Well, the obvious solution to the tech problem is to make it a player choice. That way the gamblers can gamble and the skill players can have a less wobbly playing field. I see no reason why we can’t just make the baseline game either 41’ with NO’s or 42’ with NO’s and techs up to the two players.
Personally, as a skill player, and a decent one at that, I suppose having some people playing with techs is in my favor because, knowing the inherent volatility of techs, it makes it harder for a player who plays “tech only” to dominate the league since a low skill player can much more easily defeat a high skill player when techs are in play than when they are not. Tech it up guys! But, only if you want to. :-D
So I vote “tech optional”. But, if I am forced to choose firmly between tech or no tech then I vote “no tech”.
@Cmdr:
Techs are a part of the game. I don’t really see them turning a losing battle into sudden victory the way Industrial Production or Heavy Bombers did in Classic. But having it can augment your ability to recover if you are not getting the pants beat off you.
No, techs are not part of the game. They are an “optional” part of the game. Big difference. And it was made that way for a very good reason.
And no, maybe it can’t turn a game around where you’re about to lose your capital. But, it can radically alter a game where you are losing with a slim chance of winning or shift a tight game heavily into one side’s favor.
There is no OTHER $5 purchase or placement that you can make that can so radically alter a game. And it has nothing to do with strategy. It’s buying an “everybody wins something” lottery ticket because eventually you will be rewarded with something but there is no guarantee that it will have a miniscule effect or a huge effect. How that is not gambling is beyond me.
Case in point. We all can pretty much assume that if Germany spends $5 on G1 and gets rockets, IFP, or mechanized infantry on one chart or LRA, jets, or heavy bombers on the other chart, that they will immediately have an big advantage. This would happen in an average of 1 in 12 games. That’s almost 10% of the games when Germany invests just $5 into techs. Even super subs helps because they start the game with 3 of them in position to do a good deal of damage. And techs like mech infantry and heavy bombers are virtually instant game winners right off the bat. Now, someone explain to me how it can even be considered a strategy when one player can be put firmly in control of a game after only ONE country plays it’s turn. At the very least, techs should go back to coming into effect AFTER the country plays their turn.
