Balance Issues?

I will be trying this out tonight actually. Will report back.

We played two games of the new setup. One allied win, one axis win. Axis win was much tougher. Both victories seemed dependent on good dice which means there is good balance for me. I highly recommend the new setup and be a bit more aggressive as Russia. You still need to infantry stack as usual though. Now Russia can afford one good punch on r1 to take out those two German tanks.

Krieghund, thanks very much for this, it is appreciated.  :-)

Alright tried it out and it was one of the most enjoyable games of A&A I’ve had in a while. Russia, go aggresive, hit Germany hard and fast on R1, and then turtle, counter attacking whenever possible. In this game yhe Axis player made a few mistakes, but so did I. The die roll was the deciding factor. Russia and America went on Germany, and I used Britian to succesfully fight the Japanese in Aisa, having kicked them out with a heavy tank and fighter buy in India and Australia by turn 4, though they eventually went all naval and held full control over the pacific. Germany put up a great fight, but the player opted not to attack eygpt to put more men to defend the suddenly compromised eastern front (succesfuly cleared out W. Russia and put Ukrain down to one tank, all with only losing 1 inf), which allowed britian to transfer units to the middle east and counter attack succesfuly when germany finally was in position to take the Caucus on turn 3 (after Russia pulled out after taking the Ukraine and pulling back). At the end of the day though, the game was won when my massive invasion force of the US bypassed the German navy (never was able to take out their surface fleet as GB focused on the pacific, but Germany was enver able to go a sea lion build as she required to many units to beat Russia) and landed a massive force of 8 inf, 3 tanks, two fighters and a bomber in berlin which had 5 tanks, 1 inf, 1 fighter and 1 bomber……all 12 of my rolls were 6’s…all of his were 1’s. God hated me and then, with the entire us support wiped out and Russia practically on her own, I gave the game to the Axis.

My Impressions. The revised build makes the game more classic, suddenly the die roll is everything, and it can esily screw the Axis or the Allies to a point where victory is now impossible, the Axis can no longer weather bad dice rolls and still win like they could do in the normal set up.  I approve of this setup 100% percent, though I will still mess around with some other ones for my own house rules.

I played 2 games of 1941, both as allies, one without the balance changes, then one with the extra destroyer + 2 inf. We played total war.

In the first game, russia hit germany hard on R1, but then lost everything on the G1 counterattack due to good german rolls. Russia fell fast after that. Japan dominated unnoposed on asia, usa took forever to start landing on europe, but i couldn’t keep every disembarked unit from dying imediatelly to german counteratacks. Germany and japan took all of asia, europe and africa, and japan had lots of planes and landed on alaska, so i gave up. The game went fast, but we played dozens of turns.

In the second game, with the extra units: even with 2 extra infantry, russia rolled REALLY bad on R1, and germany got lots of "1"s on their G1 and G2 attack, which pretty much cleared the sovier forces on turn 2. UK managed to sneak a few bombing runs that sank a total of 3 japanese transports during the game, which really slowed japan advances on asia this time around. USA started landing units much earlier, but that didn’t kept Russia from falling, nor did it prevent the disembarked units from dying after 1 turn in france. This time, japan was much weaker, but that was from the transport fiasco. We called it a draw after turn 20 or so.

In both games, my oponent had some great rolls at G1, while my URSS rolled terrible all the time (i blame low morale). Since you have so few units, some bad rolls can really cost you the war. It’s really hard for the allies to stay alive after landing in europe, or to build a navy large enough to scare germany away from trying to sink it with subs + planes.

It’s HARD to reinforce your disembarked troops, thats my main issue. In both games, Uk was reduced (or would eventually be) to their capital+canada. I think eventually the axis would have won on both games, since usa + uk capital have an income of ~20 IPC, and the axis, with russia asia and africa, have an income of 30+ IPC (i think); besides, germany dont really need a navy. In 2 turns, USA builds 2 transports and 4 infantry, to land them on turn 3 or 4. Meanwhile, germany can buy 15-20 infantry. And Japan, after clearing the pacific, will send its carrier fleet to the atlantic, so you have to invest even more allied money in a useless navy. How can you beat that?

I gotta play again, luck played a big role in the first turns. Maybe i’ll stack everything on moscow instead of attacking on R1. Or maybe im just really bad  :lol:

Hi Chicochioco,

Thanks fro your input. Did you post it to the harrisgamedesign website? That’s where they will read it and potentially implement changes to new editions.

Also, a tip for your allies: Make sure you are shucking through Canada. Ie: You build transport and guys turn 1, move them all to Canada turn 2 and then land in Europe on 3. Continue to move new troops up into Canada each time. If you do this you should be able to build up extra transport capacity because after turn 3 you’re landing every round. So you only need to build men and no extra transports.

Also, its a tough balance, but an extra infantry or two in India can help keep Japan tied down longer than you might think.

Thanks again for the input. Make sure you post it to Larry.

@Canuck12:

Also, a tip for your allies: Make sure you are shucking through Canada. Ie: You build transport and guys turn 1, move them all to Canada turn 2 and then land in Europe on 3. Continue to move new troops up into Canada each time. If you do this you should be able to build up extra transport capacity because after turn 3 you’re landing every round. So you only need to build men and no extra transports.

Man, THIS. Why didn’t i think of that. USA factory being 3 sea spaces away from europe was really pissing me off, all i had to do was build my troops 1 turn earlier.

I realize my game reports are anedoctal evidence of unbalance towards axis, since luck was really a big factor. In the second game, at the R1 attack, i couldn’t get a single hit in the first round, for example. So i dont want any change implemented because my lack of luck  :-P I’ll rewrite everything and post on HGD forum later.

Yeah shucking through Canada is super effective and helpful. And if you’re having US take on Japan first, you can shuck fighters to Australia.

I also find an RAF buy for Britian and putting them in India is super effective. On UK1 just transport the Australian inf over to India and place the fighter there, and keep placing units there, it can quickly be a strong base that I’ve been able to beat the Japanses in Asia with. Also, in my opinion, Germany has to do the Egyptian attack, other wise the UK player can just take those extra units and counter attack where they need to.

Started a game this morning and the new US  Destroyer  has straight away made a difference as the German Sub failed to sink the escort and the Transport survived to drop both Atlantic units in Africa.
The  undefended Transport is sunk on G1 normally.

I’m pretty sure it favors the allies

I wouldn’t say favores. As you can see in my report the Allies were still doomed by a terrible dice roll even if Russia and UK were doing good.  I’ve played 9 games with this new set up and allies have won 4 times.

Hi Cromwell. welcome back. Krieg told us Larry has asked us to place a US DD off the East Coast and 2 Inf in Russia and see what we thought. They know it is far too inbalanced.
I am sure it will be made official, but nothing yet.
As I said in my post, the DD made an immediate difference. (I did still win, but my wife is very unlucky.)

Thanks. That is good news. I probably will not be able to trial it for a few weeks,  but you know others will.

Great addition! Thank you for working with the community so well in making changes!

Wow, I’m loving these new changes, Krieg! Thank you and Larry for this. Can’t wait to try 'em out, especially the Soviet-Japanese Non-Aggression Pact!  :-)

Not seen that Loz. Has Larry suggested the Japanese cannot now attack the Russians?
Will that help the Allies? I remember the Eastern provinces are worthless IPC wise, so does not help Japan monetarily going that way. 
Hope you are enjoying your 1940.
Are am hoping to try Oztea’s 1941 set up soon.

Well it makes sense the axis win the boardgame. Historically they won WWII.