@shadowhawk sorry, but i completely disagree unless your desire is to make a realistic simulator of world war 2 vice a war game.
To be clear in my definitions:
- Realistic Simulator = completely faithful recreation of world war 2. All distances, locations, production capabilites, science would be included. Could also have politics, information control, fog of war, spies, supply lines, etc. Leaving anything out would affect the level of realism…
It would also be unplayable.
No one would want to dedicate the time to play since the outcome would be virtually impossible to change with the number of Soviet troops and production capabilites of the US.
- War Game = set of rules related to warfare to enable both sides to have a chance of winning.
Axis and allies is based upon the conditions present in world war 2, but adjusts the reality of the situation (distances, production, poltics)
to create a game that maximizes the tension between the sides in a manner that allows both sides to win.
The brilliance of the game designers is that they made the game mechanics to allow the various countries to follow their basic strategies that were used in world war 2.
Russians = massive infantry
Germans = mobile land force
British = isolated groupings all over the map that need consolidation. Ship building and contested invasion of Europe.
Japanese = Initial fleet superiority that may give out over time to the US. Collect as much land before that.
US = out produce everyone.
The above tactics allow one to appreciate the sacrifices in personnel the Russians made to hold back the Germans (and perhaps the despotism of Stalin). The importance of carriers vs battleships in naval battles. Impact of subs on supply lines. Imbalance the scientific breakthroughs could cause (this last is so great that I don’t play with them).
So my hats off to the Larry Harris and the designers of the Global 1940 mods in that they made a good game that let’s one appreciate the broad strokes of world war 2 without making the end game a foregone conclusion.