary).

Simply always use the “WWIIv3 1941 Move-Buy-Move” game of the “ww2v3_variants” map, which is better also for a few other matters.

[The_Good_Captain]

@cernel said in Axis and Allies Anniversary Series on YouTube::

Actually, with “vanilla” I meant no optional rules so neither NO nor interception.

i slightly misused your definition of vanilla - but I addressed this definition as well in my comment.

@the_good_captain said in Axis and Allies Anniversary Series on YouTube::

Also…Keeping with the same group of online players: regarding Escorts and Interceptors I feel there is still some confusion as regards why it’s needed. (not helped by the fact that TripleA has the wrong rules for EandI for Anniversary).

Simply always use the “WWIIv3 1941 Move-Buy-Move” game of the “ww2v3_variants” map, which is better also for a few other matters.

I’ll check this out but intend to submit a bug report to have it fixed.

[The_Good_Captain]

The UK video is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUVCAq-iPbI&t=3s

[The_Good_Captain]

The United States video is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrB3pkdogh4

The final video in this series will appear in about 4 weeks and will review balance and act as a Q&A for comments received throughout this series.

[The_Good_Captain]

The final video in my 12 part series has been posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QModTkxr7rs

This video discusses balance and bidding as well as a few other topics including some shout-outs to a handful of opponents I ran into on this fine website.