Italy a bad design

@TexCapPrezJimmy:

Who cares that the UK commitment to the Med is going to get smeared by German planes. The point is that now Italy’s Navy consists of 1 Cruiser, 1 Destroyer, and 1 transport and has an income of, wait for it, 10 IPCs, which isn’t even enough to get a carrier.

I think I have a solution for this; it came up in another thread. Let Italy take France! That would give them all the IPCs they would need to rebuild the Italian navy on I2.

I hadn’t noticed that the border of Northern Italy touches France before… This means that the Germans can soften France up G1 with a strafing move, and then retreat before the territory is taken. Italy steps in I1, gets the cash bonus and the IPCs, and becomes superstar of the Med, Africa, and the Middle East. Sure, they’d be obligated to support Germany in a much more direct and coordinated manner (perhaps Germany could act as can-opener for Italy on the Eastern Front!  :lol: ), but this could be better for the team in the long run. Axis IPCs are Axis IPCs, at the end of the day. It only matters where the Axis feels they should be spent. This is one of those rare scenarios wherein the players have a good amount of control about how to distribute IPCs amongst themselves.

It’ll take a few games to test it out, but this is definitely a good theoretical fix to your worries about the weak Italian starting position. The only real obstacle to it would be the German player’s wisdom and restraint in keeping the G1 battle for Paris going long enough to significantly weaken the French–but stopping before they accidentally win! (Retreating with a bad case of Battleus Interruptus…)

The logic behind Italy losing before it takes a turn resides on how long 1 game turn is suppose to be. Though I agree attempting to put a time scale on each game turn doesn’t make to much sense, (for a whole host of reasons I won’t go into) the fact remains that I have read in many posts, references, and charts of expansions to the AA game that 1 game turn is suppose to be around 3 months. Wether Italy becomes irrelevant to N. Africa in turn 1, 2, or 3, I think can be argued, but making Italy to weak to be victorious in N. Africa by itself makes perfect sense.

Can Italy hold out in N. Africa and get some help from Germany. I don’t know. That is not how my game is turning out, but there are so many options Germany can take it is impossible for me to “logically” argue at this point, they cannot. If all Germany can do is help Italy keep hold of N. Africa with a few of its resources until it pushes deep into Russia, guess what: Eqypt becomes a closer target and one that becomes a viable option for Germany. The front is so long now that a dedicated push against Russia, MIGHT not be the best stragety. There are some great advantages to playing defense half way between Germany and Moscow, waiting for Japan to attack if they are successful in thier front, while making a push against Eqypt whom Italy has kept busy with some German help.

In my second game I will greatly study what Germany can do to assist Italy in a minor way without giving up needed victories eslewhere.

Chompers,

I agree with your statement. Japan taking all of Asia then Moscow is much more ridiculous. So we agree, both are ridiculous, just one more than the other.

In the end, I am not arguing that Italy being regulated to such a minor status right off the bat is correct, only that if each game turn is suppose to be 3 0r 4 months, it can still play with a great deal of historical accuracy if Germany was able to get in there and help without losing its advantage in Western and Eastern Europe.

And unless there are players out there without a job who live in there parents basement and have a bunch of friends who are of the same status, no one could have played more than 1 or 2 games, so I just think the whole idea of the game being broken right now is just, silly.

@eddiem4145:

I completely agree that the game is broken. After all, not making the game so Italy can have a 50/50 chance of taking all of africa and making it very likely the Germans have to do it and regulating Italy to a subserviant role is completely broken. What were they thinking. It is like they were making a WW2 scenario in 1940 or something.

Oh and add the game being broken because of France too. I mean, really. France has no chance against Germany. Who would want to play France.

Heh, that you, Ed?  We Axis players are just whining about the indefensibility of Italy.  Damn history, we want this game to give the Italians a fair shake!

@SgtBlitz:

@eddiem4145:

I completely agree that the game is broken. After all, not making the game so Italy can have a 50/50 chance of taking all of africa and making it very likely the Germans have to do it and regulating Italy to a subserviant role is completely broken. What were they thinking. It is like they were making a WW2 scenario in 1940 or something.

Oh and add the game being broken because of France too. I mean, really. France has no chance against Germany. Who would want to play France.

