Thank you for your analysis, Imp. I’ll try to explain my thinking behind each of those rules that you brought up. Please don’t hessitate to let me know if any of my following arguments don’t make sense:
The total number of possible allied infantry builds is 13 more units than the axis… so the axis have to get over a hump both in terms of regaining paridy of allowable Infantry builds and total Victory points.Furthermore the axis have a comparative demerit on what they conquer vs. what the allies can take. This also makes it difficult for the axis to get over this “manpower hump”
IMHO I don’t think it’s accurate to really add together the lower Axis infantry placement limit and weakened Axis economy to say this combined effect to is too difficult to overcome. The reason is because the infantry limits are so high that basically the only force working here is still only the weakened Axis economy. Let’s analyze the effect of the infantry placementlimits by nation, comparing these house rules with the out of box AAR rules.
Russia with AAR rules: With Russia’s economy generally hovering somewhere between 27 and 21, they would be purchasing between 7-9 infantry. They would only be able to place 4 in Caucasus and 3-5 in Russia.
Russia with new rules: Where can Russia place the 7-9 infantry now? They can only place 3 in Caucasus and the remainder in Russia, except if Russia spends more than 24 IPCs on infantry then they have to place the excess in Novo (assuming Karelia is in German hands).
There are a couple factors that reduce Russia’s economy from what it might otherwise be with the AAR rules; 1) Germany can put pressure on Russia much faster with infantry placement in Ukraine. 2) when we include the modified turn sequence (with collect income before combat instead of after) Russia won’t be able to boost their economy by trading W. Russia or Belo., etc with Germany. The bottom line is that if Russia could buy more than 8 infantry on a turn before, the reduced economy will make it much less likely this will happen now. Consequently the only outcome of the infantry placement limits will be only 3 infantry in Caucasus per turn instead of 4. This may seem to some people to be a huge disadvantage for Russia, after all 1 less infantry per turn can really add up. But remember, that 1 infantry that had to be placed in Russia instead of Cauc. can be moved into Cauc. next turn so the result effect isn’t 1 less per turn but 1 less (total; not per turn) for 1 turn only. This 1 less infantry isn’t that big a weakness for Russia.
*********All in all, Russia is in a little worse position with these new infantry placement rules, but not by much.
Germany with AAR rules: If Germany’s economy is around 45 IPCs, that’s at most 15 infantry. But who buys all infantry as Germany? Infantry are important but Germany needs to buy at least a couple rtl and/or armor. I can’t remember playing a game and Germany ever buying more than 13 infantry.
Germany with new rules: Germany limited to 13 infantry, but they never really purchased more than 13 anyway, so the limit is basically the same. Now these 13 infantry can be placed on the front lines (2 in Ukraine and 1 in Norway and 1 in Karelia). I think we can all agree that Germany’s position with these new rules is much better.
*************All in all, Germany will never buy more than 13 infantry per turn so the limit is mute, but the places Germany can place their infantry give them a good advantage.
UK with AAR rules: In the middle part of the game, UK’s economy is around 20 IPCs. That’s about 6 infantry.
UK with new rules: Right from the 1st turn, they can place 2 infantry in India and 1 in Cairo. Cairo won’t stand long, and when it falls this 1 per turn in Cairo won’t be available until it’s taken back in the distant future. But including the 2 per turn for defense in Australia, UK is in much better position against Japan.
UK can only place 3 infantry in UK. This is a factor only when the Allies are doing KGF but not really by much given UK’s typically weak economy (UK will be lucky if they can fill 3 transports per turn).
***************All in all, UK is in better position overall with a stronger presence against Japan and only a slightly weaker presence against Germany.
Japan with AAR rules: Without any additional ICs, Japan would be buying no more than 8 infantry. More ICs usually just add armor units, not more infantry, so Japan will usually buy no more than 8 infantry no matter what their economy grows to.
Japan with new rules: Japan is limited to 9 infantry now. They can only buy 5 for their capital now, but the 3 less infantry in Japan are now placed in mainland Asia so this headstart is definitely a bonus for Japan (not to mention not needing to buy as many transports).
**************All in all, Japan is in better position with more of a head start in infantry in Asia.
US with AAR rules: I find US would typically be loading up 4 transports a turn and sending them to Europe. For this they would buy 4-6 infantry a turn.
US with new rules: US can only buy 3 for their capital, but they can supplement this with a couple from C. US. They can still ship quite a few infantry per turn into Europe, but not as easily and with a significantly reduced upper limit of infantry. The 2 infantry per turn in China helps a lot, but China will be taken in the first couple of turns so this advantage will quickly be taken away.
***************All in all, US is in a much worse position with these new rules.
If we take the conclusions from each nation we’ll find that hands down US and Russia are in worse position and hands down UK and Germany are in better position. Japan is in better position, but the combo of UK and US in Asia are in even better position than Japan so Japan is relatively in slightly worse position in Asia. Japan will eventually take China due to it’s poor strategic position and when it falls there will be a snowball effect so Japan will still take Asia, but just slower than before. This is why I say the weaker position of Japan isn’t enough to take away from the added advantage on the German/Russian front for the Axis and concluding that these new rules give the Axis the overall advantage.
As for the 13 extra Allied infantry per turn, the Allies always had this advantage of building more men. It comes with the economic advantage. All I did was set a formal limit where there wasn’t one before to cut down on possible unrealistic effects. The limits are high enough that it shouldn’t hinder the Aixs further than their economy already does.
