Redrum, I didn’t realize you were a Triple-A Developer. I hope you take no offense. I didn’t mean to insult your baby. I appreciate the work you guys have done on Triple-A. As of late, I have found myself playing the AI more often than I would like (as I cannot get my friends together to play often enough). I am confident the AI will continue to improve over time. I guess I should put up or shut up. I ought to be submitting my bug reports to help you guys tweak the game.
Problems with the Axis
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Hey Hobbes, out of curiosity, do you play the allies or axis more? Do you win more often with one side versus the other?
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Hey Hobbes, out of curiosity, do you play the allies or axis more? Do you win more often with one side versus the other?
I play both equally, i usually just let my opponent choose sides. Regarding winning more with one side or another, I say that it seems balanced but this view is certainly biased since it is not usual for me to lose a game playing 1v1.
There are a few quirks though regarding each side that have an impact on the balance between sides, besides the higher production level of the Allies or the initial unit placement for the Axis. The Allies cooperate themselves more naturally than the Axis. Allied collaboration is usually more ‘tactical’ (regarding occupying/reinforcing territories/areas) but Axis collaboration is more ‘strategic’, like Japan moving fast to take Novo/Kazakh to force Russia to split its forces and spend units instead of using all to position itself to prepare for Germany’s round.
Axis have a steeper learning curve, I’d say, to use their advantages and negate the Allies’ ones. And if you are playing Axis with teammates there’s a tendency for G/J players to think more of their own backyards than the whole situation.
Germany is the best example. If the Allies go KGF and it can’t defend itself as Japan is taking Russia then the Axis lose. If the Allies go KJF and it doesn’t take Russia, the Axis lose again. If the Allies go both… then it has to make the right choices. Meanwhile, the Allies can and should sacrifice Russia if that’s the price to pay to take Germany. That option is not available to the Axis.
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IMO in a game between experienced players, Axis has a small advantage. But that edge can easily be upended by first round dice. Axis can fall behind dramatically on G1 if any of SZ2, SZ13, SZ15, or Egypt fail.
The reason novices commonly think Allies have the advantage is that Axis has to be played well in the first few rounds in order to capitalize on their opportunities. If Axis doesn’t come forward where it’s supposed to then the Allied economic advantage will quickly assert itself.
I think if you presented this game to 2 players who are already experts in Classic or Revised then Axis would win the majority of games, and it would take them a while to develop suitable Allied strategies.
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@El:
Maybe try a 1 vs 1 game where you can be both Japan and Germany? Sounds like every Axis loss could be attributed to your friends wrecking your plans :-(
Will probably happen soon. The Axis losses can be attributed mainly to the inexperience of 3 of our group, who still have to figure out that it’s 1942, not 1941 :-)
Actually the two most experienced players played Allies more often. The Japanese player I played with had lost a single match up to his back-to-back bloopers when he played with me.As soon as everyone will figure out that there is no magic wand for the Axis that makes you win, matches will get more interesting.
But you need to play very precise moves which maximize your potential in the first 3-4 rounds.
Furthermore react on any bad moves from the Allies and capitalize on them.
And on top of it you need a very very good feeling for the necessity of your ressources, because overcommiting (Japanese Navy; Africa) our undercommiting to any theatre and not using the ressources to maximum effect (like strafes against Russia with the tanks; Or taking the infantry of the islands as Japan) will make a steep hill even steeper.EDIT: And actually I myself play mistakes on a regular basis. Only difference is that mine are original :-)
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I think novice players tend to be a bit more conservative. Being conservative hurts the axis more than the allies being conservative I think. With the axis having a better opening setup than the allies, they really need to maximize that before the allies can maximize their initial economic advantage.
A good way to learn is to play a game against yourself, but beyond the first few rounds it tends to lose its potential as a learning tool I would think. It lets you script out the first few rounds of a strategy and counters but sooner or later the next step of learning is how to take advantage of good dice and how to do damage control with bad dice, basically how to take advantage of opportunities.
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I think novice players tend to be a bit more conservative. Being conservative hurts the axis more than the allies being conservative I think. With the axis having a better opening setup than the allies, they really need to maximize that before the allies can maximize their initial economic advantage.
A good way to learn is to play a game against yourself, but beyond the first few rounds it tends to lose its potential as a learning tool I would think. It lets you script out the first few rounds of a strategy and counters but sooner or later the next step of learning is how to take advantage of good dice and how to do damage control with bad dice, basically how to take advantage of opportunities.
I completely agree, and playing against myself is exactly how I learned the most, followed by playing 1-on-1 against really good players online.
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