Heh, that you, Ed?  We Axis players are just whining about the indefensibility of Italy.  Damn history, we want this game to give the Italians a fair shake!

We want Brits to get a fair shake, when their entire atlantic fleet can be killed G1, and even the Med fleet can be killed with German planes, remaining Italian navy.

@eddiem4145:

And unless there are players out there without a job who live in there parents basement and have a bunch of friends who are of the same status, no one could have played more than 1 or 2 games, so I just think the whole idea of the game being broken right now is just, silly.

You underestimate the dedication of hardcore gamers enjoying a final week before heading back to college.  I’m 5 games in having had the game since last Friday :)  This isn’t counting a couple test games against my room mate just playing Germany v Russia 1v1’s so I didn’t have to learn the dynamic on the fly mid-game.

I hear you loud and clear Sgt Blitz,

1 thing though. As much attention as a weak Italy has garnered, It amazes me that there hasn’t been 10 times more attention put on the fact that China is so weak. The fact is that Japan was incapable of beating China outside the coast lines without the resources of the East Indies and the surrounding islands. Then they had a chance. The US only put 10% of its resources to fighting Japan and they never got close to conquering China. Though with another tactic like playing more defensively in the pacific once the DEI and islands north of Australia were taken, could have perhaps brought victory in China then perhaps a chance to invade Russia, the fact is China being so weak is utterly ridiculous, much more than Italy being ridiculous.

To fix it, I have played around 10 games with China going first and getting to place 1 extra infantry per territory, and forcing the US navy except for its Aircraft carrier to base and stay in Hawaii until at war and Japan gets 1 double impusle attack that can only be used on the islands to simulate their suprise attacks. This really balanced everything, made it more realistic and put the whole pearl harbor thing into play.

The problem is not Italy. It’s the awfully bad setup of Pacific that has about 3 times the number of aircrafts that it should have. I doubt Larry will ever propose a brand new setup so it looks like it’s gonna be “don’t play global” or “do it yourself”. Personally, I prefer the second option by far…

@Blitz:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@SgtBlitz:

@eddiem4145:

I completely agree that the game is broken. After all, not making the game so Italy can have a 50/50 chance of taking all of africa and making it very likely the Germans have to do it and regulating Italy to a subserviant role is completely broken. What were they thinking. It is like they were making a WW2 scenario in 1940 or something.

Oh and add the game being broken because of France too. I mean, really. France has no chance against Germany. Who would want to play France.

Heh, that you, Ed?  We Axis players are just whining about the indefensibility of Italy.  Damn history, we want this game to give the Italians a fair shake!

We want Brits to get a fair shake, when their entire atlantic fleet can be killed G1, and even the Med fleet can be killed with German planes, remaining Italian navy.

That is a lie. Germany is in no position to kill Gibraltar fleet and planes are needed to either attack London fleets or help paris attack. There is no counter. Hence it is broken.

No, the Med fleet can be attacked on G2 with planes in West Germany even if it’s DD, CC, CV, ftr, tac in the Med. In the event that some ships survive, the Italians can mop them up with a DD, CC and 2 ftrs.

Where in the hell are Italy’s SUBS???  Italy had 116 subs in its Med fleet at the onset of war, and NONE are represented in this game.  Germany at its peak had about 250 submarines, of which 5 units are represented at game start surrounding Britain (which was highly unlikely for all of them to be concentrated so at this time in 1940)!

Give Italy 2 SUBS at game start to balance out the Taranto fleet; with these 2 extra soak hits perhaps the Brits would think again about a UK1 raid!

@SgtBlitz:

Where in the hell are Italy’s SUBS???  Italy had 116 subs in its Med fleet at the onset of war, and NONE are represented in this game.  Germany at its peak had about 250 submarines, of which 5 units are represented at game start surrounding Britain (which was highly unlikely for all of them to be concentrated so at this time in 1940)!

Give Italy 2 SUBS at game start to balance out the Taranto fleet; with these 2 extra soak hits perhaps the Brits would think again about a UK1 raid!

What about Britain’s mech? If Italy gets 2 subs, balance German subs to 3, which will also save some of the RN.

