The Egypt IC gives UK no forces immediately and commits them to spending more later. I prefer to buy a transport off South Africa with a ground unit or two and use the rest in the Atlantic.
It doesn’t work if Germany goes all in for Sealion, but not spending 12 on a minor leaves enough money to hold off a feint.
Getting victory cities technically wins the game, but intermediary goals are necessary to capture the number needed. Trying to achieve some economic objectives and strike material blows to the enemies can put you in that superior position you need to meet the actual win condition.
If the warship only went as far as the sea zone with an enemy sub, would the transport be safe in subsequent moves through empty sea zones?
I haven’t been using my system in the new game, though, because all of the powers have too much money now. I just kept tech tokens around.
Paratroopers can help by getting troops to the front, as well as threatening a number of other places. Suddenly the jerries can drop four more guys on England.
The second benefit is the immediate effect. Sure, I would be better off with an extra seven artillery on the Russian front. But I can’t get them there any time soon. However, a +1 for the eight artillery I DO have on the Russian front could open up a whole new array of possibilities.
On the other hand, I think the tech tokens are a more fair way to do tech, making it less luck-dependent and allowing smaller powers to make a small investment in hopes of getting a tech at some point down the line.
So what if Italy or Anzac gets a tech spending 10 IPCs? Would you rather have two jet fighters eventually or three normal fighters now? That doesn’t even account for something like heavy bombers, which would take a hell of an investment to pay off for a smaller power.
Honestly, the balance won’t ever be perfect. As long as there’s no cheese strategy that works every single time, I’m happy to play at a slight disadvantage. I thank Larry for the work on balancing, but until it’s official I think I’ll just start with OOB rules and make a few personal balance tweaks.
Germany would have a hard time taking the UK before turn 3 anyway.
Oh, I disagree. Submarines are beautiful if used right. They can really nail UK to a door.
Before the game came out, people were doom-saying about the uselessness of the tank. After my first game of G40, I think this was totally unwarranted. Every power bought at least a few and those were essential in blitzing and providing long-range firepower and staying power. Germany still needs a decent force of tanks for the flexibility in the east, and to blitz undefended territories.
The tank isn’t dead; buys are just balanced now.
I think that fighters and tacs should both cost 10, because one is 3/4 and one is 4/3(and only sometimes!). Bombers, then, would fit better at 12.