Please also look at the ahistorical problems of the allies: China too weak, UK gets entire fleet decimated and loses most of Africa, India falls easily, etc

@calvinhobbesliker:

@Blitz:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@SgtBlitz:

@eddiem4145:

I completely agree that the game is broken. After all, not making the game so Italy can have a 50/50 chance of taking all of africa and making it very likely the Germans have to do it and regulating Italy to a subserviant role is completely broken. What were they thinking. It is like they were making a WW2 scenario in 1940 or something.

Oh and add the game being broken because of France too. I mean, really. France has no chance against Germany. Who would want to play France.

Heh, that you, Ed?  We Axis players are just whining about the indefensibility of Italy.  Damn history, we want this game to give the Italians a fair shake!

We want Brits to get a fair shake, when their entire atlantic fleet can be killed G1, and even the Med fleet can be killed with German planes, remaining Italian navy.

That is a lie. Germany is in no position to kill Gibraltar fleet and planes are needed to either attack London fleets or help paris attack. There is no counter. Hence it is broken.

No, the Med fleet can be attacked on G2 with planes in West Germany even if it’s DD, CC, CV, ftr, tac in the Med. In the event that some ships survive, the Italians can mop them up with a DD, CC and 2 ftrs.

That will be one costly attack for Germany

@shohoku201:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@Blitz:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@SgtBlitz:

@eddiem4145:

I completely agree that the game is broken. After all, not making the game so Italy can have a 50/50 chance of taking all of africa and making it very likely the Germans have to do it and regulating Italy to a subserviant role is completely broken. What were they thinking. It is like they were making a WW2 scenario in 1940 or something.

Oh and add the game being broken because of France too. I mean, really. France has no chance against Germany. Who would want to play France.

Heh, that you, Ed?  We Axis players are just whining about the indefensibility of Italy.  Damn history, we want this game to give the Italians a fair shake!

We want Brits to get a fair shake, when their entire atlantic fleet can be killed G1, and even the Med fleet can be killed with German planes, remaining Italian navy.

That is a lie. Germany is in no position to kill Gibraltar fleet and planes are needed to either attack London fleets or help paris attack. There is no counter. Hence it is broken.

No, the Med fleet can be attacked on G2 with planes in West Germany even if it’s DD, CC, CV, ftr, tac in the Med. In the event that some ships survive, the Italians can mop them up with a DD, CC and 2 ftrs.

That will be one costly attack for Germany

Perhaps, but aa 60-70 ipc Germany can easily replace the planes, while a 29 ipc UK can’t replace that loaded carrier. This leaved Britian with the following on the Europe board: Cruiser off Brazil, Destroyer off South Africa, Trans off Egypt(if moved to a safe place), and DD/CC in Pacific.

@Blitz:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@Blitz:

@calvinhobbesliker:

@SgtBlitz:

@eddiem4145:

I completely agree that the game is broken. After all, not making the game so Italy can have a 50/50 chance of taking all of africa and making it very likely the Germans have to do it and regulating Italy to a subserviant role is completely broken. What were they thinking. It is like they were making a WW2 scenario in 1940 or something.

Oh and add the game being broken because of France too. I mean, really. France has no chance against Germany. Who would want to play France.

Heh, that you, Ed?  We Axis players are just whining about the indefensibility of Italy.  Damn history, we want this game to give the Italians a fair shake!

We want Brits to get a fair shake, when their entire atlantic fleet can be killed G1, and even the Med fleet can be killed with German planes, remaining Italian navy.

That is a lie. Germany is in no position to kill Gibraltar fleet and planes are needed to either attack London fleets or help paris attack. There is no counter. Hence it is broken.

No, the Med fleet can be attacked on G2 with planes in West Germany even if it’s DD, CC, CV, ftr, tac in the Med. In the event that some ships survive, the Italians can mop them up with a DD, CC and 2 ftrs.

That is extremely situational. The Italians rarely have any fleet left and proposing the Luftwaffe waste it’s few planes against the UK ships is just further advantaging the allies. As not only did their starting boats knock out Italy’s navy, but they also take some German planes with em along with any that died in the Atlantic. It is ridiculous anyway you try to justify it. And even after the Luftwaffe wipes it out, the Italians are supposed to rebuild a fleet making 10-12 a turn and take Africa? No way. Change is needed.

You’re worried about the Italians building a fleet? They can actually make almost ipcs: 10 original, 5 no warships in Med, 1 Bulgaria, 1 Tunisia, 1 Syria or Jordan, 1 Kenya makes 19. Northern Italy even connects to paris, so they can take France for 4 ipcs+19. They can also take Sudan if the Brits emptied it. Meanwhile, after Alexandria falls, Britain won’t get any NO and will be making 29 ipcs and will only have a DD  and CC in Europe. They have a worse rebuilding problem than Italy

Yes, but we’re also talking about whether the game is broken due to Italy’s weakness, and I’m countering that by saying the UK is also weak.

How is it too much? You can even build planes in West Germany on G1 to add to the 5-7 planes remaining. Very good odds for Germany. If Germany doesn’t get Paris, it’s income reduces by 6 and it doesn’t get 19 ipcs. So? According to you, Italy needs that money more. Germany will still be making 55-65(plus 5 for Scandinavia NO) ipcs, way more than Russia. Britain is about as strong as Italy at this point, and Japan is on par with America(Japan can easily get up to 78 ipcs, the US will be at 82).

Calvinhobbesliker,

1. You’re up on our Global game for Russia’s turn.  Quit spending all your time whining about the Royal Navy and get to that PBF game!  I’ll never get to mess around with the US’s 82 IPCs a turn at the rate its going!

2.  Yes, its ahistorical that the Germans are killing 90% of the RCN Round 1, but how else did you expect the game designers to balance the game with the UK???  Traditionally, the UK always took a pounding from German navy and air G1 in every single iteration of Axis and Allies.  But they still had a HUGE military advantage; just like the US, their main capital is not in range to be invaded and serves as an unstoppable base to send out units without reprisal.  The UK is realistically never under attack or threat of invasion (unless they’re really dumb with bad UK1 builds), and they get to raid the Germans at will, pretty much like every other A+A game out there, with an insane re-built navy stack, for 2/3s of the game.  Most AA50 games I played Germany usually had to abandon Russia due to UK raids into Poland or Leningrad from the Baltic, and I’d leave an inf stack in Germany just so the Brits couldn’t surprise-attack-end-the-game there.

Hell, the Denmark straits closed rule is the best thing I’ve seen in a long time towards balancing out UK’s insane naval advantage, especially for the Baltic (finally!).  It was incredibly ahistorical that the British could send its entire navy through the Straits of Denmark without worrying about mines or Luftwaffe strikes.

@SgtBlitz:

Calvinhobbesliker,

1. You’re up on our Global game for Russia’s turn.  Quit spending all your time whining about the Royal Navy and get to that PBF game!  I’ll never get to mess around with the US’s 82 IPCs a turn at the rate its going!

2.  Yes, its ahistorical that the Germans are killing 90% of the RCN Round 1, but how else did you expect the game designers to balance the game with the UK???  Traditionally, the UK always took a pounding from German navy and air G1 in every single iteration of Axis and Allies.  But they still had a HUGE military advantage; just like the US, their main capital is not in range to be invaded and serves as an unstoppable base to send out units without reprisal.  The UK is realistically never under attack or threat of invasion (unless they’re really dumb with bad UK1 builds), and they get to raid the Germans at will, pretty much like every other A+A game out there, with an insane re-built navy stack, for 2/3s of the game.  Most AA50 games I played Germany usually had to abandon Russia due to UK raids into Poland or Leningrad from the Baltic, and I’d leave an inf stack in Germany just so the Brits couldn’t surprise-attack-end-the-game there.

Hell, the Denmark straits closed rule is the best thing I’ve seen in a long time towards balancing out UK’s insane naval advantage, especially for the Baltic (finally!).  It was incredibly ahistorical that the British could send its entire navy through the Straits of Denmark without worrying about mines or Luftwaffe strikes.

Well, it is historical that Italy lost or damaged most of their fleet at Taranto and that they did poorly in the Med theater. The game is already balanced with the entire RN getting sunk G1, we don’t need all of Africa falling to Italy as well